Echoes From The Past

Echoes From The Past Artwork by Samuel Tate

Introduction By: Ms. Nikki, Ms. Margaret Kessel and Mrs. Sandoval The writing process throughout. Importantly, students have become familiar with the idea the memoir stories in this magazine represent the English Language Arts work of the Grade 6 students over the course of six weeks. During this time the students have examined memoirs written by published authors including Roald Dahl (Boy: Tales of Childhood) and Gary Paulsen (Guts: The True Stories Behind Hatchet and the Brian Books), as well as a previous student’s work and my own writing, to explore the techniques writers can use to engage their audience and make their writing interesting. Techniques we uncovered included: focusing the story around a small moment in time (a “seed story”), adding small actions, using realistic dialogue in small sections, “showing not telling” emotions, slowing down the story in strategic sections using descriptive sentences, exaggerating a little for effect, and using ambitious words and phrases to bring the writing to life. We experimented with a variety of techniques for generating story ideas, made “fast and furious” drafts of our story ideas, plotted the internal and external stories on double “story mountains” and used these to bravely redraft our stories. We experimented with different beginnings and endings for our stories then reviewed each other’s stories and gave each other constructive feedback.

Some students wrote several drafts of different stories before settling on their final idea. The writing in this magazine represents the best efforts of the students, along with some peer feedback and teacher guidance given along the way.

Students have retained complete ownership of that writing is not a linear or one-off activity with only the teacher as the audience, and that all authors go through a writing process involving drafting and reviewing their work - sometimes several times - before the final editing and publishing stages.

The Grade 6s have worked very hard and are proud to be published authors. We hope you enjoy reading our memoirs.

Ms. Nikki Ellwood Grade 6 Language Arts Teacher

The artwork throughout this magazine are selections of student work, chosen by the students to accompany their writings. The artwork is based upon what students have learned about abstraction, more specifically art by Kandinsky as well as Mayan textile patterns. Students employed collage, drawing and painting techniques this quarter to create this selection. The art is meant to provide a visual and expressive balance to their personal writings.

Ms. Margaret Kessel Middle School Visual Arts

The Design Technology students researched and learned about layout design and visual communication and used their knowledge and skills to create a layout design that connects with the main concepts of their work. They used Youidraw.com to create illustrations that support their message and Canva.com to create the layout that combines all these elements.

Mrs. Carolina Sandoval Durazo Secondary Design

T a

Memoir

Alonso Sicilia Chang Kyun Daniella Haussler Emiliano Herrera Fernando Moya Gabriela Assis Gresa Remy Heejin Kim Jana Calzada Isabel Daniels Louis Gooseens Jose Iturbide Jasper Q.B New Nicolas Tetreau Nikki Ellwood Marcela Biguria Paula Vadillo Rafaella Effio Sean Patrick Doherty Romina Galasso Roslyn Hyo Joon Hwang Rodrigo Monteiro Ruby Ramirez Sophia Chuo Sebastian Shiels Sebastian Rey

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Memoir and Abstract Art

Nicolle Paiz Samuel Tate Emilia Robayo Eunbi Shin Katia Miro Lou Belissent Milena Gareafulic Samantha Keshner Ana Cristina Vizcaino Camila Henao Dyani Matamoros Gun Eui Lee Ian Lee Maya Rodriguez Marianna Solares Rafael de Leon Sebastian Lou Ysa Marx Yun Yeong Lee

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b l e o f

C o n t e n t s

Abstract Art

By: Alonso Sicilia I was on the middle of the ocean waves like the hight as a second floor house. I was shivering and my teeth were cracking because of how cold it was the rain. The boat was going under and above the waves. I thought that was going to be it so I started being sad. For a second I saw to the ocean and I thought maybe there’s a marine boat that could help us. Then I saw to the air and I saw a helicopter as big as a big bus.On the helicopter I saw 8 marines coming down from the metal cables and more straps. I yelled dad look up.My dad look up and said the marines are here even in bad weather.

I told my dad that they came with straps. The marines made it to the boat. They strap us with the climbing kit and put it on two of the marines told us grab as hard as you can. My dad asked why and the marine said look and the helicopter put the engines at full and we went up so fast that my lips started going down. Then I remember that there were 8 marines coming down the helicopter but we came up just with four and I asked where are the other four marines I asked.The marine told me oh they are taking your boat to your house. I asked how do you know where is our house and the marine answer “kid do you know the technology this days ”. I said I just have 6 years I don’t know even what’s a big cellphone.The marine said “you are right you are just a little kid” we both started laughing. 30 minutes later we got home and the boat was almost on the house we said to the marines if they wanted to eat with us this night and they gladly said “Yes” they passed the night with us.

I asked the marines how do you know where is our house and the marines answer” kid do you know the technology this days ”. I said I have 6 years I don’t know even what’s a big cellphone!!!. Then the marine started laughing like a kid watching a jokes show like Ellen or Jimmy Fallon. 10 minutes later the marines came with the boat and we went down to ask them if the ocean was bad and the marines told us ‘I don’t know how did you survived 2 miles on the hurricane and my dad asked’ ‘HURRICANE!!!!’ yes it was a hurricane, it was category 3 that means that is only the water that moves and make enormous waves but the best part was when we got here there were dolphins and whales eating on the reef almost it was awesome.

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THE GLOWING RED STOVE BY:CHANGKYUN

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The Decisive Final Penalty

By Emiliano Herrera

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The Amazing Limo Day!!!

By Daniella Haeussler

It was my birthday! I couldn't believe it!! I was turning 9 years old. “It is so exciting”, I said. Although it was my birthday, I went to school. I had a wonderful day full of surprises. Everyone was greeting me. I felt so special that day. But I have not told you yet the most exciting surprise. At the end of the day I gathered all my friends that were going to come with me to my party. It was stressful because some of my friends were missing. My cousin Ana Cristina and my friend Mariana also came to school to go with me. The exciting part was that after the buses left the school, we were in front of the school waiting to go to my party when suddenly the school gate opened and all of us screamed at the same time “aaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!”, we couldn’t believe it! A very big black, long and shiny limousine was crossing the gate! It was so big that had difficult to turn and go inside school. And guess what... It was for me! “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh” we all screamed! “Aaaaaahhhhh” I screamed too. But not only us was screaming...all the people close to us, also screamed. I was so nervous. My heart was beating very fast, my hands were sweating...I was in shock, but so happy too!

After sometime, finally the driver parked the Limo in front of the stairs. Of course all of us wanted to jump and go inside the limo! I remember that I felt hurried to be the first girl into the limo. And yes! I was the first girl go inside the limo (since I was the birthday girl of course.) It was complicated to fit everybody inside, even a little girl who asked to come with us. But everybody did fit though a little squished.

When the limo door closed softly and the driver got onto the driver's seat, he started the engine and the limo started moving, there was darkness, special party lights and music started all around the long black car. All of us were singing, laughing, screaming… we really were so happy. The driver told us there was juice for us in special cabinets. Can you image? So cool, drinking juice in a limo, relaxing, flying around with the lights and music playing... really amazing! I started dancing and saying to the girls “I can't hear you”. It got louder and louder. My parents rented that Limo for 2 hours, we still had sometime. We went to Cayala and Vista Hermosa. When the time ended and we were almost at my party, I felt sad that we had to leave the limo.

But the day full of surprises was not finished yet! I told myself, “At the party there will be more surprises waiting for me”. I jumped from the Limo with my friends and went upstairs. OMG! Everything was decorated as Hollywood, like if I was a famous person!

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the entrance, there was a long shining red carpet, one special table with rings with lights, shining pink lipstick glasses with lights and boas and more stuff to decorate ourselves to enter the red carpet. Of course we had to make ourselves look awesome since you couldn't enter a red carpet without being fancy. Also there was pink lemonade in special cups to celebrate.

When we enter to the saloon , in the back it was a full candy bar station with chocolates and all sorts of candies. The candy bar was amazing. There were all sorts of candies and chocolates. I remember there were some chocolate pennies that were decorated with famous hollywood people (I have to admit that was chic.) Also there were white beautiful tables.

Once all my friends were settled in the party, my cousin Marissa, who is a professional singer, and I went to the bathroom to change clothes because we were going to perform a singing and dancing show. At first, I felt nervous but as soon as the music played and we started to dance and sing, I was getting more confident.

Marissa and I entered the shining red carpet with splending costumes and high heels and all types of accessories. All eyes stared at us and then we stood up in front of everybody and we started singing and dancing. It was very fun. At the end of every song there was loud claps around the room. I felt amazing!

I also remember my cake because it had a ballerina on top. I never tasted it because, sadly, someone took it. We also decorated some bags that were color purple with the name of the girls. My aunt almost killed my mom for bringing more girls than the ones on the list to the party because my aunt had everything counted and organized and planned for the right exact girls that were coming. Fortunately, my aunt had some extras for the other girls.

I almost forgot to tell you one more thing that we forgot to do during the performance. Some of the girls hadn't been picked up yet, so we played with a giant pink balloon, it was literally giant. We played with the balloon but suddenly we heard a big loud pop sound around the saloon, all of us screamed “Ohhhhhh!�, the balloon exploded because on the ceiling was a light that made the balloon explode. So the party ended and the girls started to leave, except one girl who her dad was lost. My mom was giving the directions to him but he couldn't find it, so that friend and I play ed a little longer (that was an advantage). Finally, her dad came. We said bye and she left. At this time I knew the party had ended. Now, I just had all the beautiful memories, after all that was one of the best birthday party I've ever had and I never will forget!!!

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Bloody Failure By: Fernando Moya I Felt excitement rushing through my blood, all pumped up. When I just get on my bike I see this steep rocky mountain (by the way My bike is a Rocky Mountain] After when we passed the mountain, we started to discuss who will be the leader being the fastest “I said what about if you Israel go first everyone agreed” The excitement never stopped when we get in the first trail, It was all pretty much straight TILL we got into the decisions part.

Decisions are hard to make going fast!. Straight in a downhill track! it said dont stop I didn't stop but I felt that I was going 1000km just when we see this humongous hill almost impossible!. The hill it was so steep that i just see andres backflip off his bike, I knew that I couldn't do it when i just wheelie! and the bike falls on me, alexis went to the side knowing he couldn't do it nobody did it because it was way to steep.When we just saw this magical pump tracks with berms it was so cool we did it 1000 times!,In one of those 1000 times I got into a berm and knew NOPE I when I feel the air and I let my bike go landing and I just land in my wheel and BOOM! change ruined and the rim all bent all bloody face with scratches in my face, My clothes was dirty and ripped I felt so weak. When I arrive home I felt nervous when to tell my mom to I knew it was going to be bad,She saw me and said “FERNANDO MOYA JAVIER BENITEZ WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!” I got so shocked of seeing her face all RED I felt like if let down my mom a new BIKE!.

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The Midnight Movie By: Gabriela Assis The noise the excitement all seemed perfect.

"This is amazing!", I thought. My dream had come true, a dream that I had dreamed for for days, months, years. Finally I had seen the magical castle, all the fantasies, hopes, dreams and all the wishes that one day I would have stayed here. The happiness filled me, nothing could describe that feeling, the truth is that it gave a flood of happiness, I wish I had the power to stop time to live that moment for more than an hour. The Disney Cinderella castle was the most beautiful thing I had seen was magical the fireworks timing was perfect and the tower was showing like watching all of my disney movies. No matter how tired I was, somehow the tower kept me awake, like the movies I would watch before bed.But all things magical must come to an end, expect the power of true love. I saw the fireworks with the images and I got to my tired feet. I walked on the idea where I was going but tagged along with my parents. I felt like all of the tiredness had hit me and I could not move my feet without feeling pain, lots of it. And my eyelids were harder to control by the minute. It was the fireworks and the castle where a dream had come to an end and I was waking up, but had fallen from a bed.

"I'm tired" my sister complained "I wanna sit my legs are hurting."

"She is not tired" I thought "She sat on a stroller all day long, she only left to ride the ride or buy toys" "You are not" I mumbled "You are more awake than anybody in this park"

"True" Dad agreed "You sat in a cart all day" Mom was there, not mumbling, not talking not even whispering, I would have been frightened , for mom's "The boss" but I was tired to even say something myself. I was going to enter the train I had hardly noticed I was tired and I found out only when we had gotten there, I entered and sat in the back seat there was a big window so I could see the park "Goodbye Magical Kingdom." , I whispered

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By : Gresa Remy We had the answer all along.

“I’ll go to the lock and try to unlock it, can you tell me the words” I said while walking to the back of the room. The lock was attached to a cupboard, it had many letters but they weren’t in order.

“Sit on the couch!” Ms.Paulina (Katia’s mom) screamed. Milena sat on the couch, under the couch was a button that made a sound. The sound was some beeps in logical order. “Morse code!” I exclaimed.

“We don’t know morse code! Press the help button” I said. Milena and Katia were sitting on the chairs bored. I ran to the help button.

A man’s voice appeared.

“We don’t know morse code.” We asked in unison.

“Check the jacket pockets, then look inside the pipe.” He replied. We all ran to the jacket, searching in dread for the pipe. Katia got it and took out the 2 pieces of paper.

On one it said some letters on the other, the same. We gave the pieces of paper that were laminated to Paulina. I ran back to desk where some paper was laying, next to it was a pen. Quickly, and steady I gave the pen to Paulina. Running back to the lock I thought, “what if we never finish!” After many,many,many attempts, We needed the help button again.

“Yes?” A man said again. “ We can’t find the words!” We yelped. “It was morse.” The man said. “What?” “Morse.” I was flabbergasted . Let’s go try it out then. We ran back to the lock and tried to put in the word Morse but it didn’t work! I tried and tried and tried again. Turns out, I just wasn’t opening it all the way. Inside there was a key that could open the door on the other side of the room, but that’s another story.

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By:Heejin kim I was about to go in. I was nervous and I slept there for 4 hours. I still had 4 scared that I could die. I went inside. I saw hours left to stay in this room. I was all of the lights pointing at me, and there calling my dad, but he probably couldn’t were the tools that made me more scared. I hear me. I realized that my dad wasn’t was about to have the surgery. They put on there anymore. He left when I was a the mask with the anesthesia, and when sleep. I was really sad that my dad left. I they put the anesthesia I was super dizzy. kept on thinking of my dad. I was worried The anesthesia made me feel drowsy. I that something happened to my dad. But didn’t know how long the anesthesia would after 10 mins, I got over with it. last, however when I woke up I asked my The weird thing was that there was a parents how long I had been asleep for. I woman in front of me, but she wasn’t in got up I was so dizzy/confused. the room that I was in. She kept on I had to be in a room, (the room was where staring at me, the moment I woke up, or only the person who had surgery stays.) I maybe even before. She had monitors saw that I had a tube was inside/through next to her. I knew that she was just there my throat. Then I realized that I had 2 tubes to watch over me. inside my ribs. Also, I had 1 other tube Finally, my dad came into my room I felt below my heart where I had the surgery. I better, I didn’t feel bad anymore. was freaking out. After 2 min, the tubes in However, my dad’s eyes welled up with my ribs started to hurt a lot. tears every time he glenced at me. I could I was thirsty, so I told my dad with my now see in his eyes that he was sad and heart really low voice. “Can I have water please?” broken because of my current condition.

But I wasn’t allowed to drink water. My After 4 hours, I got out of the room. Soon, throat was throbbing and it was really dry. I went to a room where there were other After 30 min they gave me a sip of water, kids that had the heart surgery, like me. I but it wasn’t enough for me. I was suffering was in the last section, (there were 3 of thirst. So instead of feeling bad, I just sections in the right that had curtains for went to sleep. each “room”, and other 3 sections in the left.) I was there for 2 weeks. I was completely fine. I was overjoyed that I was finally out of the hospital. The weird thing, was that I strangely missed being in the hospital.

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My Very First Day In London

BY ISABEL DANIELS

I felt as if I had just fallen asleep when I started to hear the birds singing: “ Tweet tweet tweet! “ “What a beautiful morning!” I then gently started opening my eyes. I was so tired and jetlagged from all that traveling. But now I was with energy to start my first full day here in London. I could not believe I was actually here!! I had been waiting for this day to come forever and ever!

Something smelled spectacular in the kitchen. My mom was cooking up a storm.

“Good morning sweetie !” She said with a pleasant smile. ”Good morning, Mom” I replied. “What’s for breakfast ?” I asked . “Scrambled eggs , a fruit smoothie and a cheese sandwich “ “ Yummy !“ I said “ So what are we gonna do today? “ I asked all curiously. “Maybe we can meet up with Lilly and eat lunch at a sushi place and then we could go walk around and explore the city. At the end of the day we can go to the London Eye “Great, I can’t wait! ” I exclaimed.

My breakfast was amazing . I was getting ready to have the best day ever in my entire life.

Our first stop was this famous antique market road called Portobello Road, like the mushroom. My mom was freaking out because she just loves antiques. We walked into tons of stores. She wanted to buy everything but she bought nothing! I did really like those teacup stores, though. They were so cute and so pretty. It was a really fun experience seeing all those lovely stores and all this amazing stuff.

Later after all that antique drama, my mom said that we could go see some really fancy houses nearby. They really were extremely elegant. I think they were mansions. We later met up with my aunt and we continued to walk to see some more colorful and fancy houses. She said they were called mews. They all had bright pastel colors, they were so nice.

After all that walking we got really hungry. We had lunch at this good sushi place. I ordered a lot of salmon stuff. I ordered whole salmon sashimi just for myself, unagi nigiri, and a salmon avocado roll. It tasted amazing .

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After lunch was my first visit to the underground train station which is kind of like a subway station but only in London it is called this way. As we were on the train I heard something really funny on the speaker : “Mind the gap”, it said! . It was pretty weird.

Finally when we got off the train after hearing a trillion times “mind the gap” we climbed the stairs and you will never believe what we saw … Westminster Abbey and Big Ben! It was huge and awesome . We went to see how that enormous church looked outside, but too bad that we couldn't see it on the inside .There were tons of guards. We walked around the street next to the Thames River until we approached an old styled bridge . As we were walking over it I could see the London Eye from right across the river. It did not not look like all classical but somehow it looked super modern with tons of skyscrapers around it .

When we finally arrived at the London Eye there were millions of people wanting to go there too. So I was like : “The line is gonna take ages!” . So my mom said to wait up for her as she waited in line, and meanwhile me and my aunt went outside to chat away.

Finally I saw my mom coming out the building holding on some small papers in her hand.

That must mean that we were going on the London Eye ! “ How exciting !” I saw that she was excited too. We went to wait in line to hop on the ride so we waited and waited until it was finally our turn to hop on . I could just feel all the butterflies in my stomach before hopping on. When it was our turn we got on this ferris wheel called the London Eye and it started to move slowly up and up. It was so worth it. Suddenly we went higher and higher until we reached the tallest part of the London Eye . The view was incredible. I could see the Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and I think all of London from here. Wow, it was just amazing ! Too bad the ride was too short.

For the rest of the day we went to walk more and more. My legs were so tired, I was hungry and looking forward to eat some pasta. Well I am not sure which kind of pasta I wanted, maybe plain pasta or some with tomato sauce. Hmm, both sounded so good.

Aaahh. My first day in London was pretty fun and exciting. I wonder how my second day will be like!?

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Second Chance Has it ever occurred to you, that your life can change in a glimpse of an eye? That your imagination can be bigger than what you realized?

And that, is exactly what I experienced, and let me tell you… where it all started.

I looked outside, it was foggy, dark and clueless, I saw the light bulb in the street and it was flickering with no meaning of life. I was cold, anxious and spiritless. Then something totally unexpected happened. I was in my room watching Tv, and suddenly I had an anxious feeling. I had to do something so I decided to watch a movie but not by myself, with my parents! So I said to myself, why don't I go to there room to see a movie with them. So I, slowly walked down the hall, hearing the cracks while I walked to my parents room. That's what I did. Was it a good option? No I don't think so, but past is past isn't it? OK lets not get out of topic.

When I got to there room, my mom was lying on the bed with a smile on her face. When my mom saw me, She said: “What are you doing here, son.” “Oh me, nah, just here to watch a movie with you mom, I said.” “Oh how nice of you to come here and see a movie with me, my mom said. I wondered where my dad was?

By :L ou is G oo ss en s

So I asked my mom.”

“Mom where's dad?”

“Oh he's probably in the kitchen my mom said.”

So I stayed with my mom and when we were in the middle of the movie, I felt disinterested and bored, so my mom and I started jumping up and down the bed. And we were having a fantastic time together.

All of a sudden, I saw my mom jump so high, that she almost touched the roof ceiling of our apartment. I looked at her and her hair nearly touched the ceiling of our apartment. Then when I looked down the quilt from the bed contracted together.

I saw myself flying so high that it seemed that I was flying in slow motion and never ending. But that was just my feelings from inside. To be honest with you, I was afraid, frightness and with fear. And when I noticed I had hit my head with something that I don't remember, and I passed out. It was all dark, I had no thoughts in my mind except for one a special one.

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The Bike Ride of Pain By: Jasper Q.B New

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It all started with a simple bike ride to our favorite restaurant. We were riding on a nice route that was fairly calm and nice. The route we were on was next to a railroad.

The railroad was also next to the restaurant that we were going to. It was a very nice afternoon with a nice breeze hitting our faces, making all of our hair fly up in the air like a dancer’s hair flying up while dancing really intensely.

My Sister learned how to ride a bike in a good time in her life so she was speeding ahead and doing cool things while my Mom and I enjoyed the breeze and rode slowly. The route that we were riding on was next to a railroad was a road. The day that we were riding was a holiday but there weren’t that many cars, which sort of surprised us.

I said that my Sister learned how to ride her bike but she wasn’t very good at using the pedal or handbrakes on the bike. So she was riding quite a bit in front of us going faster than we were. My Mom would shout “SLOW DOWN!!” to my Sister to have her slow down so we could catch up to her.

My Mom shouted out “SLOW DOWN!!” and this time my Sister decided to turn around but first she had to brake and when she did she put her foot in front of her bike.

When she did this she flipped the bike over with her on top of it. She fell over and got very many bloody gashes in her body that started bleeding almost immediately after she crashed. My sister looked like she had just dove The road next to the railroad had one car that had two people in it that saw this unfortunate event and came to help. These kind people had a first-aid kit with them and brought it out to help my Sister with all of her cuts and wounds.

The people were a husband and wife and the wife was pretty weird because she was saying to my sister, “It’s ok I will heal you scratches with my magical unicorn powers.” But they were nice and gave us band-aids for later. Once we collected ourselves we got our bikes and walked to the restaurant which at this time wasn’t that far away. When we got there we asked for a bag of ice for my sister’s arm which she was complaining about.

My Mom called her friend that lived nearby the restaurant to come and pick me up while she took my Sister to a close urgent care building. My Mom’s friend came and picked me up and we went to her house. My Mom’s friend had a son that was two or three years older than me but he was nice and he played with me for a while.

Then we watched a movie and had dinner. While I was having such a luxurious time my Sister and my Mom were in a hospital room getting xrays.

When the nurses and doctors saw the xrays they told my Mom “She has a slight fracture but we can’t put a cast on it so we will have to re-break it.” So they gave my Sister the laughing gas that was required to re-break her arm.

When she woke up she was really loopy. My Sister has told me several times that the first thing she remembers when she woke up was eating pudding in the waiting room watching Star Wars. I was getting tired at this time because it was about 9:00 P.M. My Mom and my sister came to my Mom’s friend’s house to have a few slices of pizza that was ordered for them. So we all went home super tired and exhausted and even before we left my Mom’s friend’s house we decided not to go to school or work the next day because we were all still tired. We were also all thinking of how my sister’s life would be for the next two months.

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Airplane Crazyness, thirsty for Coca

By : Nicolas Tetreau

Well, guess a normal kid would not do that. Oh, hello dear reader, this, is a short memoir story about me, you will see, well, what CRAZINESS did I do on AIRPLANE, this is specially dedicated to my dear big sister. A few months into summer, I was in the airplane, with my big sister, and my family. I was about 6 or 7, I was going to France, to enjoy doing via ferratas, rock climbing, going to ride on a paddling boat, mountaineering, hiking, swimming and see my family. I had just passed through all the airplane things you have to pass to be on earplanes. I was extremely impatient for the airplane fun to begin. When I asked my mom and dad who were to the sets next to us with my little siblings, for the thousandth time if it was liftoff time, the TV lit into action, and the safety show/clip started, I had seen this like 1,000,000 times, but I still payed attention, just because the video was kinda funny. After we her 30sec into the clip, the airplane pilot finished testing the motors and everything else, and we started to move, I wasn’t scared, but I didn’t understand how the airplane could get hold of such speed and power to fly without coming back down and crashing with the size that ramp and the slowness it start’s with. After the clip, the captain said some last few words, and then we started going a bit faster, and then a bit more, and then we started going up, this always gave me nervs, it tickled me, for some reason. After we lifted off, I entered the electronic world of my Ipad, it was just an Ipad 1, it couldn't even download Minecraft!!! (which was really heartbreaking for me) But I still enjoyed it. I aso started drawing, telling jokes to my sister, and her to me, and I also red a bit, and we also picked out candy from our bags, and poot down the tables of the airplane in front of us, and we went down to the floor of the airplane to form a litle house, (the front and back sets her walls, the tables were a roof, and the ground of the airplane was…. The ground. Although the left side was still uncovered, we didn't care and we used it anyway.)we would nap there, read their, talk their, munched on (and if it was good we devoured) candy there, (but we also did these things outside the house) and to go out, we just flipped up one of the tables and then put them back down. After 20 or 30min, I was coloring with my coloring book on the roof of the house, (tables) when I was called by a tap on my knee, I put down my coloring book and saw my big sister in the house, grinding and signaling me to go in the house with her. Then she whispered in my ear “coca” I noded. We crawled out of the side of the house that was uncovered, which was the left side, because you had to sit on the seats somehow right?

And we crawled a bit further so our mom and dad couldn't see us, then we started walking, we then got to the end of the corridor, to the front of the plane, you know, where there are curtains to the right, to the front, and to the left there is the entrance/exit of the plane? Well, we went to the right, through the curtains, we hid behind a medium sized metallic cube, (probably to cover up wires/electric stuff) we then saw our target, the target we (me and my sister) knew and loved; the food cart.

We saw no one was there, and we rushed to the food cart and poured two glasses of coca cola, and then hid behind the metallic cube, we started to drink, when we heard footsteps, I wasn't worried, they usually never found us, I was usually disappointed, sometimes I poured two glasses of coca, and footsteps usually called for someone that would take the food cart and drive it along the airplane,but this time, it was a co-pilot, he saw us, he said, “hey, what are you two doing in here?!” well, I was petrified, I thought we could not escape, that they would do something horrible to us, (I was a little exaggerated, just slightly exaggerated, but) I imagine me and my big sister behind bars, till my sister pulled me by my T - shirt and we both knocked over our coca cola's in the process. We both sprinted to our seat, well at one point crawled so our parents wouldn't see us, got back in the house and I can tell you, we didn't steal any other coca cola that flight anymore. When we wear finally calm, (after 5 minutes at least) me and my sister looked at eachother and laugh, (in spanish) my sister says “I wish you could see your face and reaction when you froze” she laughed. I laugh too, and then we just got in the hose, laughed there and forgot about the coca mission gone wrong.we waited a ‘few moments’, (a couple hours) and we landed. It was about five hours since we had lifted off, (I told you!) and I was ready, for my next plane.

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“Please, please, please can I have a speedometer for my bike?” I repeatedly begged my parents and grandparents and anyone else I thought might be able to provide me with this futuristic object of my dreams.

“Wait for your birthday!” I was told - which was the equivalent of “we’ll see...” and was generally a thinly veiled hope that you would have forgotten about it by then.

In the 1980’s when I was a child, riding your bike was all about speed. Perhaps that hasn’t changed much for children today, but it was definitely true back then. The bikes we wanted, (and the lucky of us owned), had skinny tires, rock hard seats and racing handlebars that curved down like a ram’s horns. I was very proud of my purple racing bike but, as is the way with young children, I wanted more. Finally, in the spring of about 1982, the day came.

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Thank you so much!” I exclaimed as I ripped the wrapping from the package. The smooth, black rectangular speedometer had a white face and an arc marked with numbers from from zero to fifty. Fifty miles per hour - can you imagine?! A red needle hovered over the zero point, ready to leap into action with every push on the pedals.

How incredibly exciting it was to be able to see the needle rising and falling to show how fast I was going, as the click click click of the milometer recorded every turn of the wheel to quantify my efforts. As I rode through the village I imagined all the other children peering from their windows and admiring my modern gadget. “I wonder how fast she is going?” they would be thinking, “how lucky!” They would be wishing they had one too.

These were the days before anyone wore bike helmets, and as I rode along, watching the little needle go up up up, through green to yellow and just hitting the red, then back down again as I squeezed the brakes at the corner; all the while the milometer numbers ticking round reassuringly. I was the happiest girl alive. The wind was in my hair and I was the queen of the road.

In order to get to maximum speed I wanted to take my bike to the top of a steep hill at the far end of the village, past the church and duck-pond, and the manicured lawns of the black and white Hall towards the farm where crossing a stile and walking through the field would bring you back to our rambling old pink house. It was a short walk or a longer ride, and it was the hill for maximising speed. My parents were apprehensive.

“Don’t go too fast,” warned my Dad. “Watch out for the loose gravel,” added my Mum as we positioned ourselves at the top of the hill.

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“If you brake on the loose gravel you will skid,” my Dad explained “and you don’t want to fall off,” he added, somewhat unnecessarily.

“And make sure there are no cars coming! Not too fast!” I heard my mum shout as I peddled as fast as I could and crouched down low over the handlebars. The road was rough and in the middle was a ridge of small, loose rocks and tufts of grass marking the place untouched by car and tractor tires.

My eyes were on the speedometer. Green, yellow, almost hitting the red...a corner was coming up near the bottom of the hill and I knew I had to brake. As I squeezed on the brakes, just a little, my tire caught the loose gravel at the side of the road. My wheel skidded and I lost control. Now off-balance and moving way too fast I lost control of the bike and came crashing to the road, one leg under the bike. Momentum carried me with the bike and my leg scraped along the rough surface of the road. Shock and pain and frustration and embarrassment all rolled into one giant ball of emotion, followed by the relief of being stationary again. As the adrenaline rushed through me I was unaware of what exactly had happened, but as it ebbed away, the pain kicked in. I am sure you will all be able to relate to the burning pain of surface wounds - nothing too deep, just the top few layers of skin gone and replaced with blood, dirt and small stones that you know will be painfully cleaned out with the application of some foul-smelling stingy antiseptic liquid.

But the worst news was yet to come, and was shockingly delivered by my mum.

In my memory her first words to me, as she caught up with me at the bottom of the hill, were not “are you alright?” but the harsher reality of the situation at the time.

I had extricated myself from my bike but was still sitting in the middle of the road, inspecting my leg, tears dripping off my chin. I wiped my nose on the sleeve of my jumper and picked a small piece of gravel from the cut on my knee. I could hear cows mooing in the background and the distant chiming of the church bells.

“What were you thinking? I warned you about the loose gravel.” came my mum’s harsh words. “Well that’s the end of that then.”

“The end of what?” I thought.

My bike lay next to me like a fallen hero, the handlebars caught in the tangle of nettles in front of the blackberry hedge. After a moment of hurt confusion I looked over at my bike to see my longed-for, dreamed-for, begged-for speedometer smashed to pieces.

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The police

April 11,2017

Jose Fernando Iturbide

“Qué quieres hacer?” I ask.

I remember being as bored as I had ever been.

We were with my mom, aunt, uncle , sister, cousins. We were in a shop called Ski House.

Like I said, I was bored. Because I don’t like shopping, especially with my mom and sisters.

(Going shopping with girls is horrible. I recommend you never go!)

Me and my cousin Matthew went outside. We were wondering what to do when we had a great idea: throwing snowballs at moving cars. I felt it may be wrong but I still did it anyway. At first we missed. Suddenly we started to hit a lot of cars. Then from the corner of our eyes we saw A POLICE CAR. “Corramos corramos” I screamed to Matthew. We dashed as fast as we could inside shop where our family was. “We escaped... uuuf!”’ I whispered to myself.

We peeked and saw nobody so my cousin and I opened the door to keep throwing more snowballs at cars. When I opened the door I stopped! An alarm went off “weoweoweo”. We went back inside as if nothing had happened.

Everyone stared at us. Suddenly we saw a police car in the parking lot.

My cousin and I were terrified. An officer came out of the car (He was very serious). I remembered being as red as a tomato and as hot as boiling water. I thought we were going to go to juvenile prison. Finally the officer said with his loud boring voice “

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Do you know that what you were doing is dangerous and you can damage a car, or even worse, hurt someone? What if you hit the windshield and the glass shatters? They could crash.” I was so nervous I couldn’t pay much attention to what the officer was saying.

Afterwards, the officer asks my parents for their identification. My cousin and I were frightened even after the officer left because we thought the police would come looking for us again.

Art work

It was annoying because our family started to bug us. They all joked by saying “ the police” with a weird voice. (I hated when they did that) it too. They still bug us with that. Now everyone knows we got in trouble with the Colorado state police. I felt like a criminal. It was a terrible experience. People say that in something bad there is something good. I think there is nothing good in that moment.

Memori foto

I BET YOU WON'T DO IT

BY Marcela Biguria The only thing I could hear was the rumbling sound of the engine of my car going through the curves on my way to El Pulte. The road was bumpy and I was driving past a lots of pine trees. I wanted to get so bad to my horseback riding lessons at El Pulte that I started gazing around to avoid the feeling of a long drive. I spotted a couple of stray dogs who were sunbathing, a cow slowly eating grass I could tell she was really savoring it, and some small houses made of blocks. It felt like forever but we finally got to El Pulte, the road wasn't bumpy anymore, it turned smooth. At the end of the road was the stable where Catch Me, my horse was. I hopped out of the car, grabbed the carrots. I feedo Catch when every time she does a great job, which is always, and ran as fast as I could to the stable. I put my black helmet on and the rest of my equipment, then the stable hand came along with Catch Me, ready to be ridden. I hopped on my horse and we went to the arena where the rest of my friends usually are.

There I waited about 20 minutes until I saw a big black horse with a blue saddle pad and black protectors walking towards us, suddenly the rider Add a little bit of body text stopped the horse, it was my best friend Mariana. I have known her for 6 years now and I think we are very close because we share a lot of things, mainly horse passion. She waved at me with her crop and then she approached me, we started chatting while we waited for our instructor to come. Suddenly, a thought went into my mind, what if we equestrians were like gymnasts, I mean what if each time we jumped with our horses we had to raise both hands. I shared my thought with Mariana, she giggled and said it will be very funny and we both agreed that we need to try it. I spotted some bars lined up in order.

I told Mariana “Bet you won´t do it.” I went first with a slow trot, dropped my stirrups and hanged on to my horse's neck and started passing the bars.

At first I felt like I was going to die because I was on a race with the horse at a racetrack, like a bouncing ball, suddenly it was over and made the gymnast salute. I heard a giggle from Mariana behind me laughing her heart out. Mariana went next and proved me wrong, I had forgotten she was, like me, a daredevil.

We were both excited and wanted to keep on trying more jumps but we were interrupted by an anxious face and heard her say “Girls, get in order so we can start the class.”

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Free Fall by:Paula Vadillo

I took the starting point forward and I breathed startled, I was nervous, anxious and a little bit enthusiastic.

Romina’s voice was echoing behind me as Romina said, “I am so excited to jump,It's my first time jumping of the free fall”, I kept repeating to myself “you can do it do not be scared”.

By that time we had already reached the top of the shipline, five more steps and I would have to jump, butterflies in my stomach started to form and I was starting to lament how I had gotten up there, I wanted to get down but I knew that if I did Romina would to,I knew I had to do it. I stopped agitated, and nervously hesitated one more step and I would have to jump.I could hear my heart beating.I saw the green mat where I was going to land, while the gloomy man spoke, “at the count of three jump” 1... I breathed timorous, 2….

I was regretting that I was going to finally jump, 3 I afraidly jumped. As I jumped I could feel the breeze forthcoming to my face, and all of a sudden I looked down I couldn't see the mat where I was going to land! I felt a chill and I shut my eyes very tightly. I felt like I was flying but I didn’t like the feeling of it. I started counting ‘1...2...3....4’ I had landed in the old green mat. As soon as they got me off the hook I started to tremble and I felt lost. Continuously, Romina finally jumped but I noticed that what actually felt like 10 minutes actually looked like 2 seconds.I felt amazing I could not believe it I had done it,something that I had wanted for many years I finally did it.

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The slime disaster !!!

“Boom!!!, Oh know” I said scared while So after that I started making the I was checked it. Ow I think that I recipe but suddenly it didn’t work out Sot then they asked my should start by the beginning. It was a but then I found an other recipe and I sister if knew about what lovely day the birds were singing the did it on top of the first one but then it happened and she didn’t sun was shining but something wasn’t said that it needed shaving cream so I know about anything like right … I had school!!! Can you believe didn’t know how much so I used all of if they were talking to it because I can’t, ahh and I didn’t even my dad’s shaving cream. But it didn’t her in another language speak english imagine how hard was it. work either so then it said that I and she didn’t Well any ways when I got to school I needed to put it in the microwave for understand anything at like a minute. saw Loren with her new slime. After all. So then my parents After fifty-five seconds . . . school when I got home I did my got mad at her because homework and blablabla but, before I “Boom!!!, Oh know” I said scared she wasn't taking care of had diner my mom told me that she while I was checked it. The slime had me like they told her to wasn’t going to be there for dinner popped and the microwave was all do. But it was ok because because she was going to the movies dirty and I had to kline it up before they forgive her right with my dad so I was going to stay they came back from the movies. away. And we lived alone with my sister again. After I had I cleaned it up as fast as i could. For happily ever after like a diner my parents left and that is when the good the microwave was ok but I family. would not say the same thing for I remember that Loren had given me everything else. I cleaned mostly slime so I tried to make it. I research everything but it was too late and I and research and research and was falling asleep. THe next morning research until “Yeah!!!” I yelled excited “With !! What happened I notice that my pajamas where all !?!?!?” my sister asked scared dirty so I got out of bed as fast as I “Nothing. Why???” I asked confused. could and I changed and started “I don't know you tell my” she yelled cleaning up. When I was all done I feel mad. asleep again but a little bit after I “Tell you what??” I refused. heard somebody yelling “RAFAELLA “Amh maybe why did you yelle like if COME HERE RIGHT NOW” and someone was about to kill you!!!” She suddenly I notice that it was my dad so I jumped out of bed and went yelled while she was trying to calm running to his room ( I think that herself down. when they came they saw the whole “Ok you know what!!!” I started mess and saw that my pajamas were talking calm. dirty so they noticed that I was the “What !!!” she interrupted. one that made the whole mess and “If I am hurt I will yelle “SOS !!! I am hurh” I told har. that they were mad) and (I was right “Ok??” I asked. they were really mad but they forgave “Yeah sure whatever” She said while me because it was the first time and she was living. So then I started they didn’t told me that I could not do Rafaella celebrating because I got the perfect it so yeah.

Effio 25 slime recipe.

By

The Stinky Mistake By: Romina Galasso

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Guilt-Ridden By: Roslyn Hyo Joon Hwang

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I was always right, and I declare that today will be perfect. Everytime I’m around water something dangerous happens. Not today. Today was going to be as hot as fire. Even if I did get hurt my parents didn’t have to “save me from disaster.” Just one day. Just for this one day, nothing bad was going to happen… Right? After all, this place had a good reputation. I think it’s somewhere around...El Salvador…?

I was staring at my brother in envy. Why did everyone like him? It’s not fair. I always tried so hard to impress my parents. However, they never paid attention to me. Just thinking about it made me clench my fists so hard that my knuckles turned white. My face as red, if not redder than a tomato. I hate my brother. I wish he didn’t exist. He was a jerk attention stealer. I detest him.

He is probably the worst person in the world. So are his friends.

The only person who I could ever trust was my friend. She was always next to me and thinking the same way as I was. She was the one to be next to me whenever I was crying, or the one that I could count on to have my back in any situation. She would never betray me.

“Ow!” I shouted as someone broke me out of my trance. I really needed to get my head in the real world, instead of somewhere in the clouds. “What is wrong with you!? Why would you even do that? That hurt you know?” I started to shout at the person that bumped into me whilst running. How dare he hurt me.

This wasn’t fair. Hmph. No one can be as good as me besides my friend. She always appeared in my dreams and talked to me like an ACTUAL sibling.

Unlike someone I know. I created her in my head and she’s never left my side since.

The kid apologized, of course, as I expected. Everyone was so predictable, but me and my friend. I hated everyone. They were all below me. I also, HATE my brother. I then found my eyes following the 10-year-old kid’s back. The one that had bumped into me. He was getting on the adult slide and, instead, of sliding on it, he jumped off of it. I must admit that was cool. So I had to try it too. I got on the cold metal ladder. I shivered a little bit. I looked down at my hands and noticed my hand shriveling. It was a disgusting sight.

When I was finally at the top of the slide, I laughed. I had actually gone on it! I looked down and immediately regretted it. All I could see when I looked down was cement, and concrete on the floor. And then, I looked forward. To my destination. The pool. I sat down, and then looked around. I looked over at my where my parents should have been. But there was only my mom. Sleeping.

Peacefully. I assumed that they went out yesterday and my mom just slept and left me in the care or my brother. I wanted her to look. To be proud of me. But nevertheless, I was going to jump. But I wanted a witness so I shouted out to my brother while I was getting ready to jump.

“Wook In oppa!” I shouted. He turned his head, laughing at a joke that his friend made. He stared at me and… I jumped. His eyes widened. He looked so funny. Why was he looking at me like I was a joke. I was to be taken seriously.

The adrenaline was flowing through my veins, as the wind blew my hair to the right side of my face. I couldn’t see anything. Wait. What? To the right side?

Wasn’t it supposed to flow behind me? Whatever. I heard my brother shout as I raised my hand up to my nose and closed my eyes. Don’t want water up our nose, do we?

As soon as I landed, I regretted jumping. I felt something hard and cold on the left side of my body. Cement, perhaps? I can’t think straight. However, I did notice the muffled voices, all talking in a worried tone. I opened my eyes slightly and saw green and yellow? What was happening? I saw feet walking towards me.

I felt a long ringing in my head. It wouldn’t stop. The noise hurt my brain. Please!

Stop! It hurts! So, I closed my eyes. I felt the sensation of being picked up, princess-style. But at this point, I couldn’t care less. There was a crushing pain at the left side of my body and I felt like I was about to die. It hurt so bad.

I could hear voices telling me to keep conscious. I was just tired. Why were they bothering me? “Leave me alone. I’m tired.” I stated. My groggy voice being heard by everyone as I finally spoke. I’m gonna go back to sleep.

I’m moving faster now. Where am I? I can’t see anything besides green and yellow. It'll pass. It's fine. Where is my family? Did they abandon me with these scary people looking down at me? There is a scary man in front of me. He has a mask on. Including a hat. Was he going to do something bad? Ugh. It hurts.

“Is she gonna be ok!? Please tell me she’s gonna be ok.” I heard my mother’s voice plead. Why was she pleading to a stranger?

Is she gonna be ok!? Please tell me she’s gonna be ok.” I heard my mother’s voice plead. Why was she pleading to a stranger?

“Mom. I’m so sorry. It’s all my fault that I didn't pay attention. I'm a terrible brother and son. I can't even protect my own little sister.” I heard my brothers shaky voice come from the same direction. I can’t see anything. I felt guilt strike within me. He was crying.

“She’s lucky to have a brother like you. She will have some disabilities for a little while, but they will heal. If your son hadn’t saved her in time, there would have been big trouble.” A deep voice came from beside me.

I just realized. So… my brother saved my life? There's no way… I’m so sorry.

Don't blame yourself. I'm sorry my brother. Now I know I have someone to rely on.

I always thought you were there to push me to the ground. I was very wrong. You carry all of my problems on your shoulder. I'm just a burden to this family after all. I guess, not everything is all about me.

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A Pink Royal Seed I didn’t want to go. I really didn’t. When the whole family, including uncles and cousins, came up to Itaipava from Rio I wanted to splash in the pools like a seal, to thunder across the trails on Tio Paolo’s horses, and relax by the fireplace at night with blankets shielding me from the night chill. But no, no today. Today, Papa said, we were all going to Petropolis to see the emperor’s summer palace.

calling out to wanderers to come in and taste the splendors to be found inside. I walked over to Papa.

Seriously, what seven-year-old gave a darn?

We drove there after lunch, past the same boring buildings and big church. We arrived at the palace, parked, and went in line. The palace was hidden behind huge, bushy trees whose branches flowed down as if to caress the ground. That’s when we all saw the gardens- manicured, trimmed hedges dotted with sparkling flowers and bushes cut in the shape of animals. There was even a maze!

Immediately, my brother, the cousins and I began begging Papa and my two uncles to skip the palace and just let us road the gardens and maze. Finally, they agreed, to put a cap on our endless asking.

“I can always do that,” I said, defiantly. “Can we take a look? I’ve never seen a place so big like that.”

We got the tickets for the gardens and off everyone went. As I made my way over there, I noticed a huge, hulking shape that made me suddenly stop. It was the largest house I’d ever seen, three stories high and the sides spreading out like great wings. Its color was a bright, shiny pink that just grabbed your attention. I walked over to get a better view. It had over a hundred windows and a front part sticking out with marble columns. Statues of half-naked men and women holding harps and swords dotted the roof; they seemed almost to be

“For protection. The floor is genuine Italian Carrera marble- very rare and fragile.”

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“Papa,” I said, pulling on his sleeve. “Can we go see the palace?”

“You want to go see it, Rodrigo?” Papa asked. “You were just saying you wanted to play in the garden.”

Papa smiled that at least someone in the family was interested. He turned to his brothers. “I’ll go in with Rodrigo and we’ll meet you at the gazebo restaurant, ok?”

Off we went. As we approached, the palace seemed even bigger than I thought. We waited in line, went inside the massive iron doors with intricate, twisted metal designs, and entered the great hall- but before we stepped in, the usher gave us old, worn-out slippers to put over our shoes.

I had so much fun sliding across the wide great hall as if I were an ice skater floating above ice! Papa, however, had me stop as the side walls were dotted with tables containing rare Chinese vases hand-painted in blue.

Our guide told us that the great hall was where Emperor Dom Pedro II and Empress Maria Cristina would greet guests for their

great balls. On the wall was a painting of the two of them- Emperor Pedro was tall, like Papa, broad-shouldered, with white-blonde hair, alert blue eyes, and a distinguished, regal air about him. His wife, Maria Cristina, was less attractive- she was rather oldlooking, pudgy, but her elegant dress, flashing diamonds and beautiful tiara gave her an equally regal air.

I immediately was flooded with a mental image of the two of them greeting their guests- the men in military uniforms bedecked with gold, blue and green medalsthe color of our flag- while the women were resplendent in silk gowns, white gloves, glittering in their jewels, fanning themselves as they held out their hands for the gentlemen to kiss. All bowed to Their Majesties before proceeding inside the halls, which is what we did.

We passed the dining room, with its long rectangular table that sat about twenty people, covered in white linen. I was amazed at how many silverware they used! I counted about three forks, two spoons, three knives and three glasses with high stems of different sizes. The plates were of white porcelain with the imperial crest.

The guide explained, “Back then, these dinners weren’t just about eating. They were symbols of royal power. Also, they ate about ten courses, so dinner could last up to three hours.”

Again, my mind recreated a fine dinner with the ladies and gentlemen sitting straight on the red-and-gold velvet chairs, talking about

politics and economics and things I didn’t understand but certainly respected. I couldn’t invent dialogue for them, but still they talked of serious adult things, while eating the rich, fragrant food with its pungent smells permeating the air and competing with the French perfume of the ladies.

From there we went to the music room, where an old-fashioned piano and a golden harp stood. Upper-class families always enjoyed good music, and they were all expected to play an instrument. My papa played the guitar, but somehow, these instruments seemed so much more aristocratic. Maybe I could learn to play the harp like Empress Maria Teresa did in the past!

Next we went to the ballroom, and again, I was flooded with an image of men and women waltzing to the Blue Danube, which my grandpapa loved the play and, I must admit, I did appreciate, even if my brother and friends didn’t care for boring, old Classical music. In fact, I hummed to myself the tune as I imagined the elegant dancing couples floating across the shiny parquet floors, the ladies’ dresses flying dramatically as their gems shone.

There were more and more rooms, more than I can remember at that time, but with each one, my sense of excitement grew. I had seen pictures of big European castles, but I had never imagined that we had one in Brazil. Papa was beaming with pride as I asked more questions and showed a natural curiosity he told he later he always knew I

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had- he just had no idea that it was going to blossom so strongly in this place, of all places.

I asked Papa and the guide questions like, “What was their routine during the day?

When did they get up, what did they do?

What were their favorite foods, music, and stuff?”

Being in the palace made me feel like I was literally in the middle of that historical period. I imagined servants running about, fussing, cleaning, sweeping, arranging flowers in the giant, oversized vases. I never in my life had an experience like thateverything felt so alive and breathing, even the golden grandfather clocks ticking and the stately portraits of the imperial family staring sternly from their gold-rimmed canvases. They seemed to talk to me, smile and wink and point to small corners of the rooms where I’d find a treasure no one else noticed. For example, I laughed when I saw the toilet- the imperial family, in fact, were one of the first in South America to have a flushing toilet. How funny was that!

And then we were led into a room shrouded in darkness. What was this? I thought. The hairs on my neck began to rise as Papa said, “This is the highlight of the tour, Rodrigo.

Hold your breath!”

I did. There were lots of people inside, huddled around something in the middle of the room. Papa picked me up and put me on his shoulder for a better look; I hooked my fingers into his curly brown hair, feeling his

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powerful arms steady my legs. Oh, my Lord!

I couldn’t believe it!

In the middle of the room, inside a square glass case (bulletproof, the guide said), was the imperial crown of Brazil- an actual royal crown before my very eyes! It seemed enormous! It was made of solid gold with curving arches pointing up and holding a ball with a cross. It was literally blinding to look at it because its 639 diamonds and pearls sparkled and distracted my eyes. My mouth was agape with wonder and awe. It seemed to ooze power, elegance, respect, authority, beauty, fragility and strength at the same time.

All around the room were other symbols of the imperial family- a staff five feet tall made of solid gold with a dragon on topI look at its ruby eyes and blue sapphire tongue- such tiny, intricate details! I’d think an elf would have designed it. I saw the tiaras of the imperial women with huge diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and other jewels.

At the end of the room was a life-size portrait of Emperor Pedro in a costume of gold and velvet from the Middle Ages- he held the golden staff and wore the crown.

He was shining with power and dignity as the congressmen and guests bowed, like a beacon of gold and promise of the future.

By the time we exited to the back gardens, I had to sit down and catch my breath. Too many images were flashing through my head. I felt like I’d just played an Atari arcade game for one solid hour, and my

had- he just had no idea that it was going to blossom so strongly in this place, of all places.

I asked Papa and the guide questions like, “What was their routine during the day?

When did they get up, what did they do?

What were their favorite foods, music, and stuff?”

“Yes. This is just the summer one. The main one is even larger, though today it’s the natural history museum. But the building is the same.”

“Let’s go Monday when we get back!” I said.

“I have a lot of history to catch up!”

“Well, my son, I think a seed has been planted indeed,” Papa said, hugging me.

Being in the palace made me feel like I was literally in the middle of that historical period. I imagined servants running about, fussing, cleaning, sweeping, arranging flowers in the giant, oversized vases. I never in my life had an experience like thateverything felt so alive and breathing, even the golden grandfather clocks ticking and the stately portraits of the imperial family staring sternly from their gold-rimmed canvases. They seemed to talk to me, smile and wink and point to small corners of the rooms where I’d find a treasure no one else noticed. For example, I laughed when I saw the toilet- the imperial family, in fact, were one of the first in South America to have a flushing toilet. How funny was that!

And then we were led into a room shrouded in darkness. What was this? I thought. The hairs on my neck began to rise as Papa said, “This is the highlight of the tour, Rodrigo.

Hold your breath!”

I did. There were lots of people inside, huddled around something in the middle of the room. Papa picked me up and put me on his shoulder for a better look; I hooked my fingers into his curly brown hair, feeling his

Rodrigo Monteiro 33

By: Sean Patrick Doherty Don't make a sound. Don't move. He’s right there. “Found you. Get out of the bush and help me find everyone else,” said my brother. I am walking out of the bush that cut me with a branch and it started to bleed so I went in my house washed the cut and put on a band aid.

About an hour later, Me, my brother, and my sister were filled with joy because it was Halloween. We put on are costumes and went trick or treatin. We went from house to house and I got so much delicious candy that my bag almost broke. After that it was 8:30PM so I was super scared because it was very dark. Almost as dark as a black cat walking across the road. When we got back to our house my brother and I had the ding dong ditch are neighbor but it was too late to do it so we decided to do it tomorrow.

The next day we ate all of our candy until it was late enough to ding dong ditch our neighbor. We were so excited that we put on our costumes and went to do it.

My costume was pikachu, My brother was grim reaper, and my sister was a nerd.

We were walking to the house and it took us about 2 minutes because we walked super slow like in action movies walking away from a enormous explosion.

We got to the house and rang the doorbell but no one answered so we rang it again and we heard steps coming from the hallway we all ran but I fell and my cut opened and there was blood coming out. I keeped running but I did not want to get my costume stained so I stopped and put my hand over my cut and tried to make it stop but It did not stop. So I asked the neighbor to help me and I thought he wa s going to kill me but all he did was pick me up and asked me if I was ok. I showed him the cut and he brought me to my house and my mom answered and said, “What happened baby?¨ I was so scared I could barely talk I said, “ I fell and cut myself while ding dong ditching that guy ” then I and my mom thanked the neighbor and my mom gave me a band aid. Then my mom said, ¨ were you by yourself?

I answered, “no I was with Jimmy and Nicole.” Now you might think wow he is a snitch but I could not let Jimmy and Nicole be free. Now let's go back to the story. My mom got so mad at Jimmy and Nicole I could see steam coming out of her head. Then my brother ,sister and I were grounded for 3 weeks without any of our electronic devices but we got them 1 week earlier. After that the neighbor became our favorite and we would never do a ding-dong- ditch again. However we did it 2 more times just for fun but we got in a lot more trouble than the first time.

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The Scary Mummy Ride

By Ruby Ramirrez As we approached the ride my cousin got scared more and more.

As we go to the line the line kept moving forwards and forwards. So to distract us we kept talking so we wouldn’t even notice the line was moving at all. When we were halfway of the line my cousin and I saw that there was a video of people riding the ride. When we saw that, my cousin said “Hey I have to go to the bathroom can you save my space?”

I got out of the line so that I could go get him and this time he came with me and the rest of the people riding it. I didn’t let him go to anywhere because I knew he would run away again. The persons in front of us got into the ride and as the ride started to move the kids and adults started to scream.Thats is even more scary than the video. When we got into the ride stopped, my hands started to sweat I had started to tremble.

As the ride started moving it started slow then faster and faster.

When I first got in the thing that most scared me was the dark because something was going to grab me but it wasn’t that dark I wasn’t that scared anymore. Until something looked like it was going to grab my cousin he started to scream and everyone started to laugh. But he started to laugh with them. There was so many details inside the ride I couldn’t even know how they all did this.When the ride stopped I was relieved that it had finished but it didn’t this time it was going backwards and I screamed my heart started beating even faster and faster. After we got off the ride I even wanted to ride it again because it was fun and I wanted to see other people in my family screaming especially my sister. But my parents said it was getting too dark. So we just went to the minions ride and this time my cousin really wanted to ride this ride because it’s a kids ride and he knows it’s not scary at all. After everything we went to the water park after that.

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The first broken arm By: Sophia Chuo

I was so excited, It was the LAST day of first grade! I couldn't BELIEVE I was going to second grade. I knew there was going to be a new teacher so I was wondering how she was going to be. Like all typical first graders, we did fun activities in our class. For example our last show and tell. Some work was done and before we knew it was already recess. We grabbed our tiny lunch boxes and headed outside the room to line up. When all of us were ready the teacher, Ms.Johnson led us outside to the humongous playground.

I was done eating with my friends. I was tired of sitting down so I really wanted to go to the swings, All of us took turns on the swings because there was only three of them. After a long time of flying we decided to go to the gymnastics bars. All of us did flips! We all felt like the best ones even though other people could do that to. The coolest thing ever was the Zipline! But unfortunately only fifth graders could use it. Not fair at all! In the last couple minutes, I decided to go to the monkey bars so I obviously went .

One of my friends could do a cool trick, hang on the side and cross all the way. I been trying that for ages. It was worth the last try. I could not BELIEVE it, I for the first time did it! I felt like the cool girl in the playground. I was shouting to my friend so she could see. My little hands were starting to sweat I was about to fall, I kept telling my friend but she wouldn't listen. I felt sweat drops, and OH NOO, One hand was down, There were too sweaty and then‌ Dun,Dun,Dun. Wait I think you already know what happened right? Okay back to the story. I could tell something was wrong and..., the other hand was down. I couldn't believe I slipped and fell under my left arm.

Monkey bars

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This graphic relates to the story by show the kids excitement!

I was in such pain but I didn't cry. I felt like my arm was smashed by a tree.

My friends were asking “are you okay Sophie?” , I said no.

Dani my friend was so kind and she walked with me all the was to tell the teacher. But she didn't listen because it was time to go. I could see everybody lining up and in an instant they were walking away. She took my lunch box and we both slowly and carefully went down the stairs. I couldn't move my arm. It hurt so much. I still went to spanish class for 5 minutes and Dani also told what happened to the teacher. She immediately told me to got to the doctor because I might of fractured my arm. When I was there sitting in the doctor's office I just wanted my mom.

I was thinking many things in my mind. I looked up and the doctor kindly asked if I could move my arm , I said no. He gave me one of those thing to rest your arm when you break it. The doctor rapidly called my mom and a few minutes later she came. I ranned and hugged her. The Doctor told my mom to take me to the hospital. I was in the car and suddenly tears were dripping down my cheeks. I was so happy that I was with my mom. After a lot of ours in the hospital I finally went to home sweet home, I was wearing a pink cast. I felt like blocks for building were in my arm, it just felt weird. I thought to myself, “I am never going to play wit the monkey bars again!”

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d Col

ea mS r a W er, t a W

By: Seba stia n

Shi ls C oba r

I opened the cooler, letting the gentle mist cover me like a blanket. I took out my coke, labeled: Sebastian. I came to the bow of the boat and sat down comfortably. I looked around at the glistening sea and the small ripples the boat made. I took a gentle sip of the coke i had in my hand. Instead of a refreshing ahhh… I coughed and spluttered, as a cold bitter taste went down my throat. My throat started to sting and that bitter taste had stayed in my mouth. I had a feeling the bitterness would not go away easily.

As I recovered, I looked over the boat at everybody swimming happily in the water and making sandcastles along the beach. But one person caught my eye, the eldest cousin was laughing his head off in the water and pointing at me. Two things crossed my mind at once, why was the eldest cousin laughing? And what was the liquid that was supposed to be coke?

Thinking furiously, I barely noticed my sister and three younger cousins come up to me and ask me, “Do you want to play hide and seek with us?” “Sure,” I said, still half listening.

Suddenly, two answers came to me at the same time. That liquid hadn’t been soda, it had been coffee! And the eldest cousin was laughing because he had replaced the soda with coffee! Boiling with anger, I watched the eldest cousin lie down and sunbathe at the edge of the dock. Fuming, I slowly, carefully, thought out a plan for vengeance. I paced up and down the side of the boat. Then I smiled mischievously, “Oh, do I have something in store for you” I whispered to myself.

A few minutes later, after sneaking past uncles and aunts to get my plan in action, I slowly opened the cooler, and picked up the coldest bottle of water I could find. I looked fugitively to make sure no one saw me, cast a glance at the eldest cousin. My mission began, I sprinted off the boat and onto the dock, ninja-like. I carefully opened the frigid water bottle and looked at the eldest cousin to make sure he was asleep. I edged closer to the bed. I looked at the sandy bottom of the sea. “Thats a good place to push him in.” The sun reflected brightly off the surface. Without glancing around to see if anybody was watching, I slowly tipped the bottle over… Suddenly, there was a pounding of feet on the dock. I looked around to see a half a dozen of cousins running at me. I turned around, with a look as if my parents had told me there was no Christmas this year. They all kept stampeding at me and I pointed at the boat and said, “There is candy in there!” They giggled and climbed onto the boat.

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I slowly crept back to the eldest cousin. Gracefully, I picked up my water. I checked to see its temperature, and it wasn’t as cold as it was at first. “It’ll still work,” I told myself. I could hear giggles from behind me as my cousins realized what I was doing. “Hey, there he is!” said a voice from the crowd. The eldest cousin started to stir. I looked around, alarmed. Then I saw my sister and the 3 other cousins come sprinting at an Olympic pace, from the beach, onto the dock and straight at me. I quickly started pushing the chair that the eldest cousin was on, towards the edge of the dock. The eldest cousin woke up. I shoved with all my might, and watched as the eldest cousin fell with a splash into the clear beach water. I smiled, “What goes around comes around” I said. “Now I just turn around and see the laughing faces,” I said. But I couldn't turn around. Then I realized that a hand was grabbing me from the water. I yelped in shock. Then the hand gave a mighty tug, and I fell in. I tried to grab onto the dock, but the eldest cousin’s hand pulled me in. “What goes around comes around” I thought

39

My Best and worst Day paint balling By: Sebastian Rey

“Adrian watch out you're gonna get shot!”

My heart was pumping by this moment all my teammates were out, it was only me and my paintball gun vs 4 teens! It was time to rush so I flanked them, without them noticing I was low on ammunition. I shot all four of them it was like winning the world cup, my team was saying yes!!! We won! I felt like Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the final goal against Barcelona, I was so happy! My heart finally stopped pumping like if my heart was going to pop out of my chest. We had to go get some more ammo and water we decided to go to a map based on call of duty (Video game). My adrenaline started to pump as soon as the referee blew his whistle. I started running, but tripped and fell to the ground, I had so much adrenaline that I didn't notice that I had a big scratch on my arm. I saw blood dripping down but didn't take note of it.

I kept on playing but got shot right in the leg and got a big bruise. While I was walking off the field I got shot again by some teenager. The referee took him out of the game to made him apologize to me for what he did. For the rest of the day my leg hurt like if I got a tetanus shot (A shot given when cut by something rusty). We had already been there for two hours when my dad said “last game guys before we leave” We were all sad and tired but still filled with excitement. It was our final match my hands were trembling with excitement and adrenaline, we were so hyped.

The referee blew his whistle and we knew it was game time. We started running and instantly my friend got shot in the chest and slowly raised his hands and walked out with his head down like if he lost a soccer match. Soon later I was in a corner when I got shot by some guy, he shot me from two inches a way in the neck and I started to tear up a little bit. It was a agonizing pain that didn't stop for 5 minutes straight. They took me into the infirmary for some ice, the guy couldn't stop apologizing it kinda got annoying. It was time to leave, I was kinda sad that we were leaving. And that the end of this paint balling was more like painball.

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Nicolle Paiz

The Moving Swing…

By: Nicolle PaizSecret Agent class, and we were playing hide and seek in partners. Since she was my partner we first went to hide behind Elfin the CIT’s cabin. We saw the counselor we were hiding from coming over to where we were hiding, we tried to run but she saw us, it was too late. Kelly the counselor came running and touched us.

“We are it now!” Exclaimed Vanessa, so we counted to 35 and started searching.

I remembered I had seen a good hiding spot when we were coming up so I said “I know a good place where someone might be hiding, it's close to Cedar cabin let’s go!”

“Sure” Vanessa answers. We went to the old hillside playground, there was a grass wall with a gap for us to enter. There were swings and a little wooden house.

When I was about to enter, Vanessa said “How about we don't go into there, it just gives me the creeps.” I was confused, to me it seemed like a nice place where someone could swing for hours and hours and never get tired, but what I didn't know is that this was exactly the problem. I thought I saw something moving in the little house so I yelled “We saw you, come out.” No one answered.

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Then Vanessa said ”Come on let's just go to another place.”

I asked “Vanessa why don't you like it there, it seem like a pretty place.”

“I am going to tell you a story of why I think this place is haunted.” I started to feel a little bit scared but she started telling me anyway. “In like the fifth or sixth session of camp which was a long time ago since we are in like the 40th session of camp, there was this girl who always was on the swings.

One day she swung so high she fell into the forest and disappeared. One night years later a counselor was coming from her night off and since she was a hillside counselor she coming this way, she saw a girl in the swings.

The counselor confused said “You can’t be here it’s night.” Since the girl didn’t respond the counselor moved closer to the swings, but at light speed the girl disappeared.

I got so freaked out I couldn’t stop thinking of possible super scary stuff.

Then I saw a strange shadow again inside the little house, I started feeling like I would faint and fall like a potato on the floor. Vanessa said “Let’s go see what that is ok?”

“Ok” I answered. Vanessa entered but I just stood there looking at the floor.

A few minutes later I got the courage to go in and go after Vanessa. I heard something moving inside I got super scared. I opened the door and I almost got a heart attack. Why? Because 2 other friends from secret agent class surprised me inside. I asked what was going on and they told me the truth.

They tricked me like they tricked every new camper by making them scared.

At first I felt mad and scared but quickly that got replaced by laughter and fun. After all it was a fun bonding event and I got to get to know my friends better because after that we went together to lunch and spend break together.

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Nicolle Paiz Orange 7%

Medium: Shiny Green Paper Shiny Yellow Paper Shiny White Paper Shiny Purple Paper Normal Orange Color Paper Normal Blue Color Paper Normal Peach Color Paper Normal Yellow Color Paper Gift Wrapping Orange Paper White Background Paper

Purple 2%

Green 12%

Peach 14% White 16%

Yellow 28%

Blue 21%

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Cooking Gone Wrong By:Samuel Tate I was home alone one night with my sisters. The wind was blowing, the windows were creaking, and the hallways were dark. The dim light from my room lighted up the whole house. My sister and I were hungry our stomachs were rumbling and tumbling inside us. Then my sister Rebecca had an idea, she said we could cook something? Cook!! We don't know how to cook. But we were starving we would do anything for food. So two seconds later we were in the kitchen admiring all of the shelfs full of food.

“All right let's get to work, my sisters and I picked five ingredients.”

Amy went first she got out chocolate, gummy bears, Hard candy, popcorn, and carrots then she mixed them all together then smashed it all up and put it in the oven for 10 minutes.

Rebecca went second, she got out Nutella, fish, beef, celery, and orange juice. Then she took out a big fat boI went last because, I was the youngest out of all of us. I put milk chocolate, white chocolate, nutella, dark chocolate and icecream. I put it on the stove for 20 minutes.

Then for the grand finale we put it all together.We looked at the great big blob of brown in a big fat plate. Rebecca took a big bite two seconds later she was throwing up in the bathroom. Amy took the second bite which was even bigger two seconds later she was throwing up too I took the third bite it was enormous maybe as big as my hand.

And guess what, two seconds later my mom came home we were all throwing up. “WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED HERE YOU GUYS LOOK LIKE A BUNCH OF BUFFOONS. WASH YOUR SLEEVES OFF THIS INTENSE!” My mom put us straight to bed. How could I go to sleep I was all covered in glop and I was turning all night long.

In the morning the next day I felt very sick butterflies in my stomach it was a very drunk butterfly and it was joined by lots more drunk butterflies. The butterflies made me drunk to I was swaying from side to side I fell back in bed and I stayed home from school that day and another day after the drunk butterflies have finished their party.

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BY: EMILIA ROBAYO “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” they screamed.

“They are such babies like I am just 10 and they are like 35 and I am not scared at all,” I said. “How can this people be so scared of the skyscraper? This is not even a bit scary .”

The line approached, slowly I walked and sat down. “Do we need all these protection like we are not going to throw from the sky,” I proclaimed in my head. “Ajj whatever I just want to try these out.” The game started it went up then down over and over the game stopped at the top. I was very surprised you could see al the city it was like seeing a paradise. The view was pretty amazing. It past 5 seconds. “now we are getting down” the game was not going down “the game is damaged.” I screamed in my head “Now what are we going to do?” I was very frightened, my life past through my eyes. “It is the moment that god decided me to go,” I said to myself. “ I loved my life I said” . It wasn’t going down I could hear my heart pumping like when my brother tries to put a nail on the wall. I could hear that my heart was stopping, but then I said it was a great day seeing the city calmed me down a bit. I saw it over and over again it was an awesome view . It was past 50 seconds but it was like hours know it is my time to say goodbye to earth but suddenly a wushhh and whoosh when it past 10 seconds and I fell it felt like you fell from the sky I screamed and screamed and screamed over and over again and then I went up and down up and down it was like an earthquake. Like a 9.8 earthquake. I flew it felt amazing the fresh breeze covered by face like gentle blankets and my hair flew. It was like when I put a balloon in my hair, now I knew why people screamed . Mmmmmmm I thought this is amazing I want to do it again. It was the besting ever the air covers your face like gentle blankets. “When you are in the top you can locate beautiful places in Guatemala, that you haven't seen or visited” and it is amazing i said.

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Slime EUNBI SHIN, 6TH GRADE ENGLISH/ART

I drew this in art class. I tried to make this art piece like what Kandinsky did.

Abstract art is a type of art is art that is showing your emotions with only using lines and shapes and colors.

Never trying to make a slime with shampoo or never trying to put your slime in microwave, it’s a worst thing in the world.

I was alone at my home. There was a video about making a slime. At that time I really like touching or making a slime so I clicked the video. It there was a girl with pretty brown hair smiling.

“Hi, guys! Today we are going to make a slime using only four materials! So let’s start!” a girl said.

“First step first, you have put little bit liquid glue in your bowl. Then...” I paused the video. I ran to the self to get a container that I always use for making a slime, a pink shiny bowl. And I took a liquid glue. Then I came back to my desk and played the video again.

“Then you put shampoo in it, mix it well~” I paused the video again and ran to the bathroom. I grabbed the shampoo that was on the corner. I thought that slime is going to be perfect. “Slime made of shampoo! It will be shiny yellow and smell like a blossom.”

I said to myself. My shampoo was yellow and smelled blossom.

I check the shampoo to see if it is a shampoo because I last time I confused shampoo with the bodywash. I came back to my desk and played the video again.

“Wow, we are on third step! Can you believe it? So the third step is put some hand cream in it .” I paused the video again. This time I had a problem, I didn’t have hand cream. So I ran to my parent’s room and get my mom’s hand cream. Me, sneaky robber, always steal something from my mom, I was not scared of excited. I went back to my room with a hand cream.

“Step number 4, you put perfume in your slime to make it smell good.” I paused the video and ran to the shelf again.

I’m not a person that uses perfume a lot. So I had to open a box of perfume that I got from someone.

I didn’t resume watching the video this time. I opened the shampoo cap and put some in the bowl. I smelled the soft, bubbly and sweet aroma from the shampoo.

I grabbed the liquid glue that was on top of the book on top of the shelf. I opened the liquid glue. It was hard to open. I put some of glue in the bowl. The liquid glue made me excited. I felt my heart dancing inside. I felt stickiness from the glue even though I didn’t touch it. I grabbed the hand cream and open the cap. I put in very little hand cream because it was not mine.

Finally, I put some perfume. I started to mix the liquid things.

For this time I thought that this slime will never work. But as I was mixing it, I saw a little glimpse of hope that was telling me that this slime would be perfect and it will be the best slime ever.

“Well, it’s time for the last step!

Put it in a microwave for 2 minutes then you will have the perfect slime!”. I paused the video.

“Eunbi Shin, maybe the smartest girl in that apartment building, didn’t understand what to do. I paused the video for one minute and thought, what if something happen to microwave? My parent were not here. I had no thoughts in that second, I ran to the kitchen.

At the kitchen I had two problems.

First, I was too short to reach the microwave, second, my slime smelled really bad that my parent are going know. Eunbi, the problem solver, didn’t give up.

I knew that 140cm (my height in last summer break) is not short, I grabbed the chair that was next to me and put it in front of me where the microwave were. And I open the window, one at the kitchen, four at the living room.

The fresh air from the outside and blue sky freed me from the strawberryblossom smell.

I had only one thing to do, put the bowl into that small microwave and turn the button on, and that’s what I did.

I’m not a patient person so I couldn’t wait.

I walked around the kitchen like a crazy person.

I hands got more sweaty and my stomach was hurting little bit like I thought there was a butterfly flying around in my tummy.

“Bip!” It was a microwave sound.

I didn’t had to wait anymore I stand on the chair and open the microwave door and...

“Pushhhhhhhhhh........!” It made a really big sound. I was surprised and screamed little bit. I saw a my face at the microwave door, it was white. My head was filled with pain because microwave.

It popped, that’s what I thought.

Liquid from the bowl was all around and the bowl had a black dots for somehow.

The smell of the liquid made me feel dizzy. It was still a strawberry-blossom smell but it was hot. I freezed. It was a worst day in my vacation` or in this apartment or in Guatemala or it is a worst day in my life. Good thing was my stomach didn’t hurt anymore, no butterflies. The bad thing was butterflies moved to my head and made me headache.

“We’re home!” Someone said. I couldn’t hear whoever it was because at that moment I was deaf.

"Eunbi, what did you...” It was my Mom. I smiled at her, getting ready to be killed because of this “slime”.

YouTV

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Then it was our trio which was hard not life literally, I felt like throwing up. I started to whisper “No no, I can’t” and as my town got bigger my words got smaller “Non Nnoo.”

You know like when you're in a rollercoaster and there are too many swirls, but then we were next, I bet Marias and Nati saw how nervous I was. They made me calm down. Then I heard a familiar song, my solo song, and I saw there was a baby girl dancing “on the stage,” we all started singing.

“Popular, popular woo.” The girls in the front just tried to do the same but no one can defeat the Three Musketeers. It was our turn and when I got on stage, the fear came back. I felt like we put a lot of emotion in, I started singing “It's the hard not life for us.”

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I never thought I would actually be in a broadway competition! I mean, I have been in a normal competition, but now we have to try to expand our dancing . The day of the competition, I had a quiver from my head to my feet. We had been practicing for a long period of time. My cousins came with me, these beautiful women were Nati, Nicky, Marias, Estefa, Alexia, and Celi. They were all dancing except Celi.

There were no dads in this trip, which made it nerve racking. Anyway, I was getting ready to see Estefa sing. And we were all screaming “ Vamos Estefa vamos, si se puede!”

When we were done we went backstage and all the supportive mothers came running but walking slowly, really slowly and hugged us until someone said my solo was next and for some basar reason I felt even worse than before I felt like there was no hope in me left I felt so scared that I started crying I couldn't stop. While my mom was blowing in my eye I heard my name and I went running on the stage and then I started doing it I wasn't feeling better actually a started to tremble from my head to my feat and my song was ending and the I had my three twirls which was the hardest thing for me and 1 twirl 2 twirls and then I turned slowly and tipped on my shaking leg and fell on my ankle hard I couldn't move it but I knew I couldn't give up and my song was almost ending so I stood up and finished it then I ran of the stage and judges looked at me by that point All I would see is spotted lights my cousin running after me me leaping and falling again and again and I started to run to the bathroom and start to cry and then a second later I would see everybody hugging me but I knew I had to support my team so I saw there solos and then was awarded and I was not in the mood for it but it went better than I thought I almost got first place so at the end Of the day I realised it's not always about winning so I learned an important lesson.

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Open

By Lou Belissent BOOM!!! “MOM, MOM” I shouted as loud as I could. Mom bolted down the hall and came to help me. My brother had fallen down the stairs and had opened his entire lip! There was blood all over the carpet. My entire body felt like it was sinking down the hall of embarrassment.

My mom grabbed her phone and keys and carried me down the hall, “Where are we going?” I asked curiously “To the hospital” my mom replied.

My dad came back from the kitchen and carefully put my brother on my mom’s lap.

“Mom what’s happening?” I questioned.

“Your brother opened his lip darling” mom said. I observed my mom delicately caressing my brother’s forehead. My back was shivering, I felt a big hole in my stomach, and my hands were cold.

It was awful.

We desperately looked for someone when the nurse came and said “Take a seat I will see when we can get started”. The nurse came back said “All the doctors are occupied so take a seat” My dad became impatient and asked “How much time left?”

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“6 hours” she replied. Dad could not believe it, he took my brother to the car and drove of to a friends house.

When we got there they welcomed us really kindly and looked sorry for my brother.

“I will get the needle and string and you get a towel” said Oliver my dad’s friend to my dad. When they came from the room, my dad wrapped my brother in the towel and Oliver helped him keeping my brother calm.

AHH again that terrible stomach hole!

“AHHHH!!” My brother didn't stop moving, and stigling around.

It was over! All the sowing, and crying was over! “Yay!” I said to myself. I was panicking for my brother so much I didn’t want to say a word. Inside I was relieved.

Home finally! All the drama was over!

“Mom what are you going to do now?” I asked curiously.

“We are going to take care of your brother.” she replied. At the end of the day it was over. No more blood on the carpet (it was in the washing machine), no more screaming and crying, and most of all no more drama.

I felt happy, I was happy the day was over.

“MOM!” I yelled.

“What?” she answered.

“Oscar is running again in the hall” I replied. “Stop him” she said. I stopped my brother and took him to bed. He was finally asleep. It was over, the day was over, I still could not believe what happened but I fet relief, it was a relief the day was over.

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I was trembling yet confident. I could feel my hand shaking. Thoughts like, “What if I don't grab it” and “I could jeopardize my whole life if I don't make this” we're going through my mind. I was about to jump from the tall point of the castle. If I didn't grab the cold metal bar I would break my neck. I crouched down to give myself a giant impulse and jump as high as I could. I was hanging onto the rusty old yellow bar of the castle side by a sweaty finger. I was confident and excited, ready to jump. I was about to let go. An inch of my finger on the thin metal bar. I finally leapt upward with all of my might. It felt as if I had jumped far into outer space.

It seemed like I had just leapt from the Empire State building and, the only thing that was keeping me from the floor and breaking my neck was me grabbing the thin bar. I blinked then looked down to realize I was about to hit the floor. I stretched my hand out as far as I could. I was a centimeter away from the bar. I closed my eyes,and felt the burning strong cement floor hit my back.

The air was sucked out of me. My guts had just performed a million backflips. I slowly sat up and told myself I was going to be alright. My back was hurting terribly. I looked over at two girls who were glaring at me as if I was insane. I felt horrible butterflies in my stomach, I was so embarrassed. I wanted to disappear or turn back time. My tongue felt like its was being stung by millions of wasps and bees. I then took my hand slowly toward my mouth and touched my tongue gently. I removed my dirty hand carefully to see blood dripping down to my shoulder. Tears were dripping from my chin and panic was spreading throughout my chest. I got up looking alone and confused. An even worse and immense pain kicked inttongue.

I ran towards a lady that was on a bench. I had no clue as to where my parents were and, I thought the pain would make me go blind. I tapped the lady on the shoulder. She slowly turned her head.

As soon as I made eye contact I opened my mouth widely and gently, then let out the sound ,”ahhhhhhhhhh!” The second she saw my mouth her eyes turned big as apples.

She told me, ”Oh my god what happened?” I was screaming in pain. I felt like I was stranded in the middle of the sea and I had no way of communication with anyone. She got up and yelled for help. All around me people were running towards us and asked what happened.

When I tried talking all the came out was,” Auh auh weljahuel auhere.”

The lady said, ” I guess she fell or something,” she turned to me and said, “sweetheart stay calm, were going to find some help.” I saw a man running towards the soccer fields.

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A man's head head II also also saw saw one one of of the the A few few minutes minutes past past and and as as II saw saw the the tip tip of of the the man's soccer asked me me what what my my brothers brothers soccer tournaments tournaments manager manager running running to to me. me. He He asked name He then then set set off off to to the the name was. was. II tried tried my my best best and and said said ,” ,” Nikoauh Nikoauh auhauhlic.” auhauhlic.” He soccer soccer fields. fields.

II waited to my my side side and and saw saw my my waited and and itit felt felt like like hours hours when when II finally finally looked looked to parents towards me. me. Relief Relief spread spread parents bouncing bouncing up up and and down, down, running running like like lunatics lunatics towards throughout opened my my mouth. mouth. He He and and my my throughout my my body. body. My My dad dad looked looked at at me me as as II opened mom As my my dad dad bent bent down down II got got aa mom crouched crouched down down to to see see what what had had happened. happened. As glimpse of the the aching aching horrible horrible puddle puddle of of glimpse through through the the reflections reflections of of his his glasses glasses of blood A mistake mistake that that would would haunt haunt blood in in my my tonge. tonge. II realised realised II had had made made a a mistake. mistake. A me me for for life life

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By Samantha Kershner

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D A T/E9 / 17 14

ANA CRISTINA VIZCAINO

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TEXT

TEXT

TEXT

and facts

and facts

and facts

The triangle in the middle of space By: Camila Henao

Materials: blue and purple oil pastels, crayons, normal colors and orange oil pastels just for the background.

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abstract art abstract

dyani matamoros

A lot of the art was created after World War II in New York City.

Abstract art started in the early 1900's, especially  by Kandinsky.Â

There are many different types of abstract art (art informel, suprematism, etc.)

It was first started to put New York City as the "center of the Western Art World."

Background My Abstract Art Everything Information Piece You Need to Know This project was given to us as a final assessment for our study of abstract art in our art history class.

We were given about two total hours to complete it. That would be equivalent to two class periods.

We could do any type of design of our choice as long as it met all the requirements of the definition of abstract art itself. That means only straight lines and no curves. We were also given a limit to only three different colors. We could use whatever materials we wanted like pastels, color pencils, paint, but no markers.

I personally went with a design that I was very confident about.

I had done this design with paint on a canvas and it turned out really nicely so for this project I went off of experience.

However while i was drawing my lines with the ruler my thumb got in the way but it ended up looking pretty nice so I kept that mistake and added it to my design. I also used colors that I think look good together.

Primarily blue, black, and purple. Also I tried to contrast the colors nicely.

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Abstract Art

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Ian Lee

By Maya Rodriguez

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My art

Marianna Solares

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Rafael de Leon

INFINITY DREAM

FIRST DRAFT My first draft started out as two lines that meet in the middle and then lines going opposite. I got the idea of the lines because I wanted to create something trippy or confusing at sight.

FINAL ARTWORK

COLORED FIRST DRAFT For this project we were allowed to use only three colors. Since I wanted my artwork to look lively i chose the most vibrant colors I could find

This design was my final artwork. It took long because I had to start from the beginning. It was really hard and it required lots of patience in my opinion.

FINAL DRAFT COLORING This is the final draft In the process of coloring. I couldn't find the final draft for this one so I had to redo it making the final design look like the one in the middle.

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R E D

COLAGE MEDEAN PAPER OVER PAPER

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SEBASTIAN LOU V

F I R E

Ysa Marx's Art Work

In my artwork I used three different colors, red, yellow, and orange. I used it to color the whole paper then I scraped the extra crayon marks of with scissors. Then I used paper to make other designs on the art piece

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Abstarct Art Layout design

YOU'RE INVITED TO AN

9, 2019 | 2:00 PM | FINDLAY RESIDENCE

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This art is interpetaition of how dark and light is reling on each other. If the light gets stronger so will the dark and this layout design shows how they both rely on each other

Artwork by Lou Belissent

Artwork by Eunbi Shin