You Could Do Magical Things—Stories from the Summer 2021 Writers Clubs

You Could Do Magical Things Stories from the 826michigan WRITING A NEW WORLD Writers Clubs | Summer 2021

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You Could Do Magical Things Stories from the 826michigan WRITING A NEW WORLD Writers Clubs Summer 2021

826michigan Staff Dr. Naimah Wade, Executive Director Judy Tipton, Development Director Catherine Calabro Calvin, Education Director Frances Martin, Operations Director Megan Gilson, Program Manager Michael Spaeth, Development & Communications Coordinator Caitlin Koska, Volunteer & Program Coordinator

Copyright © 2021 by 826michigan and Blotch Books.

All rights reserved by 826michigan, the many whims of Drs. T & G Blotch, the illustrators, and the authors.

The views expressed in this book are the authors’ and do not necessarily reflect those of 826michigan. We believe in the power of youth voice and are thrilled that you picked up this book. No part of this book may be reproduced without express written permission from the publisher, except for small excerpts for the purposes of review or scholarly study.

Designed by: Amelia Rista Printed at 826michigan By purchasing this book, you are helping 826michigan continue to offer free student programs. For more information, please visit: 826michigan.org

Also Published by 826michigan Young Authors Book Project: The Book of Many Wisdoms Because No One Else Could Do It In Our Defense In the Clouds Over Ypsilanti A Moment to Remember Rare Air / Aire raro A Lantern of Fireflies Tell Me How It Was Where Is It Coming From?

Enjoy! Recipes for Building Community All I Could Do Was Look Up: Anatomy of a Middle School What to Call the Place I Call Home: Voices of 26 Ypsilanti Middle School Students The Moons Were Jealous 2020: Visions of the [Near] Future Don’t Stay Up So Late How to Rise Or, I Put My Heart into the Close Tall Tales & True Stories Suddenly My Heart Stopped for Just a Small Portion of Time: Defining Moments OMNIBUS: 826michigan OMNIBUS I 826michigan OMNIBUS II 826michigan OMNIBUS III 826michigan OMNIBUS IV 826michigan OMNIBUS V 826michigan OMNIBUS VI 826michigan OMNIBUS VII 826michigan OMNIBUS VIII 826michigan OMNIBUS IX 826michigan OMNIBUS X 826michigan OMNIBUS XI

Table of Contents The Great Story of How a Bat Made the Noble Animal Prize Ai Hiraga

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The Beach Birthday Party Ariana Staley

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Lots of Green Elona Ziegler

3

Escape from the “No Realm” Gabriel Etheridge

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The Missing Teacher and the Would You Rather Kids Heaven Melnykowycz How to Catch a Red Dragon Hillary Hiraga The Story of William the Abnormal Cat Ian Robinson The Shy One Keyaira Johnson

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12 13

The Midnight Wonders of The Midnight Bite Manoj Lokam

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The Bugging Computer and Trolling Trolls Manoj Lokam

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The 12 Floors of Kindness Nia Hatter

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Hello, Boss Omniah Alakwaa

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Bedridden 22 Sienna McClain Playing with My Brother Sienna McClain Annabeth and Reyna’s Journey to the Bluestone Tanushaka Ramani

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Wolves and Hunters Cameron Green-Price

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Behind the Glass Cameron, Manoj, Heaven, Nia, & Ian

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Andrick and the Magic War Elona, Tanushaka, Gabriel, Leah, Ariana, & Laila D.

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The Japanese Toad Sienna, Laila M., Keyaira, Hillary, & Rihito

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The Never-ending Dream Omniah, Noah, Ai, & Lanaejah

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Acknowledgements Tremendous thanks to the incredible volunteers who collaborated with us as part of our Writers Club: Writing a New World community this spring and summer: Elyse Buffenbarger Maddie Agne Maggie Crunk Michelle Ascrizzi Mackenzie Simon Caroline Fairey Sejjad Alkhalby Em Liker Sarah Bigelow Amanda Ruud Allie Beach Ray Ugaz-Carhuavilca Lily Grantham Amelia Popowics Charlotte Moore

YOU COULD DO MAGICAL THINGS

Introduction In many ways, reading and writing stories grants you magical powers. Through a book’s pages, you can teleport to faraway and fantastical places without leaving your living room couch. You become a mind reader, able to see the world through someone else’s eyes. And miraculously, you transform the squiggles on the page into a glorious movie in your head.

Students honed these powers as they imagined brand new worlds and characters for their own original stories in Writers Club: Writing a New World. Over the course of eight weeks, students brought their unfamiliar worlds to life with thoughtful planning and rich descriptions.

Their stories introduce us to elves and demigods, take us to dreamscapes full of monsters and buildings full of kindness, and give us a glimpse into the minds of animals and gingerbread men.

You Could Do Magical Things is an ode to collaboration, creativity, and the courage it takes to share your ideas with the world. Settle in and prepare for a long journey ahead! These stories will take you far from home. As you explore the students’ universes, consider what powers of your own you’re using. We hope you’ll return from your travels with this in mind: we are all capable of magical things.

Amelia Popowics Summer Intern

WRITING A NEW WORLD | SUMMER 2021

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Ai Hiraga, Age 9 Ai, age 9, lives on Miller Avenue. She likes to write because it’s better than being bored. In addition to writing, she enjoys reading and watching her sister play chess. Nothing inspires Ai’s writing. She would like to live in a world where everything is fun.

The Great Story of How a Bat Made the Noble Animal Prize Hi, I am a monster. At least everyone that passes by says so. I have claws, wings as dark as night, I hang upside down, and I live in a tree. The tree was the only place I could find for shelter.

One morning, I saw a note on my bed. The note said, “I have a better place for you. A place that will be more comfortable for you.” So I slowly climbed out of the tree, spread my wings, and fell onto a pile of leaves.

A minute later, a woman appeared. I thought she was going to save me, but like all other people, she screamed, “Monster!”

“What is it?” asked another voice.

A man appeared into view. “A bat!” the man said.

“A bat?” I thought. “What is a bat?”

The man reached toward me and tried to take me.

I stood frozen and watched as he picked me up.

“You’re really going to keep that thing, Victor?” the woman screeched.

“What?” Victor said, “I want to keep it as a pet!” He started walking again. “Come on, Emma!” he called as he walked away holding me in his arms. I silently watched as my home disappeared from view.

Somehow, I didn’t feel sad. A little part of me actually felt a little bit happy. I didn’t know when, but I soon fell asleep. I woke up in a strange room. I was put on a bouncy block, which they called a couch. I was sitting in there when Victor came by with another man.

“Hey, I brought a scientist to see what type of bat you are,” he said to me.

The scientist picked me up and did a few tests on me. I waited and soon it was time to leave.

The scientist and Victor talked quietly and finally, they shook hands, and the scientist left. Victor walked away and came back with a very strange cut-up, pink-ish object. “The scientist said you were a fruit bat! So I gave you some peaches!” Victor said.

He handed me the strange stuff. I’m really supposed to eat that? I thought. But soon after, I got so hungry that I picked up some of the stuff with my tiny claws and took a nibble. Immediately, a burst of flavor filled my mouth up. So good! It was all I could think of. I gulped as much down as possible. I soon was full.

I flew around the house and explored the house. I noticed that Emma was trying to avoid me as much as possible, but I didn’t care. I was completely happy. I soon was getting tired and landed on the couch, and slept on one of the pillows. I lived in the house and did everything I could. But the bigger I grew, the harder I was to care for.

One day, I heard Emma say to Victor, “It’s too hard to care for! We’re going to have to sell it.”

My heart dropped. No! I didn’t want to leave! I expected Victor to argue, but he answered, “Fine, if you say so.”

I was so sad, I could barely listen anymore. I quietly slipped away and went to bed.

The next day, I almost forgot what happened. When Emma and Victor came and picked me up, I remembered what happened last night and immediately tried to escape from their grasp, but they were too strong. I struggled and watched as another group of people got me, and took me to their place, which they called a zoo. I was stuck!

Noooooo!

I cried every day. The keeper would give me food daily, and leave immediately. One strange day, a thought occurred to me: I hated it here, so why did I stay? So, right when the keeper opened the door, I rushed out, as fast as I could, and traveled back home. I flew for days and days without food.

When I noticed Victor’s house ahead, I was so happy that I forgot how weak and hungry I was. I flew straight into the doorbell. Ding-dong! It went as I fell. “Who’s there?” said Victor. He looked around until he spotted me.

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“Look who’s here!” Victor laughed. “Well, looks like you’re here to stay!” When he finally stopped, he picked me up, and took me inside. We entered the familiar room.

But then, Emma entered the room. “What are you doing with that bat!”

“Emma, if you hate that bat, you can leave,” Victor said. Emma fumed and stormed out the door. I didn’t care any less. Victor smiled and took me away.

Every day after that, Victor would take me on a walk. One day, we passed a newspaper writer. When he saw me, he immediately ran to Victor. “I’ve been running out of stories in my newspaper! Please tell me how you got this bat!” So Victor told him, and we left.

The next day, we got a letter from the president. It said he got an idea to make a Noble Animal Prize! For all animals who have done many great things of loyalty to their owner. It would never have been invented if it hadn’t been for me!

I was really proud of what I did, and so was Victor. So that day, we both celebrated. (And I got extra peaches, just so you know.)

Ariana Staley, Age 10 The Beach Birthday Party Gabby was at her birthday party. It was placed at the beach. It was very gloomy outside and humid. It was very gentle and windy.

There was food outside like pizza, sandwiches, and chicken. So, it smelled really good outside. The flowers were by the water, so it made the water smell good. Also the water looked like a light blue ocean color.

It started raining at the beach birthday party. Gabby went to get umbrellas, then tried to move the party inside.

Eventually, they built a huge sand castle for the party.

Elona Ziegler, Age 11 Elona, age 11, lives in Ann Arbor. She likes to write because it gives her something to do and allows her to tell a story.

In addition to writing, she enjoys sleeping. Books inspire Elona’s writing. She would like to live in a world where everything is different.

Lots of Green November 14, 2022 “What—” I said. But was interrupted by a loud, familiar breeze. “Hello!” I yelled.

“Hello! Hello! Hello!” it echoed back. When I opened my eyes, I was caught off guard. I thought it was just a dream. When I opened my eyes, it was like I was in a bubble. A large green bubble. Not a small bubble, but like I was in a small planet. But everything was green, light green, and pastel green. Lots of green! I stood up and walked over to a house. It was a small wooden structure—but not any wood, green wood!

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But before we go any farther, hi! My name is Aimee Alair Wilson. I was born on March 6, 2010 in Canada! My mom, May Lo Kay Wilson, and my dad, Don Tay Morris, were the best! That was ‘til I ended up in a place that we call Faraway! And yes I did say we! You would have to hear the story.

So, here we go again!

I walked into the structure. The inside was very plain. It was dim and dusty. There was not much really in there. I walked into the living room where there was a sofa, a rug, a painting, two sitting chairs, and an almost empty bookshelf.

On the book shelf was a red book, with nothing in it. So, I decided to start writing about my adventures. I will go on! There was so much to explore about this new world I was in. So, I sat down on the dusty sofa and started to write the beginning to my adventures.

After some time passed I got up and made my way to the kitchen. The kitchen had green and black tiles on the floor, and the walls were just a dark green. There were green cabinets with useful normal kitchen things. There was a stove with a tea kettle on the burner.

I stood up and walked over to the dining table. The dining table had a tablecloth with dark green polka dots all over. It had four chairs all around it.

I wanted to explore the rest of the house but everything went black. I had know idea what was happening. And just as I was starting to get used to the green world—Oh well.

Gabriel Etheridge, Age 11 Gabriel, age 11, lives in Detroit Michigan. He likes to write because it allows him to express himself and dream of new worlds. In addition to writing, he enjoys listening to audio books, which helps inspire the action in Gabriel’s writing. He would like to live in a world where everyone accepts anyone no matter what they look like.

Escape from the “No Realm” Part One Thirteen year old Avery M. Sillo did not like sitting in imperial clothing at a council meeting for two and a half hours, going on three. The Sillo Family are the Moon Elf Queen, King, Prince, and Princess. And it is the job of the imperial families to attend to the elf kingdoms and queendoms: Moon, Sun, Earth, Air, Fire, and Water.

Tick, Tick, Tick. Avery had been sitting for hours and hours without his phone so as you can imagine, him being a teenager, he was very bored and tired. His vision became blurry and he was starting to lay his head down.

So, he x. . . de-decided . . . to ssh-shut . . . his. . . eyes . . . and . . . What felt like an eternity later, Avery was woken up by an alarm—Woop, Woop, Woop—and his younger sister April, a young moon elf with dark skin like her brother’s, shaking him violently.

“Wake UP!!!” April screamed. “Wha . . .” Avery started, but April interrupted him.

“There has been an attack, and someone is outside with mom and dad! They also took the other kings and queens.”

The two sprinted outside. They gasped when the two saw their mother and father dangling on a rope tied up and a portal into the No Realm, the realm where anyone and everyone loses all magic ever, and until they come out they can’t learn or practice any new magic. And who else was there hanging their parents but General Payton.

“Kids, just stay back!” their mom wept.

“I’d listen to the woman if you know what’s best,” General Payton said with a grin.

“GET AWAY FROM THEM, YOU CREEP!!!!!!!” April said in a high pitched, shrill tone.

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April was trained in fighting at three, so she can easily do tons of damage, but did that mean losing their parents to defeat the enemy? April tried to land a hard kick to the left of Payton’s face. The general blocked her, but the general did stumble due to how hard the kick was. The general suddenly brandished a sword from her waistband. General Payton threw the sword at the rope suspending April and Avery’s parents. The rope broke and the pair’s parents fell into the No Realm.

“NO!!!” Avery screamed.

Out of pure rage and anger, Avery shot a lightning spell at the general, which was surprising because Avery was only trained in level ten moon magic and still had to go through levels eleven and twelve before getting to Lightning. April screamed and shot a moon level five spell at the general, causing the already electrocuted general to fly back a few feet and hit a tree.

This action was also surprising, because for the last few months April had only been practicing level two moon magic. The two glanced at each other, and grinned. A bunch of soldiers had ocme out from behind a thicket of trees to collect the general. One of the soldiers said, "Get to the water!" as they lifted the general up to the docks.

April and Avery were used to casual attacks from the Warlocks, but with their parents and the other elf kings and queens gone they had to wonder, What next?

Part Two Avery woke up in a small room on a couch with a thin white cloth covering him. Avery sat up and stretched.

“Good morning!” April said cheerily.

Her eyes shimmered with joy, which was surprising, because just the night before her and Avery’s parents were banished to the No Realm. But . . . it’s coming back to Avery . . . it happened after the general went away.

Ten hours ago . . .

April and Avery were still shaken after what happened an hour ago. It was all so much to take in. But they couldn't give up.

Avery started walking through the forest with April close behind. When night time came in the elf kingdoms and queendoms, all of the dangerous creatures came out. Suddenly, there was rustling behind a bush. A small round, glowing creature hopped out.

“Aww!” April exclaimed. “It’s adorable.”

“Stay back!” Avery warned “I learned about it in my Moon Creatures class. It’s a Luna-shine. A creature that grows and becomes more dangerous in a patch of moonlight.” Avery explained.

“Like the one it’s in now!” April said pointing at the patch of moonlight the creature was in.

Suddenly the creature began to grow. It grew claws and fangs and soon was taller than most trees in the forest.

“Aaahh!!!” April screamed.

The creature heard and faced April.

“Run!” screamed Avery.

The two began running as fast as they could.

“I can cast a moon spell on it,” Avery suggested.

“It’s worth a shot,” April said.

Avery tried to turn, but slipped and fell on a tree root. The creature began to make its way closer to Avery, opening its jaws wide.

Is this how it ends? Avery thought.

The creature was nearing closer and closer to Avery, but just above, someone with Water magic was swiftly shuffling on the tree tops. The mystery figure pulled out a blade and jumped down from the treetops cutting off the creature’s arm.

“SCREEEE!” the creature winced in pain.

Avery was very tired. But the last thing he saw before he drifted off to sleep was a kind looking female water elf carrying him and his sister along the treetops.

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Part Three Avery got out of bed one morning to the smell of rain. Again, like most mornings, April wasn’t in bed, but neither was Xena. Xena was the Water elf who saved Avery and April’s lives. Avery and April had been living with Xena for the last two weeks, and Xena was helping them conjure another portal to the No Realm. Xena told them that the tenth, eleventh, or twelfth level of water and Moon magic, Sun and Fire magic, or Air and Earth magic together would make a portal to the No Realm. Avery went to the kitchen and saw a note on the refrigerator. It read, “Me and Xena are going to try and conjure up the portal. Come here when you wake up, sleepy head!” - April. “P.S. Me and Xena baked cocoa moon bites.”

On the counter were some amazing smelling cocoa moon bites. Avery grabbed one and soon ate the soft doughy cocoa pastry up. Avery sat down and started thinking. April hasn’t learned level ten, eleven, or twelve moon magic, so it must be a trap!

Avery dashed out of the house. By now he knew the forest very well, so he could remember the only clearing was near a creek, which was even worse because then Xena would have unlimited power. When Avery got to the clearing, Xena had a Water spell that suspended April in the air tied up by water.

“H-He-Help” April could barely get the words out.

“Why are you doing this!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!” Avery screamed, “LET MY SISTER GOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

Xena said in reply, “You spoiled brats deserved this. I had to watch a warlock come into my home and kill my parents! And I can never get them back, so why should you!? Because your royalty. Blah, Blah, Blah. Like I said: spoiled brats.”

Avery fought back tears and suddenly got a rush of anger. His eyes were now glowing, “Just because you suffered through pain doesn’t mean anyone else should.”

Avery’s fists were clenched, but still visible were flecks of blue light.

Xena’s grip was getting tighter and tighter, squeezing April.

“I’m gonna ask you again. Let. My. Sister. GO!!!!”

Avery shot Xena down with his lightning spell, and April also fell to the ground. The water around her lessened and fell.

Xena slowly got up and shot a water spell and turned it into an ice spell, pinning Avery to a tree.

“Two can play at that game.” Xena gave Avery a smirk and raised her hand up to cast a spell to finish him.

Just then, Xena fell forward to the ground, and behind her was a very shocked April that had just cast a temporary illusion spell to Xena.

“How did . . .?” April started to question, but Avery cut her off.

“Who knows, but let’s get out of here.”

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Heaven Melnykowycz, Age 12 Heaven, age 12, lives in Michigan. In addition to writing, she enjoys singing (a little too loud), biking, and is reading (and loving) Keeper of the Lost Cities. She would like to live in a world where no one lives in a war zone and everybody can go to a great school.

The Missing Teacher and the Would You Rather Kids Chapter 1: The Kids It was an especially foggy day in a small neighborhood where seven kids swatted away mosquitoes, grumbling to themselves about why Coco had dragged them out here. She sat on a fallen willow. She had below shoulder black hair and hazel eyes with warm light brown skin. There were seven kids, ages eleven to fourteen, with mixed expressions: some obviously glaring, some smiling, and some looking antsy to go inside to the two level houses.

She watched them. Then, starting, she pulled out a crumpled piece of lined paper and started to read in the loudest voice possible, “YOU ARE ALL GATHERED HERE BECAUSE,” then she lowered her voice, not wanting the parents to know what she had heard, “Our parents are in the middle of a very mysterious mystery, and I’m in the middle of trying to figure it out.”

“BUT I KNOW HOW YOU’RE ALL GOING CRAZY BORED IN YOUR HOUSE. WE STILL HAVE TWO MONTHS ‘TILL SCHOOL. THE CHALLENGES WILL BE SHORT, BUT BELIEVE ME WHEN I SAY—” “Coco, please stop yelling. I can hear my pug from three blocks away whining because you’re talking too loud!”

Alea shouted.

For a second it seemed like Coco didn’t hear her as she said, “AND YOU WILL REMEMBER THIS SUMMER ‘TILL YOU OLD AND HAVE A CHEAP CANE.” Then Coco paused, wrinkled her nose, and looked over to Alea, “You KNOW you did not need to bring Via (the pug) into this, but I hear you. I just want to project. All day people have ignored me,” she said, crossing her arms. “But while our parents are doing their very ‘special project’ . . .”

Clementine, a sassy twelve year old, popped her hand on hip, raised an eyebrow and said, “You’ve already failed at the not bored part.”

Coco side-eyed her and popped her one hand on her hip, but did not retaliate. Turning back to the small crowd of kids, she asked, “Raise your fingers from one-ten showing how brave you are.”

All the kids fidgeted as they raised their hand, glancing around, not wanting to not seem brave, but nervous at where this was going. They’d been part of Coco’s crazy plans and it happened to end without a toilet lid, water splashed on the floor, and parents screaming a very selective vocabulary of swear words.

Still, all the kids raised their hands, ten fingers showing.

“Good, you’re going to need to be for the trials.”

“What trials?” Clementine asked. A tinge of interest crept into her sassy tone.

Coco grinned. “A dare: would you rather.” As Coco explained the rules, she listed them. She added some as the group of kids peeked over her shoulder: The dares must be anonymous, only picked from a jar without looking. If needed, Coco will blindfold you.

The dares must be safe (A.K.A. nobody gets sick or hurt). If a problem happens, the game will shut down.

THE PARENTS CANNOT KNOW. More rules coming soo—Coco and the amazing group Chapter 2: The Adults A plastic spatula was flung into the living room of Zola’s two story house. A chorus of adult voices rose as Zola’s voice, normally calm, cut through the house.

“If you ruined my wall with your nasty scrambled eggs, I’ll make you clean my house for a month.”

A murmured apology filtered through the kitchen.

“I know you’re sorry. It’s just this . . . darn internet. I know mine is the best but it’s still bad.”

“Can I go run to my house to go get the yearbooks from preschool to college?”

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“Maybe we spelled his name wrong—” Crest intervened, saying, “How do you know it’s the same guy?”

“I’ve studied his face. I think he has been following us.”

Zola frowned. “Even that old lady who always had awesome pantsuits?”

“Yes. I studied her face and saw a slight resemblance in Mister Winner’s face and the cool pantsuit lady.” Their faces scrunched up as they tried to recall a mental picture.

“I know, surprisingly. I’m going to drive for five minutes and go home and get some tea.”

Five minutes later, Crest came back with the year books, splaying them on the table. He flipped rapidly to the beginning of the first kindergartener page, a smiling old lady with a V-neck and almond brown hair.

“Ok, go to the next book,” Pat said, groaning when she saw the next one. “That woman was so mean. She—” “—made you work?” Zola interrupted.

“Nooo,” Pat said, drawing the ‘O’ out, making it clear that she didn’t like the comment. She always gave us the nastiest candy for math learning, as if math isn’t bad enough.”

“Right, right. Totally not because of that time she made you stand up in front of the class and recite all your times tables, but instead you took a photo of yourself captioning it ‘#torturer in an average middle school classroom. dolores umbridge is back.H.E.L.P.’ Unlucky for you, she asked you to give her your phone so she could read it out loud.”

At this, Crest snickers, “Still remember the blood draining from your face. You started rambling about your privacy as a twelve year old. We thought you were a goner.”

“Well, lucky for you, I’m still here. And all right, right? So let’s focus on the pressing matter.”

Jake laughed, the remnant of his infectious smile still on his face fading and going to an uncanny frown as he glanced at the next year’s book: a man frowning with a dramatic chin and very bushy eyebrows. “Man, I did not like him. Pretty sure no one did. But look at the resemblance.”

All the teachers had set jaws and green eyes. In every picture, they saw the same resemblance.

“How did we miss that?” Viv asked, an edge in her voice. “I guess we were too busy in our own world,” she said, answering her own question.

“Yhaa, we should look him up in the directory.”

Chapter 3: The Kids Coco reached her hand in the slips of paper. Asking for drum roll, the children obliged, stomping their feet on the slushy ground. She pulled out, “Would you rather eat a worm or an earwig?”

The dread in the air was almost as thick as the fog surrounding the grass field and willow stump. As she pulled out two names, Adin and Willow Blanched.

“Awww, siblings challenge!” Coco said, a grin spreading across her face. “OK, let’s look for an unlucky worm or earwig.”

Willow muttered to Adin, “If anyone is unlucky, it’s us.”

Adin laughed. “This IS what we signed up for, right?”

Five minutes later, two earwigs and two worms writhed around in a glass jar. Adin didn’t look so confident as he peered into the glass jar containing two earwigs, jerking back when he did. He did at least two laps around the glass jar.

Willow looked unnerved as she pulled her above-shoulder hair back with a purple rubber band. “One: where are their eyes? I’m not eating an animal when I don’t even know where its eyes are. Two: can I just declare to be vegetarian and not eat either one?”

“No,” Coco said, the same smile stretched across her face.

“Hey, you’re enjoying this friend torture,” Willow said. Her eyes widened as she popped one hand on her hip, her face shifting to a scowl.

“Well, don’t look so smug. You’re going to have to do this,” Coco laughed.

“And believe me, I expect you to collapse on the floor. Now choose a yucky animal.”

Adin and Willow Blanched, shoving each other to go first, then Willow said, “Fine . . . I’ll go first. She looked around, her eyes lingering on Jack, then picked up the worm. “I am the bravest Marie child.”

Adin lifted his hands in surrender.

“I kind of thought it was obvious,” Jack laughed. “It totally was,” he said, then walked over to Adin. “Which one

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are you going to eat?”

“Of course, the worm,” Willow said.

Jack moaned and pretended to barf. Willow walked up and opened her mouth wide. Just as she was about to drop it in, her nerves squirmed. Laughter echoed in the clearing. She squeezed her eyes shut and dropped it in her mouth, swallowing it whole, then grabbed her water and swallowed. Then, she slowly opened her eyes, grinned, and said to her brother, ”Adin, your turn.”

He sighed, grabbed the earwig, then just like his sister closed his eyes and ate it whole. “Ick! I CANNOT believe I just ate that. First and last time!”

“Always a flair for the dramatics, aren’t you?”

“Jack, you eat an earwig and swear never to eat one again. I honestly can’t see why.” Adin rolled his eyes, and then he fake scowled at Coco, “When people ask I’ll say it’s your fault.”

“Believe me, I’ll be taking all the credit. You all can go!”

Chapter 4: The Adults “We found the mysterious human!” Curt shouted. “Lives downtown from us in this really boring apartment . . .”

Curt trailed off when he noticed. “Wait, what happens when he sees us? All the kids who were in the same class for twelve years. What do we say?”

Zola fidgeted with her pencil. “Curt’s right. What DO we say after ten years? Hey, what was this about? Who are you? Have you done this with other students? And this isn’t even all the students. We don’t even know their address.”

“It’s OK, Zola,” Jack said. “We’ll figure it out when we get there, but for now, can we get in the van?”

The drive wasn’t far, but it was definitely long. It was an afternoon and Friday. All around the battered Jeep, people laughed and talked, or were just driving home.

Zola shouted out when she saw his apartment, and it took another five minutes to find a spot. The six friends stood on the doorstep, then Vivi stepped up and rang the door, Anticipatory quiet followed.

And then a voice came from behind the metal door, a familiar tone to his voice. The adults waited, and when the man finally opened the door, they saw a stranger.

Chapter 5: The Kids ` “I told you this contest would be short.”

The second to last ‘would you rather’ had both groups of kids squirming on the now hard, dry ground. “Would you rather have to finish a whole box of pizza or eat seven tacos?”

On a plastic table, a cardboard box sat with twelve pieces of pizza, and right next to it was a cardboard box full of tacos. Clementine and Sarah, who had just joined, looked between the two pizza boxes and the two taco bins.

“I’ll go for the pizza,” Clementine said.

“OK. Remember that’s twelve pieces. If you can’t finish, you are disqualified, but you can still come and watch the last would you rather.”

“Yup, I do,” she said and then picked up the first one and ate it, then ate the next one, and the next, somehow going through four. When she picked up her fifth one, she ate it, then, groaning, laid down.

“The sixth one, I can’t eat it.”

“Are you sure?” Coco checked.

“Yes, I am.”

Sara, who was smiling triumphantly, wasn’t when she had to lower a hand in defeat, but she made it to five.

“One more challenge,” Coco said. “Between . . . drumroll . . . Alea and Jake. You can go!” Grinning, she waved them away, thinking, BEST IDEA EVER! Chapter 6: The Adults The adults sat in a comfy living room, staring at a person they thought they knew.

“Sooooo . . .”

“Look, I know why you’re here, and I have most of the answers. The first one I can guess: Why did I keep this from you? It was mostly because I could. I had the opportunity to have the same kids for many years. I had aced

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my acting class and wanted to continue acting but also wanted to teach. I was nervous to start and didn’t want to say goodbye to the kids that practically felt like mine. It was a crazy thought to turn an idea into reality, but in truth, it only made saying goodbye harder. Of course I wasn’t under the impression you cared, and honestly, I doubt until middle school you noticed. Even then, it was just a fun coincidence.”

“OK, so that answers one of our questions. We honestly thought it would be cooler if we were part of a government experiment to overthrow the world.”

“Viv,” Zola said with an annoyed look and warning note in her tone. Viv went quiet quick.

“One more question,” Pat said, “and then you can continue with your Friday. Did you do this with any other students?”

His answer was surprising. “Yes. In fact, all my groups went until middle school. I love it. Even though it’s hard to say goodbye, you were my first, and I hoped not the last. I got lucky. I didn’t have to keep switching identities.

That was fun but exhausting.”

They all stared at him. Finally, Curt got up. “Thanks for talking. It answered a lot of my questions, and honestly, the ones I didn’t ask I think will be more fun to keep a mystery.”

He smiled. Then the rest of the friends got up, said their various goodbyes, and left. The metal door shut quietly behind them. Jake could have swore he heard Mister Winner’s soft, familiar laugh through the metal door. What he was laughing about, Jake didn’t know.

They smiled, shrugged, and started toward the car.

Chapter 7: The Kids The epic battle of the mysterious ‘would you rather’ between Alea and Jake never happened. Before they knew it, school snuck up on them, leaving them with a bit of whiplash.

The kids walked to school together, laughing about which teacher they got. Between Alea and Adin, Coco smiled.

“I guess we’re going to have to finish this next summer.”

Willow laughed, “Definitely! Also don’t think I will forget that you didn’t go.”

“We’ll see. They turned around the corner of the block, already making plans for the next ‘would you rather’ contest.

Hillary Hiraga, Age 11 Hillary, age 11, lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She likes to write because it helps pass time. In addition to writing, she enjoys ice skating and gardening. Nobody else inspires Hillary’s writing. She would like to live in a world where nobody argues over useless things.

How to Catch a Red Dragon Coco walked past a crate filled with crabs. She was looking around a bit while her parents were buying some trout.

CRASH! She jumped. Had a cart ran into something? Then, she turned around, just in time to see a dragon crash into a second tower of crates filled with fish.

After bringing down a few more, it looked satisfied, and landed on the pile of fish and empty crates, and started sucking them up like a vacuum cleaner. It looked like a small dog, except with red and gold scales, and fur in a mane around its neck. There were also two sharp antlers, like deer’s, sprouting from its head. A very startled fisherman was yelling at it, trying to scare it away. The dragon paid no attention. In under ten seconds, all the fish were gone. Then, it flew away to find more fish to eat.

Coco ran after it. After all, she couldn’t let it cause more trouble.

“Hey!” she yelled, to get its attention.

It turned and looked at her, and then kept going. Apparently, it thought she was boring. She looked around for

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any ideas, just as the dragon flew straight into another tower of crates, this one filled with daikon radishes.

The radishes fell right in front of her, and she ran right into the pile of crates and radishes. The dragon kept going, unfazed, and disappeared in the crowd. There was no way she could find it again.

“Coco!” yelled someone behind her. She turned around to find her parents. Apparently, they were done shopping.

Then, they saw the pile of radishes on the ground.

“What happened?” asked dad.

“A cart ran into it.” she answered.

They didn’t seem concerned, maybe this was a common occurrence here.

“Let’s go home,” said Mom. “It’s time to cook dinner. “ Coco took one last look at where the dragon had disappeared, and turned around to leave.

The next few days went perfectly normally, until one day her parents decided to go to the sushi restaurant for lunch. She was enjoying her food when she heard a scream from the kitchen. Five seconds later, several staff ran from the door, screaming about stray dogs in the kitchen. Everyone panicked and ran for their lives.

In the chaos, Coco slipped into the kitchen, just to make sure it was what she thought it was. And sure enough, the dragon was in there, finishing off a large tuna fish. Before it could see her, she fled. She knew she couldn’t try and stop it without a plan. So, she ran home.

When she arrived, the first thing she noticed was the news headline on the TV. It was about a raccoon infestation in town eating the town’s fish supply. In addition to the incident at the market, the “raccoons” had apparently also appeared at the harbor, where the boatloads of fish were shipped off, several other restaurants, and the seafood section of a supermarket.

Coco sat down on the sofa to think. She couldn’t set a trap, because she had no Idea where it would appear next. Unless she could carry it around with her, like a net . . . she ran out the door, heading for the nearest fishing supply store.

She left with a large net, meant for catching tunas. And maybe small dragons. Now, all she had to do was carry it around, and wait for the dragon to show up again. As she walked home, she spotted a bookstore. She was bored, and thought she might find something to read at home. She found some books that she liked, along with a vegetarian cookbook, for a vegetarian friend who liked cooking.

As she headed home, she remembered that her parents had asked her to buy some tofu at the grocery store, so she stopped by. As soon as she did, she was met by chaos. The dragon had decided to make a second appearance that day, maybe because it hadn’t gotten its fill at the restaurant. It had already emptied several freezers filled with fish.

The dragon charged at the fifth freezer. As its antlers hit the glass, it broke like tissue paper and fish poured out.

Then, it started eating it up.

Coco snuck up behind it, holding the net. The dragon suddenly tensed and sniffed the air. She hadn’t known they had a good sense of smell. she threw the net. The dragon turned, opened its mouth, and blowtorched it into ashes in midair.

“Why did you throw that thing at me?” She realised that she hadn’t heard anything, but the words just popped up in her head.

“Ummm, to stop you from eating everything?”

“It’s bad enough that I have to eat this stuff, but now you are trying to make me stop?”

“You don’t like fish?”

“Why would I like fish? But mom said I need the protein. So I have to eat it.”

“You don’t have to eat fish to get protein. Here! This might help!” She handed him the book on vegetarian cooking.

“Vegetarian cooking?” It opened the book to a recipe on stir-fried tofu cubes. “This looks so much better than fish!” it exclaimed. “Are you sure it has enough protein?”

“Absolutely,” said Coco. “And here is something else! She grabbed a pack of tofu from a nearby shelf. The dragon ripped open a pouch and sucked up the contents. ”This is soooo much more delicious than fish!”

“What’s your name, by the way?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“Well . . . it’s your name.”

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“It’s too embarrassing.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Cutie Pie.” “Excuse me?” she asked.

“Forget it.”

“Why are you named Cutie Pie?” “Well, mommy said I was a cutie pie, so that’s what she named me.” the dragon said, embarrassed. “I’ve got to go. Mommy will be waiting for me. Bye!” Then, it grabbed the rest of the tofu, along with the book, and flew out the door.

Ian Robinson, Age 12 Ian, age 12, lives in Detroit. He likes to write because it’s an easy way to let out his thoughts without having to have a conversation. In addition to writing, he enjoys swimming. Listening to others’ ideas and thoughts inspires Ian’s writing. He also likes writing because you can take inspiration from the world around you and use it to create new ideas, worlds, or pretty much anything you can think of. He would like to live in a world where everyone is equal and able to follow their own passion.

The Story of William the Abnormal Cat William is a stray brown and black cat that lives in New York. William would love to be domesticated and loved.

The thing is, William is very unenergetic and not very emotional. He is constantly adopted by locals in New York, but he is given away all the time because of his low enthusiasm.

William is always given to his biggest enemy: the Humane Society!

William is not a normal cat because of the Humane Society. The Humane Society gave him powers by experimenting on William. His ability is that he can teleport to any place in the world, but a special serum is always given to William after his capture. So he is limited to one use of his ability for a few hours.

William’s life is a cycle that won’t stop spinning.

This time, William is going to try a new strategy. He is going to teleport to a new location this time. Petco would be the best place to go. William’s plan will most likely secure him freedom.

William arrives at Petco using his one teleport. After a few seconds of a loud whirring noise, William is inside of the nearest Petco. He walks stealthily to the back of the store and hides. William is shivering in anxiety hoping he will not get caught. He gets startled when a sliver of air brushes his smooth, silky fur.

After a few hours of hiding in Petco moving from bathrooms to custodian closets, his powers are finally back and they are able to be used in full effect. Now William’s plan is in phase two.

Phase two of William’s plan is to cause as much of a ruckus as possible to give him enough time to escape and get the Humane Society to help the people at Petco. After that, William will teleport into the Humane Society and infiltrate it from the inside. William cannot teleport straight to the Humane Society or they will track him as soon as he teleports, but if a distraction is happening while he is teleporting, he has the best window to take down and expose the Humane Society.

William teleports to the supply room, hoping no one is there. He stands up on his hind legs, trying to open

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the door with his paw. After opening the door without a creak, Willam makes sure the coast is clear and runs to the security area. After reaching the security area, William hops on the grey, dirty chair and copies footage of him being experimented on. William saves the footage on a flash drive that he got from the supply room and teleports away.

A few seconds of whirring noises went by, then William was inside of the local news department and gave the nearest person the flash drive. The drive was hooked up and broadcasted to everyone in New York. The footage of William being given powers was shown to everyone viewing their televisions.

At first, everyone was confused, but eventually the story came together. That same day, everyone working at the Humane Society were all arrested, and Wiliam got his first win. Now William has an owner and can finally live his life in peace.

Keyaira Johnson, Age 14 Keyaira L. Johnson, age 14, lives in Detroit. She likes to write because she can freely express her feelings and come up with fun and random stories. She also likes writing because she does not have to always talk about her feelings. In addition to writing, she enjoys volleyball, family, and church. Her imagination and movies inspired Keyaira’s writing.

She would like to live in a world where it is peaceful, loving, free, respectful, successful, caring and full of rainbows and butterflies.

The Shy One We are all shy at times and need comfort. Hi, my name is Ava. I am fourteen years old, and African American and Puerto Rican. I was born in Syria. I grew up in a Christian home which taught me Christian beliefs. I have two sisters and a brother on the way.

I am from Syria and I fled to the U.S. because of all the violence, discrimination, and persecution of civilians.

In Syria, we didn’t live in refugee camps. We lived outside with limited service.

After I fled, life was great. I fled to the United States of America. When I fled, we fled in groups. I was lucky enough to be put in a group with my family. We settled in South Carolina. In South Carolina, the environment was so much better. Even though global warming was occuring, they were more adamant about having clean environments.

I was able to get a better form of education. Me and my family members were also able to apply for jobs and receive benefits, and people were nice and helpful. This happened when I was ten, and now I am fourteen. I am going to high school and need more social skills.

You may ask where my dad is. He has served seven years in Iraq in the army. I just got a letter from today saying he will be home soon and I am so excited. December 31, 2007.

It is almost New Year’s, and my dad is coming.

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Manoj Lokam, Age 12 Manoj, age 12, lives in Michigan. He likes to write because it’s interesting and fun. In addition to writing, he enjoys new stuff. Snakes inspire Manoj’s writing. He would like to live in a world where climate change is no more

The Midnight Wonders of The Midnight Bite Dallas, Texas June 2, 2018

One day, you plan to go to a nearby mountain for a short hike with a few of your friends. Your friends agree to follow you on your hike and prepare for your hiking trip, so you get the essentials of hiking such as bug repellent, sun cream, etc. Now, you’ve finished packing, so you decide to go to bed and be aware of your upcoming journeys.

At 7:30am, your iPhone rings and you get up right away. You take a shower and brush your teeth. You leave the house at 8am and drive to the place. You arrive there and see that they’re not there yet, so you just decide to wait for them. Half an hour later, you get a text from your friend, and it turns out his car broke down as he was leaving. You go to Whatsapp on your phone to tell him, “It’s fine, and we can always do it later.” Your other friend arrives, and you guys go to the front of the hiking trail.

The forest is dark and seems old. Right away, you can see it was a great idea bringing your lantern. Two hours after you start the hike, your friend wants to take some pictures, so you stop and relax. Twenty minutes later, your friend still hasn't come, so you go to check where he is. You see him on the ground, and he is not responding to you, so you call 911. You take him down the hiking trail and see an ambulance is coming straight his way. The doctors come out of the truck and put him in the ambulance. You get in your car and go to the hospital. The doctors explain that he has been bitten with a deadly venom and say that his leg is also badly damaged, as it seems something constricted around his leg.

You decide to go on the hike alone even after hearing the news from the doctor. It takes a few hours.

You finally reach the midpoint of the hike, but there’s a sign that says don’t go past that point . . .

You decide to go past that point anyway, but the path up ahead is darker than the other spot. Your lantern dies, but at least you brought your flashlight. Twenty minutes later, you can tell how this was marked as no entry, as there are creepy sounds and it is very dark. Only a bit of light comes from underneath the trees.

After a few minutes, your flashlight dies. Now you panic. You can’t see anything and as you begin to take out your phone, you realize that you forgot to charge your phone.

It is at three percent. You call your friends, but no one responds. Now you’re stuck.

Lucky for you, there’s more light than the last point. You attempt to call your friends one more time, but your phone dies before anyone can pick up. You have no choice but to go down the trail. A few minutes later, you find a dead end.

You realize you took a wrong path on the trail, but as you start to move, you hear a hiss from an unknown direction. But you got some snake repellent from your house, so you use it right away. Suddenly, while you are walking you feel something hit your head.

You jump back unexpectedly. You see a snake that fell down, and it hisses at you. You run as fast as you can from the snake, outrunning him as fast as you can, but in no time, you fall down in desperation.

Unfortunately, the snake has the speed of a fast cobra. You start to realize that this must be a special snake, a snake that no one knows about but has special abilities. In the corner of your eye, you see your friend’s phone, so you realize that he couldn’t answer as he didn’t have a phone. You take his phone out right away and see that it is at fifty percent, and you find out that his real name was James Marsden.

You find a riddle behind the phone case that unlocks the phone. The first one is, “I am an odd number.

Take away a letter and I become even. What number am I?” After a second, you type out seven, a mere coincidence that it was only one number. You think, He should have got a better password, with your eyes rolling.

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You call 911 with intensive fingers, but then you realize as soon as you thought the snake was gone . . . a hiss comes from all around. It seems you have angered the snake of this forest. He slithers down the tree and comes slowly at you. It would take too long to open the phone back up, so you climb up a tree. And you see an old snake net only a few feet south, so you jump off the tree and run as fast as he can to the net. You get it and try it out, and it still seems firm.

You run to the snake, who lashes out at you, but it gets in the bag by accident. You close it and knot it super hard. You now call the police and a zoo for the snake. They both arrive on time, so you explain to the cops and to the zoo owner.

The zoo owner says you found a new type of snake and since you found it, you should name it. You decide on Leviticus Mirus. You get a fifty dollar fine for going into a restricted area given by the cops.

Don’t go into restricted areas or this will happen to you too.

The Bugging Computer and Trolling Trolls Warning: This story is full of trolls, memes and, well, more of those. If you have Memephobia, don’t read this story then. Even if you are not, I would request this link for you, which is filled with no memes or trolls. (Maybe one troll.) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvFZjo5PgG0. If you didn’t choose the link, then please enjoy the story.

Dallas, Texas July 27, 2018 A few days ago, you bought yourself a brand new computer and it was mainly for yourself and some work that you have, but today was an important day, as your cousins were coming over in a few hours. A few hours later they came, and you invited them in. Your cousins asked to go on your computer, which they do for an hour before coming out to get some takeout. They all agreed on Olive Garden.

When you got back home it was late, so the cousins’s parents decided to take them home. You went to the computer and decided to go and do some work, but your computer was acting up because your cousin downloaded a virus. You have to get rid of it, but you don’t know how to.

So, you decided to go to bed and schedule a time for your computer to get fixed. You typed in your password, texted the number, and scheduled a time at 5pm to 6pm. Your head was feeling light-headed, and you decided to go to bed. You flipped the switch and the room went dark. In a matter of seconds, you fell asleep.

In two hours, you woke up, but you could only see “0101001110” all around you and different lines of code.

You went to punch the wall, but your hand passed through the wall. You felt shocked and started to wonder if it was a dream. You walked around until finding out what happened . . .

As you walked around, you saw something that looked like a mirror, but when you looked through it, you saw yourself sleeping from the angle at the computer. You seemed to find out that you were at the top of the monitor, A.K.A. the camera. And you saw that there was no fall damage, so you risked it and jumped.

You fell really far down and fell at the bottom of the desktop, which is known as the taskbar. And you saw many icons of all the software that you use. But there is one that you didn’t recognize and around it was a bunch of error signs. But something strange was happening: they were moving towards you. You got up and stumbled when trying to run away but you realized . . . that you can’t run!?!? You went to Chrome and asked it about the thing walking towards you. It briefly explained that it’s a random virus and it sensed you as the data location for the computer’s memory.

But as you were talking, it kept on coming closer, and soon Chrom said, "Quick, jump inside of me!"

You had no choice but to do what it said. As you jumped through, Chrome yelled, “Remember this, you control the computer.”

You reached a meme website with tons of rickrolls and pokemon memes. Your head started to buzz, and you began to see tons of notifications about viruses. And then error signs appeared behind you, so you teleported to Windows and pressed on Minecraft.

You started a new world and started to run as fast as you could, but you were getting slowed down?!?! It’s lag, you realized. Some viruses can cause data loss, which can make more lag. And then you felt weaker, your head WRITING A NEW WORLD | SUMMER 2021

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buzzed . . . It was a notification. Your computer was at ten percent.

Then you found out the hard truth . . . after you reach zero percent sent.. something would happen.

But then you realized the final hope of going to settings and doing a virus scan. You were going to settings fast, and you decided to press the button. It would take ten minutes for the scan to finish, but not so shortly, you could hear a bash in the distance. It looked like a virus because it had the word “virus” across its body.

You ran around as fast as you could, and lucky for you, the virus was very slow, so you outran it easily. But you went to five percent, so now you were slower than regular. You were so slow now that the virus could catch up to you. And then the virus started to shrink. The scan was almost complete, as it was counting down from ten.

Ten, nine , eight, seven, six, five— But then the virus roared, "This isn’t OVeRrrr—” The virus was gone.

And then you woke up from your bed. You realized that it was a dream and never happened. Although you had time until your appointment, you couldn’t go back to sleep now as your heart was beating out of your chest. So, you got ready and went to your appointment.

You reached there one hour early, but they took you in early. They said that your computer had a few viruses and a huge one, but the huge one is gone. They said the total was twenty-three dollars and forty-five cents. So, you gave them your credit card and you left. On the car ride, you wondered if it was real, but you forgot about it a few hours later.

Nia Hatter, Age 11 Nia, age 11, lives in Ypsilanti. She likes to write because it’s fun. In addition to writing, she enjoys art and expressive reading. She hopes to one day soon join a reader’s theater group. Most of all, she would like to live in a world where COVID was gone and where people didn’t hate each other so much.

The 12 Floors of Kindness One day, in a world where some people smile and some don’t, there is a twelve floor building of kindness that has a giraffe at the entrance named Careaffe. It also has a pink runner that you walk on, which takes you to the front door. Additionally, there is a galaxy-themed revolving door!

Lilly is twelve years old, and she hates smiling. She is an only child and likes to go to the beach. Henry, on the other hand, is full of energy and outgoing. He is thirteen years old, has two younger siblings, and he wants people to be nice to him.

Amazingly, one day this twelve floor building caught their eye!! They stood in front of the building and said, “What in the world is this building?”

“I’ve never seen this in my life!”

“This is such a tall building!! Let’s go inside and explore! Phew!!!”

“I wonder if we need to check in,” said Lilly.

“Check in? No, let’s just go!” Henry shouted.

Before they explored the first floor, they checked in at the front desk. When they were at the front desk, they smelled treats like candy and doughnuts. It instantly made them feel happy!

They looked to the right and they saw a sign that said, “Odd Floors are for demonstrations (watch) and Even Floors are for participation (join in).” There was also a sign that listed what was on every floor. The sign displayed the following: First Floor: Doing Good Deeds: this floor is full of people who are doing things for others without them asking.

Second Floor: Helping Someone in Need: this floor is for people who like to help someone who is in need.

Third Floor: People Who Love Smiling: this floor is full of people who are happy and smiling.

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Fourth Floor: Giving Each Other a Hug: this floor is for people who really need a hug.

Fifth Floor: Having Happy Memories: this floor helps people focus on happy times they have had. Even if they are sad today, when they think about good or happy times, it can renew their spirit.

Sixth Floor: Friends and Fitness: this floor has multiple activity stations where you are able to exercise.

Seventh Floor: Spending Time with Family: this floor is for people who want to spend more time with their family.

Eighth Floor: Spending Time with Friends: this floor is for people who want to spend time with friends.

Ninth Floor: Be Kind to Your Friends: this floor is for people who want to be kind to their friends.

Tenth Floor: Clean Someone’s Room: this floor is for people who love to clean their room.

Eleventh Floor: Give People a Break: this floor is for people who barely ever take a break. They are able to read a book, drink tea or coffee, and have a quiet moment.

Twelfth Floor: Meet Chatty Maddy: this floor is for lonely people. Not just people who live alone, but people who feel alone. Chatty Maddy will talk to you and be your instant friend!

So, after they checked in, they went around the corner and entered the hallway of Doing Good Deeds. Immediately, they saw people who were down and sad. There were also tour guides who took them to another room, where they were able to listen to why these people were down.

After leaving the listening room, they went to the action room to watch short videos on KindTube. Henry was very excited to learn that holding the door for someone coming in behind you or doing the dishes after dinner without being asked are both great ways to do a good deed.

Next, he suggested that Lilly go to the second and third floors, and he would go to the fourth and fifth floors.

After that, they would meet back up on the sixth floor.

Lilly said, “Great! Sounds like a plan!”

So, off Lilly went to the second floor, Helping People in Need. The tour guide welcomed her to the floor and said that there are three different rooms.

“What is in each room?” Lilly asked.

“One room has food, another room has clothing, and the other room has toiletries,” said the tour guide.

Lilly wondered to herself, “ . . . Hmmm, I wonder what can I do to help?” She soon found out that she would be able to help by boxing up items for people to come and pick up!

Once Lilly saw the third floor was for People Who Love Smiling, she was kind of nervous. She wasn’t sure she wanted to go on that floor. When she got off the elevator, she saw a puppet theater. She sat and watched three different puppet shows. Her favorite one was the second one because it showed her how smiling can make anybody’s day happier.

Henry got on the elevator and eagerly pressed the button for the fourth floor. When the elevator doors opened, he immediately saw a welcome sign that read, “Welcome to Have-a-hug Central!!”

There were ten people standing with open arms waiting to give hugs! Henry was excited to go to person number three because that person looked the happiest to him, and they gave him a very big hug!

Henry left the fourth floor feeling joyful and happy inside! He then went to the fifth floor. He remembered that this floor was for having happy memories, but he wasn’t quite sure what to expect. So, when the elevator doors opened, he saw multiple screens on the walls that went around the entire floor. Each screen played an inspiring video from KindTube. Henry was drawn to the screen where it showed a boy cooking with his Grandma, and it brought him happy memories because his Grandma had passed.

Henry went to the sixth floor to wait for Lilly because he remembered they were going to meet back up to explore the rest of the floors together. When he got there, Lilly was already there waiting for him.

“Hey Henry, perfect timing!” Lilly exclaimed. “I didn’t have to wait long at all,” she said.

Henry replied, “Great! Let’s see what this 6th floor is all about!”

They saw a sign when they entered the floor that said “Friends and Fitness” in flashing lights. There were trampolines, jump ropes, and treadmills. Lilly liked to jump rope, but never had anyone to jump rope with. Henry wanted to jump on the trampoline because he had one at home and loved it!

They decided to jump rope first, and then they jumped on the trampoline. Lilly was very excited that Henry jumped rope with her. Better yet, Henry did not realize that he was being kind to Lilly by jump roping with her.

He just thought it was fun!

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Next, they went to the seventh floor. This floor had interactive touch screen wall displays that included: How to FaceTime with family Cooking with grandparents Reading stories to younger siblings Have a big family dinner just because!

You were supposed to walk up to the wall and select an activity. Lilly decided to select cooking with grandparents. Then the screen took her through a step by step process of selecting a menu and recipes. She was really excited and could not wait to spend time with her grandparents and share the new recipes!

Henry, on the other hand, decided to select “reading stories to younger siblings”. Every time his siblings asked him to read them a story, he was always too busy. He was able to explore new and exciting books that he now wanted to read to them!

Now, they reached the eighth floor, where there were activities to spend time with friends. The activities included: Painting and/or coloring together Playing a board game like: Candyland Trouble Connect Four Watching videos on KindTube together.

Lilly and Henry had fun playing Connect Four and CandyLand. Then, they moved on to the ninth floor. When they got to the ninth floor, they saw lots of people watching KindTube, learning how to be kind to their friends.

They waited for an available screen and watched two videos.

The tenth floor brought more excitement. Henry and Lilly participated in activities where they were able to learn hacks on how to organize their rooms. The hack that they both liked the best was learning how to build a bookshelf with crates.

By this time, they were starting to get a little tired from their adventure. But they moved right along to the eleventh floor.

Upon entering the eleventh floor, they were amazed. This floor had four massage chairs, along with side tables that had tea, water or coffee. It also had a lounge that had e-readers available. They were excited to know that they could select an audiobook or an e-book to enjoy while taking a break from their everyday life.

They finally arrived at the long-awaited twelfth floor. When they stepped off the elevator, they were very surprised to see a long line of people waiting to enter a room with blue drapes that covered the entrance instead of a door. Lilly and Henry wondered why the line was so long and what was behind the blue drapes.

“Look!!” Henry exclaimed. He saw a screen that displayed a message that was almost like a commercial.

As they watched, Lilly read along with the message, “Do you ever feel like you are all alone? Or at times do you feel like no one understands you? Wellllllllllllllllll, help is here!!! Meet Chatty Maddy! She will talk to you, make you laugh, and most of all listen to your point of view!”

“Woohoo!” Henry shouted. “I would love to come and visit with Chatty Maddy every week and talk about things that have happened to me.”

Lily agreed, “Sounds like a good idea, Henry! I have enjoyed exploring the twelve floors of kindness today, but I don’t want to wait in that long line for Chatty Maddy. Now that I know she’s here, I will come back whenever I feel like I need to talk!”

They walked over to the elevator and took it down to the lower level. They had now reached the final stop of their twelve floors of kindness experience. Waiting for them were some very special treats. The choices included cupcakes, lollipops, and fruit (apples and oranges). Lilly chose a lollipop and Henry chose an apple and a cupcake!

As they walked out the door into the courtyard and sat on a bench together, Henry turned to Lilly and said, “Hey, can I tell you a secret?”

She replied, “Sure!”

Henry went on to say, “I’m a nerd, and sometimes people bully me. But my favorite part of coming to the twelve floors of kindness today has been getting a hug from person number three on the fourth floor!”

18

YOU COULD DO MAGICAL THINGS

Lilly said, “I know how you feel. My younger cousin is a nerd also and people are not nice to him because they wish they were smart like him!”

Lily also shared with Henry that she felt different now about smiling because she saw how smiling can brighten someone’s day!

Henry and Lilly got ready to go their separate ways. As they were leaving the courtyard, they heard an announcement that said, “Enjoy the sweet treats as a reminder to be sweet to someone else! Thanks for visiting the twelve floors of kindness! Hope to see you again soon!”

“WISHING YOU A SWEET LIFE!” The End

Omniah Alakwaa, Age 14 Omniah is 14 years old. She lives in Ann Arbor. She loves to write because writing makes her feel comfortable. She also loves to play basketball and soccer, roblox, gaming, and sleeping. Her father inspires Omniah to write because he is a writer. She would live on Mars.

Hello, Boss Silence all around me. Breathes in loud noises. That is a dream—to be silent around me. *Turns around in bed with blanket* Sigh. Sleep.

“Ahhh!” *Wakes up in a frightened face saying that he had nightmares* His brother is like, “wHaT YoU dOInG?” He wakes up again and again. Then a creek of drips of water—that is one drip turned into a thousand.

His brother is laughing loudly and saying, “Look guys!” taking a video of him.

He is embarrassed when he is walking through his classes, all pointing at him and laughing and even doing it for real. Some people say he’s not normal, but his mom says that’s a good thing! One week of embarrassing and humiliating.

He wishes that he could live alone with monsters all around him. Waking up with silence, then again and again. So silent.

But his mom says, “It’s so boring.”

That’s what people say is so boring—living alone. He thinks he would be the luckiest kid if he lived alone. *Sighs* LUCK not real? Waking up, then: “Ahhh, luck is real!!” A monster is around. Then he is friends with a monster.

Happy ending. Ahhh. L O L :]. Ahh! That’s what he wants to happen. He is not dark though—he just likes to be alone from people because he knows himself, and if he actually does know himself, then that would be worse—to be related to humans or people.

Not that he cares. Not that he wants to be s-social-ab-le. Ugh. It’s harder to say than to do. He is confused because some people say it’s easier to say than do.

Ugh. He should not sleep if he wants to be p-op-ul-ar. Ugh. That’s way easier than that word. What was it …

Uhh, he forgot.

He doesn’t actually forget, but he doesn’t want to say it. He is alone. Why would he say it?

He guesses if he keeps talking to himself he will be OK and not fall to sleep. Though he doesn’t want to talk.

He just sits and listens to music, but that’s what makes him sleep.

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*Ring RiNG rInG* JEEZ, what’s that? Ohh, it’s his phone.

“What you want, Mika?”

Mika says, “What do you want, blue hair dude, Chets? I was wondering.”

She called him and asked him about what she wanted? That’s really stupid.

Mika says, “HI HeLLO cAN you HEaR me?” She says it loud—deep pain for his eardrum.

Chets says, “Yes, I can clearly hear you, blonde girl.”

Mika feels embarrassed and closes the line.

He laughs. *Evil laugh* She likes to call people and make fun of them, but not make fun of her. *RIng RIng RIng* OH THAT’S ANNOYING. WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS SMALL LITTLE TOUCHY THING? *SCREAMING MADLY* Oh, it’s the boss. The boss says in a deep scary voice, “Did you do your mission?”

He says nervously, “No sir, I will do it, but humans get in the way with their idiot brain.”

The boss smiles, not even a full one. “You’re going to get rid of them anyway, so you can take revenge,” giving scary eyes like he hates everyone.

He takes what he wants and does what he wants. But it’s true. He’s the most powerful one. He controls earth, water, fire, and air.

Chets can control people’s souls and can do what he wants. Not enough power.

Our world is starting to become idiot like humans, he thinks. We used to kill without mercy or joke too much, but now they’re so kind that I need new people to replace them.

“HEY DUDE, COME BACK!” His little brother is shouting for his dog.

The dog’s soul is saying, “God help me escape from this little dude.” *He smiles evily* But remember, if he kills anybody, he will not control his power, which makes his mission fail. He looks at the dog’s eyes. The dog scarcely came back, his body shaking from his eyes that were filled with hatred.

In school, a group of people are walking and they say hi to him. Chets is a nice looking dude with blue hair and baby blue eyes.

They say, “We are the popular ones who you want to join.”

He says nothing and walks like he doesn’t care, but he wants attention. But humans are weird. They understand that differently and take it as no, so they all think the thing to do is bullying. They start to make fun of his blue hair.

He also agrees that blue hair is weird. He just covers it. His boss has purple eyes, but not for nice or anything.

It’s for having so much power that he can’t control, so he covers his eyes so he can’t kill someone.

Chets wonders how he became his left arm helper. He is only fourtenn. He’s like . . . Uhh, what a drag. I don’t know what his age is. I mean, if I ask him he will be mad or maybe fire me.

Chets can teleport to school, but that’s not human stuff. *Teleports* Ohh my bad, I am just human enough, he thinks.

A random girl walks. “Hi.” Chets looks around. “Ma’am, you blind? There is no one except me and you.”

The girl feels embarrassed, and she says, “Y-o.. I am trying to talk to.”

“Ohh, to me. OK. What you need?”

“Uhh, can you tell me about yourself?”

“OK, hmm? I am fourteen years old. I live in . . . uhh, I forget. I’m Chets, a boy. I like listening to music.”

“Where would you go if you want to go?”

“Uhh, I would like to go back to my boss.”

She says, “Uhh what?”

“Sorry, I don’t want to go anywhere.”

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YOU COULD DO MAGICAL THINGS

*Puts hand in face and walks* In his mind: bruh, BRUH, what? Why would I tell her everything? BRUH—am I insane or what?

He bumps into a huge big dude. Five hundred pounds. In his mind—BRUH. He is like, “Dude, you blind?”

The big dude, his name is Koi. “Kind of blind. What you gonna do?”

People were laughing and Koi got embarrassed and said, “I’m gonna beat you.”

Chets laughs very badly. It scares the bones of the kids. He remembers to act weak and weird, so he runs and hides.

Talking to himself, he says, “What if he finds me? What should I do? Should I teleport to the other class or stay here above the lockers or in the bathroom?”

Before he says anything, the big five hundred pound boy says, “What about you stay here with me?”

Chets is like, “What a drag.”

The five hundred pound boy tries to pick him up but he can’t lift him. Then the bell rings. The boys go back to the class. Koi, the five hundred pound boy, is scared. He tells everybody. But nobody believes him.

Then the boss calls him and says, “Your mission is over. You have improved. You’re perfect to be the boss.”

But Chets says, “I don’t want to be the boss. I have not scared people that much. My mission was to scare humans and I’m not done.”

The boss laughs. Chets is afraid because if the boss laughs, it means you’re in trouble, so he decides to come back and be what his future tells him.

The boss tells him, “Why don’t you finish your mission?”

He said, “But you told me not to finish.”

“No, I didn’t.”

He teleports back, thinking about it, but he laughs. Why would he make me do that? Anyway, that five hundred pound dude is making me worry he did something. I don’t know what he did. I’m afraid of him telling the school about not being able to lift me.

Chets looks into his soul. Maybe I found out what he did, but I got to go to school first.

The girl sees him and says, “Hi.” He is confused. He is like, “What do you need?”

She says, “Well, I heard that Koi was not able to lift you, how your skin was stuck.”

In his mind, Alright, I don’t need to look in his soul. He already told them.

She laughs. “You’re failing your mission, buddy, so the boss sent me to do it for you.”

He is like, “But are you Jenny Lasno?”

She says, “Yep.” His eyes turn red. When his eyes turn red, it means that Sunkua is controlling him, and if Sunkua is controlling him, you should fear. Sunkua is stronger than the boss.

Sunkua said, “Long time, no see, huh old bud.”

She said, “You control this kid. I thought it’s better that he laughed. This kid isn’t a kid. He’s full of hatred and probably stronger than all of us,” she says. “Even you.”

She says, “Yep, when I went to him at sleep, he did not fear me. Instead, he laughed and said, ‘Get out,’ so I like the kid and now I’m inside of him.”

Jenny doesn’t laugh this time because she is confused and worried.

Chets says, “Times up.”

Sunkua saw bummers and despaired.

He says, “Don’t mess with me. If you gonna do my mission, then you have to face me.”

She runs. He dodges. She kicks him. He jumps, like he is reading her mind, knowing everything she is thinking of.

“Now what are you supposed to do?” Chets asks.

“To help you do the mission.”

He says, “Alright.” He puts his hand in his pocket and says, “Welcome to the earth, Jenny.”

“Can’t we just take people’s souls and create our own new earth or planet?”

“Nah, this is easy,” Chets says. “Why you standing there doing nothing? Hurry up.”

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She runs like a cheetah and faster than a cheetah. Jenny says, “We don’t. We just leave this earth and go to Mars, where there are no people.”

Chets says yes.

Empty Mars is empty. Jenny screams, “We don’t bring the boss!” *Calls to boss* “Hello, boss,” says Chets.

Sienna McClain, Age 9 Sienna Skye McClain is nine (almost ten) years old and currently lives in Northville, Michigan. She has a dog, a brother, a sister, a mom, and a dad. Sienna loves to read, write, draw, run, and bake cakes in Minecraft.

Bedridden Chapter one

Mental list of lifelong challenges: 1. Be stuck in your bed until you are ten—been there done that 2. Hang on a rope for twenty-four hours—did that last year Yeah, so I have been on the same twin bed my entire life. (It did expand to a queen when I became seven.) I have bookshelves closing in the space, and a rope hangs from the ceiling and drops down onto my bed. The rope is the only way to get to higher books. Books are the only thing that can keep me company (besides the phone I got when I was five).

I learned to read before I came here, but I don’t remember. The only other thing I can do is jump on my bed, and climb the rope. But then there is everything you can do on a phone too. But only since I was five. There is also this gold book, that I write what I need in.

And today was my tenth birthday. I decided that I need a bigger room. And I wrote, “floor”. The next morning, I woke up and there was a floor. There was not much to do here still, so I climbed up to book lair 583 and grabbed a book before I slid down the rope with my special climbing gloves, which I got when I turned seven.

The book was about as thick as Harry Potter. It was about a kingdom and how it progresses as it makes alliances with other kingdoms. When the kingdom starts, there are no people, but soon some come, most of them under a powerful spell that can only be un-done with a very special splash potion. But others are just wandering villagers that are given homes and a job.

A week flew by, and I read this book with no breaks except for when I slept, ate, and drank (and an occasional rope climb to stretch my legs). I finished the book, climbed up to book lair 583, and grabbed the 5,839th book I have ever read.

But when I pulled the book out, I fell onto ground right underneath me that was not there before.

“Hi, can I help you?” someone asked.

I scrambled away from the strange thing, then the thought hit me, I have to make it to the outside world. But can I survive?

To be continued . . .

22

YOU COULD DO MAGICAL THINGS

Playing with My Brother “No! Lance, give it back. It’s mine!” I scream as I tear my book from his hands.

“No, it’s not!” Lance yells.

“You don’t even like to read!” I shout back.

“But it’s mine!” he screams in return.

I run around the house with Endling in my hands.

Wait, let me tell you how we got here. By the way, my name is Sienna. It all started when I was nicely reading in my room . . . all of a sudden . . . Lance comes in and tears the book from my hands and shouts, “Hey, that’s my book!”

“No, it’s not!” I shout.

“Is to!”

“It’s mine,” I wail. “Reading is my thing!” I chase him and take the book from his hands.

He rips it from mine.

“No! Lance, give it back. It’s mine!” I scream as I tear my book from his hands.

“No, it’s not!” Lance yells.

“You don’t even like to read!” I shout back.

“But it’s mine!” he screams in return.

I run around the house with Endling in my hands. “Mom, Dad! Lance is trying to steal my book!”

“It’s mine,” Lance growls.

“Lance never got Endling!” I wail, throwing my hands down at my sides.

Mom shakes her head. “Lance, the book is Sienna’s.”

I make sure Mom is not looking when I glance over and stick my tongue out at him.

That is how we play: he plays brotherly and I play along, though I often beat him at his own game. (And he always beats me at mine.) Funny, right?

Tanushka Ramani, Age 10 Tanushka, age 10, lives in Ann Arbor/Woodland Hills. She likes to write because in writing, you can create a new world and new things. You can make up something that is your favorite thing or place. In addition to writing, she enjoys reading.

Demigods and Greek gods inspire Tanushka’s writing. She would like to live in a world where demigods are real and Greek gods are true, a world with silly things like cotton candy in ice cream, and a world with important stuff like her dream of being a veterinarian coming true with studies and hard work.

Annabeth and Reyna’s Journey to the Bluestone This story starts with Camp Half Blood and the secret about the demigods and Olympians. Oh right, I have to introduce myself. My name is Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena, goddess of wisdom. I have curly blonde hair, gray eyes, and most of the time wear a Camp Half Blood t-shirt.

So, anyways, about that secret: you better tell no one because it’s true. Demigods and Olympians are real!!!!!

I know, super-shocking; some of you don’t believe it, but they are, you just wait and see until you get a glimpse of all the training (not kidding).

I’m training right now with my activities director Chiron.

“You’ve gotten really strong, Annabeth. I’m proud.” Chiron said with a smile.

Now I know that you think Chiron is just an old guy, but he is a centaur half-human, half-horse. That’s the kind

WRITING A NEW WORLD | SUMMER 2021

23

of species in Camp Half Blood.

“Thanks, Chiron. My cabin and I practiced all week. I can’t wait to fight real monsters.” I was nervous when I said monsters. Uhh, right.

We were interrupted by a new camper—black straight hair, not curly like mine, brown eyes, and dirty clothes, almost like another friend of mine, Piper Mclean. Chiron told me to show her around.

“Hi, I’m Annabeth, what’s your name?” I said with confidence.

“Hi Annabeth My name is Reyna”.

“I’m from Athena Cabin, cabin six. Athena is the goddess of wisdom” I said.

“Oh, I’ve learnt all about the Olympians and demigods but never thought it was true,” she said with curiosity.

“Ya well, you’ll probably find out who your God parent is tonight in the campfire. That’s the arena where all demigods fight. You’ll get used to fighting. Don’t worry, we dont fight people,” I said.

“Thanks for the information, but I don’t think I have any reason to be worried,” Reyna said calmly.

“Let me show you to the cabins,” I said as I led her to the cabins.

As soon as we got there, she said, “Why are they arranged in a ‘U’ shape?”

“I don’t know,” I said. “The big house is where we do the meetings and these smaller ones are named Athena, Hermes, Hera, Aphrodite, Apollo, Artemis, Poseidon, Zeus, Hades, Dionysus, Hephaestus, and Hestia, where we are placed,” I explained.

In each cabin there’s a symbol in the front door, like Hephaestus has a fire symbol in the front door.

“Cool, but one question: why does the Hera cabin not have any campers?” she asked.

“Well, not really. Hera is married to Zeus and the big three are not supposed to have kids, so if Zeus doesn’t then Hera doesn’t.” I replied.

Then finally on the tour we climbed to Half Blood Hill, where you can get a view of the entire camp.

“Wow, this is so beautiful. I can see everything from here,” Reyna said, shocked.

“Ya, I know right. Well, we better get down. We have to get to the campfire now,” I said, and we started climbing down.

At the campfire, everyone took their usual spots. Reyna sat next to me.

Chiron began talking. “This year, a magical item has been stolen from the Gods. It symbolizes us all. If we don’t find it, we will go into chaos. ” No one said a word. I think they were a bit scared or worried.

“And the object is a drachma. Tomorrow three people will have to go to the island in the Bluestone ocean. The drachma should be located there. I know this because a superhero named Arrow came down from Crisis warning me.” After he finished everyone started talking in whispers.

Then something happened. Reyna was summoned by her mom, Bellone, the goddess of war.

Chiron bent down and said, “All hail the daughter of Bellone, the goddess of war, Reyna.” Everyone repeated it.

After that, we chose who would get the quest and the decision came: “It’s Annabeth, she knows a lot of stuff and she knows all about the Bluestone!” yelled one of the Ares cabin mates. Right then, the oracle (Rachel Elizabeth Dare) broke out in a prophecy: “The daughter of Bellone shall pick the quest.

The owl shall rise on the brink of death.

The two shall go and come back as one, they shall close the magic combined.

Fire and storms rack again Camp Half Blood shall fall and fall until they restore the magic of them all.’’

When Rachel finished, she collapsed. A couple of Apollo campers came to pick her up. I was shaking so bad I couldn’t even raise my hand.

Then Reynna said, “Well, it’s my quest and the owl is the sign of Athena, so someone from the Athena cabin?”

Chiron looked at my cabin and then said, “Well, that’s true, but who?”

Then I said, “Well, it’s Reyna’s choice.”

Reyna thought. “I think it’s you Annabeth.’’

I felt nervous and shocked that she chose me. “Me? OK, I guess.”

24

YOU COULD DO MAGICAL THINGS

‘’Well, I guess you both should go and pack. You will have to have some good rest too. The Bluestone is far, far away,” Chiron grumbled.

In the morning I felt the cold misty air and it smelled fresh. I wasn’t excited to go to the Bluestone because I’ve heard stories that the islands are guarded by the Kaleidoscope monster and that her skin is more than one color.

At Half Blood Hill, I saw Reyna and Chiron getting the car ready. If I haven’t mentioned before, Argus, a teenager, had to drive us to the bus stop so a bus could take us to the beach.

Once everything was packed for our quest, Chiron said, “Good luck on your quest, Annabeth. I know you and Reyna will do an amazing job.”

I found that hard to believe. With only two girls with no powers we’ll be crossing the River Styx (in the underworld) in a matter of seconds.

Then we hopped on the car and rode off to the Bluestone. When we reached the bus stop, the only thing we saw were mists. Argus dropped us off and we were waiting for the bus to come for almost ten minutes and it started to drizzle.

“So have you been on any other quests with anyone else?” asked Reyna.

“Well, yeah. With my best friend,” I said. “Here comes the bus. Let’s get on,” I calmly said.

When we got on, we gave the bus driver the tickets and then we saw a two-person seat and sat there. I was reading a book about the Bluestone to see if there were any things we hadn’t heard of, and Reyna took notes.

The bus ride wasn’t bad; no monsters attacked, no fighting and no losing our money.

As soon as we got off the bus, we went to a corner where no one was there and we saw our ride to the Bluestone: a submarine.

“OMG, is that a submarine?!” Reyna said with excitement.

“I think it is, I guess this is our ticket to the Bluestone,” I surprisingly said.

We went inside and I sat in the captain’s chair.

Reyna sat beside me. “OK, this is cool and all, but I don’t know if I can steer a submarine. But I’ll try my best, and if I’m not a good driver you will come and try to steer right?”

I said, “Sure, but I may not be able to steer.”

“If I steer, the only thing we will see is our doom,” she said.

I laughed. “Come on, you’re not that bad,” I said, and she gave me one of those looks.

I rolled my eyes and started driving the submarine. It wasn’t bad. I drove smoothly and with no pressure.

“I never thought you would be a good submarine driver, no offense” said Reyna.

“None taken. I never thought I would be a good submarine driver either,” I said.

After a few hours, we landed at the island. Chiron never mentioned this and the book didn’t either, that in the island was the castle of kings and queens. We didn’t know who they were, but they must have been living a rich life.

“OK, so we have to get the drachma from inside the castle, but we cannot let anyone see us. So, any ideas?” I said, looking nervous because of the troll guard with their muscles, breath, and ugly.

“I have no clue.”

Right then, a pack of trolls headed their way through the forests. We were also in the forest. We hid in a bush and heard the trolls talking about the queen of the castle, Hedia. Looks like she was planning on having a big dinner with all the people of the island and trolls who had helped her get the drachma.

I got an idea. I knocked out the trolls and told Reyna the plan.

“So what we could do is pretend to be two trolls coming back from whatever, then at dinner, one of us gets the drachma and we leave!”

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25

Reyna was fine with the plan, and she said, “Sounds like a good plan. We better get changed into our costumes before Hedia sees us.”

We got into our costumes and then walked toward the entrance of the castle. We were both nervous, but we didn’t need to be because three trolls in the entrance greeted us in a boy-ish way.

“Hey, what’s up, brah?” said one of the trolls, and then put Reyna’s head in his chest and patted. Another one did the same with mine, and Reyna and I said “Good, brah?” then patted their heads. They didn’t seem to like it, but they let us in.

The castle was beautiful. It wasn’t a kingdom, just a castle with bulky trolls in the front. The castle had all kinds of pictures of Hedia and her, well, troll family.

When we entered the main hall, we saw Hedia in a white silk dress looking at maps in her castle. She saw us and said, “Well, my trolls are back, so how was the trip?”

“Ummm, ya, it went good,” I grumbled.

She gave me a look and said “Well, that sounds good. OK, so I have plans for tonight’s dinner. I’m going to bring the drachma after we all have the feast that the kitchen is preparing for us. Then after dinner we will bring the drachma, and together put it in the treasure chest so the Olympians and demigods will be in no harmony.”

Reyna said in her troll voice, “That’s a good plan, and where is the drachma and the treasure chest?”

The queen looked at her and said, “Well it’s in the dungeons of course. Have you really forgotten all that?”

Then I saved both of us and said, “Well, no, we went on the trip and forgot a little.”

Hedia looked worried and told us to do a job, and that job was to go to the kitchen and tell the chefs the meal they have to cook. She even gave me a scroll. You won’t believe it, but the chefs were trolls too!!!

Reyna whispered in my ear, “I can’t believe this, but the only family Hedia has is trolls.’’

I pulled out the scroll and started to read. It was so long. After we came out of the kitchen, it was a relief, because the kitchen smelled so bad!!!! Me and Reyna did not know what to do, so we went over the plan.

“So, in the middle of dinner both of us go to the dungeon and get the drachma right?” Reyna said in her normal voice.

“Yep, but what if the plan goes wrong?”

But it was too late for Reyna to respond.

Hedia announced that all the trolls in the castle were to come for the feast to celebrate. I was so scared. The whole room was filled with trolls and Bulky troll guards. We were all having dinner. It was so loud.

Then in the middle, Reyna and I said, “We have to go to the bathroom. We’ll be back soon.”

No troll suspected anything, nor did Hedia. We both went to the dungeon, and the troll I knocked out had the keys to the dungeon, but a huge big hairy dog (Cerberus) was guarding the door. I had no idea how to get past him.

“What do we do?”

Then I saw a paper in Reyna’s pocket. She rolled it up into a ball, then stood in front of Cerberus. “Come on boy, I’ll throw the ball and you catch it.”

The dog jumped, caught the ball, and threw it back to Reyna. The dog kept drooling on the ball, but Reyna didn’t care.

“Go get the drachma before everyone finds out we are demigods,” said Reyna.

I got the drachma and we headed back to the dinner. Reyna looked sad, like she missed Cerberus.

It was a relief that we could get the drachma. If we couldn’t, then we would be toast, and I wouldn’t want that.

When we came back it was time for the ceremony. Everyone gathered around like a crowd in a Justin Beiber concert. As Hedia brought the cart, me and Reyna slowly backed away so the crowd wouldn’t notice us. But then we heard a loud scream.

“Where is it!!!!!!!!!! Which one of you took it?” Every troll argued, so it made it easy for me and Reyna to leave.

As we almost got out of the main hall, Hedia said, “Wait a minute. Those two trolls went to go to the bathroom and they were the only trolls who left. But why would they want to get the drachma? But if you want the drachma, then you are demigods! GET THEM!” She pointed at us and everyone came at us like zombies.

“RUN!” I shouted at Reyna, and we ran left, right.

We didn’t even know where we were going. I read all kinds of books about castles, but I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw a vent! I didn’t believe it, but I opened the vent and Reyna jumped in, then I did.

26

YOU COULD DO MAGICAL THINGS

The vent didn’t smell great. It was so small for both of us. We could see the crowd of trolls on the ground by us. We hurried and were way ahead of them. We both broke a part of the vent to get out, and it was the pond in the back. I didn’t even know there was a pond and a vent. It was a crazy castle.

Me and Reyna ran faster than ever.

“I can’t run any more. I need a break,” she uttered.

I have to admit, I felt sorry for both of us.

“OK, here’s what we do. You can keep taking a break, and we both get attacked by trolls. Arrow won’t be the only one coming down from Crisis,” I sarcastically said.

She rolled her eyes, and we kept running. Finally we got to our submarine. We got on, but oh no. The trolls tried to get into the submarine. I blocked the doors.

“Reyna, you need to steer it. Quick!” I yelled.

“I don’t know how to steer this thing!!!!!” she noted.

“Try, you need to. If you’re a bad driver, maybe it will shake the trolls off,” I said.

She took a deep breath and started the engine. She shook us so much I kinda felt sick. I was holding onto a chair, so not the safest move letting her drive, but it worked, and the trolls got washed away.

After a few minutes, I got back up and into the captain’s seat. It was too late. We were floating. I couldn’t start the submarine. It just wouldn’t start.

“We are kids. HOW ARE WE GOING TO FIX THE ENGINE?” Reyna panicked.

“It’s fine, I’ll call for help,” I said calmly, even if I was so worried!!!!

I tried to get a radio or anything to Chiron and the camp but nothing. “OK, let’s try sending an Iris message to Chiron. Any drachmas?”

She looked into her pocket but nothing.

Then I said, “OK, I’m FREAKING OUT!” We both were so worried about what to do and the submarine didn’t have a lifeboat—then a blur of red.

I don’t know, but two people were standing in front of us: a woman with ice powers, and a man with speed.

“Please don’t hurt us, are you those thieves who steal kidneys?” Reyna said. “Please don’t steal my kidney. Or are you those people who wipe memories? Did you wipe my memories? But how do I still remember you?” she panicked, pointing at me.

Then I said, “Sorry about my friend. She is going crazy being here for a long time, but don’t hurt us.” Then, I realized they were superheroes.

“We are not going to hurt you, OK? This is Frost and I am the Flash, and we are going to help you.” the Flash said, and then asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Annabeth and this is Reyna. Quick question, can you see my knife?” I said.

Then they looked at each other and said, “Of course I can. Now let’s get out of this submarine.”

Flash and Frost took us both into land. Frost used her ice powers to create a slide, and Flash ran in water!

“Can you guys give us a moment and not go anywhere?”

“OK.” I told Reyna about them being able to see through mist because they can see my dagger, then I asked them for help.

“So, you want us to take you on Long Island Road. I guess we’ll do it?” Then they took us there in a flash.

We said our goodbyes and asked them one more question.

“How did you find us?” I said.

“We have a map of Central City (where we live), and I saw you guys in the map.” After that little chat, they zoomed away.

We walked for about two miles to get to Camp Half Blood. Chiron and the others rushed over to see the drachma. That night at the campfire, we tossed the drachma into the fire, and it was placed in Olympus.

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Cameron Green-Price, Age 13 Cameron, age 13, lives in Detroit. He likes to write because it helps him. In addition to writing, he enjoys drama.

He would like to live in a world where there is not a lot of chaos.

Wolves and Hunters Joirden: “You guys, you guys. I have some bad news. While Mom was hunting for prey for us, I heard she got taken by the hunters.”

Jada: “Oh no, what are we going to do?”

“I have an idea,” Reyna said. “We’re gonna go find her before the hunters kill her and take her back to the cave for healing so we can heal her if she’s hurt.

Joirden and Jada agreed.

Meanwhile . . .

Cameron: “Well, we caught a big wolf today. Very angry, but now we can make clothes out of it and make tons of money.”

Corey: “Nah, I would rather just put her in the zoo and find her cubs and put them next to her.”

Cameron: “OK, fine. Let’s do it then!”

Back with the wolves . . .

Wolves: “Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Mommmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! Mommmmmmmmmmm!”

Jada: “You guys find her?”

Reyna: “Nope, no sign of her.”

Joirden: “Guys, I have a plan. I see one of the hunters’ ripped shirts. I can track them down with my scent from my nose and we can find Mom.” Reyna and Jada: “You’re right, why did we not think of that?”

Joirden sniffs the hunter’s ripped shirt, “I got the scent. OK, let’s go get our mom back.”

In the meantime, while the cubs are trying to find their mother, the hunters are also looking for them.

Hunters: “I see them.”

Wolves: “I see them.”

Hunters: “OK, be careful. We don’t wanna scare them.”

Wolves: “Here they come. Get ready to attack and get our mom back. Chargeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!”

Hunters: “OMG THEY’RE COMING. PULL OUT YOUR WEAPONS! FIREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!” Joirden bleeds.

Joirden: “Guys I— I think I’ve been shot. Don’t worry about me. Get our mom back, and if I die, tell her I love her.”

Jada: “Noooooooooooooooo! Reyna, let’s avenge our brother and get our mom.”

Cameron: “Runnnn, Corey, runnnnnnnnnnn!”

Reyna: “Oh no you don’t.”

She kills Corey and Cameron.

Makyla/Mom: “Omg, thank you so much for coming all this way to save me. You guys could have been hurt, but thank you.”

Jada: “We have something to tell you. In the fight, Joirden got shot and has now passed away. He wanted me to say he loves you.”

Makyla sobs.

Makyla: “I’m gonna miss him. I love him, too. R.I.P Joirden.” :(

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Collaborative Stories: Cameron, Manoj, Heaven, Nia, & Ian Behind the Glass Once upon a time, gingerbread people were imprisoned in glass cases for display by an evil baker. The gingerbread people were going to be sold and eaten. After many years of gingerbreads suffering, one gingerbread decided to stand up after seeing her people imprisoned. She decided to free her people.

This gingerbread’s name was Lily. Lily aspired to be the first gingerbread hero. A lot of gingerbread people told Lily that she couldn’t be a superhero. Other gingerbreads had tried to escape but had failed.

Lily decided to get the tray that she was forged on and used it to fall down and hide in the cabinets. Lily got very scared hiding in the dark, eerie cabinets and noticed a letter. The letter was from the evil baker’s brother.

It said he is going to sell the gingerbreads so he can make a lot of money. Lily was surprised because she thought the baker was the only one involved with the gingerbread, but now she knew the brother is too.

She noticed that the letter was recently opened and then heard loud crying. Eventually, she went to investigate.

Lily, being very paranoid about the crying, followed a trail of gingerbread crumbs to find a gingerbread resistance group.

Lily saw a candy campfire with the gingerbread resistance group having a daily meeting. Lily eavesdropped and heard the resistance group talking about how to free the gingerbread people.

Lily walked up to the resistance group members and said, “Hi! How are you doing? My name is Lily. Can I join your group? I want to free the gingerbread people, too.”

The resistance group was suspicious about Lily. They decided that they did not want to add any more members and rejected Lily’s request.

“But the gingerbread are imprisoned,” Lily said.

“We know. We’ve been trying to get them out for a long time.”

“I would like to have a team to assist me in saving the encased.”

The gingerbread group still wanted to know more reasons that Lily wanted to join, and they explained more about their group so she knew what she was getting into. The group finally decided to invite Lily after a long team thought process. The group would proceed with their plan in the morning.

The next morning, they found that the baker locked the cabinet door, so Lily found a toothpick to unlock it.

Since it was finally morning, the baker got his first customer of the day. The group heard the two talking and the team knew it was best to execute the plan. The baker was going to go get the gingerbread out.

Lily charged towards the front of the bakery—she needed to tell the resistance to hurry before the baker opened the case! The group decided to use the supplies around them to build something to destroy the glass box. They had wood, metal trays, and matches in the case with them, so one of the gingerbread people, a craftsperson, made blueprints so they could build sledgehammers.

They used the wood and metal to build gingerbread-sized sledgehammers and used the matches in the display case to set them on fire before using them to break open the glass in the case!

When the case broke, the other gingerbread people inside decided to help the resistance to escape. They collected as much sugar as they could and put it in the baker and the customer’s drinks. When the baker and his customer both drank, all the sugar made them fall asleep, so the gingerbread people could escape.

Lily and the resistance released all of the gingerbread people before they were sold! Now, they all live together in a tiny gingerbread hut in a gingerbread complex surrounded by other gingerbread homes.

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Collaborative Stories: Elona, Ariana, Tanushka, Gabriel, Leah, & Laila D. Andrick and the Magic War My name is Andrick, and I woke up in my cottage by the sea to another morning of yelling, loud bursts of magic, and colorful explosions. I look in the mirror, my grey eyes half open, scratching my orange beard, smelling the briny ocean outside and hearing the waves crashing on the cliffs below. This is day 536 of the captain’s log and we still have not been triumphant in battle. I decide to walk outside and do my best to help the warlocks in this never-ending fight.

As I walk over to the looming structure, I see my friend General Payton getting off her boat. The General came back with another troop. General Payton is a tall woman with blonde, shoulder length hair. She has a round face with violet eyes. She’s wearing a sailor’s suit that is ripped up a little bit.

I run up to her and ask, “Is the war getting better overseas, General?”

General Payton had attacked the elves at a meeting.

“Not exactly,” she says in a gruff voice. “The elves are out of commission. When I took my troop there, we took all of the elf queens’s and kings’s—” Without finishing her sentence, General Payton looks over at someone and says something. Suddenly, a colorful and sparkling tornado comes over the ocean. There is a glint in the tornado that reminds the warlocks of the past. It smells dusty.

The General and Andrick exchange a glance and dash to the laboratory.

The laboratory is a small, isolated dome in the woods on the outskirts of the warlocks’s village. Inside is a large room with wood floors. It’s like a library with concrete tables and empty wooden shelves. There are mobiles on the ceiling. It’s a cold room. It’s very dusty.

Andrick and the General scour the shelves. They find a book that can help save the war. A gust of wind flips the book open to a page containing a powerful spell to harness the wind and conjure a portal into the past.

General Payton says, “This is it. This is the book.”

Andrick responds, “Shall we try it? It’s a lot to process, but it could work.”

Andrick then tries to make the portal. Purple, red, and green light flicker and light up the library. A yellowish-green, swirling portal fills the library. General Payton and Andrick feel themselves being pulled closer and closer to the portal. The whole library flickers and flashes, then everything in the library is still.

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Collaborative Stories: Sienna, Laila M., Keyaira, Hillary, & Rihito The Japanese Toad There once were some teenagers who moved to Tokyo with their parents. They were staying in a hotel until they could move into their new house, and they found a toad in their hotel room for no reason. They decided to carry the toad outside. One of them, Angel, went to pick up the toad, and as soon as she touched it, it turned into a man.

“Ahhhh!” screamed the kids.

“Thank you,” the man said. “I came inside because I thought I saw a blue slug in the laundry, and I had a sudden craving for blue slugs, so I jumped in and got carried into the hotel.”

“How did you get turned into a toad?!?!?!? And how did you turn back into a man?!?!?!?!? And what are you?!?!?!?!?” asked the kids with wide frightened eyes and a surprised look on their faces.

“I’m not a man, I’m a toad spirit. By the way, do you want to visit a famous castle with cool gods?” said the toad spirit.

“Sure,” said the kids.

“Since you guys made me turn into a human, you have to help me get a magic crystal. We have twenty-four hours to find the crystal, or you’ll all turn into toads as well.”

“Can we have some proof?” the kids asked.

The toad spirit made a swarm of flies suddenly appear.

“How do we know that you made the flies appear? They could have just flown in!”

Then the toad spirit splashed a potion on the kids that made their voices higher.

“Stop this now!” one kid said.

Another kid said, “Let’s bully him to get started!”

“We should help him find the crystal,” the other kid said.

“I have a map with the places you will go to look,” said the toad spirit. “In all the places, there is a key. When you get to the last place, there is a puzzle to connect all the keys with, and then out pops the crystal.”

They had to bear-crawl through a snake tunnel and find a key. The second place was a muddy river that they had to search through. The third place was a booby-trapped house, and along the way they lost some people because they got booby-trapped or stuck. Now, they had to depend on the last kid, Angel, to get to the final place.

The last place was a puzzle tower where you had to step on a certain stair or the others would fall all down.

Angel was terrified, but she remembered what would happen if she didn’t do it. She was shaking and felt weak and fidgety. She remembered she had five minutes left to get to the top of the tower, or her friends would turn into toads.

She got to the top of the tower with five seconds left and did the puzzle to get the crystal, but she didn’t know how to get back to the toad to give him the crystal. She panicked and panicked and then heard a sound. It was her friends and the toad spirit at the bottom of the tower! They remembered that the toad had spells, and he cast a spell to get her down.

The man used a magical crystal to take them to a castle filled with gods and goddesses.

But the gods and goddesses didn’t like tourists and wanted them to leave their castles. They hated tourists, loved tourist-free places, were very self-absorbed, and thought they were the best.

They looked like whatever they wanted to look like. Most of them didn’t do anything except bless the people they liked, and they could cause a lot of trouble for the people that didn’t respect them. They wanted everything, to have the world at their knees and for people to make sacrifices to them again. They also wanted the tourists to get out of their castles so they could be left alone.

When they saw the gods and goddesses for the first time, the kids saw a radish spirit that looked like a giant radish with arms and legs, and a giant chicken spirit that looked like a giant chicken.

The kids looked on GPS and found a tall, abandoned skyscraper that wasn’t being used. It had modern-day WRITING A NEW WORLD | SUMMER 2021

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gadgets inside like computers and cellphones that had somehow been left behind. So they told the gods and goddesses about it, and they thought it was cool.

“Our castle is way out of date!” the gods and goddesses said. “I can’t believe we missed this new era!” They were very interested in all the technology they found inside of the skyscraper.

The gods and goddesses moved into the skyscraper, and, using their new technology, they each made a Facebook page for themselves and started a company that made a card game with Japanese god and goddess figurines. Whenever the gods and goddesses sold the card game, they felt like people were making a sacrifice to them.

The gods and goddesses lived happily with their new business. The kids asked the magic crystal to take them back to their home, where they learned to speak Japanese and discovered that they liked to eat seaweed salad. Every time they played the god and goddess card game and played the toad spirit card, the toad spirit appeared and helped them win the game.

Collaborative Stories: Omniah, Noah, Ai, & Lanaejah The Never-ending Dream A kid was sleeping and started dreaming about monsters. He realized he was stuck in the dream. He was attached to his dream! He was so deep in his dream that he couldn’t wake up.

The real world became his nightmare. He doesn’t like the real world. Although the kid didn’t know it yet, the monsters were in his dream because that’s how he thought about people. He liked the imaginary world because once he noticed his power, he could control it. He could make monsters, and sometimes he could get the monsters to listen to him.

The monsters he created were black and had red eyes and a white mouth. The monsters were very big and very tall and they had claws. They were like shadows. Some were strong—they could throw people. Not only were there strong monsters, but there were also other powerless monsters. They couldn’t throw people, but they were able to walk through them.

His brother was in the dream, but he was a monster. He thought of his brother as a monster. Whenever he thought of a person as a monster, that person turned into a monster in his dream. His brother was a mean person and loved messy things way too much. Unlike the brother, the kid was always the popular one.

There were lots of monsters around, and the kid couldn’t figure out which one was his brother because they couldn’t speak. The scientist began to fight off the monsters one by one, trying to run away until he could get out of the dream.

The kid finally managed to get out of the dream, but he wanted to go back. His desire to go back came from realizing that the real world was much worse than his dream. The kid discovered how to go back to the dream, but a monster had broken the invention that allowed the kid to go back into the dream. Now he was fully stuck in the real world!

The next day, he went off to school and met the kid scientist. The kid then realized there are some very similar things between both of them.

Somebody in the school yelled out, “Books aren’t helpful. Books are weirdos!”

The kid scientist screamed loudly.

The kid realized that the kid scientist had been in the same dream as him, but he didn’t want to mention it. The kid decided he would spy on the kid scientist.

He then decided to trap the kid scientist in a very dark room. The scientist was scared. He began to explain the truth about how he traveled between the real world and the dream.

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The kid scientist mixed a bunch of potions and accidentally spilled some on himself, sending him back to the dream! The scientist was blocking his view when he was sent back to the dream, so the kid didn’t know what potion had this power.

The kid started studying the potions to figure out which one would send him to the dream world because he felt sorry for the scientist and wanted to use a potion to bring him back. The kid figured out which potion sent the scientist to the dream, and he found the one that would bring them back to the real world.

He poured a little bit of the dream-sending potion on himself and grabbed the bottle that would bring them back. The kid cannot find the scientist in the dream world. Even though there were a bunch of monsters all over the place, he went to look for the scientist!

A monster found the kid and trapped him. Meanwhile, the scientist roamed somewhere else, and unknowingly found the monster that trapped the kid. The scientist thought the monster was strange, so he followed the monster around. He realized that the monster had the kid trapped! The monster walked away as the scientist came to this realization.

The scientist decided he wanted to save the kid from the monster. He helped the kid escape, and the monster walked away.

He said, “These monsters are random. They’re not human.”

As he walked, the kid saw a necklace wrapped around the white-and-red-spotted monster’s neck. The necklace was a family thing, so they knew each other. The kid felt like the scientist was lying.

He recognized this old necklace and realized the monsters were people he knew and didn’t like.

He thought that if he stayed like this, it would not be good. Monsters would be chasing him. If he went out into the real world though, he would see the people they were every time.

The scientist gave him an idea. “Go out into the real world and out into the neighborhood. Look around at all the people.”

“Why?” the kid asked.

“It’s a secret. Just go!”

The scientist already knew the monsters in the dream were the people the kid knew and didn’t like. If the kid went back into the neighborhood, he would see how nice the people actually were! The kid always judged people just by looking at them.

The kid decided to go back to the real world, but while he was thinking, a monster ate the scientist!

He ran away from the monster, who was white and was smiling at him. The kid ran into his dad, who died when he was fighting in the army. His dad was a different kind of monster.

His dad said, “You can’t run away forever. You need to find the monster who ate the scientist. If you can’t do that, don’t waste time. You can become a scientist. Or you can just remember something about this monster, how he’s acting, because those are people who are close to you. If you recognize who these monsters are, you can think of something good about them to make all the monsters disappear.”

The dad looked at the kid and said, “You know what? Just hide forever. That’s easy. I once hid from your mom forever. Here, I’ll give you food and water forever.”

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About 826michigan 826michigan inspires school-aged students to write with skill and confidence in collaboration with adult volunteers in their communities.

Our writing and tutoring programs uphold a culture of creativity and imagination and support students in establishing strong habits of mind. Through publication and community engagement, we provide students with an authentic and enthusiastic audience for their writing.

Our programs provide an energizing creative outlet for students and meaningful volunteer opportunities for community members. We believe that with one-on-one attention from caring adults, students improve their academic performance, develop a sense of belonging, and discover the unique value of their voices.

We also believe that the more fun a student has, and the more directly we speak to a student’s interests, the more we can help students find the fun in learning. That’s why our programs are more than just extra homework. All of our programs are challenging and enjoyable, and ultimately strengthen each student’s power to express ideas effectively, creatively, confidently, and in their individual voice.

ONLINE LEARNING LAB In the spring of 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we quickly transitioned all of our programs online. Our priority is to ensure the safety of our community, while continuing to offer engaging, high-quality opportunities to students. Each of our main programs—Schoolwork Support, Workshops, Field Trips, and In-school Projects—has been reimagined for the virtual space as part of our new Online Learning Lab. For the 2021-22 school year, our programs will remain virtual. When is it safe to return to our in-person programs, we plan to continue to offer virtual program opportunities as well!

SCHOOLWORK SUPPORT The program formerly-known as tutoring has been given an updated name, but the same great foundations remain. We organize trained volunteer tutors to work with students one-on-one with their homework after school. Schoolwork Support is available for all subjects, for students ages 8-18. Generally, we offer this program at three locations: at our Liberty Street Lab in Ann Arbor, at the Michigan Avenue Branch of the Ypsilanti District Library, and at our Winder Street Lab in Detroit’s Eastern Market, though in-person programs are on pause this year. We have added a Virtual Schoolwork Support program. Students are paired with two tutors to work on assignments for school and writing projects of their choosing.

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WORKSHOPS We offer a number of free workshops taught by professional artists, writers, and our talented volunteers. From comic books to screenplays, bookmaking to radio, our wide variety of workshops are perfect for writers of all ages and interests. One of the most popular workshops we offer is our weekly Wee-bots program for elementary-aged writers.

IN-SCHOOL PROJECTS Our trained volunteers go into local public schools every day to support teachers with their classroom writing assignments. Based on the teacher’s curriculum, assignments range from writing tales to crafting college essays to exploring poetry. In addition, we hold regular Writers Clubs, in which small groups of students are able to work on a writing project over the course of a semester, culminating in a publication. We also partner with schools to hold Family Writing Labs: laughter-filled events in which families to come together and participate in an evening of engaging writing activities and community connection.

FIELD TRIPS Always full of surprises and theatrics (and usually a visit from our crotchety editor, Dr. Blotch), our Field Trip program is an experiential writing extravaganza. We welcome teachers to bring their classes in for field trips during the school day. Students join a group of volunteers, interns, and staff to help solve a problem through writing—whether that is Dr. Blotch’s insomnia, our looming story deadline, a mystery in need of solving, or one of the many others we encounter. Our field trips always end in a finished publication of original writing that students take home. Often the field trip writing is connected to a second leg of the students’ journey, whether a trip to a museum, library, or local record label, thanks to our many incredible community partners.

OUR STORES Our Robot Supply Co. stores are one-stop shops for robots, robot owners, and enthusiasts alike. They are designed to inspire creativity and bring awareness of our programs to the community. When it is safe to do so again, come visit the Ann Arbor Robot Supply Co. at 115 East Liberty Street in downtown Ann Arbor and the Detroit Robot Supply Co. at 1351 Winder Street in Eastern Market in Detroit. In the meantime, please visit the Robot Supply Co. at onwardrobots.com. All proceeds from our stores directly fund our free student programming. Onward robots!

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826 National was inspired to take a stand on issues of inclusion and diversity in light of the many events that spotlighted social and racial injustices throughout the country. We as educators, volunteers, and caring adults need to be aware of the wide range of issues our students face on a day-to-day basis. We need to support these young people as they navigate through and try to make sense of the world and their own identities.

We need the support and the feedback from our community to ensure 826 is living up to these standards.

Through our inclusion statement, our internal diversity and inclusion group, cultural competency resources provided to staff and volunteers, and partnerships with other organizations, we are always working towards being a more inclusive and supportive organization.

We at 826 have the privilege of working with the next generation of scholars, teachers, doctors, artists, lawyers, and writers. It's our job to make sure they are able to take their own stands.

As an organization committed to encouraging youth in their creative expression, personal growth, and academic success, 826 National and its chapters recognize the importance of diversity at all levels and in all aspects of our work. In order to build and maintain the safe, supportive 826 environment in which great leaps in learning happen, we commit ourselves to inclusion: we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, ethnicity, age, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, nationality, marital status, English fluency, parental status, military service, or disability.

The 826 National network is committed to encouraging youth to express themselves and to use the written word to effectively do so. We encourage our students to write, take chances, make decisions, and finish what they start.

And 826 strives to do this in an environment free from discrimination and exclusion.

by Gerald Richards, CEO

WRITING IS

A way to figure things out by ourselves

We create a safe place to be ourselves and try new things We support the ways that writers work (like thinking, sketching, talking) We study the writing we want to do so we can try it

A way to help us connect to our world

We learn how to change our writing for genre, audience, and purpose We work with a group of writers who help and support each other

A way to help us learn who we are and who we will become

A way for us to use our power to make changes and build a better world

www.826michigan.org

826michigan inspires school-aged students to write with skill and confidence in collaboration with adult volunteers in their communities.

Find out more at 826michigan.org!