"Okay." I turned around, it was a man in a suit. I turned back. There was another man in a suit. I looked to the side. No one there. "Are you a flying monkey?" “No, why?" "Well you need to come with us." They closed me in. They were twenty-five inches away. I ran to right side. Ring a ling ling. The eighth graders were coming out. I ran through, when I heard my dad behind me, he was one of them. My red and black shirt tore while my hair busted out. Kids looked at me until someone said my name. My dad. I ran to the back of the school, they followed. Then I saw the cliff. I jumped. "Ahhhhhh!" I was flying. "You're so strange," another voice said as I was flying! A boy with a gray sweatshirt with shorts was looking down at me. He smiled and the hood flew off his head. It was my best friend on the other side. He threw a rope down to me. "Come on. They think you're dead." As soon as he said that a brick fell down on my back. I went down like an airplane. Two hours later I woke up in the middle of dinner time. "Show me the video. Now. I want to know what I am." I said scared. He ran upstairs to get it. My eyes were turning dark red. His sister, Dakota, looked at me like I was a lollipop. She is my age. She is a little goth. She says she's not, but she wears all black. "I got it. Come on." My best friend said softly. He showed me something as I was changing. "Hey you're all hairy now. Cool. Can you bite me?" Then I ran off and never came back. Deondra Johnson 6th Grade Hunter Middle School Mrs. Standridge
Disbelief and Belief “Go ahead, Em" her mom urged her to put the crackers water on table. Whether the elf came in an Amazon package or Santa's sleigh, it was no concern of the eight-year old girl. Emma had never believed in Sant – if he was truly real, the North Pole would have to be in China because all the toys that "Santa" brings, somewhere or other have a tag that says "Made in China." Even a few days earlier, her friend whose elf visits her every Christmas tried to convert Emma to Elfism. "What would it mean if the elf got to your house in two days?" her friend had said. Emma's frank response had been: "It would mean my parents had paid for extra fast shipping!" And Emma had not changed her mind since. She was standing in the corner of the kitchen that was furthest away from the food's designated spot on the table. 240