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This book was written by the students of 826LA’s Write On! After School writing program in the fall of 2025. The views expressed in this book are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of 826LA. We support student publishing and are thrilled you picked up this book. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher. _______________________________________________ Este libro fue escrito por los estudiantes del programa de escritura extraescolar Write On! de 826LA en el otoño de 2025. Las opiniones expresadas en este libro son las de los autores y no reflejan necesariamente las de 826LA. Apoyamos la publicación de jóvenes autores y estamos felices que hayan recogido este libro.

Todos los derechos reservados. Prohibida la reproducción total o parcial de este libro sin autorización escrita del editor. Editor(s): Arisdeysi Cruz Julia Malinow Mike Dunbar Pedro Estrada Cover Artwork: Aspen Leavitt Book Design: Aspen Leavitt

Echo Park 1714 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90026

Mar Vista 12515 Venice Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90066

WRITTEN BY T H E S T U D E N T S O F 826L A’S W R I T E O N! A F T E R S C H O O L P R O G R A M

Illustration by Loris Lora

In celebration of our 20th Anniversary, 826LA dedicates this publication to all of those who have helped make our community what it is, what it was, and what it will become. Thank you to the students, volunteers, educators, donors, staff, community partners, and time-travelers who have filled the last 20 years with such creativity, joy, and hope. We look forward to another 20 years in partnership!

Table of Contents Introduction ...............................................................................12 Section One: Afraid 15 The Flash That Changed My Life Hazel T. .............................16 TERROR Leila Y. ..............................................................................17 Selena and Me Natalie C. .............................................................20 Afraid Penelope D.R. ......................................................................21 Wasp Story Calvero W. .................................................................22 A Lonely Ghost Camila R.G. .......................................................24 The End of the World Porter S. ..................................................26 Spyder Sammy Ronny A.R. .........................................................28 My First Soccer Game Samantha M. S. ....................................30 La Llorona Sky F. ...........................................................................31 Chucky VS. Me Brandon V. ..........................................................33 The Ghost Massacre Diego I. ....................................................35 Scary Basement Emery G. ..........................................................38 Girl vs. Ants Kali G. .......................................................................40 Scary Little Kids Kevin I. .............................................................43 The Dream Santiago O. .................................................................45 The Lizard Man Scout R. ..............................................................47 Swallowed by the Sea Sebastian (Jacob) V. .............................49 Half-True Story in the Forest Louis S. ....................................50 The Monster Under My Bed Rosalinda T. ................................52 McDonald’s Scary Fries Moises R. ............................................53 The Monster in My Room Meyly C. ...........................................54 One Haunted Teacher Robert L. ................................................56 Section Two: Lost 59 The Time I Lost My Turtle Ali M. ..............................................60 Losing Loved Ones Arturo Lazaro Lopez Jr. ...............................62 The Accident Monserrat S. ..........................................................67 THe Haunted Hareball Ailyn S. ..................................................69 I Lost Blacky Alejandra Abigail N. L. ............................................71 My Uncle Died on Thanksgiving Alice H. ...............................72 The Time I Got Lost Alejandro V. ...............................................73

The Story of my Grandpa Alondra L. ....................................75 Chip and Cheeto Become Enemies Angie C.J.S. ..............77 The Pumpkin Thief Jade A.R. .................................................79 Section Three: Haunted 83 Mean Ghost Adrienne N. ............................................................84 We Defeated It... Alan H. ..........................................................86 A Happy Ghost Amaia M. ..........................................................87 Forsaken Daniel R. .....................................................................88 The Story of How I Lost My iPad Jacob P. .........................92 The Mysterious Morning Diego R. ........................................ 94 The Cookie Problem Jack S. ...................................................99 Boo and Frank Jade B. ............................................................104 School Day Went Wrong Javier H. .......................................105 Food Fight Bennett S. ...............................................................107 The First Time I Saw a Ghost Liam A. ...............................109 Ghostface and Michael Myers Julian N. ............................111 A Phantom’s Love Isn’t Invisible Liv R. .............................112 THE GHOST Matthew L. ...........................................................118 A Missing Kid Santiago R. ......................................................120 Some Generic Ghost Story with Very Few Pop Culture References Sebastian R. .........................................................122 Ally and the Ghost Cat Sophia R. ........................................125 Marshmallow Ghost Yahir V. .................................................128 The Hallway Zachie L. .............................................................129 ICE AGE Valerie S. ....................................................................130 Survivor’s Edge Alexander O. ... ............................................132 The Cursed Forrest Atticus A. ...............................................134 The Shed of Shadows Aydren A. ..........................................136 Tuxedo Black Dhalia L. ...........................................................138 Best Friends Elly G. .................................................................140 THE SLEEPY GHOST KITTIES VS. THE AWAKE DOGS Amon S. .......................................................................................142 The Baby Gabriel L. ..................................................................144 The Hatchet Oliver G. ..............................................................146 Skinwalker Kimberly J..............................................................148 Spooky’s Story Mia J. .............................................................153

Boo’s First Dance Competition Zoe T. .................................156 The Loop Julio C.G.J. ..................................................................159 Villajon’s Ghost James Howard C. ............................................160 The Mask Ethan Everton A. .........................................................162 I Am Afraid of the Ghost Kennedy C.R. ................................164 The Haunted Ghost Elijah W. ...................................................165 Alien War Diego N. ...................................................................... 166 Ghost Story Robert S. .................................................................167 The Time I Saw a Ghost! Nyla W. ...........................................168 The Chase Between Me and Boney Old Bob Penelope G. ....................................................................................169 Ghost Story Melanie S. ...............................................................171 The Haunted House Lydia C. ...................................................172 The Invisible House Emily G. ...................................................173 The Night in the Forest Jordan J. ...........................................175 Getting Rid of Louie Sebastian H. ...........................................178 Best Friends Forever Meyling C. ..............................................180 Acknowledgments ........................................................183 About 826LA .................................................................184 Staff ..............................................................................187 Board of Directors .......................................................188 Advisory Board .............................................................189

In 1999, my parents took me to see End of Days at the movie theater. This wasn’t the first time I had seen a scary movie, but I was seven and terrified. My parents didn’t restrict me from watching these movies despite the ratings. They were scary, but exhilarating. My parents always reassured me that the stuff in the movies wasn’t real. As a first-generation American, my parents had gone through real-life horrors and struggles, including risking their lives migrating. Scary movies seemed like nothing in comparison, and horror/scary films became my favorite genre. Years later, after taking many film appreciation classes, I learned that horror, scary, or suspenseful movies represented life. They are real-life analogies that explore human fears and social anxieties. Metaphors for issues like racial oppression, grief, depression, and so forth. And you are probably thinking, “But this is a children’s book!” Movies, especially horror, are ones that can help people understand their feelings and offer a way to process their emotions. You know you are safe in bed and pretend scares are preferable to the real life ones. Scary movies are similar to spooky campfire stories, or haunted school floors and bathrooms. They offer the thrill of being scared in a way that is both fun and exciting. Students this semester were asked to look within their hidden dark creativity and tasked to write about what keeps them up at night. They wrote about losing someone or something.

They wrote ghost tales and created new legends. They had fun, and at times too much fun. We reminded them that the unknown is scarier than the explicit. The majority of the students are watching shows like KPop Demon Hunters, Stranger Things, or Squid Games. Comparably, they examined dark themes that help our fight or flight responses find calmness against all the chaos. When students are surrounded by real-life horrors or bombarded with horrible news on social media, they need something else to help them understand and be seen. These movies, TV shows, and books give them a tangible relief. Experiencing these fictional forms of media is a cathartic release. This entertainment is a safe way to connect to storylines and characters that face dark parts of the human condition. They offer reassurance that all emotions are important and the only way through them is to feel them. Over the summer, we weren’t sure how we were going to address students’ concerns about the issues impacting their lives. Political turmoil and ICE raids led to civil unrest in Los Angeles, which greatly impacted our community. We wanted a theme that would unlock the different ways students could express their feelings. Scary stories offered a way to help students create a controlled environment to process these emotions. The students used negative emotions in their stories to create happier outcomes or endings with riveting cliffhangers. Many of the stories you’ll read come from fear, loss, and curiosity. These stories are hopeful because students turned their fears into positive relief. — Arisdeysi Cruz, 2025

The Flash that Changed My Life Hazel T. I was walking to my house from my school, down a dark hallway with spider webs all over it, even in the tiniest places. I really did not want to be even more scared than I was. I thought it was going to be a soft, cozy, light work, and calm night. Or was it? I went into my house and started doing my homework when all of a sudden I saw it in my head—the bright, fast, flash that changed my life. I felt as if someone was making a fire in my head. I was so dizzy I could barely think or see straight. Then I almost fainted. I was running for my life, I was running away from this thought—this fear—that I had in my head. Then all I could see was darkness and I was blacked out. I tried to wake up, but I could not. For hours I tried, but could not wake up. It felt as if the world was destroyed and all the buildings collapsed on my head. Then I heard a voice. It was loud as if a bomb full of words went off in my ear. Still to this day I do not know whose voice it was, but it helped me heal. I woke up, but could never bear to close my eyes again. Hazel is eleven years old and in fifth grade. She lives in Venice, CA and lives really close to the beach. She loves to play basketball and tennis. She enjoys playing with her friends and loves taking her dog on walks. She loves Japanese and Italian food. She has a goal of going to UCLA and joining the women's basketball team.

TERROR Leila Y. I heard a creepy high-pitched sound. It terrified me. I had goosebumps all over me. I felt like something or someone was haunting me. I was in a dark, scary hallway. It had spider webs all over. I ran forward and kept hearing the sound. I came to a stop to catch my breath and then I heard the sound again. Suddenly, I realized I was lost. There was a spider crawling up my back. It was not a regular spider, it was a black widow. I was crossing my fingers that the spider wouldn’t bite me. I heard the sound again and then as soon as a flash the spider quickly went and hid. I was surprised because the spider was venomous. Now I was really scared. “What could be so powerful that it prevented a black widow from biting me?” I started calling out for help and then realized that was a bad idea. I heard the spooky thing say in a mysterious voice, “I CAN HELP YOU FIND YOUR WAY.” I lost place of where I was. It was so creepy. I think that if any one was in this situation they would be terrified. I saw something, but I couldn't really see because it was extremely dark. “I SEE YOU! FOLLOW ME. I WILL HELP YOU FIND YOUR WAY,” said the mysterious voice in a horrifying way. I started getting dizzy because for some reason the hallway started to spin faster and faster. Then it was immediately still. I fainted. One hour later… I woke up. There was slime all over the floor. I don’t know why but it looked like a slimy big monster had been crawling all over. I had a vision of a green, goobily blob ghost. I started walking forward and then I stopped. I knew the ghost was back.

I could hear the sound that the ghost made. I found a knife on the floor. It had some blood on it. At first I was scared, but then I had an idea. It was time to fight! That was my only way out. But then, was this a dream? Maybe it was. “WAKE UP!” I shouted. I slapped myself, and then I realized it was not a dream. I immediately grabbed the knife, just in case the ghost came back. There was no more of the sound that the ghost made, but still the spider would hide in the edges of the brick wall. Was the ghost trying to sneak up on me? I needed to be aware. I could see something, but I couldn't really see because it was dark. Unlike last time, I could see a little bit better, meaning that the lights were not completely dark. It was dim. What I saw looked like a random kid. “Wait a minute, every second the lights get brighter,” I said to myself. I saw lockers and then backpacks and then even classrooms. This was my school!!! I didn't understand what was going on, and then I heard my friends scream, “SURPRISE!” It was all a plan my friend made, the plan to scare me. They turned off the lights so I couldn't see, that is what happened.

Leila is a soccer nerd and LLLLLLOOOOOOVVVVEEEEESSSS coconut and sushi. She goes to Will Rogers Learning Community and is in fourth grade. She is 9 and turns 10 in March. Leila is from South Africa and Ethiopia.

Selena and Me Natalie C. One day when I was in school I had to give a presentation. When I was presenting, I was so afraid my hands were sweating. I was afraid because everyone was looking at me. I was nervous because everyone was going to ask me questions. Ms. Robledo told me I shouldn't care that people were looking at me and that made me believe in myself and no longer feel afraid. After that, I gave my whole presentation about Selena Quintanilla. I got to tell the class about her life story. It was part of a project for Hispanic Heritage Month. The class learned about Selena’s life story and also I learned to not be scared and to be confident in myself. Natali is in fourth grade and she likes to go to places where she can find dogs. She loves all types of dogs. She is the only child in her family and in her free time she likes to sleep with her dog stuffy. She also enjoys math and drawing and in the future she wants to become a doctor.

Afraid Penelope D.R. I was afraid of getting my reiner. It hurt a lot and my dad said it was not going to hurt. I never want to go to the dentist ever again! I went to the dentist and waited in the waiting room for a long time. It was a big room. They called my name and tucked me inside. The x-ray room looked like a red room. They took x-rays of my teeth. They put the retainer on my teeth and it hurt so much. I was crying because I had so much pain. It felt like torture to me. I could not speak and my dad did not say anything to me. Afterward, my dad took me to my favorite store. I went home and ate and played with my toys and then went to sleep. The next day I went to school and I played with my friends.

Wasp Story Calvero W. At times I was scared. My friends and I were walking by the bush (I actually called the bush Bushy) and there was a LOT of crazy wasp business happening. I wondered, “Why is that wasp nest there?” Then, I started to worry, “Are all of the wasps gonna come at the same time?!” I saw a wasp leave its nest, I had no confidence in me –– nobody had action or confidence of my friends–– and millions, billions of wasps in the nest came towards me!!! Some were red! OMG!!! It was a battle. I had to watch this. Eventually, it ended. Yellow won, and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. When it ended I felt like so many actions had happened in that moment. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet. There is a 12% chance that a horde of wasps will chase you. This story goes up and down… For some reason we went inside to watch some basketball games but a lot of wasps (of course) came to the door!!! When we opened the door, the wasps were partying and we joined in and it was sooooooooooooooooo fun.

Calvero is a writer who is seven years old and this story happened two months ago. He loves basketball. He is a big fan of books, and he is the oldest of four kids including his cousins. Calvero loves writing comics because it allows him to read the finished product. A fun fact about Calvero is that he once made 60 shots on a basketball court in under 20 minutes, and another fun fact is that every second Calvero tells his dad/mom, “I want some food.”

A Lonely Ghost Camila R.G. One day, I was at school when my homeroom teacher Ms. Ornelos who was taking attendance said, “Is Macy here?” “Here” I said in a low voice. I sat in the back of the classroom all the time. No one wanted to be friends with me. For no particular reason, they would just start to gossip about me. I’m very shy to speak or answer a question. I was afraid knowing I would get bullied more every day. One time, when I was walking to school from my home, they threw water at me and told me, “You should never talk in my life ever again.” I did not go to school that day because of what they did. I told the teacher the next day and she did nothing about it because it was not on school campus. I said they did it in school too. I’m just a sad lonely ghost. One day after school, I went to the park to go calm myself from what happened in school with the mean ghosts. But I could not get away from it because the mean ghosts were there. I started to run back home so they could not see me in the park. Then, I stopped all of a sudden because I could not feel my body move. I could not run at all. I wanted to walk back to the park and confront them. “What is the problem about me that you have!?” I said very loudly. The ghosts turned around to see who was yelling. The popular ghost was there and I said “Nah, I'll be quiet.” At school, I went to the back of the classroom where I sat like always. Today was a different day, the teacher had the biggest smile on her face. “Class I have news to say to you that will change my whole life… Maybe… I think.” Then she said, “Please come in, Lily. This is our new student. I hope she acts better than you guys.” The whole class gave her a side eye. “Would you like to say something, Lily?”

“Hi, my name is Lily. I’m from Evil Ghost School,” she said in a very shy voice. “Thank you so much Lily. Please have a seat next to Macy in the back of the classroom. Please raise your hand Macy.” When she was walking over to me I saw the girl that was the meanest from the group grab her hand and tell her, “Don’t be friends with her, she is a freak.” Lily pulled her hand away from her and started to walk to where I was. The thing was that the teacher knew me. It could be that I never raised my hand or talked to the teachers, but she always asked if I was present. “Hi, I'm Lily,” I looked away from her very fast. An hour has passed. The school bell was about to ring for us to go to lunch. I had my stuffed pack already. The school bell rang and I walked very fast to go under the tree where I usually sat at. I noticed that someone was following me. I turned around. It was the new girl Lily. “Where are we going to sit?" she asked me. I ran to the big maple tree and sat down. Then, she asked, “Are you okay?” I nodded my head, but the thing was that I was lying. I was not okay, I had no friends! Ghosts hated me so much for no reason. I just wanted to have friends. I got my sandwich out of my Jansport and I ate my lunch silently. “No one wants to be friends with me”! I started to cry. “Hey, I can be your friend if you want,” said Lily, giving me a hug at the same time. “Thank you so much Lily, I would love to be friends with you. You are the kindest person I have met in my life!”

The End of the World Porter S. It was a lovely day in the park and I was walking around. This was suspicious because it was not meant to be that way. The next day I walked by the old tree and it fell on a glowing purple ring. Its glow was really faint at the time, but every day the glow got brighter and brighter. Every time I showed someone they didn’t see the glow. I thought it was calling me because it was. The next day, it grew so big that it became a vortex! Mysterious people emerged from it. I thought they were aliens because they were! They said, “Come with me and you will see a whole new world.” So I jumped in, and it was true! I loved the new world. There were so many things that I didn’t know what they were. A liquid super computer popped up in front of me. It said, “Hi! I am a liquid super computer. There is some crazy stuff happening in the galaxy. Our emperor is planning to vaporize 400 out of a billion planets in the galaxy including your home, Earth.” “Earth?!” I said gasping. “Yep, Earth. It’s crazy. Everything on it is going to be vaporized too.” So I ran through the halls looking for a room to get me out. I went to one of the rooms and there were dancing ghosts. When they saw me, they chased me through all the halls into the escape room. I grabbed a space pod and immediately headed back to Earth. I told everyone I knew about it and we took our most valuable things on the search for life on other planets. We found a planet that was good enough, had liquid water and that had enough resources so that we could make a home, and we even saw other life. We stayed there for the rest of our time

and we saw the ghosts that chased me through the halls. We became friends with them. They taught us like ghosts would teach each other, and we learned magic! We used that magic to protect ourselves and the moment we were waiting for had arrived. The emperor had landed his ship on our new planet. The ghosts and us defeated the emperor, and Earth was not touched! We took the space pod back to Earth and then starting in December we had a party for a whole month. My family, the ghosts, and I were declared the heroes of the world and galaxy. Porter is a writer from Los Angeles, California. He is in second grade and likes Pokemon, space, and math. He’s a fun and silly guy who works well in school. He has a lot of friends and I wish you could meet him.

Spyder Sammy Ronny A.R. Spyder Sammy is the owner of a game inside Roblox named “Steal a Brainrot.” Spyder Sammy is able to spawn any type of brainrot, like a Graupius Muddisi. Brainrots are characters. He can also spawn different items that help players progress in the game. Spyder Sammy, like his name, dresses like a spider. Every Tuesday, he commits admin abuse. Admin abuse is when the owner of the game uses their powers to manipulate what is happening. My sister, Kimberly, and I were in the game when Spyder Sammy began committing admin abuse. He said, “How is your Tuesday?” I said, “Good.” He said that he was gonna spawn a Kakarur Combination, which is a rare type of brainrot only the owner has access to. To my surprise, he actually did spawn the Kakarur Combination. He then announced this in the Discord server, where he told everyone to join before they could miss it. Everyone joined super fast because they were super excited. While everyone was distracted by the Kakarur Combination, l stole a Sammy Spiderni from my friend’s base. That brainrot is super rare and very difficult to obtain. I also stole four more good brainrots from other bases. Once they realized I stole from them, everyone began to chase my sister and I. But then, out of nowhere, Spyder Sammy spawned a discontinued brainrot in secrecy. The brainrot had to be removed from the game because of copyright issues, which made everybody very sad. However, Spyder Sammy spawned it regardless. This caused everyone to become distracted again, and my sister and I were able to escape. After stealing these brainrots and taking them to my base, I was able to get the best base mutation, which is Raid-

If. This mutation decorates your base using different brainrots and slime. It is super rare because Spyder Sammy just added it to the game and you need to collect 175 brainrots to unlock the Raid-If base. Ronny likes to play Steal A Brainrot/Plants Vs. Brainrot, and his base is the best one. He is ten years old and from Morelos, Mexico and loves his family. The school that he goes to is Grand View Elementary.

My First Soccer Game Samantha M.S. Last year on October 13th, my family was cheering for me when I was scared at the soccer game. I was seven years old. I was scared at my soccer game because it was my game ever. Whenever the other team kicked the ball they could not make a goal, but when my team was kicking the ball, they made all of the goals in one kick every single time. The other team was getting mad so they went to call the coach. The coach said, “Play fairly or soccer is going to be cancelled for today and you guys are going home with your parents to your neighborhood.” We played fairly and my team still won the game. My teammates high fived me because we won the game. I was excited, the other team was so angry because we still won The coach came and said, ”Why is the other team so angry?” Then my teammates and I said, “Because we kept making goals and they were not making goals!” I was scared and terrified because they were mad. I thought they were going to scream at me but they didn’t. I was still scared because it was my first time, I was new to soccer, and was meeting so many new people! Samantha is eight years old. She is the oldest in her family and she is from Los Angeles. Samantha likes to play with her dog. She is in third grade and goes to Grand View Elementary School. Samantha likes to play the piano. Her future goal is to get better at school.

La Llorona Sky F. I was about six or seven years old when the incident happened. I mean, it is not scary now, but it was scary then. In the summer of 2020, my family and I went to Mexico. On the fifth day my family and I had just come back from a restaurant, and we were outside our Airbnb. My dad was looking for the key to the Airbnb, my mom was on her phone, and my sister and I were waiting for our dad. “Hmmm, looks like La Llorona is coming,” my sister said. ”Who's La Llorona?” I asked my sister. “Oh you don't know her?” my sister replied. If you don't know La Llorona, you are lucky. La Llorona is a scary Mexican legend/story used to scare kids so they don’t go outside at night. The legend says that this woman named La Llorona had it all: the looks, the husband, the kids. One day she saw her husband cheating on her and she got so angry that she looked at both of her kids and drowned them in the nearest river, without a thought. After she realized what she did, she drowned herself in the river too. Now she's a ghost and looks for kids to take to replace her kids while saying, “¡Ay mis hijos!” After my sister told me this I got scared, REALLY SCARED, because my family and I have experienced a lot of strange things. One time we had a feeling that someone was watching us. Also, in my room at the Airbnb, the door would open in the middle of the night, so this story about La Llorona did NOT help me, and my dad was not helping either. ”Oh shoot,” my dad said. “Wait, what happened?” my mom asked. “I forgot the keys in the car.”

”WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU LEFT THE KEYS IN THE CAR,” I yelled. Now me and my family were outside with La Llorona and I kept on yelling, “HURRY UPPPPP!” I was about to lose my mind but my dad finally got the keys out of the car. “YIPPEE,” I screamed. Finally we went inside and I went to sleep. KNOCK, KNOCK, I heard on my window. “Um, what was that?” KNOCK, KNOCK, KNOCK. “Oh is that La––” The widow broke open. “AHHHH IT’S LA LLORONA!” Sky is eleven years old and she is in fifth grade. Sky is Mexican. Sky's best friends are Kimberly, Monse, and Lily. Sky really loves drawing and helping people! Sky and her friends have a group called “YES,” she is one of the two presidents of the club. Sky's fav Kpop group is called Katseye. She really looks up to Katseye and hopes she can be like them.

Chucky VS. Me Brandon V. I am afraid of Chucky at night. I feel that he is going to come after me. He is wearing overalls and is looking for me downstairs. I went upstairs to hide in my room under my bed. When I was going under my bed, I made a loud noise, and he heard the noise I made, then he came running upstairs and checked the eerie room. He then started to check all around my room and found me under my bed next to my Hoover board. I was screaming and started to look for a way out from under my bed. He was saying, “I am going to find you, and I am going to get you; this is not the end with you.” As he goes into the closet to look for me. I get out from under the bed, he hears me, and runs after me. So I made a run for the window in my room. I jump out the window and land on a bush that is right below my window. As I jumped out the window, I hurt myself by landing on the bush. I had a hard time running after I got up. I was able to run from him. He was chasing me. I ran three blocks down the street from my house. I was tired of running because he almost caught up to me. So when I saw that he was after me, I started to run faster. It was nighttime, so it was pretty chilly outside, but it was so quiet outside that I could hear myself panting and my shoes tapping as I ran. I saw a park and went to hide inside the slide. He could not find me. So I stood there until the coast was clear. When he was gone, I started running back home because I was afraid that he was chasing me back home. Once I got home, I went running upstairs to my room and locked the door, closed my window, and locked it. I went on and hid under my blankets and did not sleep, so I was awake all night. I was tired the next day. When I was awake, I saw him looking for me inside the

trash bin, thinking I could be hiding there. He accidentally fell into the trash bin and was trapped there. Right after that garbage truck, he got crashed and destroyed. I said, “But who knows, Chucky might come back one day after me”.

Brandon really likes to listen to music and sometimes goes to the Guitar Center to practice the electric guitar. He also enjoys eating red apples and PB&Js. To have fun, he often enjoys playing Roblox on his iPad and relaxing. However, sometimes he really loves to boot up an animal game that has dinosaurs, crocodiles, cats, dogs, and turtles. On really sunny days, he and his mom will go to the park, but if it is hot, they end up hanging out at the beach and watching the waves. He cheered on Ohtani for the World Series while his mom slept, and he really looks forward to Karate next year. He says getting a black belt will be a piece of cake.

The Ghost Massacre Diego I. Hi everybody, my name is Micheal, and this is the story of how I solved the mystery of the ghost massacre. I am going to stop Mike's family from getting divorced and from killing anyone. I am from Florida, that's where I live. Fun fact: I have glasses, I go to high school, I have brownish hair, and I am always happy. Mike looked like a nice kid. He was always kind until his parents fought and got a divorce. He ran away from his parents and lived in a forest in a cabin. It was 2018 when he committed the murders on Halloween night. He was eighteen years old and wore a mask that was all burned up, and his eyes were black. He had a chainsaw with a black suit, black pants, and shoes. He lives in Miami, Florida. He killed 50 people by tricking them with candy. I know Mike because we’ve been friends since fifth grade. I was very disappointed with Mike since he killed and hurt the people who did nothing to him. Mike’s cabin looks old with spiders and cockroaches. There is no furniture except in the restrooms. He gave his soul to the devil because he said his life sucks. So that's why he is a ghost. He is half noticeable, and he became a ghost when he was 17. I have a pet dog. I live in a big house in Florida. My dog’s name is Bob. My mom and dad’s names are Tony and Mary. Mike lives alone, and his dad lives in Orlando. His mom lives in Tennessee. His mom and dad’s names are Freddy and Ashley. Right now it is 2018, so I need to go to 2015, so I can stop Mike’s parents from getting divorced, so that he won’t kill anyone. I built a time travel machine to travel back in time and stop Mike's parents from getting divorced. I found some junk and pieces to build the time travel machine. I needed cables and an electric system that

connected time travel machines. In 2015, I will start to build a time travel machine. One week later, I built a time travel machine. I just teleported to Mike's house in 2015 to stop the divorce. His parents were fighting, “Bla bla bla bla… ” I said, “Hey, stop, don't get a divorce or else Mike will go nuts.” His parents said, “Who are you?” Michael said, “ I am Mike's friend from the future. If you guys divorce, Mike will start killing people to release his anger.” His parents said, “Prove it.” Il said, " Here's a wanted paper of him, his bounty is 1 million dollars, so if you guys divorce, Mike will be a serial killer”. His parents said, “I guess you have proved it.” Mike said, "What's going on? Michael, what are you doing here?” I said, “I'm from the future. I had to stop your parents from getting divorced.”

Diego is nine years old. Diego lives in LA. Diego loves Buldalk. Diego loves chicken tenders and fries. Diego loves baseball. Diego is a Supreme lover. Diego is a fashion person. In his free time, he plays American football. Diego is good at making bubbles with gum. Diego was born on November 21st. Diego is in fourth grade.

Scary Basement Emery G. One quiet night in Las Vegas, an old, lonely man named Mr. Bulky moved into a two-story wooden house at 13 Oak Street. He was around thirty-two years old, but he already had white and grey hair that made him look older. The house stood at the edge of a quiet neighborhood, right next to a dark stretch of woods. What Mr.Bulky didn’t know was that the town had a legend: the house he moved into was rumored to be an evil haunted house. During his first few nights there, Mr. Bulky began to hear strange noises echoing through the halls, soft creeks, footsteps, and whispers that seemed to come from the basement. Curious and scared, he went downstairs to see what it was. Nothing was there. The next day, the noises returned, louder this time. When Mr. Bulky checked the basement again, he noticed something alarming: all of his food had been eaten. This time, he saw his food, and it was all eaten up. He went further into the basement and saw someone and ran away scared. His heart was pounding. Mr. Bulky stepped further and spotted a shadowy figure hiding in the corner. Terrified, he ran back upstairs and called 911. When the police arrived, they searched the basement from top to bottom but didn’t find anyone. “You should get some rest,” they told him. Mr Bulky nodded, still shocked, and went to bed. But the noise came back the very next night. This time, when Mr.Bulky went downstairs, the hidden figure suddenly lunged at him. Panicking, he sprinted out of the house and ran to his neighbor’s home as fast as he could. Once he was safe, he called the police again.

The officers returned, searched more carefully, and finally discovered the man hiding behind a stack of old boxes in the basement. They arrested him on the spot. With the intruder gone, Mr. Bulky was finally able to return home, and he lived there peacefully ever after.

Emery is eight years old. She is in the third grade. Her birthday is on May 26th. She is still thinking of who she wants to be. She likes all types of food. Her favorite colors are blue, pink, and black.

Girl vs. Ants Kali G. One day at school, my friends and I were playing hide and seek. I was it and hid behind an old tree on the school grounds. All of a sudden, a bunch of angry ants started crawling super fast on me! Most were regular brown ants, but some were big and red fire ants that started tickling and biting me. I screamed loudly, but when recess was done, and the bell rang, the bell was so much louder that no one heard me still screaming. Since I was still it, no one noticed that I didn’t return when the other kids ran back into class, and they had stopped looking for me. Because I was still screaming, everyone looked out of the window and finally noticed me. I was going crazy and jumping around from the ants. Then the ants started falling off my body. I ran to class, yelling, and I told the teacher, Miss Peters, what had happened. I told her what happened, and she shuddered and asked me, “Did all the ants fall off?” I said “yes” and came into the classroom. Miss Peters gave me a quick hug and told me to go sit down on the rug and get ready for storytime Miss Peters started reading the story when all of a sudden, I felt something nibbling on my back. “Oh no, not again!” I yelled. Miss Peters asked me if it was an emergency, and I answered, “Miss Peters, I don’t think all the ants dropped off me.” “What do you mean, not all the ants fell off you?” she inquired. “Can I go to the nurse, please?” I asked.

“Oh, Kali, let the TA give you a permission slip,” and I ran to the nurse’s office. Nurse Jay turned to me to ask why I came to see her, even though I was standing in front of her, moving like I was dancing the salsa because the ants were nibbling and scratching my back. I had to explain to her what was wrong and what the ants were doing to me. It felt like something had started growing on my back! Nurse Jay asked me to lift up the back of my shirt, and then she said, “Oh, you’re right. There’s a big brown ant on your back,” and then I felt a pinch from the tweezers. I pulled my shirt down and was getting ready to go back to class. All of a sudden, Nurse Jay yelped, “AAAAAH.” I quickly turned around and saw a big brown bug on her fingertip, and she started screaming(It probably gave her the chills). I was stunned and stared at her finger. It looked like an ant was biting her fingertip. OMG, there was blood!! Half her fingertip was gone!! The nurse yelled at me and told me to run for help. I ran to the Principal’s office and screamed out, “The ant is eating the nurse,” and the office people looked at me like I was crazy. I was panting hard, but finally calmed down and was able to make them believe that I wasn’t telling a fantastic tale, that it was really true! The Principal told me to return to my classroom, and as I walked down the hall, I heard her shriek, “This isn’t an ordinary ant! It’s from outer space!”

Kali Green is a young girl who lives in Silver Lake. She is in third grade and her favorite subject is art. In her free time, she watches TV, plays video games with her older brother, and hangs out with her grandma. Sometimes, she thinks about becoming an actress.

Scary Little Kids Kevin I. The park was one hour away from my home, but I got lucky to see my friends. The park was super dirty with mud puddles. It was at 5:00 pm, and it was cloudy. It was cold, and you could not see anything. There was only fog. Four younger kids were playing during the cloudiness, and they were pushing each other when some of my friends joined the little kids, but it was a bad idea. The kids looked suspicious because they were smiling creepily. When we were playing tag, my friend Lukas touched a little kid, and the kid disappeared! I was in shock! “What happened, Lukas?” And then my friend said, “He just disappeared when I touched him!” I heard something behind us. My friends and I looked behind. We saw nothing. And then when we turned back, the kids were not there, and then I said to my friend, “Run!” We heard little kids laughing creepily, and my friends and I said, “Bye.” We ran back home. I was getting ready for bed, but then my phone rang. I picked it up, and I heard Lukas screaming really loud while I heard him choking, and I heard, “Hahahah! You’re next.” I started screaming, and then I hid under my bed. I heard footsteps come up to my room. It was the little kids with red eyes with blood everywhere. I called 911, but then the little kids found me. Grabbed and smashed my phone. The worst part is that my mom was not home. “What do I do now?” I started screaming really loudly, “Ahhhhhhhh!”

As they went closer to me, my heart was beating soooooo BAD! But all I could do was scream. Kevin is nine years old and is in the fourth grade. He wants to be a math teacher when he grows up. Kevin likes dogs and capibaras. His favorite foods are pizza and cake, and he likes the color green.

The Dream Santiago O. One school night, I was so tired I fell asleep right away. I dreamt that my dad was driving down a windy road. He said we were going to a picnic. We were there in the blink of an eye (literally) as we found a picnic spot to unpack our food. This spot was perfect due to the shade it gave to my dad and me. The tree was meant for us. We sat on top of the hill that had a perfect view of the sunset. As my dad and I spoke of stories, it led to my dad speaking of his past, and I learned the importance of respecting my elders. As the sunset fell, we started to head home. It felt as if I fell asleep. When I got home, I crept into my bed. I went straight to sleep. Then my mom started taking pictures. My family and I were in there too with my brother. Suddenly, as I looked around, the trees began to float. I then realized that I was in a dream within a dream. Then, the trees floated, and I said, “Whoa,” but then my family and I were still taking pictures. So I joined them, and then we finished. Then I took my bike and came back home, then my friend said, “I'm going to the cliff.” I said, “Okay.” It was the same cliff that I went to. So I went with my dad to the cliff. And I met my friend and his dad. We got to the top. My friend and I kept playing around while our dads kept talking to each other. My friend and I started pushing each other, and I fell off the cliff. I fell on top of the spike. I woke up and saw a toy car behind my back. I started laughing. Then my mom checked on me. I learned to keep

my bed clean, so I can be comfortable when I sleep and have good dreams.

Santiago is nine years old. He is from Los Angeles. He is in fourth grade. His birthday is on June 28th. When he grows up, he wants to be a baseball player like Freddie Freeman. His favorite food is KFC. His favorite color is sky blue.

The Lizard Man Scout R. It was the day before Halloween night, and it was freezing. School was out, and three sixth-grade girls named Lacy, Cat, and Sunny were walking on the street in Brooklyn. Lacy, the tallest and oldest, said, “Do you want to know about the lizard man?” Cat and Sunny nodded. “Well, he was just a broke taxi driver looking for money. He signed up for a science experiment that told him he would get 500 dollars, so he was in. They wanted to know what would happen if the man and a lizard switched blood. He thought that it wouldn't work. But it turned him into a green-scaled monster, and now he plans revenge!” said Lacy. Cat and Sunny screamed! The next day, it was Halloween night, and the moon was bright. Lacy was waiting for her taxi to go to a party. It came, and Lacy got in. The man was in the driver’s seat, wearing a brown hat and coat covering his face and body. He said, “My name is Nick. I will be your driver today.” Lacy was confused. She said, “Isn’t it night?” He responded, “Fine then.” Lacy wondered, “Why is he wearing all that? It’s not even cold.” He turned on the radio and put on the news. The news broadcaster said, “A new killer/kidnapper is in town.” Lacy looked at the man, “They say that he looks like a lizard-like man.” The man turned off the radio. She couldn’t believe it. She thought, ”I didn't know the story about the Lizard man was real!”

The car was so late, the party had already started. Even her friends Cat and Sunny, who were always late, were inside. Lacy rushed to get out of the car, but it was already locked. Lacy said, “ Um… Mister, can you unlock it?” No response from the man. He grabbed her hand. She felt a cold shiver from his strong grip. She looked down and saw that his hand was green and covered in scales! Lacy screamed, but no one could hear her. She thought that it was just a dream. He took off his hat. His big yellow eyes and creepy, long tongue almost made her faint. He said, “You are not going anywhere!” She cried for help. At the party, Cat and Sunny worried about Lacy. They called her, but no answer.

Scout lives in LA. When they grow up, they want to be an author and an actor. They love to play DTI with their BFF’s. They are ten years old, and they are in the fifth grade. Their B-DAY is April 9th. They love to eat potatoes and avocados. They love the color teal.

Swallowed by the Sea Sebastian (Jacob) V. On a sunny summer day, I saw a shark while on the beach, and saw someone near it. I screamed “Shark”, but it was too late. Someone got eaten. It was a bloody mess, and the ambulance was called. There were only a couple of body parts left, and the ambulance didn't make it until something happened. Tim was in college, and he had a rough day today. So to make his day better, he went to his college beach to relax. First, he sat and enjoyed the view of the ocean. Then he decided to go for a swim. All of a sudden, a shark comes straight out of the ocean and swallows up a human in less than a second. Tim runs away and calls an ambulance immediately. There are people running and blood in the water. The ambulance came as fast as they could, but it was too late. They didn’t make it in time and tried everything possible. However, since it was too late, the person died, but the shark did not. The shark was trying to catch more people, but failed because a professional shark catcher came in and wrapped his rope around the shark’s neck. However, the shark got out of the rope just in time. Everyone was happy until the shark decided to bring his friends. The shark catcher was scared and frightened. People felt bad so they did something to stand up. People versus sharks. Jacob is eleven years old, and his favorite color is baby blue. He lives in Los Angeles, and his family is from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Mexico. His favorite book is Dog Man. He is also an excellent speller. His favorite thing to do is play video games.

Half-True Story in the Forest Louis S. My mom, brother, and I were in the car. My mom was driving in the forest. Then my brother asked, “Can we buy a one-dollar wand?” One hour later, a boy named Gabriel with a black hoodie was standing on the side of the road and waved at us. “I almost hit you,” yelled my Mom. “Do you want to buy a one-dollar wand?” he asked My mom replied, “Perfect, we can buy one.” Suddenly, the light of the wand started flickering with no battery. At that exact moment, my mom ran out of gas. Luckily, my friend was behind us, and she gave us some gas. But then, the car stopped working, so we tried to call AAA, but our phone was out of battery. We went to our friend's car and tried calling SOS quickly since she only had 1% battery. We realized we couldn’t call AAA because her phone had no internet connection. A few moments later, her phone ran out of battery. Suddenly, we saw a wolf with blood on its mouth standing in front of the car. My mom pressed on the accelerator and drove away. The wolf was fake, but everything else was true. After a while, we reached our house. We let our friend have a sleepover because she was feeling scared. We locked all the doors in the house and splashed holy water on the main door. We made many paper crosses and put a real cross from the church on the door so we could bless it. Then there was a big bang on the door, and the crosses started falling. We felt like we were cooked! Then, the banging stopped. Then the banging became very loud again.

I was hiding under the blanket, praying to God, when the door opened with a bang. I felt surely cooked. But then my mom said the crucifix worked.

Louis loves cats and dogs. Louis likes his cat, Luna, and loves his dog, Taco. He's a golden retriever. His favorite food is mac and cheese with extra cheese.

The Monster Under My Bed Rosalinda T. Every day when I have to go to bed, I am scared. I am scared of what’s under the bed. I told my mom, “I’m scared.” She said, “What happened?” I told her, “I hear scratches from under the bed. I think it’s a ghost.” My mom said, “No, don’t worry. It’s not real.” So I went back to the room. I decide to kick the bottom, and tell it, “If you don’t stop, I’m going to hit you again, but with a chancla.” Then a voice responds, “Wee, ha, haha!” I screamed and ran away. Rosalinda is funny, smart, caring, and smiley. She loves to play video games and watch movies at the theater. When she goes to eat, she always wants to get pupusas, burgers, and even French fries.

McDonald’s Scary Fries Moises R. In the old McDonald’s, with no one to help a boy in trouble, John got poisoned by fries that had gone bad and were moldy. He coughed up blood and screamed in pain. His words were unheard, “I am dying! I am dying!” John finally dies, and he is found by 2 police men. They checked for his ID and looked for fingerprints. Later, an ambulance took John to a doctor. Suddenly, there was breaking news of a dead body caused by McDonald’s fries because they were made with poison. Moises is ten years old. He is from Sunset Blvd. When he grows up, he wants to be a YouTuber. His favorite food is beef tacos. His favorite color is gold.

The Monster in My Room Meyly C. It was a normal Monday school night. My mom was doing my hair for bed, just like any other night. My hair is so long now, so my mom has to put it up in two ponytails. “Do you miss your friend, Meyly?” asked my mom. “Yeah,” I mumbled. My mom responded, “It’s okay, Meyly, you will always remember her. She was your BFF.” She brushed my hair one last time and said, “Ok, Meyly, go to bed.” I went to my room, drank some water, and tucked myself in to sleep. I hugged my candy pillow and dozed off. I was sleeping very soundly, and suddenly I woke up. I looked around my room and saw something in the corner. It was a white, long-armed monster. The monster had creepy eyes and scary teeth. I was so scared, so I closed my eyes. I opened them slowly, but the monster was walking towards me. I shut my eyes, and after a while, I opened them again. When I opened them, the monster was going back into the corner. It didn't do anything, but it was very scary. I hugged my candy pillow tightly and eventually dozed off. The following nights, it kept coming back. Just like the first night, it stood in the corner without making a sound. And every morning, once the sun came out, it was gone. It’s been about a week, and nothing has changed. I could talk to it and ask what it wants, but I’m too scared, so I just ignore it. Compared to the first night, I am much less afraid of it now, but the monster is still very creepy to look at. So for now, the white, long-armed monster that stays in the corner of the room will be my night-time creepy roommate known as “Evil Monster.”

Meyly Chea is eight years old. She is from California. She is in third grade and her birthday is January 6. When she grows up, she wants to be a teacher. Her favorite food is spicy noodles and french fries. Her favorite color is pink.

One Haunted Teacher Robert L. Orec is my best friend from school, and we are five years old. We were riding the yellow school bus, and it was a short ride to the aquarium. I was sitting next to the window with Orec. When the bus door opened, Orec and I ran to the shark tank to see the sharks. We never got in trouble with the teacher because she was careless. The teacher was on her phone, and she was playing a game. Once Orec and I got in the shark tank. Orec and I started to throw rocks at the sharks. The sharks got angry at us and wanted to bite us! A random person with a hat was watching us and kicked us out of the tank because it was dangerous. Orec and I called him Pan, because of the pan on his head. Pan told us, “Don’t ever be in there again!” Pan sounded disappointed. Orec and I ran to the yellow school bus. But the school driver was sleeping, and we kicked him out. Orec and I carried him outside to the coffee shop next door. We drove the bus, but it ran Out of Fuel. I drove to the gas station, but we had no money. We asked a stranger for 5 dollars, and we got the money. I said, “Cya later, sucker, HAHAHA,” and we filled the bus with gas and drove off home. Meanwhile, the class was going crazy because there was no bus to take them home. They started to freak out, and I heard them yelling from the bus. I dropped off Orec at home, and I drove 1 minute back home. I felt tired and angry that I was going to sue the teacher, named Amy. I was so mad that she got mad at me, too. She haunted me for life because I left her and my classmates behind. The teacher haunted me forever!

Robert Lugo is ten years old and is a fourth grader. He is very funny and likes to do pranks. He likes to play Roblox, but he will quit very soon.

The Time I Lost My Turtle Ali M. I got home from my aunt’s house. I had her for a baby sitter. I checked on my turtle, Shimmer. When I put my hand near her, she didn’t go into her shell. When I picked her up, she didn’t go in her shell. Suddenly the room became colder, my heart was heavier, and all fell silent. I realized Shimmer had died. I ran to my sister even though she was close by and told her what had happened. She was just as heartbroken as I was. So we went outside and buried her in the soil outside. When my parents came home from work, we told them what had happened and they were as sad as a student with tons of homework. We all wept on that day.

Ali is a ten-year-old boy who really likes turtles, crystals, animals, and chess. He likes mashed potatoes and pizza. He likes gardening and loves persimmons. His favorite plant is the scadoxus. He loves nature.

Losing Loved Ones Arturo Lazaro Lopez Jr. The famous hacker of the city, 7n7, had committed lots of crimes, but had gotten away with them because of his amazing hacking skills. But one day, on a normal day, he did not know something big was going to happen to him. As normal, 7n7 had been hacking different places and then went back home after he had done his work. As he sat on his couch, he called one of his friends 118o8 to invite her to dinner at any place she wanted to go. But as he was talking to 118o8, the room went so silent and the doorbell was so loud for him, he got flabbergasted. Then he stood up in a cold sweat to open the door. But when he opened the door, 7n7 was so shocked to find a baby on his doorstep. “No! This is just a dream right?” 7n7 said to himself in fear. He quickly shut the door, but felt bad to abandon a baby. He wanted to keep hacking and take over his city of Robloxia, but 7n7 cared about the baby too so he went back to his door and picked up the baby. He called his boss Mafioso. “Hey Mafioso! I have made a decision to quit this job and would like for you to fire me.” 7n7 then hang up. He decided to name this baby c00lkidd.His baby started crying when he heard a knock on his door again. This time it was from one of his other friends, Noli, who had come over after his day of work and took off his signature mask. “Um 007n7, what in the world is a baby doing in your hands right now?” Noli asked. “I just found this baby on my doorstep, but now I don't know what to do at all,” 7n7 argued. Then 7n7 had an idea to do one more final crime before his retirement. He quickly grabbed his c00lgui, a device used to do anything, and sprinted out of his house faster than lightning. He also brought c00lkidd and Noli with him to a special museum. 7n7 had been begging to go there for years and finally got a chance to go. He grabbed his c00lgui and

teleported inside. He gave himself see through powers with the c00lgui. C00lkidd was outside waiting for them both. He memorized the scene. Noli had come with him and had his own c00lgui to teleport into the museum. He used the c00lgui to see if they were in the right rooms, until they made it to their destination where they found a strange phenomena named the Void Star. 7n7 demanded Noli take it. Then Noli ran out and 7n7 teleported out, leaving no evidence behind. “We did it Noli! Noli?” 7n7 looked left and right, Noli had disappeared. Thinking he had ran off, 7n7 took c00lkidd home. After 10 years of 7n7 treating c00lkidd fairly, giving him what he wanted, 7n7 decided he was old enough to use the c00lgui, so for Christmas that day he bought c00lkidd his very own c00lgui to use. “NO WAY! I ALWAYS WANTED A C00GUI DAD! THANK YOU DAD!” C00lkidd shouted in happiness. 7n7 was filled with joy. He was happy for his son and wanted to take him to eat at his favorite pizzeria to make him even more happy. But he was also worried about Noli, so he left c00lkidd behind and left the door open. Since c00lkidd got inspired by his dad breaking into places and causing trouble, he wanted to make his dad proud and copy him. 7n7 went to Noli’s house. All there was was an abandoned house, all ruined. He was upset and losing hope about finding Noli and tears were tearing down his face, but he had to let it go so he walked away. “AAAH! SOMEONE HELP US!” 7n7 was stunned by this screaming and out of curiosity he looked to where the screaming was coming from. 7n7 trembled in fear as he saw c00lkidd’s favorite pizzeria burning down. As he looked closer, he saw c00lkidd

had done the damage. Filled with stress, he wanted to sacrifice himself to save c00lkidd. 7n7 ran up and jumped in the fire yelling c00lkidd’s name and telling him to come to him. As part of the roof fell off, 7n7 called his name louder. With no choice, he ran towards the most dangerous part of the fire and grabbed and hugged c00lkidd like he meant his soul to him and jumped out of the glass window, which was luckily already broken as the roof collapsed. 7n7 was hurt but was happy c00lkidd was alive. As he opened his eyes, c00lkidd was being kidnapped. “DAD! HELP!” “NO! NOT C00LKIDD TOO!” Before his last word, c00lkidd was already gone. 7n7 regretted giving him the c00lgui. He was not mad at him, but at himself, for thinking of that decision. Soon enough when the fire was out, the manager Elliot came in and stepped in front of 7n7, giving a big death stare. 7n7 was frightened and looked away. ”You should really learn to take care of a child. You’re a very bad father, you know that right?” “E-Elliot, I’m sorry! I wa—” “Get out of my pizzeria… RIGHT NOW!” Elliot shouted at 7n7. 7n7 then stood up in shame. Everybody’s eyes were staring at him. He could have frozen from all the eyes staring at him, but he kept himself stable and walked away to his house. Once he was inside his house, it was impossibly quiet. He was so hungry, but he did not eat because he was too depressed to do anything, so he just slept. “7n7 OPEN THE DOOR UP! IT’S YOUR HOMIE 8o8!” 7n7 woke up, but tried to go back to sleep when 8o8 opened the door. “7n7 are you okay at all? Um, you have a lot of tissues on the flo—”

“Leave. Right now, please. 8o8, I don’t wanna talk at all.” 8o8 then tried to make 7n7’s bed more comfy. 7n7 did not care about anything at all. 8o8 left the house. She walked away with her son that she adopted. His name was bluudud, and she had just adopted him. 7n7 saw her walk away and turned around, trying to ignore the fact that everybody had someone by their side except for him. This was his final thought before he went to sleep again. “W-what the—Where am I?” As 7n7 woke up, he was in a random apartment. Soon, when he got up, he found his c00lgui and took it. After walking down a long hall, he found a door and opened it, only to find it was very cold. He found a black leather jacket and walked outside, which made him have a flashback in his head. This made him feel embarrassed, the devil horns he had were for all the crimes he had committed. After walking for nine miles alone in a blizzard, he saw c00lkidd and Noli, and he started to cry as he saw them. He ran to them, even when he had no energy left, and jumped to hug Noli but fell down and hit himself. “Ow. Wait… NOLI? WHERE DID YOU GO!?” 7n7 began hallucinating. For a moment he thought he saw c00lkidd, and as he went in to hug him, he disappeared. As for Noli, he found his signature mask in the same place he had disappeared, as a reminder to 7n7 about Noli. In c00lkidd’s place, he found a present c00lkidd had given to him. “NO! This-this is just a dream, right? RIGHT!?” Before 7n7 finished asking, he woke up in his house. He realized it was an actual dream and decided to go to the places c00lkidd and Noli had been. But before he had finished, Elliot appeared. “7n7. I’m sorry for this but you’re going to prison for burning our pizzeria down and not looking out for your son.”

7n7 did not speak and just accepted it. He allowed the police to take him to prison since he did not have anything else to do. Arturo is a writer that has created a show of objects battling for an island but it went wrong and now he has been working on making a second season for that show where new objects battle for a hamburger. Arturo also likes the color purple as shown by his drawings sometimes.

The Accident Monserrat S. Once, there was a man who owned a dining restaurant. He had brown hair with green eyes, and his name was Greg. Greg had a six-year-old daughter, Madelina, who had brown eyes and brown hair. She was turning seven that year. One day, his daughter unfortunately passed. She got into an accident while she was walking home from school. Beside her there were kids from her middle school, Mark Twain, that were bullying some fourth graders. She got distracted and didn’t know where she was walking. As she was watching the incident occur, she stumbled into a busy street. Once she realized she was on the road, she stopped watching the incident and saw a car was coming straight towards her. She just barely managed to dodge it but was then suddenly hit by another car. A bystander called for help, but she had already passed away. Greg sobbed for days. He was so sad he couldn’t stop crying. It was like a cycle that went on forever, and it never stopped. Greg had the courage to go to the graveyard and dig Madelina’s body out. He dug and dug until the sun came out. However, he had gotten only seven to nine hours of sleep so of course he didn’t finish. Further on, at the dark graveyard––which had spiders, spider webs, grey coffins under the dirt, and soggy grass––there was a security guard named Edward. Edward didn’t notice that Greg was in the graveyard. Greg took his daughter’s body into his restaurant, and kept her there for more than one year. After the year passed, Greg heard a knock on his door. As Greg opened the door, he realized that the police were at his front door. The police had told him that the next door restaurant had seen something in a bag a few months ago. Greg got scared and shut the door in their face. The police knocked on the door once again and found Greg

near the freezer. The cops opened the freezer and found the girl’s body. As the cops looked at Greg, the color slowly drained from his face. Monserrat is a ten year old girl in fifth grade. She loves cooking, and she wants to be a chef when she grows up. Her favorite book series is I Survived. Monserrat loves to write creative writing. Her inspiration is her mom because she helps a lot and she cooks. Her favorite colors are pink, purple, and aesthetic brown. Her favorite drink is strawberry matcha. Further on, her favorite food is alfredo pasta. Her future goals are becoming a chef and learning to be a chef at NYU.

The Haunted Hareball Ailyn S. *Detail: this story will make you feel sad It was a cool March morning, the sun was already up, and I heard my mom crying in the bedroom. I got out of bed and said, “ What’s up mom?” Then, a terrible thing happened! I noticed that Oreo, our pet rabbit, died! There was a lot of chaos in the house. After all that crying my mom and I buried Oreo behind the dumpster in the alley. We thought it was over, but a few nights later Oreo’s spirit started to visit me. Now things got scary. Oreo’s ghost would sneak up on me while I was sleeping. She would stare at me and I would get scared. It's been a while and I got used to it. Now I sleep comfortably knowing that my dear sweet pet rabbit is always watching over me every night.

Ailyn is a nine-year-old and a fourth grader at Beethoven Elementary School. She likes rabbits and also had one as a pet. Her name was Oreo and she was a brown and white rabbit. Her dream job will be to be a video maker, artist, and pretty much that's all that she wants to be. She has a new rabbit named Oreo Jr. She is brown and grey colored. That’s all that I will talk about her and hope you enjoyed these facts about this girl. If this girl has more things to say I will tell you. Stay tuned!

I Lost Blacky Alejandra Abigail N.L. One sunny day I was walking with my cousins on our way to go to the park. We got ice cream and suddenly I said to my cousin, “Where is Blacky, the dog?” We searched for Blacky and began to get worried because what if we did not find him? We searched under the swing, slide, all through the park. We did not find him. We were very scared and suddenly we saw him! He was with a lady we didn’t know. We tried to get him back so we followed her and she went to a scary house. We went inside and saw a lot of scary stuff like spiderweb, clown pictures, and mannequins that were dressed up with clown costumes. We tried to get him back but she left. We were sad so we went home. The next day we went to the house again. The lady had black hair, a white shirt, and blue pants. We saw her again and followed her in. She saw us so she ran away and we did not catch her. We went home so sad so we decided to get a new dog. He was a German Shepard and was small, but we still missed Blacky. We where happy with Kaya, the German Shepard, we played together just like me and Blacky. Alejandra is eight years old. She is the smallest in the family. She is from Los Angeles, Honduras, and Mexico. She is in third grade and she goes to Grand View Elementary School. Her favorite hobby is art, sketching, and coloring. Her favorite book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar and it is written by Eric Carle.

My Uncle Died on Thanksgiving Alice H. Two years ago I was in my room, and my mom was making lasagna because it was Thanksgiving. I was watching TV and it was nighttime. My mom said my dad called me, so I called him back. He said to come to his house. My mom and I headed there. When we got there, I was confused. My dad said my uncle died. I thought he was joking but I realized that there were a lot of people when I went to my back yard. There I saw there was a white coffin, and my eyes opened big. I was about to cry, but I stopped myself. I was about to go over to the coffin but my mom said we needed to go. We went to my mom’s car when we got there I started to cry. When I got to my mom’s house I went to my room. I cried a lot. My mom tried to cheer me up but I couldn't stop. When I stopped crying I ate my lasagna. When I finished I went to sleep. Alice is a nine-year-old girl at La Ballona Elementary School. She likes animals, drawing, and pizza. She dedicates this work to her uncle, Brandon.

The Time I Got Lost Alejandro V. On a sunny Sunday, my dad, mom, and I were going to the Glendale Galleria in a car. We usually go to Costco, but today we were going to the Galleria. Since I was only four years old, I didn’t know why we were going. I asked my dad, and he told me we were going to pay a bill and shop for some clothes. After my dad parked the car, we went to the Galleria. We were looking for the Carter’s store for blue and red clothes for me. Afterwards, we went to Macy's to pay the bill. For some odd reason, we went again to Carter's. My mom and my dad told me to sit. They were looking at clothes, then they looked over to see me, and I was not there. They began to look for me. I was running around the store. After 45 minutes, my dad was still looking for me. I left the store. I was looking for Mexican candy because it’s the best, but I did not find any. So I just ran around. After one hour, my tío was there for I don’t know what. My tío saw me running with no one, so he grabbed me and called my mom and my dad. My tío reunited me with my parents. Then we left Glendale and went to a different store to buy me a leash so I wouldn’t run off anymore.

Alejandro is ten years old. He likes pizza. Alejandro likes soccer, and his favorite soccer player is Cristiano Ronaldo. Alejandro likes to swim.

The Story of My Grandpa Alondra L. One day in my colorful apartment, my parents told me, while playing with my toys, some grave news. Abuelo, bold and nice, had passed away peacefully. It made me sad and devastated. But I wanted to remember him forever. My parents also felt sad, and they said “We will always remember him.” This all happened in Mexico on a Wednesday. My grandpa’s name was Domingo Lira; he was a kind person. My parents' body language was closed and sad. My grandpa enjoyed his life while it lasted. He will forever be in my heart. The things I wanted to remember about him are that he died of old age and not any kind of sickness. That means he was healthy, that's the happy part. Another thing is that he was a friendly and kind person. Even now, when I hear his name, I still smile. He passed away in Mexico, and all his funeral services were there. For the Day of the Dead, I put up an ofrenda with his photo. I put his favorite food, conchas, and waited for his return.

Alondra likes tacos and French fries. She is in fourth grade. She is from Mexico, and her favorite color is light pink.

Chip and Cheeto Become Enemies Angie C.J.S. One day, a white cylinder water bottle named Cheeto went to visit his best friend Chip, who is also a white cylinder water bottle. Chip has a chip factory. Chip had a surprise for Cheeto, so he called him to come over. When Cheeto got to the factory, he realized Chip had a new chip bag flavor, sour cream and onion, named after “Cheeto”. Cheeto got excited because he had a new chip named after him. When he got excited, Cheeto hugged Chip and told him, “Thank you.” Cheeto decided to ask Chip if he could get free chips for the rest of his life, but Chip responded, “The chip is already named after you, what else do you want?!” Cheeto got really mad, so he didn’t respond back to him. Cheeto had a secret that Chip didn’t know about. He was a vampire ghost. No matter what, he would get a lifetime supply of Cheetos. Cheeto found a way to shut down Chip’s factory and delete all of his products. Cheeto started to hang posters all around the city saying “Chip died,” and no one was there to run the company. After Cheeto got his revenge, Chip found out and tried to get all his brands back, but Chip couldn’t get his brand back. Cheeto had gotten all of Chip’s products banned from all stores because everyone thought Chip had died. They were mad at each other and never talked again.

Angie C. J. S. is eleven years old and her birthday is February 16, 2014. She is from Los Angeles, California. She’s also in sixth grade. When she grows up, she wants to be a professional volleyball player. Her favorite color is light purple. In her free time, she likes to play volleyball. She loves her family, friends, and dogs.

The Pumpkin Thief Jade A.R. One day in Ghost Town, there was a ghost named Pumkin. Pumkin was getting ready to go to the pumpkin patch to get his favorite pumpkins, which he had reserved. But what he didn't know was that his friend, United, was at the pumpkin patch, ready to play a prank on him. The prank United was going to play was that United would pretend to be Pupkin and take the pumpkins that Pumpkin had reserved. Pumkin was already driving to the pumpkin patch to get his pumpkin, until he found out that someone had taken his pumpkins, pretending to be him. Then Pumkin saw United and started questioning if he had seen anyone who had taken his pumpkins. After Pumpkin told United that, Pumkin started looking around the pumpkin patch to see if he could find the person who stole his pumpkins. The next second, he turned around to talk to his friend United, he was gone. That night, when Pumkin went home and laid in bed, he started thinking about who had stolen his pumpkins, and made a board that you would use for a mystery case, or something. Then, he heard a noise outside his house. So, he went outside and checked. He saw smashed pumpkins all over his house with a note that said, “ Too bad, too sad, those are your pumpkins now.” When Pumkin saw this note, it made him mad, and he wanted to know who had done this. The next day, Pumkin stopped by United’s house and said, “Someone pumpkin-ed my house with my pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.” United started thinking to himself, “Did I go too far?” Then, Pumkin started asking United why he was at the pumpkin patch, because Pumkin knew United did not like Halloween. Pumkin got suspicious and put United on the “Maybe” list.

After Pumkin put his friend on the “Maybe” list, he knocked on his neighbors' doors to ask them questions. They said, “Too bad, too sad we didn't do it.” When he knocked on the last door, the neighbor said, "I saw your friend leave with some pumpkins last night”. So then Pumkin went back to United’s house and asked him where he was last night, because he didn’t like Halloween, so then why was he at the pumpkin patch? At that point, United couldn't keep lying anymore. So he said that he did it and explained what he did. When Pumkin found this out, Pumkin left United's house in anger and didn’t talk to United ever again.

Jade R. is eleven years old, in the sixth grade, and is from Los Angeles. When Jade grows up, she would like to be a volleyball player. Jade's favorite food is dumplings and boba. Her favorite colors are blue, pink, purple, and lavender.

Mean Ghost Adrienne N. One hundred years ago, in a big white house, there lived Edgar the Mean Ghost.Edgar once lived with his family, but he crashed his car and his soul was trapped in the big white house. His family left the big white house because the lights went off when Edgar passed away. Mia is a little girl who now lives in the big white house. Mia goes to school, she has a big brown dog, and she likes to play basketball with her friends. One day, Mia was reading a book about science when Edgar knocked on the door. She opened the door and no one was there. She was scared. She locked all the doors and hid under the bed. Edgar whispered in her ear, “I am here.” Mia screamed. She got oil from the kitchen because she knew ghosts don’t like oil. She dumped oil on the floor and Edgar fell to his death. Mia was free of Edgar at last. Then Mia lived happily ever after.

Adrienne Nava is a second grader at Grandview Elementary Boulevard School. Adrienne likes drawing during her free time. Her favorite subject in school is math. She has a brother named Julian. They play minecraft together.

We Defeated It... Alan H. It all started when there was an evil marshmallow. He was evil because he was haunting people. They knew him as the Haunter. But he just wanted friends. That’s why he was haunting people, like a kid named Lil Timmy. But then Lil Timmy called the Ghost Busters and the Ghost Busters came and ate the Haunter because he was a marshmallow! After the Ghost Busters ate the evil marshmallow, there was one piece left. Then the evil marshmallow piece turned into a nice marshmallow. The nice marshmallow asked Lil Timmy to be friends. Lil Timmy said, “Yes!” Alan is eight years old and goes to school at Grandview Boulevard Elementary. He likes marshmallows. When Alan grows up he wants to be a Youtuber/streamer for Roblox and Minecraft. In his free time Alan likes to play kickball.

A Happy Ghost Amaia M. Once upon a time, there was a ghost named Happy. In the kitchen, she played with a toy car. Her friend came to the house to play. Happy’s friend scared her because her friend was flickering the lights. The ghost wanted cookies, and when she got them she got happy. The friend made cookies for the ghost. The happy ghost ate too many cookies, so she threw up. Her friend went home. The ghost had white skin, and her friend was pink. The ghost and her friend went to school the next day. Then they went to the store to buy popcorn, Cheetos, and Takis. One of their friends was named Zonic, and they saw her at the store too. Amaia is a writer in third grade. She likes ghosts, Hello Kitty, and Hello Kitty’s friends Kuromi, and Cinnamonroll. When Amaia grows up, she wants to be an author who writes books about Hello Kitty and her friends and La Llorona. For fun, Amaia likes to color and go to the cinema to watch movies. Her favorite movie is Lilo and Stitch (the live-action version).

Forsaken Daniel R. One night, eight teammates—Janet, Kate, Chance, Noob, Elliot, Guest 1337, Veeronica, and Shedletsky—got lost and arrived at an abandoned pizza place. They didn’t know how they got there. The pizza place was burnt, dark, and ruined. Then a weird person named “DaNi3L” who was a ghost appeared and defeated people from the forest. The survivors looked directly at DaNi3L. “Wait… Isn’t that… DANI3L!?” Kate wondered. “Who is he?” Guest 1337 asked. “That Youtuber with 75 subscribers who wanted to be in our videos!” Janet explained. DaNi3L started to look at the survivors. They were shocked. DaNi3L started to chase after Guest 1337. Elliot, Chance, and Shedletsky tried to help, while Noob, Janet, and Kate fixed a generator to open the gate. They needed to fix all five generators to escape. “It looks like we need to completely fix the five generators to escape!” Noob said. “But I thought that generators were normal,” Janet said. Janet thought the generators were working fine. They looked around. Meanwhile, Guest 1337 was being chased by DaNi3L, while Elliot, Chance, and Shedletsky helped him out. Shedletsky used his sword to stun the ghost. Guest 1337 felt so safe. Noob, Kate, and Janet saw DaNi3L the ghost. Noob ran straight to the ghost. He used his Slateskin, so he couldn’t get hurt. “I’m chill :),” Noob said calmly. “Um, what?” Kate asked. “This is nice… ” Noob responded calmly. He didn’t feel any pain. After his Slateskin ended, he got hit twice and he was hurt. He yelled for Elliot.

“Sorry, Noob! I have cooldown!” Elliot responded. DaNi3L used his Corrupt Nature and Noob tripped. Guest 1337 came for Noob and blocked the ghost’s attack. Noob ran away and found a Medkit near a tree. He was now better. Chance flipped a coin and got some Weakness I. He tried three times and got more Weakness IV. Finally, he got a One Shot and he saved it for later. DaNi3L found Noob again and he was about to defeat him. DaNi3L defeated Noob and said, “We should play again sometime!” Everyone was shocked. “We lost one… I was the one who was supposed to protect him,” Guest 1337 said. He had a Medkit once, but now he was lost. His teammates tried to cheer him up. DaNi3L saw the survivors. DaNi3L then used his Walkspeed Override then hit Guest 1337. He was burning and took 35 damage. Janet and Kate completed the second generator to escape. Guest 1337 blocked but missed. Chance used his Stun Gun to stun the ghost. Guest 1337 was defeated. “You were strong… but not strong enough!” DaNi3L spoke. Kate uses her Ban Hammer to also stun the ghost. Janet tried to finish the third generator but things turned out bad. Janet ran as fast as she could from DaNi3L, but she was defeated. “NOOOO!!” Kate cried. “SPEAK TO ME!! PLEASE DON’T GO!!” Janet didn’t respond. Kate cried in tears. She was determined to destroy DaNi3L. Meanwhile, Elliot was getting chased. He had 10 health. DaNi3L used his Corrupt Nature. Elliot was defeated and DaNi3L said, “You look familiar. Oh well!” There were four survivors left and four people were defeated. Shedletsky used his sword, but he missed. He got hit three times and then used his Fried Chicken to heal. He might have used it too late, because he was

defeated. Kate wasn’t afraid. Chance and Veeronica were. “What are we going to do!?” Veeronica cried. “Dont worry, I’ll use my Stun Gun!” Chance responded. “Oh wait… I could use my skateboard!” Veeronica said. DaNi3L then grabbed onto Veeronica’s hoodie and said, “Did you actually think you could escape me?” DaNi3L defeated Veeronica. Kate ran and cautiously went to finish the last generator. Bad luck though, the generator was glitchy. Chance was chased and was defeated easily. Kate was the last woman standing with DaNi3L. Kate found a Bloxy Cola and drank it for speed. DaNi3L almost ran as fast as Kate. Kate was worried so much. “D-Daniel… This isn’t you,” Kate told him. Then she ran. It started to rain for a while. Puddles almost made Kate trip. Then Kate tripped on a puddle. DaNi3L walked closer to Kate. To be continued…

Daniel is a ten-year-old gamer and drawer. He plays soccer and likes LAFC. He likes making videos with his cousins, Lukas and Elias. Daniel also hangs out with his dogs, Jacks and Bella. His favorite Youtubers are Janet and Kate. He likes writing and making comics. His friends are Liam, Jassiel, Osvaldo, and Rodrigo. He is from the USA but doesn't know which city he was from.

The Story of How I Lost My iPad Jacob P. It was a dark and rainy night. I was getting my things ready for school and getting ready for bed. I was brushing my teeth. Once I went into my room, I noticed my iPad was gone. I was surprised to see my iPad gone because no one in the house had touched it. When I went downstairs, I noticed that a ghost named Ghosty was using it. He had red glowing eyes, and when I looked into his eyes, I could tell he wanted revenge. Then I recognized Ghosty, and it caused a flashback. It all started when I first moved in. I was moving boxes, and I found a secret room. So I investigated the room, and then I saw a ghost. He was a friendly little guy, so he showed me around the city, and I got to go on the ghost slide. After I got back, my mom and dad were relieved to see me, but then they saw the hidden door and went through to see what was inside. When they got back, they were freaked out by the ghosts and called the exterminators, destroyed the hidden room, and started to suck up all the ghosts. I started to run after the ghost to snatch the iPad back, so I got my trusty magic vacuum, and I started to suck him into the vacuum, even when he was running away. “NO, I refuse to be beaten," said Ghosty. “Nooooooo,” said Ghosty, when being sucked into my magical vacuum. Then Ghosty said, “ I surrender, I will give you back your iPad,” and so I got my iPad back, but something was missing. I told my parents to apologize to Ghosty and to return his family to him. So the exterminators returned Ghosty’s parents and rebuilt his old home. Then Ghosty said to me, “How can I ever repay you?” “Don’t,” I said.

“But can we be friends again?” said Ghosty. “Of course,” I said. Jacob is eleven years old.

The Mysterious Morning Diego R. 2:00 AM, Monday morning: At that time, everybody was sleeping but me. I played video games with my friends, but it was different this time. We were going crazy. “Did anyone hear that?” “Thats all you,” I replied, but then I started hearing it too. “That was weird. I heard that too.” “Yo Abem!” We heard nothing from his mic. I thought that he went to sleep, so we played some more. One by one, my friends went silent, so I just went to sleep. 7:30 AM: Even though I went to sleep at 3:45 AM, I got four hours of sleep. I packed my bag and went to the bus station. When I got to school, I asked my friends, “Why weren’t you talking earlier in the call?” I asked. “Diego, we were,” said my friends. “I heard CJ and Yafet, but not you. And every 20 minutes one of you guys would stop talking,” I said. “That's all you,” CJ said. It was probably because it was two in the morning. Normally at lunch, we would be talking about Fortnite, food, and sports, but that was the only thing we were talking about. After school, we walked together to my friend's house. When we got there, we went to his room. During the time we were there, I thought about the voice the whole time. Tuesday morning: At school, when I got to class, my teacher told us that two students were identified as missing. First, there was

this voice that said something when we were playing Fortnite, and now there were two people missing. “There is something wrong with this town,” I whispered to myself at lunch. I asked my friends if they heard that two kids from our school went missing. “Oh yeah, aren't they in your class?” they asked. “Yeah, why?” I said. “I’m just asking!” “Oh okay,” I replied. When lunch was over, we went to our last class. After that, I went home. When I got home, I said hi to my mom and went to do my homework. After I completed my homework I ate, then I played Fortnite and called with my friends on an app called Discord. I told them, “Do you guys think there is something wrong with this town, especially with what has been happening these days?” They said no with a pause. “I think it's a type of monster or like a skin walker,” I said. Two days later: They found both of them dead in the forest with their bones cracked in all types of nonflexible pieces. “How can that happen? That's impossible!” I said. When my dad got back I asked him, "Do you know how that happened?” “No, the only thing we found is their bodies.” He replied. “Can we go to the park to play basketball?” I asked. “Not with what has been happening!” “But Dad—” “No buts. Now get ready for dinner!” He commanded. So I did what he told me to do. After dinner, I went to my room and played Fortnite and Discord. I got in a call with two of my friends and played Fortnite. While we

were playing, I told them we should figure out what was happening. The next day: We didn’t have school because of what happened. When we were calling, we planned to meet at the library. It looked somewhat old. We asked the librarian, who looked like she came out of a horror movie, if she had any books on monsters. She took us to look at the section where the books about monster sightings, UFOs, etc., were. We found a book about a monster who goes into your mind and possesses you. When the monster possesses you, nobody can hear you. When the monster gets you, you float in the air and your body is cracked into nonflexible pieces. No one ever knew the name of the monster. A few day later: We never thought that one of us would be possessed. My friend, Abem, was the first one to get possessed and he went crazy. He never came back to school. We found him in the forest fully zoomed out and his eyes were twitching, but over time it got better. He said that he had a dream that a monster grabbed him by the face and he lost consciousness and he woke up. We played Fortnite after school and talked about it while we played. The next day he told us how he kept getting nightmares of him dying in many different ways. We thought that it would happen in many weeks. We were wrong, we were going to school. He was levitating! “Aah! What’s happening?!” “Abem, Abem, Abem!” We heard nothing. One of my friends tried calling 911 but there was no signal. One of us had to sprint to town so we could call 911. It was worthless because he was already gone when we got there.

It was weary the next few days. When we got in a Discord call we would not remember and call his name. One week later we went to his funeral. A few months later: A few months passed and then we started summer break. We went back to the library to get more info on this monster. The book said that he was a human back when he was around 27. One of my friends read a part of it out loud, “It was approximately 179 years ago.” When we got back we got everything set up, and we went where my friend died. When we were at the library we read that when the victims die, the monster takes them to a portal to an alternate world. When we got there we did not see anything, so we decided to start walking back. To our surprise, one of my friends found something glowing. It was under a stack of leaves. We went to the leaves and found a glowing portal that we decided to enter. We were amazed and disgusted by how it looked. We walked around, and got the book from the library out of our backpack. The book said that we had to go to his house which was in a place called the Killer’s Curb. When we got there we saw abandoned houses, but the book said to go to the biggest house, so we followed its instructions. We opened the door when we got to the house. We got the book out and its instructions told us to go to the basement. When we got to the basement we saw the monster levitating. He had his eyes closed. Scared, one of my friends broke nearby glass and threw it at him. The monster opened his eyes. He had a type of vein connected to him that started reaching out and attacking my friend. The monster barely missed my friends. Scared, I commanded my friends to start running to the portal. The

monster was chasing us. We barely managed to escape him. We never tired again because we knew that if we did, we could die. Diego plays basketball and he likes to type. He plays Fortnite, he is good at basketball, and he likes to play Blox Fruits on Roblox. His favorite food is a torta. He likes playing with his dog, he is ten years old, and he is from Mexico.

The Cookie Problem Jack S. My name is Jack Schell and I have a cookie problem! It all started when I was in my bed watching Youtube when I had a craving for cookies! I checked the fridge looking for a cookie, but there were no cookies. I checked the drawers… Nothing. Pantry? NOTHING! I swear I had cookies in my kitchen! I probably just dreamed about the cookies… BUT I WAS STILL SO HUNGRY! I needed cookies, so I asked my mom to drive me to the market. If I didn’t have cookies, I was going to buy them! “Mom. Mom. Mom. MOM!” “WHAT?! WHAT DO YOU WANT?!” Mom said. “Can you drive me to the market to buy cookies? I’m so hungry!” I asked. “Jack, I thought I told you before… NO JUNK FOOD!” Mom exclaimed. “Fine! But if you did, you would be the best mom ever!” I said “I SAID NO! GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM!” Mom yelled. After my mom yelled at me, I noticed I wasn’t going to get a drive. A good idea burst into my head! If I couldn’t buy cookies, I would make cookies! First, I checked the garage. I rushed into the garage passing the bathroom, living room, the kitchen, and I kicked the garage door down! Or at least I tried to… I THINK I BROKE MY LEG! I ran to the tool box. Cookies were made of screwdrivers… Right? (I have never baked a single thing in a day of my life). I threw five screwdrivers into the box. Hmm… Nails? I added a bucket of rusty nails. Oh! I almost forgot the best ingredient, gasoline! I poured a gallon of gasoline into the box. It went on and on. Jackhammers, rubber gloves, toilet plungers, hooks, wires, and a lot more!

After I stuffed the box with all kinds of weird stuff you can’t even imagine, I put it into molds and shoved it into the oven. It was shaped into little circles of weird looking cookies, or whatever they were. These cookies were the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen! After looking at them, all I could say was, “What the sigma!?” When I looked at them, they looked like they were made in space! They had a glowy rainbow color. Even just looking at them made my head hurt. It was like the colors were moving like waves. “I’ll probably die if I eat this cookie… “ I thought to myself. “Well, it looks yummy, so I’ll eat it anyway!” When I took a bite, I noticed that this cookie was the best cookie I’ve ever had! I could taste the creamy, buttery chocolate chips—at least I think they were chocolate chips. I still had no idea if it was safe that I was eating this cookie, but it looked cool and it tasted good so I didn’t really care! I had never tasted anything so tasty. Good thing I made about 500! My mom and dad were watching TV. “What in the world is all that noise?!” Dad yelled. “I can’t hear the movie!” “Uhhhh, just cleaning my room!” I responded in hopes of not getting caught. “Huh… That’s not normal. He is actually cleaning his room!” Mom said. I didn’t want them to know that I made the best cookies in the world or they would eat them all. It was getting late. I glanced at the clock… 9:37 PM. It was getting late and I was getting tired. I had school tomorrow. My eyelids were as heavy as bags of rice. I had to hide my cookies, so I grabbed a hammer. I picked up the heavy hammer. I could barely pick it up, but after I grabbed it and lifted it in the air, I smashed a hole in my wall by hitting the hammer against the wall. After I made a decent hole in the wall (which was poorly done), I slipped the box of cookies in it with all the cotton candy stuff that my parents call "insulation." Then I covered the hole by hanging up the old “Dance Moms” poster my grandmother

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got me when I was 5. As I went to sleep in my comfortable bed, I got the great idea to sell my cookies for $10,000 a piece. I was going to be a billionaire! Then, I drifted off to sleep. I dreamed about making billions of dollars from the cookies I made. I was going to buy five trillion marshmallows so I could swim in them. When I woke up, I was so excited to sell the cookies! I didn’t hear the alarm, which was unusual. I always wake up when I hear the alarm, but this time I didn’t. I checked the clock and it was three in the morning! I was shocked! Why did I wake up so early?! I checked the hole in my wall. I lifted up the poster and looked to see if the cookies were still there. I couldn’t see them! I moved my hand around the hole. I couldn’t feel anything! I had no idea what happened! Then I saw what I thought to be a ghost. It looked like one of those ghost halloween costumes with a sheet that covers your body and some holes cut out for your eyes. Though it didn’t look real, it was still very scary! Why would there be a ghost in my bedroom at three in the morning? Then the ghost swiftly turned around! It saw me! I froze in fear! It whispered something to me, “BOOOooooOOoo, JackKkk, I have come to steal your cookieSSSSsssSss… ” The bone-chilling voice was frightening. I felt a shiver run down my spine. “The ghost king sent me to take them to hIIIiiiiiMMmmmmmMm… ” Then the ghost floated away. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I had seen the world’s first ghost! It was very scary but I wasn’t going to let this slide. I was going to get back my cookies! I smashed my piggy bank with the hammer I used to smash the hole in my wall. I had $6.59, not much. I knew exactly where to get my gear. I grabbed my laptop and went to the perfect website… TEMU. I opened the browser and after a while of scrolling, I found the perfect thing. A GIANT

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ROCKET LAUNCHER!!! I bought it for only $5. It seemed kind of sketchy, but I bought it anyway. A week later, I got the package. I took it out of the box. It had a bunch of scratches on it, but it was still usable. I put on my boots, loaded my rocket launcher, grabbed my binoculars, and searched my entire neighborhood. I searched for days. I would come home at night, and walk around each morning. After an entire month of walking around, I finally found a clue. I saw a trail of my cookies! I followed the trail until it stopped. I was confused because it stopped at a… dumpster? The stench was horrible, but I needed to get my cookies back. I dived into the dumpster! After digging around the dumpster, I found something! It was an arm! Then a leg! And then an entire head! I saw my dad! It was actually my dad’s face! “WHAT THE HECK JACK?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” my dad yelled. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!” I exclaimed, “AND WHY ARE YOU EATING MY COOKIES?!” “Ummmmm, well… ” “GET TO THE POINT!” “Aah—Okay. I smelled your cookies while I was trying on my Halloween costume and when you saw me, I pretended I was a ghost so you wouldn’t think it was me. Sorry about that!” “Okay, well when we get home, we can share the cookies with the entire neighborhood!” I said. “Sounds great!” my dad said. As we were getting ready, my dad said something. “JACK, WHAT DID YOU DO WITH ALL THE STUFF IN THE GARAGE? THERE IS NOTHING IN HERE!” “UHHHHHHHHH—I don't know where they went at all… “

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Jack Schell is a writer with a cat, who is a calico named Coco. He is ten years old. He also has a dog, who is a brownish-gold-colored dog named Murphy. Jack likes basketball and he LOVES LeBron James. He plays Roblox and his favorite game is “Escape the Handsome Men.” He loves making weird drawings. This is Jack’s second year in 826LA and his favorite books are Who is LeBron James? and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. Jack wants to be a writer or a basketball player when he grows up.

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Boo and Frank Jade B. Once there was a ghost named Boo who was invisible. He took a walk in his neighborhood. When he arrived home, he got a call from his friend. The friend asked if he could come over. Boo said, “Yes.“ His mom also agreed. Boo’s mom dropped off Boo at his friend’s house. At first there was silence. Then Frank, Boo’s friend, said, ”Hi.” Boo said hi too. After a while, Frank said, “Let’s play war of cards.” Boo said, “Yes!” So that’s what they did. After a while they couldn’t find the cards. After all this time they found out that the cards were under the couch. After they found the cards it was lunch time. For lunch they had noodle worms. After lunch, they played cards of war again. By the time they were finished, Boo had to go home.

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School Day Went Wrong Javier H. This happened on a Friday. My friends and I played a game called Charli Charli. The game is played by using one piece of paper and two pencils. You ask a random question, then the pencil rotates to answer the question. We asked, “Do you want to be our friend?” It said, “Yes.” Then, a black figure appeared and we heard jingles. One of my friends asked, “Do you want to target one of my other friends?” and it landed on yes again. We went to lunch and nothing happened. We went back to class. One of my friends asked if he could go to the bathroom, and when he went to the bathroom he heard knocking on the wall and noises that sounded like someone was whispering. Then he saw our names on the wall with an X on our names. We thought he was lying until someone else also saw our names on the wall too. Then we believed him. My last friend ripped the paper, and my other friend said, “You are cooked.” His body was filled with intense fears. The next day all my friends came to school. We were all safe but we kept seeing the black figure and heard the same knocking and jingling over and over like a constant loop. Like it was neverending. We tried to ignore it, but it was always following us.The black figure stopped following us. We thought that probably someone else had played the game. A flashback… It started at Chick-fil-a. Only my friend and my brother saw the black figure head at the play place. Only my friend and my brother saw the head. My friends and I did not believe them until we saw it too. My friends and brother and I were talking about it until we all went home. The next day we went to school. My friend said, “I saw the same figure in my sleep.”

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Javier likes playing games like Fortnite, Rocket League, soccer, basketball, and kickball.

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Food Fight Bennett S. Did you know that food can throw food at food? That food gets hit by the food and throws food back at the food? And then the food gets into a food fight with the food? In a spooky restaurant, you're always being watched by food. They have a special recipe, so when they cook the food and when they die, they come back as ghosts. The foods attack each other with the food. And the food ghost throws edible food at the edible food that the people at the restaurant can eat. Those foods get more food from a pile of food from the master kitchen, and they throw it at food. The hamburgers throw hamburgers, the french fries can throw french fries, and potatoes can attack and throw potatoes. Only spinach can throw all kinds of vegetables. All the foods get eaten because they don’t know that they are on a plate at a restaurant. They get eaten by the person who orders them. The person can’t see them throwing the food at the food because the food’s too small and they’re all ghosts. So only the food can see the food coming towards the food. They all get eaten, and their ghosts haunt the restaurant.

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Bennett is seven years old and in second grade. He was born and raised in Los Angeles. He has an older brother, who likes to play in the rain. He likes to play basketball and paint. He also likes to play Roblox and watch YouTube on his iPad. Bennett’s favorite animals are penguins. His favorite meal is chicken soup.

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The First Time I Saw a Ghost Liam A. This was the first time I saw a ghost. The time I saw the ghost I was freaked out. I called him Jerry. I don't know what his actual name was. I don’t know how long Jerry had been in my house. I knew he was there because there has always been suspicious activity. Stuff was moving. It was very hard to see, but I saw it somehow. I was lucky I caught him because I noticed a water bottle moving very slowly. When I saw him I went crazy! “Aaaaah!” “Aaaaah!” “Aaaaah!” I turned on the light and he left. But then Jerry turned the light back off and now I was mad. I went to get a sword and said, “Defeat him!” “Defeat him!” “Defeat him!” But he got away, so I did nothing. After, my mom came running into my room, saying, “Are you okay?” I replied, “Yea, but the reason I said, ‘Defeat him!’ ‘Defeat him!’ ‘Defeat him!’ was because there was a ghost who came into my room and I am not happy a ghost came in my house. That’s why I said, ‘Defeat him!’ ‘Defeat him!’ ‘Defeat him!’

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But now he is gone because I scared him out of my house.” Liam Ades is in fourth grade. His favorite subjects are math and PE, and he loves to read in his free time. Liam also plays on his Nintendo and watches TV. Places he likes to go are Universal Studios, his house, and also his friend’s house.

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Ghostface and Michael Myers Julian N. On a cold dark night, the lights were flickering. I was at Trader Joes with my friend, Marty. Suddenly I left my teddy bear at the store. I turned around to see my teddy bear but it was locked in the store. The store was dark and a spider was hanging on the web inside the store. We used a chainsaw to cut the door open and went in. We started walking in and a spider jumped on my back and bit me. It was bleeding a lot of blood. So we put a bandaid on it but it didn’t work. I looked up and saw Ghostface and Michael Meyers. They were there to help me. Two guards had my teddy bear and they wanted to burn it. Ghostface went in to grab it because he was fireproof. He came out with my teddy bear. Then the two guards fell into the fire but their skulls were still left. Their skulls became a big monster with bloody eyes. We used a gigantic robot to destroy the big monster, it worked and we destroyed the monster and I got my teddy bear back. Julian is seven years old and goes to school at Grandview Boulevard Elementary. Julian enjoys riding his scooter, playing with his friends, and going to the park. When Julian grows up he wants to be a reader.

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A Phantom’s Love Isn’t Invisible Liv R. It was 1796, a ghost family creeped the halls of an old haunted house on the tallest hill. One of the daughters, Minnie, was a bit older than her little sister, Sarah. Minnie’s mother and father, Mr. and Ms. Centryquest, loved each other deeply. One day, they both went to creep another house which had another family, except they were zombies and there was only a daughter and their mother. They usually went with Minnie and Sarah, but they wanted some “them” time. They levitated to the house. Minnie and Sarah hated this house in particular because the zombies were always a little too happy. “Let’s start flickering the lights first,” Mother Ghost suggested. “Yeah… ” Father Ghost replied nervously. Each one possessed the light switches and flickered them at different times. The mother zombie, Ms. Smithstone, and the daughter zombie, Laylah, were having dinner. “Oh!” Ms. Smithstone said. “Must’ve been the electricity bills trying to scare us.” She walked into the kitchen. “Right… ” Laylah replied. Laylah got suspicious and creeped toward the light switches. She switched each one, one-by-one. “Huh… ” Laylah pulled away from the switch. “I’ll keep an eye on you two… ” Laylah said, walking backwards, squinting her eyes. She bumped into the table and her rib fell apart. “AGAIN?!” Ms. Smithstone yelled. “This is the sixth or seventh time this week!” Ms. Smithstone disappeared back into the kitchen complaining. Ms. Centryquest checked and looked left and right as she popped out of the light switch.

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“The coast is clear, we can come out now,” she said. They popped out of the light switches and crossed the street. Ms. Centryquest went around a corner and disappeared. “Wha—” Mr. Centryquest asked confusedly, looking left and right. He passed the corner and didn’t see her. “Where did she go?” he asked himself. Accepting his fate, he floated back home with his head hanging down. When he got home, he looked for his two daughters as he yelled, “I’m home!” He found Minnie opening a closet, looking for her sister. “Where’s Sarah?” she asked. “I don’t… know? I guess we lost both of them… ” he said, sighing. “Both?!” Minnie yelled at her father. “Yeah… She, your mother, went around a corner and I accepted my fate,” he said. “Oh,” she said, closing the closet doors. “You’re right. I guess we can live without them.” “Huh. You might have a point… ” he said, stroking his mustache. Three months later... Mr. Centryquest married Ms. Smithstone. Minnie had a new stepsister, Laylah. Minnie hated her stepsister. She scared her, teased her, and made fun of her at Monster Academy. She acted so sweet around her mom, though. “Why do you do this to me?!” Minnie yelled as she picked up her books from the floor. “Why not?” Laylah asked, “You’re so pathetic and gullible.” Minnie hated her life ever since her dad married Ms. Smithstone. She wanted revenge. The only good thing about her stepsister was that she could daydream about her boyfriend, Zach, for hours, and that was really all she did

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Minnie tried to live with it. She tried keeping calm for months. Until she snapped. She couldn’t take it anymore. If Laylah teased her one more time, it would be it. Not for Minnie, but for Laylah. She would be so done. One afternoon, she saw Laylah with her boyfriend, Zach. He was also a zombie, a bit taller than Laylah, without a brain popping out, but the rotting green skin was still the same. He also had black, licorice, silky, spikey, soft hair. “Snap out of it,” Minnie said, hiding behind the corner Laylah and Zach were at, slapping herself. “Keep your eyes on the prize.” Minnie’s plan was to scare Laylah’s boyfriend enough to make him unconscious, so she could possess him and break up with Laylah because he was her weakness. She nodded her head, ran around the alley, jumped, and yelled “Boo!” very cutely. It was less scary than she thought. In fact, Zach fell in love. Surprisingly, she did not fall into Zach’s body and possessed him. She lay on top of Zach, on the ground, Laylah staring at them. “WHAT. THE. WHAT?!” Laylah screamed, looking at Zach, under Minnie, staring into each other’s eyes forever. “D-Do you mind?” Minnie whispered to Zach, pointing at the concrete, next to Zach’s head. “Oh yeah, yeah,” Zach whispered, as if he had been waiting for that question his whole life. Minnie got up and dusted herself off. As Zach got up, he asked what Minnie was trying to do. Minnie sighed. “I’ll just do it I guess,” she said. Minnie literally walked into Zach’s body. His eyes rolled back as Zach’s body cracked and broke before Laylah’s eyes. Laylah had her hands over her mouth, crying. She ran away in fear, around the corner. Zach stood there, hunched over, looking ready to grab something and very hungry. “Wait,” Minnie said with Zach’s voice. He stood up,

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straightened his back, and held his hands by his side. “That’s better.” The next day… At Monster Academy, “Zach,” who was now possessed by Minnie, walked into the school trying to find Laylah. She spotted Laylah and made eye contact. “Okay, Minnie.” She said as she stopped and stood straight. “I mean, Zach. You can do this. Just act… Zach-y.” She fast-walked over to Laylah. “Hi.” “Yeah, yeah, but she didn’t mean to—” “Hi.” “AAAAAH!” Laylah got scared and jumped as possessed Zach put his hands on her shoulders. “Laylah are you—” One of her minions asked. “Yes, I just need to talk to Zach for a sec, ‘kay?” Laylah said nervously. Zach looked completely fine to Laylah. No hunched back, no broken bones, nothing. He looked perfect. Possessed Zach smiled at Laylah. “What happened? Didn’t Minnie possess you or something?” Laylah asked, her arms crossed. “Think, Minnie, think,” Minnie thought. “No…” Possessed Zach said. “Oh… well then. Probably just my imagination,” Laylah said looking down. “You think THAT ENTIRE SCENE was just your imagination!? Dawg, strong imagination,” Minnie thought. Minnie turned around relieved that Laylah was so naive. “Whew!” Minnie said inside Zach’s body. “God, that was awkward enough. How am I going to make Zach, or me, break up with her?” she thought. “Screw it. I’ll do it at lunch tomorrow!”

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Tomorrow: Lunch… Minnie in Zach’s body sighed. “This is it.” She put her lunch tray down on the table. Laylah was at the last station—mac and cheese—in the cafeteria line. Possessed Zach caught her at the very end of the line. “Hey Laylah… ” “Yeah… ?” “Can I talk to you in private?” Possessed Zach and Laylah went back and forth, talking. Laylah walked with possessed Zach to his table. “So… I wanna break up… ” He said smoothly. “WHAT?!” Laylah’s scream echoed through the cafeteria and everyone stared at them for five seconds. “Why? What did I do? How can I change your mind?” She asked him as she sniffed her nose and tears ran down her cheeks. He sighed. “You can’t.” Possessed Zach left the cafeteria as Laylah depressingly ran the other direction. Her minions followed her. The real Zach fell out of Minnie’s possession onto the floor, panting for breath. “Okay, okay!” Zach said, looking up from the shiny white tiles he sat on. Minnie raised her eyebrows and stared at Zach. “Thank you so so so much for breaking up with her!” He whispered as he grabbed onto her leg. “She was a nightmare!” “Oh… ! You’re welcome… Heh… ” She said blushing. He stood up, blushing red on his cheeks, side-eyeing her, and asked if he could be her boyfriend instead. “I-I… Oh… But isn’t—” Minnie stuttered. “PLEAAAAAAAASSSSEE? I’ve been waiting for this moment forever!” Zach begged as he got on his knees again. “What did I do to deserve this?” Minnie said flirty-like, rolling her eyes and smiling in her head. “Wait—”

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“PLEEEEEASEEEE! You’re like… 1,000 times sweeter, prettier, funnier, cuter… And you fit with me like a puzzle piece!” He interrupted Minnie so she couldn’t reject him. She laughed. “Okay… ” “YAY!” Zach said as he jumped up, springing his arms out of his sides. “But only because I cannot resist your smile… Or really anything else,” Minnie smiled. They both lived happily ever after, including her parents. Except for Laylah. She sat in her room, hoodie over her head, lights off, watching sad cat videos.

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The Ghost Matthew L. On a rainy day with lightning, I was home and I was thinking about watchIng a movie or playIng with my friends. I chose to play with my friends. I went to get my Ipad and the lights went out. I was going to text my dad and a door opened. There was no one behind the door. I hIde under the bed and I texted my dad and he said, ”I was in the forest and I found a house, but there was no one in it and a door was opening so I took a video. Watch it! I watched it and I was shocked. The back door opened and my heart was pounding fast. Then my cat was downstairs and I was scared for a second. I got up and went downstairs. I saw my cat but the TV turned on by itself. I grabbed my cat and ran up the stairs. My dad called me and I picked up and he said, “Son! Run away and find my workshop.” Then my phone glitched and died. The ghost opened the door and he grabbed my neck. I couldn’t breathe. I told my cat to call the police. Then I told the ghost, “Let go of me!” Then my cat bit the ghost and she followed me to my bike. I grabbed her and went to my dad. When we got there, I realized I forgot my mom! Then my dad went home and picked up my mom and my two sisters. I hid in the bushes and I texted my dad to get cat food and a bowl. He replied, “Okay, I will get it.” I looked at the time and it was 5:30 AM. I was so sleepy. I went to my dad’s workshop and my dad was there. I said, “Hi Dad!” And he said, “Hey son!” Then I was calling the Ghostbusters. Suddenly, the ghost grabbed me by the neck again. The Ghostbusters got there and they grabbed a blower

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and sucked up the ghost with their blower. Then the Ghostbusters said, “Have a great day!” My family and I went to the beach. I hope there are not any more ghosts. Matthew is nine years old and in fourth grade. Three things about him is that he plays Roblox and Fortnite, is a fan of cats and dogs , and his favorite food is ice cream.

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A Missing Kid Santiago R. There was a group of friends who always spent time together. The friends’ were called Hanny, Tony, Prem, Timmy, and Steve. One day they were all hanging out at Timmy’s and playing video games. Once everyone's parents picked them up, they all hopped on a phone call like they usually did. Except for Tony, he did not answer his phone! Tony was missing. He stopped coming to any of their houses. Tony was taken by a ghost. The rest of the friends found out that a ghost took him because one of the friends’ moms said that there was a ghost haunting them for a while. The friends were in shock because they did not believe it. After a bit, they were convinced it had to be true. So they got supplies and looked for him. One of the friends said, “Ready to find him?” The rest said, “Yes!” They were looking for him for a long time, but they could not find him. One friend said, “Maybe we will never find him.” The next day, the friends were desperate to find their missing friend. Finally Timmy had an idea, “Wait, let’s check one more place.” They decided to look for Tony late at night in the forest near their home. They only brought flashlights and sleeping bags. Suddenly they heard someone scream out ”Aaaaaaaaah!” They all ran away, dropping their flashlights and falling into the mud. Then they went home because they were too scared to go back to the forest. But Timmy said, “Let’s not be scared!” Hanny responded, “Since when were YOU the brave one? You were the first one in the house!” The friends went back to the forest because they had a

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feeling their Tony was somewhere in there. They went near where the person screamed and suddenly found lights in the shape of a ghost. They approached the lights because they were curious to see the figure up close. As they got closer. The ghost appeared out of the shadows. They all said, “Give us Tony back!” But the ghost had no intention of returning their friend back. The ghost was not going down without a fight! Little did the ghost know Tony was hiding his powers. Tony came out and said, “You are not fighting them, you are fighting me.” Tony grabbed the ghost and squished him with his super strength and put him into a magic jar his mom had given him. The ghost was defeated, and the friends were together laughing again. Santiago is an eight-year-old writer. He likes to play basketball with his friends. He also loves spending time with his family. He can always go for a good meal and eat chicken nuggets.

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Some Generic Ghost Story with Very Few Pop Culture References Sebastian R. So in the misty dawn of 1992, three crazy energetic school boys decided to go on a hunting/camping trip to kick off the summer. But little did they know that this trip would be the last one they ever went on. “Hey where’s my canteen?” Harry asked. “In my bag,” Nate replied. “Ok, pass,” Harry said. “Nahhh… I’m good,” Nate replied. Harry went straight to Nate’s bag and grabbed his canteen kind of angrily, then walked away. Alex just sighed and started to work on his tent. After they finished building their tents, all the boys grabbed their hunting gear, fishing rods, traps, knives, and even one of them brought a gun! “So um… What are we going to hunt?” Alex asked. “Ummm… animals? Duh,” Nate said. “Shut up Nate,” Alex replied. All three boys walked over to the nearby forest. When they arrived, Nate put a trap down. The trap was meant to catch rabbits. They waited and waited and still waited, but nothing was happening, so one of the boys had an idea. The idea was that each of them would take turns keeping watch of the trap. So they wouldn't get bored, they would take turns on Harry's Gameboy. To figure out who would go first, they played spin the bottle (not in the weird way) and after three spins a winner—or rather a loser—was found. Alex got picked to watch the trap first, so he grabbed the Gameboy and a walkie talkie, then sat on a nearby rock. While he played the most intense round of Tetris ever, the

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other boys went fishing. After a painful 30 minutes or so, there was a really loud CLANK. Alex thought it was the trap, but when he checked, he realised that there was no animal in the trap. He decided to look around to see what caused the noise. After looking around for a bit, Alex decided to just go back to playing Gameboy. But when he turned around, his heart dropped out of pure horror. Ghouly, lifeless, uncanny, eyeless. He screamed and ran away out of pure horror. He gripped onto the Gameboy and walkie talkie like those items were his last hope of survival. He yelled on the walkie talkie, “GET BACK TO CAMP NOW!!!” He screamed into the walkie talkie. The two other boys ran back to the campsite, and when I say ran, I mean they walked. They took their sweet, sweet time and after 20 minutes they finally got to camp. After Alex finished yelling at them for taking forever, he started yelling at them about what he saw. The other boys didn’t believe him, so they went to check for themselves. But when they checked, they saw nothing and just brushed it off. When they all went to sleep, Nate and Harry both heard a sound, and when they woke up to check what it was, they saw two white lights almost like eyes. Then the lights started coming towards them. They both hid in their tents like little kids and when the lights left, they both woke up Alex. “Alex, Alex, ALEX! Wake up man!” Nate yelled while kicking Alex to snap him back to reality. “Shut up!” Alex responded. “Alex, wake up! We saw two eyes coming towards us and we think it's the ghost that you were blabbing about for a century!” Harry told him. So after the boys got on the same page, they all devoted themselves to a plan. The plan was that one of them would go as bait to lure the ghost. Basically the bait would go walking around acting clueless while the other two boys would be hiding. They would have baby powder to throw at the ghost to expose its body shape.

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After devising the plan, they all got ready. The first thing they needed to do was to figure out who was going to be the bait. After a very difficult decision and 40 painful seconds they picked Harry, because he said he would volunteer. After figuring out the bait, they were all set. After setting up the trap, the act started. Harry started his silly little act of being clueless and after TWO HOURS they finally saw its menacing eyes. It started running towards them. Alex and Nate got ready to throw the baby powder at it, but right when they threw the powder the eyes just disappeared. After waiting for another 10 minutes, the boys gave up and they all went back to bed. After cleaning up their campsite, they waited for the bus to pick them up. Alex just wouldn’t let go of the fact that it just disappeared. He held on to that memory for the rest of his life. Sometimes he thinks it’s still there watching him, but he can never admit it. Sebastian is one word: Nerd. Now at first glance you may think he is just some regular old joe who is in middle school, but you would be WRONG. He has always been into nerdy, super awesome computer stuff and now he is into lots of video games. Not the generic ones like Fortnite or Roblox. He’s a big comedy fan and whenever he’s bored, he doodles or listens to his favorite Metallica or Weezer albums.

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Ally and the Ghost Cat Sophia R. “Wait!“ Ally replied. “I really want to go with you guys.” “Sorry Ally, we are all busy.” But she knew that was a lie. “Okay… ” Ally whispered. Her friends drove away, leaving Ally alone with only food, supplies, and other necessities. A part of her yelped, “Hey, hey, hey! I know what you are thinking.” “Don't back down now! Keep going!” The other part in her mind roared. “Listen to your thoughts. Go home! Tell them you changed your mind!” But Ally took the rough path. She slithered to the house and reached the door. Her body was filled to the brim with fright. Ally rang the door bell of the house. She assumed it was broken, until she heard a faint voice and heard a figure say, “Welcome to the HAUNTED HOUSE, ALLY!” She yelled, “WHO ARE—” but she saw nobody. “You… ” Ally drifted into the creepy darkness. She saw a cat turn on the light. “Hello and welcome to my home,” The cat said. “You live here? In this abandoned dump?” Ally muttered. “HEY! It's not that bad!” Ally froze terrified, not knowing who she was talking to. “Who are y-you?” Ally questioned the cat. “My name is Victor, the cat that lives in this ‘abandoned dump.’ I bet you live in a more terrible place than this!” “ I am so sorry. You win OK? YOU WIN!” “Well, now I can tell you the history of this place.” Ally thought he was kidding. “Can you take me on a tour?” “Oh, then why didn't you say so?” Victor replied. “Follow

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me!” And before she knew it she was taking a tour. “This was a kitchen.” “What happened here? It looks like Dracula sucked out all the stableness.” “Uh… don't ask.” “Um, ok?” Ally and the ghost's bond grew stronger through every room and every fact stated. For once she trusted a ghost until the clock hit 5:00 PM. Until the very last room. Ally heard a shot of thunder and lightning. Victor stopped and muttered, “The last ROOM. The very last one.” “There is something you don’t know about me.” Victor pawed his way further into the room. Ally followed after. But, she noticed something. There were no entities, no spiders, no entitled darkness, and no creepy vibes. “This house was not always haunted… ” Ally sensed a crack in his voice. “I used to live here, with my owner.” Victor explained while getting to the window. “My owner used to love to look out the window,” Victor continued. “What happened to your owner, if it is okay to ask?” “She died in a car crash… by a drunk driver. And ever since then I always caught all the humans like you. It’s a cruel, cruel world, isn’t it Ally?” Ally could sense anger in all those sentences. “Are you gonna show me around or what?” Her nervousness fluttered like a butterfly’s wings. He muttered, “No, no, no!” Then he yelled, “Did you think we were friends? HA!” He unleashed his powers. “I AM VICTOR THE GHOST CAT, AND NOBODY ESCAPES VICTOR’S HAUNTED HOUSE!” Ally ranted in a burst of tears,“ I-I TRUSTED YOU!” She ran out of the house while Victor followed after. She called one of her friends named Jessica to pick her up. Jessica yelled, “GET IN!” Ally had trampled into her BMW

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and they drove out of there. Victor still stays there to this day and Ally has never been herself again. She can never look at a cat ever again. Victor’s plan succeeded.

Sophia R. is a ten-year-old girl who likes to draw in her free time. She is from the USA and lives in Los Angeles. She is also mixed with Honduran and Guatemalan blood. She does her very best at writing to get good grades. Sophia is also in the fifth grade, about to go to middle school. Sophia loves chicken nugs. A fun fact is that she has a lot of TY plushies. Her favorite color is pink. If you ever see her with one of the TY plushies, do NOT give them candy.

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Marshmallow Ghost Yahir V. Once upon a time my brother and I were walking to the market, which looked scary at night because the lights were glitching. We went inside. When we started walking inside the first thing we did was go to the marshmallow section. Then we heard a terrifying scratch and my brother and I freaked out! We quickly got the marshmallows, which were so sticky, we paid the manager, and left. We started walking home and placed the marshmallows in the kitchen. Then we went to bed. Suddenly, we heard the scratching noise coming from the kitchen. We grabbed a flash light from my room and went to the kitchen. My brother went out of his room and we both saw a giant ghost king. He said he wanted to play a game of hide and seek so we said, “Deal!” We drove to the mall and hid in the bathroom where the lights were glitching. The ghost chased us but he never found us, so we were safe. But after we waited 30 minutes, he broke into the mall. He told us he was following us to be his friends. We said yes, and he apologized for scaring us. Then, the ghost took us to outer space and we saw marshmallow aliens. Yahir is eight years old. When Yahir grows up he wants to be a baseball player. He goes to school at Grandview Boulevard Elementary School. Yahir likes marshmallows. Yahir’s favorite subject in school is science. During his free time he likes to play hide and seek with his brothers. His goal is to level up in I Ready. Yahir’s favorite hobby is going to Universal Studios.

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The Hallway Zachie L. My mom, Auntie Lexy, and I were at my Nana’s house. It was a cold, dark night. We were all on Nana’s black, soft couch in the living room. My Auntie was watching “Love Island” on her phone while I was watching “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” right by my mom. We heard noises in the hallway that sounded like scratching and we curled up on the couch. Then the lights started twitching. We saw a ghost in the mirror in the living room. It had long black hair and a white dress. It disappeared and everything went quiet. I was scared to go to the bathroom because I was afraid to go through the cold, long, dark hallway. My mom took me because I didn’t want to go alone. When I was in the bathroom, I saw the same ghost in the mirror. But then it vanished again. I ran as fast as I could to my mom in the living room. “What’s wrong?” my mom said. I told her that I saw the ghost in the bathroom. She went to go check because I really had to go. She didn’t see anything, so I went inside and my mom was standing outside the door. I washed my hands and I went to the living room. Auntie Lexy and I got popsicles for me, my mom, and her. We were scared. My Mom was on the phone. She called my Nana while we were eating popsicles. Then we found a Ouija board. We opened it. We began to play. We put our fingers on the board and the board shook. We were terrified. “What’s happening?!” Auntie Lexy asked. We screamed as we saw the ghost floating towards us. Zachie is a writer who reads above grade level.

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ICE AGE Valerie S. Back during the Ice Age, the saber-toothed tiger was scared of the mammoth because it was bigger and scarier. It was even bigger than 826LA. They met each other while hunting for the same prey, the dodo. The dodo was funnylooking and easy prey. It was also dumb and small. The Ice Age was a snowy and windy part of the world and had the most perfect blue sky. Mammoths were in almost every spot and were very calm. Vee, the saber-toothed tiger, had orange-colored fur and had teeth that were 10 inches long. Vee was also buff, short, and very cute looking. The mammoth, on the other hand, was enormous, scarylooking, and chubby. Vee caught the dodo first, but when he saw the mammoth, he got scared because it was much bigger and stronger than him. However, both were hunting for a dark pink tiny dodo. The mammoth roared Vee away. Vee ran away, and it wanted revenge. So Vee somehow magically got long hands and shaved off all of the mammoth's fur. Vee sneaked up to the mammoth while he was sleeping and tried not to wake the mammoth up. Vee was walking on his toes as quietly as possible. Vee whispered, “Phew” and he was relieved. Vee magically got hands and razors that he used to shave off the mammoth‘s fur because he was a secret wizard. The mammoth dies because of the cold weather of the Ice Age, and Vee ends up eating his enemy mammoth and his prey dodo. Vee is happy with his food and accomplishments. The meat of a mammoth and a dodo lasts him two years of life. Vee eats half of the mammoth on the spot, and he keeps the other half in the huge snow hole that he dug to hide the meat from other animals. However, Vee's life was not so great because the ghost of the mammoth haunted Vee for the rest of his life.

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The Mammoth’s ghost kept whispering in Vee's ear, “Who are you? Why did you kill me, too?” Vee replies, “I didn't kill you; you killed yourself.” After being very scared of the constant haunting from the mammoth ghost, Vee dies out of fear.

Valerie is a person. Valerie likes to draw in her house. She loves her pets a lot. She likes the color silver, and her favorite flower is lilac. Her birthday is November 19, and she likes spicy food.

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Survivor’s Edge Alexander O. My name is Alexander, and I am ten years old. One day after school, I was playing a fun, challenging game. This game was a hard one to beat. In three minutes, you have to survive one killer, and the rest are survivors. You can take off time by doing generators. The killer code can add time by killing survivors. If the killer kills all the survivors, they win, but if one or more survivors live at the end of the clock, they win. The survivor I chose was a boy. He had short brown hair, wore a shirt with his name, Larry, on it, and blue-striped pajamas. He doesn't wear shoes but has a sword and two fried chicken legs that help him in the games. When the round started, I did generators to take the time off the clock, but then I saw that almost everybody had died. Only me, as my character, and someone around the world were left. The person was at 40% health, and I was at 100%. Then I saw the timer go to 1:14, and I knew I was the last one alive. Then the killer summoned his minions. I stunned the killer, making them not able to move. I was on 20% health, there were only 4 seconds on the clock, then the timer ended, and I won. When I went to the lobby (I'm still in the game), my heart was beating, and I was exhausted. Then I saw I was the killer next, “Am I gonna get my first killer win?” I said to myself. Then the round started. I killed someone, then I used an unstable eye to see where the survivors were. Then I killed the second-to-last survivor, and so I summoned my minions so they could attack the survivor. I tried to find the survivors, then I spotted them. Then I took some of their health away, and I used entanglement to stop them. But they stunned me, I couldn't move, but I had time. Then I used my main attack slash and killed them. “I won!’ I whispered to myself. Then I had to go to sleep, so I went to sleep. I was excited but tired.

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Alexander is ten years old. He lives in California and is in fifth grade. He wants to be a YouTuber. Their favorite food is stuffed-crust pizza. His favorite colors are red and black. His favorite game is Forsaken.

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The Cursed Forrest Atticus A. Once upon an evening, Lightfoot was walking around his backyard when he found himself in a cursed forest. He wandered around for hours looking for a way out. When it struck midnight, a ghost appeared in the middle of the forest. Suddenly, fog rolled in, and the ghost floated slowly toward Lightfoot, and then it pulled out a bloody axe (the ghost is buff!). Suddenly, a clanging rang throughout the forest, and in front of Lightfoot, another figure appeared, holding a katana! Lightfoot was paralyzed in terror! The mysterious figure suddenly threw a dagger in front of Lightfoot. He picked up the dagger and charged at the ghost. Lightfoot stabbed the ghost in the gut, and the ghost flew back into the trees. The mysterious figure suddenly started muttering some unintelligible words, and magically, Lightfoot found himself transported to his own backyard. “This must have been a dream,” he said to himself. When Lightfoot went back into the house and climbed into his bed, he found a note on his bed. It said, “I hope you never go back into the forest again, but I hope to see you,” and it was signed by Alan Elizabeth!

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Atticus is 8. He is from America. He is in third grade. His birthday is Feb 3rd. When he grows up, he wants to be a robot. His favorite food is sushi. His favorite color is gold.

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The Shed of Shadows Aydren A. A man is getting ready for bed. He lives in a small house in the forest. While brushing his teeth, he hears a loud crashing sound from the shed in the backyard. He leaves his house to check it out. He creeps into the shed and sees tons of spiders and webs, but nothing inside looks wrong. He backs out of the shed, and just before he walks back into the house, a growl sounds from the forest behind the shed. Feeling brave, he takes his flashlight and goes out to see where it came from. Marching through the forest, his flashlight shines on to another shed. It was dirty, rained on, and the door was closed shut. The man was curious and looked around it, then the door of the shed swung open on its own. He peeked inside and saw a man curled up in the corner. The man thought that maybe the guy was hurt, so he went inside to check on him. As he got closer, the guy twitched. Only a foot away, the guy turned to the man and suddenly chased him out. The man ran away as fast as he could. The guy was floating behind him, swiftly following after him. The man thought as he ran, “I need to hide from this guy!” So, he quickly turned a corner and climbed up a huge tree. And after that, he stayed there till morning. And he never went into the forest again. The man stayed in the tree until the next morning. When he saw the sun come up, he climbed down the branches and crept into his house. Tired and sleepy, he went to bed. He caught up on his sleep, and after he ate pancakes. He felt really good. But at night, he went to sleep like normal and then woke up at midnight. He heard the same crashing sound like the other night. He shouted, “It’s like the night is repeating itself!”

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Aydren likes to eat pizza. Aydren wants to be an astronaut to visit Mars. He likes to play Steal a Brainrot. Aydren likes to eat pizza.

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Tuxedo Black Dhalia L. A man lives alone in a cabin in a village. He’s a shoemaker in the village, and he has friends. He likes to walk alone in the forest and sometimes goes by the lake. Sometimes he meets people from the village who are also walking at night. Normally, the forest is quiet. One night, the man saw a ghost! He couldn't believe his eyes. The ghost twisted her hair and saw him. All of a sudden, he heard creepy sounds. An owl hooted, and a bat squeaked, and its wings flapped. Suddenly, he felt scared and started to run back to the village. While he was running, he unexpectedly felt a hand touch his shoulder. He turned around and saw the ghost up close. It was a woman. Chills went down his spine, and he felt scared. The woman was as pale as white, and her eyes were glazed over. She whispered hums, but the man couldn’t make out what she was saying. The ghost was terrifying! He finally dashed away in a hurry. He ran and pushed his legs as far as he could, and it led him to the front door of his house. He reached for his knob, quickly letting himself in and swiftly turning all the locks closed after catching his breath. His dog, Leo, jumped on him and gave him several kisses. Leo is a sausage dog, he is brown and is five years old. He felt relieved, finally a break. BANG, BANG, BANG! The ghost tailed him all the way here. Leo and the man were trapped. Leo started barking at the door, and the man knew his only way of getting away from the ghost was to get Ghostbusters. They have the equipment for taking care of ghosts and locking them away. So the man picked up Leo and ran out the back door into his car while the ghost chased them. The man was fast enough to get the engine going and start driving. Giving him a head

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start on the ghost. He called the Ghostbusters to make an ambush for the ghost. They told them to pass the bridge where they were waiting to ambush the ghost. Once the man crossed the bridge with his car, they vacuumed the ghost into a capsule where it was held captive and was never to hurt anyone ever again. Dahlia is seven years old and in second grade. When older, she wishes to become a bullfighter. Her favorite food is macaroni, and she likes the color purple.

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Best Friends Elly G. One windy night, Lindy was with her friend Goti the goat. They are friends because Goti helped Lindy with potion ingredients at monster school. Lindy is a moose. She has pink ears but a scary face. Lindy the moose is a ghost. Goti is an adorable goat. She likes to wear clothes that have Hello Kitty on them. They both live in a forest. The forest is a spooky place. The clouds are dark, and there is no sun. There are spider webs on all the trees. You know there are werewolves because you hear them howling. There is a moon. A half moon. There are monsters with pointy ears behind trees. Goati lives in a floating house that has invisible stairs. Lindy lives with Goati in the same house, but in different rooms. Long ago, when Goti and Lindy were looking for toys to play with, they discovered a secret room in the basement. Lindy tried opening the door, but it wouldn’t open. Then she got an idea. She told Goti, “I think I can open it, because I can use my hairpin to unlock the door.” The door opened. They went inside. They saw a box, which said: DO NOT OPEN, but they didn’t know how to read. They then just opened it. Inside, there were small bathtubs; they had water. This water was beautiful, it had glitter, sparkly, and they decided to drink it. They suddenly felt dizzy. They began to transform, and that’s how they became a moose and a ghost. Then they turned to each other and said, “I have finally turned into my favorite animal! Now I can do whatever I want!” Then the moose said, “I can change my parents, too!” She gave the special water to her parents and they turned into moose. The family was worried that humans might

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come hunting. As the hunters were about to arrive, the moose drank the magic water again! They felt dizzy and turned invisible. They looked down at their hands but didn’t see them. It is night, and it is cold. That’s when the half moon comes out! The moonlight turns moose and Goati and their families into monsters. But because of the magic water, they don’t have to hide from the hunters. They live happily in the forest. Elly Gonzalez is six years old and her birthday is July 27th. She is from El Salvador, but she now lives in El Monte. She dreams that when she grows up, she will be an ice cream scooper. She hopes to serve so many watermelon ice cream scoops to everyone.

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THE SLEEPY GHOST KITTIES VS. THE AWAKE DOGS Amon S. The sleepy ghost king is the king of Sleepy Land. The sleepy ghost king has a lot of friends. All of the sleepy town's ghosts and civilians are friends with the king. All the ghost kitties have a pet kittie bat who loves to play at the bat park. The castle is made of stone bricks, where the king and all his kittens live. The kitties in Sleepy Land are all friends with the king, and all of the kitties have a pet sleepy bat that is also a friend. The castle is a town, and the town is a castle. “Well, I hope nothing ever happens to us. I think we will be fine," exclaims the king. So, the kitties are preparing their defenses because they do not know what is coming ahead. Meet the dogs! They are cute little dogs, but when you attack, they are mean! So don't attack. Now, the dogs are breaking down the castle with pickaxes and cannons! “I knew it!” cries the king. “Call in the soldiers!” he says. Now the kitties and the dogs are battling! What could happen next? Here was the dogs’ plan: First, they weaken the castle. Then they weaken both sides of the castle, and then attack with cannons. They manage to destroy 35% of the castle, and that is not good. After all the fighting, the sleepy ghost kitties go to scare off the awake dogs, and then go to fix up the castle with sleepy coins from the sleepy bank. They buy the bricks they need to fix up the castle and rebuild it. They go back to the way things were before the dogs attacked. The dogs never attacked again. THE END (NO QUESTIONS)

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Amon loves basketball, fruit, and cats. He is half from New York and lives in LA California. He also has 2 cats.

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The Baby Gabriel L. Adam and Emma (the parents of the baby) are walking through the forest trying to find a river to throw the baby. They throw the baby into the river and walk away. After that, they feel relieved that they threw the baby because the baby was annoying them. They make sure to put the baby in a box. Ten years later, they become curious and check on the box. When they open the lid, the baby is missing. The baby emerges from the water and haunts them. Adam hears voices in his head. Adam and Emma run away and report it to the police. The police put caution tape all over the forest to prevent people from getting inside. However, two random tourists, Liam and Mark, ignore the caution tape and go inside anyway. They don’t care about getting in trouble, and the ghost of the baby finds them. After the baby ghost finds them, it starts to chase them. The two people, as they are running away, drop their wallets. The cops, Thatcher Davis and Ruth Weaver, hear the screams of the two people. They then run inside the forest. Thatcher ends up finding their wallets (Mark's and Liam's). The cops go look for the people. They’re walking through the forest to look for the people. They smell anchovies, and they walk to the smell. One of the cops peeks behind a tree and sees two dead bodies. The police don’t know what to do. Thatcher and Ruth feel scared. The dead bodies start growing mold. Thatcher and Ruth run back to the police station for backup. They go back to the forest with 13 more people. They find the baby, but it goes invisible and goes behind a cop, and then the baby dissolves 12 cops into thin air. The cops start panicking and run away as the ghost is chasing them until he becomes invisible.

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The police stop running because a river is up ahead. The ghost catches up to them and tricks some of the cops into falling into the water. The baby goes up to the cops but slowly backs up because it is scared of the water. The cops realize the ghost is scared of water, so one of the cops grabs a bucket from a nearby boat and fills it with water. The cop splashes water on the ghost, and the ghost disappears, and the cops run out of the forest.

Gabriel wants to be a Pokémon trainer when he grows up. His favorite food is burgers. His favorite show is SpongeBob. He loves playing video games.

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The Hatchet Oliver G. Once upon a time, there were four kids: Tom, Jon, Fred, and Timmy. The four kids were on a hike when they heard a chopping close by! “What was that!” said Timmy. All of a sudden, a man wearing a racing helmet and carrying a hatchet burst out of the underground! The four kids ran as fast as their legs could carry them, trying to run far from the man. All of a sudden, Timmy was gone! One by one, they disappeared until only Tom remained. Tom looked around. There was no sign of the man. At last, Tom found a cave and stepped inside, hoping to find his friends. Tom found his friends tied up! Tom untied them, and they started to run out of the cave. But all of a sudden, the man leapt out of the shadows! Four screams echoed through the forest. The next day, a ranger found a pile of four skulls with a hatchet on top of them.

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Oliver G. is in fifth grade and is ten years old. Oliver lives in California, USA, with his sister, mom, and dad. Oliver plays basketball and tennis. Oliver enjoys reading, collecting Pokemon, playing with Legos, and boogie boarding. Some of Oliver’s favorite books are Warriors, Wings of Fire, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Dog Man, Spy School, and Keeper of the Lost Cities. Oliver also plays violin and is a student of Ocean Charter School and 826LA.

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Skinwalker Kimberly J. One day, in the middle of the night, Kimberly, Ronny, Peyton, Kennedy, and Monserrat were in the park. Kimberly and Monse were teaching the boys (Peyton and Ronny) how to play volleyball when they heard a noise. It sounded like a dog in the bushes, but they didn’t know if it was a dog because sometimes there was a skinwalker in the night. They continued to play, but then they heard a noise again. Like… bro! “Ugh, what is that NOISEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Ronny said, so annoyed at the sound. “IDK, ask Monse bro,” Kimberly said angie (meaning, angry). CRACK! “UMM GUYS, UMMM?” Kimberly said a little scared. “There is something wrong guys!” said Monse. “NAH I’d win! Ummmm never mind, AAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” Kimberly said. “OH… MY… GOD… TH––THAT’S A SKINWALKER!!!!!!!!!!” Kennedy said, so scared herself. THEY RAN FOR THEIR LIFE! They made it to Ronny’s house where they could stay for one night. The next day… “Ugh, what time is it, Ronny?” Kimberly asked. “It is 8:01 PM,” Ronny said. “Wait, wait, wait, IT’S 8:01 PM! BRO, I’M SO LATE FOR SCHOOL, I’M COOKED!” Kimberly said. “OH SHOOT, we are in big trouble now,” Ronny realized as they were late for school. Monse had some bad news, “Wait guys… Today, there

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is no school because the news said that there was a skinwalker at school during the night.” “OOOOOOH, BRO, RONNY! YOu said there was school today” Kimberly said, screaming. “But I thought there was school today, jeez,” Ronny said. Meanwhile… “Ugh, bro, I can’t do this anymore. Wait HOLD UP, wait a minute! Oh, never mind. UGHHHHH,” Peyton crashed out. “Guys, where is Peyton?” Kimberly said. “Oh, Peyton,” Ronny said. “Only Kimberly could go to Peyton’s room to tell you something. That’s what he said.” “Oh, ok then. I’ll be right back then,” Kimberly said. KNOCK. KNOCK. “Who is it?” Peyton said. “It’s me, Kimberly. Do you have something to tell me or no?” Kimberly said to Peyton. “Oh yeah, come in,” Peyton said. ‘I want to say that it’s a secret, ok?” Peyton said. “Oh yeah, what is it?” Kimberly said. “I kinda have an infection, but I don’t know what is it. Don’t tell anyone, ok?” Peyton said seriously. “Ok, I won’t,” Kimberly said. She closed the door. “Alright, I’m back,” Kimberly said. “Oh, we were listing by food ingredients to buy at the grocery store. Do you want to go with us Kimberly?” Monse asked. “Sure, but Ronny said he is not going,” Kimberly said. “Oh ok. Then it’s me and you,” Monse said. Monse and Kimberly went to the grocery store to buy food and ingredients because in the night they would be cooked because of the skinwalkers. “WE ARE HEREEEE yay! Ok, let's go in,” Monse said

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excitedly. “Monse, do we need this for ingredients?” Kimberly said pointing to some food. “Yeah but be careful when you put it in the basket,” Monse said seriously. When they were paying for the food, suddenly Kimberly saw the creature. “UMM Monse. Monse, Monse, Monse, Monse, Monse, Monse, MONSEEEEE!! It’s the SKINWALKER! UMMMMMMM, UHHHHH!” Kimberly was worried now. “UGH, calm down! There is no creature. Like, WOOOOOW sooooo scary. Like BLEH, BLEH, BLEH, BLOOOOD,” Monse started joking around like there was no scary creature in the news. “NO, ACTUALLY LOOK, NO CAPPING,” Kimberly said to Monse. “Kimberly, stop capping and yapping. THERE IS NO CREATURE!” Monse said to Kimberly. “Alright then let’s make a deal about this. If you don’t believe me then, YOU GO OUT AND FIND OUT THEN!” Kimberly said. “FINE, and I will because I… don’t… believe you!” Monse said. “Alright but I’ll win, just watch,” Kimberly said. Monse and Kimberly were leaving the grocery store so they could go home but five minutes later… “Hahahahaha,” Monse was laughing so hard. “SHUSH Monse! Hehe,” Kimberly said. CRACK… “UMM, Monse, I think I heard a noise,” Kimberly said. “Umm yeah, uh-huh,” Monse said. Then, Monse and Kimberly turned their heads around and saw the skinwalker. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

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AH,” Monse and Kimberly screamed together. They started to run! “MONSE!” Kimberly said, screaming. “WHAT?!” Monse said. “I TOLD YOU, BUT YOU NEVER BELIEVE MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE,” Kimberly said screaming too. “THIS WAY!” Monse said. “Oh no, I forgot that Keneddy is at home,” Kimberly said. Meanwhile at home… “La, la, la, la, la. Mexico, yay! Mexico! Mexico! Mexicooo!” Kennedy was singing, waiting for Monse and Kimberly. “AHHHHH!” Monse screamed as something grabbed her. “NOOO, MONSE, NOOOOO!” Kimberly said sadly. To be continued…

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Kimberly likes crocheting and drawing. She is ten years old and goes to Grandview Elementary. She has an older brother named Kevin, and he is thirty-three years old.

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Spooky’s Story Mia J. Once upon a time, there was a ghost named Spooky. Spooky was a cute, kind ghost with chubby cheeks. He was twenty years old and lived in the city in a house with no pool, but he had always wanted a pool. Spooky decided to go to a hotel for fall break because he wanted alone time from his cats, because they kept scratching him. It was a nice day for a ghost. The moon was out, and the wind was blowing. Spooky was so excited that he was dancing while driving because the new hotel pool had a treehouse in it!!!! Also, only one person was renting a room there, and it was Spooky! On the way to the hotel, he saw a zookeeper with a leg so broken that it faced backwards. Spooky had to get out of the car and help, but what he didn’t realize was that he had left his keys in the car. Dun dun dun!!! In a rush, he had to carry the man with a broken leg, and the man said, “You’re hurting me!!! You’re hurting me!!!” because Spooky was carrying him on the part that really hurt him. When Spooky got the zookeeper to the other side, Spooky said, “So long!” with a big wave of his hand, and ran back to his car, devastated that he had left his keys in the car. First, he tried to open the window, but it didn’t work. Then he tried to open the trunk, but it wouldn’t budge. Spooky was so upset that he started crying, freezing air. Then he remembered that he had his phone in his invisible pocket and that his spare key was at his sister’s house. So he called his sister, Scary. Ring! Ring! Ring! “Hello?” Scary said.

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“Oh, Scary, please help me, or else I can’t make it to the hotel,” he whimpered. “Okay. I’m on my way”, said Scary. She drove there fast in 5 minutes, jumped out of the car, and gave him the key, but Scary didn’t notice that her car was smoking. Then she smelled it and said, “Oh my god! Can I stay at the hotel with you?” “Sure,” said Spooky. They went to the new pool, had fun in the underwater treehouse, and spent the rest of the day drinking juice and sunbathing.

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Mia Jarvina is about an hour from Los Angeles. She wants to grow up to be a singer. She likes to write funny stories. Her favorite subjects are science and art. Her favorite book is Pug. Her favorite hobby is biking to the park.

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Boo’s First Dance Competition Zoe T. This is a story about a girl ghost named Boo who learned how to dance. Boo was seven years old, short, and had long, curly hair. She lived in a small house with her family, but Boo was a lonely ghost because she didn’t know how to dance, even though everyone else at her haunted school knew how to dance. Boo tried to dance every day, but she would get scared of doing new things and messing up. At home, she plopped on the couch, crying. Her couch comforted her. On the news, they were talking about a dance competition. “Breaking news! There is a dance competition next week that needs one more contestant!” Boo wanted to sign up. She was so excited that she was running and even did a little flying! But when she got to the dance studio, there was a sign that said there were no more dance practices available because the dance teachers were too busy getting ready for the show! Boo was so, so angry and stressed. She was crying and stomping on the street, and even at home. It was so hard for Boo to do stuff. She skipped chores for a bunch of days. Also, she did not eat breakfast, lunch, or dinner! Her mom gave her a big hug and said, “It’s okay. Maybe you can call your friend, Lilly, who is in the dance competition?” Boo felt a little bit better and decided to call her friend. Boo said, “Hi. I am sad because I signed up for the dance competition, but I can’t practice!” Lilly said, “Oh, why can’t you practice?” “THERE ARE NO MORE DANCE PRACTICES AVAILABLE!!!!!!!!!,” Boo shouted. “Oh, you don’t have to shout at me,” Lilly said.

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“Can you teach me pleaseeeeeee?” Boo asked. “Okay,” said Lilly. Boo went to Lilly’s house, and Lilly taught her for hours and hours. Boo had to do some moves like the Ghost Twirls, kicks, and the Running Man. Boo felt like she was going to die of sweat, and was worried she might break a bone, but she remembered she was a ghost and had no bones. Then it was time for Boo to show her friend the WHOLE dance, but she felt really, really, really, nervous because she didn’t want to mess up. Boo started to cry. Lilly said, “It is okay. I used to cry in dance class.” “You did?” Boo said slowly. “Yes! Now I get better and better. Just take a deep breath,” Lilly said. Boo took a big, deep breath and danced perfectly. “Good job,” Lilly said. “I think you are ready!” Then, it was the day of the dance competition. Boo was still a little bit nervous, but she was even more excited. The dance competition was really big; it had a huge stage and rooms where you could look at the other teams performing on the TVs. There were 30 dance teams, and Boo’s team was going to go last, so she was sad that she had to wait and do nothing for so long. Finally, after all the waiting, her team was up next. Suddenly, Boo felt even more nervous. Lilly said, “Don’t worry if you make a mistake. Just keep going!” Boo took 10,000 deep breaths. She started feeling confident and flew super fast onto the stage. She made some mistakes, but she danced well. At the end, they announced the winner, and Boo’s team won! They celebrated by eating a dark black cake, but rainbow colored on the inside with icing on it that looked

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like spiders, webs, and even Boo! Everyone became her friend, and Boo became so famous that they even made Boo Cereal! And that’s how Boo learned how to do the Ghost Boogie.

Zoe Tanap is a writer from Los Angeles, and she likes to dance and watch TV in her free time. She loves pho and ramen for dinner, and her birthday is December 12th. She is in second grade. She likes to play piano and accomplish a lot of things.

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The Loop Julio C.G.J. This story is about a ghost's day. It’s 9:11 PM in LA. The ghost’s name is Gaster. Gaster says, “I mean it’s OK but there's not that much to do. Like you can move things and that is the only thing to do. However, people cannot see us. I wish that peo––” Just then someone spots him. They try to run away but Gaster aggressively chases them and they fall. Gaster tries to possess him but he forgets that he is not a demon. He tries to hit them but forgets that he is a ghost. They become friends, the man’s name is Dash. Later that day, Gaster says that he is going to hell and for Dash not to follow him. So, the ghost goes to hell and ten seconds later Dash want to go there too. Dash goes through a portal. When he first steps in, it is like a heat wave. He is in hell for six or seven seconds. Later, Dash is shot by someone with a dart covered in sleeping gas. When he wakes up, he is in a chair tied up. He sees thousands of monsters staring at him. He is being shot by the most poisonous dart. Just then, Gaster shows up, but he isn’t there on time. Dash is eliminated! That is when his soul is turned into a ghost, then the cycle continues… Julio’s in the fourth grade. He likes to make origami and play with Beyblades.

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Villajon’s Ghost James Howard C. In the town Villajon no one had a phone, because having a phone meant something bad would happen. But before I can tell you that story I have to tell you this story… There was once a mean mail kid. He wrote emails with a “… ” at the end to appear into your face and eat you up! One way to stop the curse was to find his phone and stop the email. Once there was a girl named Sophia, she liked ghost stories. She also lived in the village of the mean mail kid, and liked to text her friends but knew she was NOT allowed. One day Sophia was walking home from school when she saw a book called Diary of An Adventure and she read it. The book had written “Eureka!” on the first page and instructions for how to get to a phone. She’d figured out how to give everyone screens in town! Sophia broke into the school and went inside an old computer. She then went to a dungeon and found a phone. It was really nice while it lasted, but all of a sudden a new game downloaded. She played the game and continued playing and got famous. One day she got a green text bubble, she was frightened. Sophia returned to the book she’d found. She turned the page left and right and the last page said, “Yeah right! You are silly for thinking it could last… ” Sophia was scared and shocked but she knew what to do. She went to the school’s old computer and she found the dungeon. She found the phone and did not play with it. She stopped the text. The mean mail kid tried to send mean mail but he couldn't… he had gotten zapped! Sophia saved the village from the dark age and now everyone could have a screen!

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James Howard C. likes to play video games and watch videos. He play lots of stuff like Spider-Man, SpongeBob, and Sonic. He also likes quesadillas, chicken nuggets, and also loves to eat Papa John's pizza. He loves his family and likes to play Monopoly. He has ADHD and lots of other stuff, and most of all he likes to use his imagination. This story is inspired by screens and it shows his imagination is ginormous.

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The Mask Ethan Everton A. BOOM! The Mask opens the door. He finds two guys and makes them disappear rolling down a hill to a river where two police chiefs see the bodies and grab them. Jax turns on the TV and sees on the news that two guys have passed away. The next few reporters say more and more people have passed away. People have been found at night. BOOM! The Mask comes in. He grabs a blender and puts it in the hands of Jax’s mom. His dad passes away then she runs out the back door. As the kids run, one of them falls. The Mask takes the girl. Jax and his friends are planning on how to defeat The Mask. They are planning on how to find a way to get the girl back. They finally make a plan for one of them to distract The Mask so one of them can go save the girl and escape. As they are going to search and prepare, they see the girl’s siblings and they help them with the plan. They shop for a wand. As they are running out the store, they need to find where The Mask lives. They ask the siblings where The Mask last went. They find where The Mask lives, and do the plan. They knock on the door. When they knock on the door, The Mask sees him. One of the friends grabs his wand and they go out to the street. The other saves the girl. Jax is going to pass away, but the friend is a hero and uses the wand to defeat The Mask. The Mask passes away. After this happens, the siblings reunite with their little sister. Jax is sad that his friend is gone, but he knows that he was a hero.

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Ethan Everton A. is an eleven-year-old sixth grader from Los Angeles, California. He is a gamer and in a pro-gamer team. His favorite games are Cuphead, Marvel Rivals, and Roblox. He has won a lot of pro tournaments, winning eleven pro games in one year.

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I Am Afraid of the Ghost Kennedy C.R. I was five or six years old. “I am scared,” I said. I was at my house in my room watching a scary movie with the lights off. Suddenly, I saw a ghost in the dark. I was really scared and ran to my brother’s room for help. My brother was laughing at me. I was mad and went back to my room. At 1:00 AM I woke up and saw the ghost again. I ran to my parents room but fell and hurt my knee. I told my parents but they didn't believe me. I was really sad. My brother laughed again. I never saw it again but I knew it was somewhere. One day something was there… “AAAAAAH,” I saw the ghost again. I was super scared. Finally my parents believed me. After, they saw it walking down the hallway. So my family and I prayed for the ghost so he could rest peacefully and we never saw him again. Kennedy is from Morelos, Mexico. Kennedy likes math. Kennedy likes to walk with her friends. Kennedy likes to play soccer.

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The Haunted Ghost Elijah W. I was just a baby and my family was passing me around. I did not like this because I was getting dizzy. However, they kept passing me around. When I got to my sister, Nyla, we heard the plates fall. My mom and my dad ran into the kitchen to see what happened. They were panicking because they thought the plates were really valuable. But when my family looked, nothing was broken. It was so scary that my heart almost popped out… it was the ghost! There was a ghost in my house and it had tried to take me out of my bed! To be continued… The author’s name is Elijah. Elijah is in the second grade. Elijah likes to sleep. Elijah likes Wreck-it-Ralph: Brakes the Internet.

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Alien War Diego N. It was a day that was 20° Fahrenheit and I went to a boat. I was with Aron, and he and I were minding our business when a tsunami came. I left the deck and went to the storage room and he went to the dining room. Then, Aron screamed which broke my eardrums from his volume. There was a ghost! It had black eyes with black tears that could stare at your soul and was four feet tall. It chased us into the dining room. Then, a kid appeared and screamed 10 times stronger than a thunderclap. We saw the kid and stopped dead in our tracks, but I think the ghost was more concentrated on destroying us than making a new friend. So, it chased us out of the ship and sent us flying. We would have been cooked if it was not for a metal bar that stopped us. Then, an alien chased the ghost into a subway. Then, a robot called Crabo Jaw 4000 chased them both and I took out three ray guns for Aron and I to destroy them. ZAPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!! And we saved the world… Diego is from the U.S./Mexico and plays soccer, basketball, and likes video games. He is a nineyear-old who goes to this school called La Ballona Elementary where the food sucks.

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Ghost Story Robert S. In the night when I was walking, I spotted La Llorona in the lake. I was at the lake at 9:00 PM with my family. La Llorona saw that there was a young, brave, curious, big boy passing by the lake. The boy was me. Then, we saw her. She was coming to get me. She was walking slowly. I wasn’t scared because she wasn’t scary. She looked weird with big long hair and a dirty white dress. She was coming too slow and she was going the wrong direction. When she left then I was safe. Robert is a second grader, a big brother, and a Roblox player. Robert goes to Grand View Elementary School.

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The Time I Saw A Ghost! Nyla W. I am home on a Friday night. Spookily silent, and foggy. My mom is cooking dinner. My dad is washing dishes. My dog starts barking at something, but nothing is there. I got scared, but I did not think too much about it. But then she started barking like something or someone was standing there. Everything went silent. All I could hear was my voice and my dog’s. It was crazy, but then I saw that she was barking at me!!! “Who’s the dog barking at?” I asked. My mom said, “She was barking at you!!” It was a scary but the most fun mystery ever and best Friday.

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The Chase Between Me and Boney Old Bob Penelope G. One rainy night, as I slept, I drifted off into a nightmare. As soon as I knew it, I was on a hill, and behind me was a giant skeleton!!! I ran down to a random parking lot. I hopped in a car and hid in there for a long time. Then, I heard footsteps. They were loud. STOMP, STOMP, STOMP. The skeleton was getting closer to the car. I peaked out the window and saw something horrible: the skeleton was turning people into skeletons!!! Then POOF and the skeleton was no longer there, just a man. He looked at me with the scariest face I’ve ever seen! He had red eyes and no eye lids. From what I remember, he had a creepy smile and creepy teeth. He had long and skinny fingers. He saw me and ran to me. I was scared so I was going to run but then I saw the man wasn’t running to me, he was running to a skeleton. He told him to find a human. It was so obvious it was me. I was the only human left in the area. I ran until I could not run anymore. Then, I woke up, and it was time for school. At school I saw a man just like the one in my nightmare so I ran hoping it wasn’t him.

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Penelope is eight years old. She is in second grade. Penelope is from Canada. She likes to play volleyball and basketball. She likes sushi and dumplings!

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Ghost Story Melanie S. Lydia and Melanie were siblings. They were sometimes mean and nice. Lydia had long blonde hair. Melanie had brown hair. Lydia had a white shirt. Melanie had a black shirt. Both Melanie and Lydia were wearing jeans. Lydia and Melanie were driving at night, and they stopped at the restroom. They saw Jeepers Creepers dragging dead bodies. Melanie and Lydia drove to the police station quickly. While Lydia and Melanie were at the police station, Jeepers Creepers smashed the window. Melanie grabbed Jeepers Creepers and his brain stopped working. He was confused, and he thought he was at his grandma’s house. When Jeepers Creepers was little, his grandma would jump scare him. Then, Melanie jumped scared him, and he screamed. He walked backwards and tripped on a tiny little chair. He was so scared that he flew away. After Jeepers Creepers flew away, Melanie and Lydia returned home. They were relieved because the monster was gone. Melanie is a girl who likes spooky stories. She is eight years old. Melanie’s school is Grandview Elementary School. She is in third grade. She has four siblings. Melanie likes cats and dogs.

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The Haunted House Lydia C. Once, Lydia, Melanie, Sarena, and Samantha went into a haunted house. It was gray, old, broken, and there were spiders as big as ten cheesecakes. When Sarena went on the steps, they broke! “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Sarena called. It turned dark fast, and ghosts appeared. They ran in the house. They were scared. “I’m kinda scared,” Samantha and Lydia said. Then something grabbed Sarena by the ankle. “HELP HELP HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!” Sarena called. One by one, they were taken by the monster until only Lydia was left. “Lydia, Sarena, Samantha?” said Melanie. They said each other's names. Lydia yelled, “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH.” The monster came. The monster grabbed a knife. It was about to hurt Lydia until Lydia’s friends came back. After a bunch of battling, They thought Lydia was dead. “NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOOOOOO,” everyone cried. Then, Lyeida woke up. Her arm was off. They grabbed Lydia and put her in the wheelbarrow they found. They went out of the house. They lived happily and sadly ever after… and bloody ever after! Lydia is eight and a half years old, and she is in third grade. She is from LA, Ivy + Bean. She loves people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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The Invisible House Emily G. On October 31, a girl named Dolly was 6 and was trickor-treating with her friends. She was excited to go to each house with her friends. “The night was young, and there were so many houses yet to visit”, I said to myself. I was in search of my favorite candy, Skittles. I was even more desperate to find some because all of my friends had found some for themselves. I had been searching for so long that I had even seen someone with the same costume as mine and siblings who were matching as Mario characters, like Mario, Luigi, and even Yoshi. I had caught sight of a scary, ugly, and horrid house. I felt nervous looking at the house, but this might be my only chance to get Skittles. I was in my pink princess dress with blond hair and my blue contacts. As I got closer to the house, it looked as if the house was fading away. It had webs and spiders on its side, and it gave me the chills. As I crept up the steps of the house, it felt as if the stairs had no end. This only raised the anticipation I got when I finally reached the door. As I went to knock on the door, I noticed the door was slightly open. As I thought to myself, maybe if I went inside, I could ask for Skittles. I crept the door open and heard the door creak and squeak as it slowly opened. I had decided to let myself in. I went to check the stairs, then I began to hear noises coming from the kitchen, and I thought to myself, “What could that be?” As I began my advance to the kitchen, I saw a shadow of something moving. I decided to go check it out. To my surprise, I saw a ghost that looked like a lady. She had brown hair and was tall with cuts throughout her body. The lady turned around and jumped at me, but I got scared and ran. I heard her screams coming from behind

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me as I ran out the door and down the steps, but once I reached the bottom, the screaming ceased. I turned around to check if I had made distance between me and the ghost, but when I turned around, there was a hole in the ground where the house was. I asked one of the neighbors of the house what had happened to the house, and he told me that the house hadn't been there for the last 100 years. Emily is nine years old and is from Guatemala. Emily is in fourth grade, and her birthday is March 28. When Emily grows up, she wants to become a fashion designer. Emily's favorite food is miso soup, dumplings, and chicken alfredo. Emily's favorite color is baby pink.

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The Night in the Forest Jordan J. Once upon a time, 300 years ago, in a dark, gloomy city called DirpTown, there was a happy man named Bobbert III. He was around twenty years old, he wore a black hoodie and old, smelly shoes. As Bobbert was walking calmly to the pathway to his green, rugged house near the forest, Bobbert started to hear weird sounds. Bobbert heard sounds like “Ooooooooooooooooooooo!!” He began to run away from the noises. But as Bobbert was running away from the noises, he saw a spooky, terrifying, and scary ghost. The ghost also had red bloody tears coming down. You could also smell his smelly, yellow, dirty teeth from a mile away. As Bobbert continued to walk away, pretty confused by what he just witnessed, he started to shout, “Go away, creepy ghost." As Bobbert kept shouting for the ghost to go away. Without looking, Bobbert fell into a big, dark, scary hole. He was terrified. He screamed, “Ahhhhhhhh!” He suddenly saw a white figure. It looked similar to the red-eyed ghost. Terrified, scanning everything around him, he screamed, “Yes, finally!” There was a stretchy, rusty rope right next to him. He used the rope to climb to the top of the hole. Soon after one difficult hour, Bobbert finally got up from the hole and went home running as fast as he could. But when he fell asleep, Bobbert had a mysterious, terrifying dream. Bobbert dreamt of the red-eyed, horrifying ghost. It took place in the forest, and in the dream, he died!!!! Then, he woke up with a heart attack because of the dream he had just had.

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He felt like he couldn't breathe, screaming, “Make it stop, please.” He was so terrified of the dream that he thought he had died in real life. After all this happened, he decided to take himself to the city to get breakfast to distract himself from all that had just happened. When he finished his breakfast, he was still terrified and didn’t want to go outside, thinking the ghost was going to pop out and attack him. He decided to go visit the graveyard, because he wanted to visit his great-grandfather. He was walking to his greatgrandfather's grave, but he saw the scary ghost again. Bobbert ran very frantically, because he didn’t know the scary ghost was real. He was shocked. He found an escape hatch underneath him. When he tried to climb down the hatch, he got stuck in bird boogers. Bobbert decided to go back up to the surface, full of the bird's boogers. There, he saw nothing, not even a single sight of the ghost. So he proceeded to walk back to his house and shower all the boogers away. The next morning, he finally decided to place traps around his house. Twenty hours passed, and Bobbert woke up as he was walking to his kitchen. He finally decided to activate all of the traps. He waited patiently until the ghost popped up, but when he did, Bobbert remembered he was a ghost, and he was already dead.

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Jordan was born and raised in Los Angeles. His favorite food in the world is cheeseburgers. He would like to be a guitar-playing musician someday. His favorite colors are red and blue.

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Getting Rid of Louie Sebastian H. Not long ago, in my house, there was a scary ghost in my bedroom. His name was Louie. Louie made me feel sad. He made me feel sad because he was mean. He liked to break all of my stuff in my room and keep breaking everything in my house. He was very scary, and I was very tired of it. So, I told him, “Hey, back off!” or “I will fight you.” I finally decided to fight Louie. I would fight him with a magic sword. A real sword that I bought from Target. Louie was now the one who was scared. So, Louie ran and hid. My cousins Adrian and Ari decided to come and help me with the ghost. Ari, Adrian, and I went against Louie with our swords and shields. They tried to chase Louie, but he was too fast and strong. We all felt confused. Adrian shouted, “What can we do? He is getting away!” I thought about it really hard. Ding! I came up with a plan. We needed to prank him. I knew that Louie loved cars, so I waved one up in the air. “Hey, over here!” I have a red Ferrari here just for you, Louie!” Louie ran after me excitedly, and I kept going. Ari and Adrian went along with the prank and got ready to pour paint all over Louie. That would do the trick, and it did! Louie ran after me so fast, he missed the trap and triggered the line. Then, Ari and Adrian spilled the paint all over Louie. He was so upset that he ran far away.

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Sebastian Hernandez is seven years old and is in Kindergarten. He is from Los Angeles. One day, when he grows up, he wants to drive fast cars and be a mechanic. For now, he likes to play tag and play with his toys. He enjoys eating pizza and pasta. Blue is his favorite color. His favorite animal is an elephant. He dreams of driving a red Lamborghini in the desert.

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Best Friends Forever Meyling C. Once upon a time, there was a ghost named Azaya. One day, Azaya came to my room and started talking to me. She said, “Hiiiiii.” I thought it was my sister, and I answered back. But I realized that there was no one in the room except me. My sister came to my room and said, “Who are you talking to?” I said, “I am talking to you,” but she said she was not talking to me. I felt like there was someone in the room, but I did not see anyone. My sister said, “Maybe it is mom or dad who is talking.” I asked my Mom, “Are you talking to me?” She said, “Nope, what are you talking about?” I thought that was weird. I approached my dad and asked, “Are you talking to me?” He said, “Maybe that is your sister or your mom.” I said, “That's weird. How can someone invisible talk?” I did a lie detector test on my mom to find out whether she was lying. She was telling the truth, and I also did it to my dad; he was also telling the truth. My sister said, “Do you think I am lying? Let me try and prove it to you”. She was not lying. Then I finally realized that it was a ghost. Just when I believed that it was a ghost, I started to see that ghost. I thought that was my friend Kaywa, but it was Kaywa in a ghost costume. Kaywa forgot about me, or she was acting like we were

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never best friends, and now she has a new best friend. My sister also saw Kaywa and laughed at me, “You do not have a best friend now, hahaha.” I grabbed a broom and brushed her away from my room, and I said, “I do not wanna see you again.” Then the next day, when I was at Sacred Heart Elementary school, I got a new friend, and her name was Aigena. She is a girl and my best friend now. Even though I have a new best friend now, I was still feeling sad. I was kinda missing Kaywa. One day, I went to a park, and I saw Kaywa. I said, “Kaywa, is that you?” She said, “Yeah, it's me. How have you been?” I said, “Of course, good, but I missed you so much.” Kaywa said, “I missed you, too.” We decided to play four squares. Kaywa did not know how to play the game. So I taught her how to play it. After having so much fun, we bewcame good friends again. I asked her, “Why did you sneak into my room the other day?” he said, “I wanted to see you and surprise you, that's S why I sneaked into your room.” I said, “I will forgive you, and let's be best friends forever again.” e became best friends again and never misunderstood W each other again. Meyling Chea is seven years old. She is from California and in Second grade. Her birthday is February 13. When she grows up, she wants to be a teacher. Her favorite food is spicy soup and noodles. Her favorite colors are blue and light blue.

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Acknowledgments: A huge, heartfelt thank you to our volunteers, including our incredible College Corps partners at UCLA and CSULA (acknowledged in bold). Our volunteers and fellows bring patience, creativity, and just the right amount of magic to every writing session. Thanks for sitting with our students, listening to their stories, and helping them find their own voices on these pages—we couldn’t do it without you. Abigail Bullock

Heather Prelle

Abisola (Bisola) Afun

Hayden Cutler

Adonis Gomez

Izrael Zea

Alexander Reisfield

Jack Gilbert

Alexandra August

Jadyn Sutton

Alexandra Libro

Janis Cohen-Milch

Alice Fuentes

Jasiris Rodriguez Mairena

Alisse Xu

Jasmine Madrigal

Amee Quintanillaemily

Jelani Enoch

Angela Alvarez

Jiselle Maglinti

Anna Harris

Jocelyn Flores

Annette Gomez

Juan Romero

Ashley Garcia-Berriere

Julia Pelayo

Ashley Mateo

Kayla Johnson

Asia Coleman

Kimberly Cuevas

Brandon Pham

Kimberly Barientos

Bryan Valiente

Leydi Hernandez

Chandy Chinbaatar

Maida Nurlankyzy

Christi Carras

Olivia Cox

Collin Chang

Omar Andrade

David Bernardi

Ruby Valera

David Puretz

Sarena Elalam

Douglas Wood

Shan Kelle Villanueva

Elijah Becerra

Shinok Lee

Elizabeth Hood

Thu Rein Phyo

Emily Cameron

Trevor Worthy

Elvis Vega

Valeria Martin

Frederick “DJ” Prelle

Wave Segal

Gabriela Lopez Galvez

Yasmin Kim

Hannah Sumner

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About 826LA Vision: 826LA envisions a Los Angeles where every child has access to quality writing education and is empowered to express themselves creatively through writing. We envision a Los Angeles where every teacher is supported in their writing-based educational objectives. Mission: 826LA is dedicated to unlocking and cultivating the creative power of writing for students ages 6 to 18, and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. How we advance our mission: A nonprofit organization, our services are structured around our understanding that great leaps in learning can happen with one-on-one attention, and that strong writing skills are fundamental to future success. With this in mind, we provide after-school tutoring in all subjects, evening and weekend workshops, in-school programs, field trips, college access, help for English language learners, and assistance with student publications. All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s ability to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in their own voice. Core Values: 826LA values joy in the service of achieving educational goals. Our community norms value diversity, equity, inclusion, and access. We therefore prioritize partnerships with Title 1 Schools, engagement with historically marginalized populations, and training and deploying community-based volunteers in support of our mission. As a teaching approach, we value creativity, authenticity, empathy, and lively, rigorous, and student-centered writing education. As an educational enrichment organization, we value supporting teachers, principals, and other school staff in the pursuit of excellence.

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Programs After-School Writing Programs Mondays through Thursdays, students attend 826LA for after-school writing programs. Students participate in community-building activities, work on homework or reading with trained tutors, and of course, write! Students submit their writing for inclusion in chapbooks, which 826LA publishes twice a year. To celebrate students’ hard work, 826LA unveils these chapbooks at book release parties, where students read their work to thunderous applause from their volunteers, families, and peers. Field Trips During the week, 826LA invites teachers and their students to our writing labs to participate in a morning of collaboration, creativity, and writing. Whether Storytelling & Bookmaking, Well-Wishing & Poetry, Choose Your Own Adventure, or Memoir, field trips at 826LA support teacher curriculum and student learning by offering a safe space for students to be their most imaginative and to work on their writing skills. In a few short hours, students brainstorm, write, edit their work, and leave with something tangible—a bound book—as well as a renewed confidence in their ability to tell their stories. In-Schools Programs & Writers’ Rooms Because not all students can come to us, 826LA brings specially trained volunteer tutors into classrooms throughout Los Angeles. There, volunteers provide one-on-one or small group assistance with writing projects. 826LA works with teachers to craft all projects, which are designed to engage students while targeting curricular needs. In addition to visiting twenty schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District each year, 826LA has additional sites within Manual Arts High School, Roosevelt High School, and Venice High School called The 826LA Writers’ Rooms. Workshops 826LA’s workshops bring students together with artists, writers, and professionals for creative collaboration. Whether the subject is journalism or preparing for the zombie apocalypse, our workshops foster student creativity while strengthening writing skills. This program includes two long-running partnerships with Paramount Pictures and the Hammer Museum.

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Join the

Sign up to make a monthly donation to 826LA, and you’ll join our Future Bestsellers Club. For as little as ten dollars each month, we’ll deliver writing from our brilliant, emerging authors right to you! Go to 826LA.org/donate and click on Future Bestsellers Club to join.

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Staff Jaime Balboa Executive Director

Diego Quevedo Chief of Staff

Shani Foster

Director of Education

Christie Thomas

Director of Development

Pedro Estrada

Programs & Operations Manager, Echo Park

Mike Dunbar

Programs & Operations Manager, Mar Vista

Mateo Acosta

Associate Director of Community Engagement

Carinne Kemp

Store and General Operations Manager Time Travel Marts in Echo Park & Mar Vista

Alma Carrillo

Senior Manager of Strategic Partnerships and Communications

Trevor Crown

Senior Manager of Volunteer Innovation and Assessment

Ariadne Makridakis Arroyo

Katie Feige

Institutional Giving Manager

Arisdeysi Cruz Tutoring Program Coordinator

Marco Beltran

Writers’ Room Program Coordinator Manual Arts High School

Wendy Beltran

Senior Writers’ Room Program Coordinator Roosevelt High School

Cole Montgomery Senior Development Coordinator

Ariana Ponce Olivares

Senior Civic Engagement Coordinator

Wilson Swain

Creative Engagement Specialist

Julia Malinow

In-Schools and Tutoring Program Coordinator

Caz Shen

Store Associate

Gabriela Romero

Field Trips and Operations Coordinator

Senior Community Relations Coordinator

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Board of Directors

Karen Van Kirk

Board President Customer Experience & Operations

Sarah Rosenwald Varet

Board Vice President Governance Committee Chair Attorney

David Ullendorff

Board Treasurer Finance Committee Chair Co-Founder, Mathnasium

Joe Ferencz

CEO/Founder, GameFam

Scott A. Ginsburg

Real Estate, Boulevard Partners

Jaya Hathaway Recruiter, CPI

Susan Ko

Clinical Psychology & Executive Leadership

Stacey Han Williams

Ben Au

Senior Product Marketing Manager, Google

Scott Boxenbaum

Emeritus and 826 Founder

Litigation Partner, Orrick Comedian & Real Estate

Cisca Brouwer

Development Committee Chair Attorney/Writer

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Dave Eggers

Holly Thomas

Emeritus Circuit Judge, United States Court of Appeals Ninth Circuit

Advisory Board J.J. Abrams

Catherine Keener

Judd Apatow

Keith Knight

Miguel Arteta

Al Madrigal

Mac Barnett

R. Scott Mitchell

Steve Barr

Lani Monos

Joshuah Bearman

B.J. Novak

Father Gregory Boyle,

Miwa Okumura

S.J.

Amber Paasch

Amy Brooks

Jane Patterson

Stefan Bucher

Keri Putnam

Kathleen Caliento

Sylvie Rabineau

Monique Demery

Sonja Rasula

Mark Flanagan

Will Reiser

Ben Goldhirsh

Luis Rodriguez

Rebecca Goldman

Tara Roth

Ellen Goldsmith-Vein

Brad Simpson

DeAnna Gravillis

J. Ryan Stradal

Terri Hernandez Rosales

Natalie Tran

Christine Jaroush

Sarah Vowell

Spike Jonze

Sally Willcox

Miranda July

Julie Wiskirchen

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Shop the Time Travel Mart! Visit our Time Travel Mart storefronts in Echo Park and Mar Vista, where you can shop for all your time-traveling gear and gadgets. From Mammoth Chunks to Robot Milk to original student-authored books, we pride ourselves on being the only Los Angeles purveyor of quality goods from the past, present, and future. The proceeds from the store help to keep all programs free for our students. You can also visit the stores online at timetravelmart.com. 1714 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026 12515 Venice Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066

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