Smásagnakeppni grunn- og framhaldsskóla 2013. Félag enskukennara á Íslandi (FEKÍ)
Sögur í úrslitum keppninnar voru samtals 46 frá 19 skólum. Að þessu sinni var þemað Blue. Þeir skólar sem tóku þótt eru: Árbæjarskóli, Borgarholtsskóli, Fjölbrautaskólinn við Ármúla, Fjölbrautaskólinn í Breiðholti, Fjölbrautaskóli Vesturlands, Foldaskóli, Fossvogsskóli, Grunnskólinn á Hellu, Grunnskólinn í Breiðdalshreppi, Grunnskólinn í Hveragerði, Hlíðaskóli, Húnavallaskóli, Kvennaskólinn, Laugalækjarskóli, Menntaskólinn á Akureyri, Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík, Myllubakkaskóli, Skóli Ísaks Jónssonar, Þelamerkurskóli. Stjórn FEKÍ þakkar fyrir góða þátttöku. Skipulag: Félag enskukennara á Íslandi (FEKÍ) Dómnefnd: Stjórn FEKÍ Mynd á forsíðu: Sameiginlegt verk nemenda á miðstigi í Hlíðaskóla Styrktaraðilar: Embassy of the United States Reykjavik, Bókaútgáfan Salka, Rósakot bækur
Smásagnakeppni grunn- og framhaldsskóla 2013 Vinningssögur
6th grade and younger Gísli Már Sigurgeirsson
The blue portal gun
Sonja Dís Johnson Guðlaugsdóttir
Blue
Margrét Guangbing Hu
The Blue Snow
Grunnskólinn í Hveragerði Foldaskóli Grunnskólinn í Hveragerði
7th and 8th grades 1st place: Margrét Klara Kaaber
The dinosaur who was deadly afraid of cats
2nd place: Þórdís Eva Einarsdóttir
The Boat Trip
3rd place: Eygló Anna Arnardóttir
The business trip to the Earth
Hlíðaskóli Húnavallaskóli
Grunnskólinn í Hveragerði
9th and 10th grades / lower secondary 1st place: Elín Ásta Pálsdóttir
Colourful
Laugalækjarskóli
2nd place: Þórhildur Þórsdóttir
Blue Blood
Laugalækjarskóli
3rd place: Ragnheiður Ingunn Jóhannsdóttir The girl who came out of the blue
Laugalækjarskóli
Upper secondary 1st place: Matthías Baldursson Harksen
The Subjects of Ithious
Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík
2nd place: Hera Björg Jörgensdóttir
Blue Birds Fly
Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík
3rd place: Ástráður Ísak Lárusson
Blue Moon
Fjölbrautaskólinn við Ármúla
Category: 6th grade and younger
The blue portal gun
Once upon a time was a boy named Benjamin, he was eleven years old and lived with his parents in a little town in England. Benjamin was always feeling down and blue because he had no friends. One day on his birthday he got a very specical present from his uncle Peter. And when Benjamin opened it he was very glad beacuse he had a Blue portal gun. He went straight to his room and tried the gun immediately. When he pressed the button a strange gate appeared on his wall and he walked in to the gate, what he saw was amazing, it was a blue wonder world. Everything in the world was blue, Benjamin walked around this strange place and after a while he met an blue Avatar named Xoimax and a Smurf named Plubu. They talked together and became real good friends. Xoimax and Plubu showed Benjamin their strange houses, small blue buldings with no windows. Everyone in this blue world seemed very happy except there was one problem, next to this blue world was another red world and the people in the red world where always mean to the people in the blue world. Xoimax and Plubu told Benjamin that they where afraid of the red people but they wanted to be there friends. Benjamin decided to go to the red world and ask the red people to be friends to the blue people. The red people also wanted to be friends with the blue people so they changed the two worlds and it became one happy purple world with purple people, purple trees and purple buildings with no windows. Benjamin stayed with Xoimax and Plubu for couple of days but then he wanted to go back home. He pressed the button on his Blue portal gun and the gate appeared. He said goodbye to his new friends and promised to visit them again soon. Benjamin walked through the gate and was back home in his bedroom. /Benjamin was very happy and not feeling blue anymore, he decided to talk to the kids in school and ask them to be his friend, just like the blue and red people did in the wonderworld. Benjamin made two new friends at school and lived happily ever after. Gísli Már Sigurgeirsson, Grunnskólinn í Hveragerði
Blue Once upon a time there was a small village. In this village were all girls, boys, moms, dads and even animals happy. People would dance and sing until sunset. But one sunny day a storm arrived. Everybody got scared. Bit by bit everybody got blue! They got bluer and bluer and finally they turned into blue stones. Except one twelve year old girl, Bethany. Bethany was strong and clever. Bethany was looking up to the blue sky when she saw the storm. She was a good runner, so she ran as fast as she could to a place nobody knew but her. This place was safe and just enough space for one person, Bethany. In the place there was food and water for her.
She waited for hours for the storm to stop. Finally the storm stopped. She climbed up the stairs to the room and stood up. She looked carefully around. Everything had turned into blue stones. The flowers, the animals even the grass. Everything was blue. But then Bethany saw something white. She walked near it. It was a map and a note. Bethany looked closer at it. On the note it said, do you need help? Go to Bluestreet 32 and we will help you.“ Bethany looked at the map. There was an X on Bluestreet 32. She had no other choice. She took some food at home and started running in the right direction.
After running for one hour she arrived to the right place, Bluestreet 32. She knocked on a brown old, rusty door. The door opened. An old lady answered. She was wearing black leather boots and a tight dress. Bethany thought wearing that kind of clothes was weird for an old lady. The lady whispered: “Do you need help?" Bethany said yes. Quickly, the lady closed the door and said: “I´ve been waiting for you.“ The lady asked Bethany to sit down and she said yes. Bethany started talking about what happened, but the lady interrupted, started laughing and then suddenly the lady changed into a witch. Bethany was going to run out but the witch cast a spell on her. “Sorry about that, but I´m gonna help you. Wait a minute, “ said the witch. Bethany watched the witch as she took a pot and put everything gross in it like frog feets, skeleton of a dragon, teeth of a wolf. Bethany held her breath because the smell was so bad. The witch was finally done. She poured the liquid into a weird glass and said: “You have to pour this on the blue stone people, good bye Bethany,“ said the witch and smiled.
Bethany watched the witch quickly take her wand and wave it and PUFF all of a sudden Bethany was in a forrest. She found it strange that the witch knew her name. But then she stopped thinking about it and looked around. She smelled
something aweful and realized that it was just the liquid in her hand. She decided to run. Bethany saw holes, stones and trees on her way but she jumped. She was so determined. When she was running she felt like someone was trying so hard to catch her and make her fall. Of course, the witch!
Bethany realized that she knew now what was going on. Some time ago, the witch had lived in the village. She loved it there. But then, Bethany wanted the witch to have fun. She knocked on her door and took her to sing and dance. The witch sang so badly that everyone laughed. The witch was so embarrased that she said weird, magic words “Mecca hi li.“ Everyone in the village remembered every second of that moment. Bethany was only five years old when it happened.
Bethany suddenly stopped. She realized that the witch was getting a revenge. After all this time. “Wait, mecca hi li“ said Bethany out loud. Suddenly she was in her village. Everyone was acting normal and not blue, like nothing had happened. She did not need the awful liquid and threw it away. Bethany ran to the people and started singing and dancing. While this was happening the witch sat grumpy in a chair on Bluestreet 23.
Sonja Dís Johnson Guðlaugsdóttir, Foldaskóli
Margrét Guangbing Hu, Grunnskólinn í Hveragerði
Category: 7th and 8th grades
The dinosaur who was deadly afraid of cats
Once upon a time, millions of years ago, on a planet called Earth. There was a baby dinosaur. His parents cuddled him close as they slept. But in the darkness of the night an unknown danger crept closer. The tiny dinosaur woke up with a start! It was still dark but he felt his parents were wide awake. He suddenly became very scared ,”What is going on” he thought. Out of the blue he heard a ROAR and his parents jumped. His mom screamed, Run, run as fast as you can!” And he obeyed. He ran and ran, as fast as his little legs would carry him. When he woke up he was still exhausted. It was just dawn and he had no idea where he was. He had never gone far from the nest, ever! He started walking but was too hungry to go far. He started losing hope, and before he knew it he started sobbing. He lay down, curled up and fell asleep in minutes. He woke up midday, hungrier than ever. He looked around, and spotted some coconuts under a very tall tree, a few steps away. He had missed them in the panic earlier. It didn´t take him long to open them with his sharp claws. They tasted different then at home but he was far too hungry to care. When he was full he started walking but he didn´t know which direction was home. After a while he heard a loud noise, startled and a little scared he moved in the direction he thought it had come from. Suddenly he heard shouting: ´’’It worked! My time machine worked!’’ Then he
heard a loud thump and a: ’’I am a stegosaurus!’’ He did not know yet what a time machine was, but he knew a stegosaurus! He rushed to where the shouting had come from and found a strange box. It had flashing lights and through a crack you could see inside. And right there next to it stood a stegosaurus just like the one he knew! Before he could even ask the stegosaurus if he knew the way back home, he tripped into the box! The box closed behind him and lights started flashing and everything started spinning! When he was starting to feel sick the box opened and he crawled out, desperate for air. But this wasn´t the same place! There was no grass, only stone! And there were bigger boxes, even bigger than a stegosaurus! There were flashing lights, loud noises and worst of all, large shiny beasts, ready to eat him! There were also smaller beasts, just a little bit bigger than Dad! Before he knew it he was swept up by one of the little beasts! But this one was smaller. It had a long pelt from its head. It yelled: “Dad, look what I found!” Its “Dad” however, was holding something to the side of its head, didn´t seem to care what the little beast had found. But it didn´t put him down; it put him into a weird thing called a stroller. Then It and the “Dad” walked into one of the boxes! After a while the stroller stopped and once again the beast picked him up. It put him on something he assumed was its nest. It started talking, but all he heard “You´re blue, so I´ll call you Blue.” He did like the name, and he did not yet have a name so he decided to call himself that.
But he did not like being trapped in a box with someone, something, that he had no Idea who or what was. But as he was thinking, the thing, just kept on talking: “My name is Kate, I´m nine, how old are you? Oh, silly me, you can´t talk yet, can you? Oh, well……” “Her name is Kate.” Blue thought, “That sounds like its female. The little she beast talked on and on, And blue listened curious about her way of life. But then she took out some “doll clothes” and started dressing him! He did feel a little fabulous, but silly at the same time. When Blue got hungry she tried to feed him cat food! He did not like that at all. Then she gave him some toast with butter spread over it, and he loved it. He ate five slices of toast, drank four bowls of milk and ALL of their apples. But after that he was very tired and fell asleep on the couch. He woke up in Kate’s nest; he was really homesick and walked towards the window. He was startled to find that he was high up in the sky! He looked around the house but he was all alone… He thought. He tried to get out the same way he came, but the doorknob was way too high up to reach. After a little bit of jumping around, he gave up. He sat down on the couch and waited and waited for someone to come home. A few minutes he heard something. It sounded like an animal. “MEOW!” A little furry creature, at had a long tail sharp tail and terrifying eyes! “What is this thing?” Blue thought. But then it dawned upon him, that “thing” was the same as the animal on the nasty CAT-food bag. It must be a cat! The cat came closer and bent close to the ground. “It’s hunting me!” He thought, bewildered, knowing his instincts already. Blue turned and ran. The cat flinched but stayed where he was.
When Blue got into Kate´s nest the cat came to the entrence! Blue ran for it as soon as the cat jumped onto the nest. He ran through the living room and into the kitchen, there he climbed onto the windowsill and climbed into a large can, close to an opening in the clear pane. He hoped the cat had not seen him but very soon he heard the sound of paws landing on the counter. The cat didn’t seem to be able to get his paw into the can so he started pushing it around to get him out. It didn’t take long before he was on the weary brink of the windows opening. “Just one more push.” He thought, terrified of what would to happen if he were to fall. Surely no one could survive that fall. But as he thought about it the cat hit the can with its nose and Blue fell. The last thing he heard was an unsatisfied sound from the cat. In reality the fall only lasted for about four seconds, but to blue it felt like four hours. Blue shut his eyes and braced himself. He felt slight impact but didn’t open his eyes. But, to his amazement nothing happened, all he heard was talking. When he finally opened his eyes he saw that he was still in the can! He climbed out and saw that he had landed in a basket of towels that a beast like Kate’s “Dad” stood next to. He jumped out of the basket and looked around. “There it was!” he thought as he saw the box that had taken him here. A few beasts stood around it but he didn´t care he ran around feet and heard a few high pitched screams but kept running. He ran into the box and felt everything spin. When the box finally opened he looked out. “Oh, no!” Blue thought. “This isn’t right!” Everything was white and cold and right there in front of him was a gigantic cat with long fangs and yellow skin! He franticly tried to close the door as the cat came closer. He finally got it to close and everything spun again. This time when he opened the door there were flying metal beasts and all the other beasts were dressed up weird and shiny.
He tried once again to travel and when the doors opened he felt the hot air rush to him. Familiar smells and big trees “Home, he thought! The stegosaurus was still there and everything was just the same, he asked the stegosaurus for directions and soon he was back home. His family was happy and amazed. They said they had fought off the beast but then you were lost! He just hugged them back and decided not to tell them about the about the adventure he just had, at least not yet. Blue and his family lived happily ever after.
Margrét Klara Kaaber, Hlíðaskóli
The boat trip The boat floated slowly; getting more and more away from the bridge when it continued its journey. In front of the ship was only the blue sea. Above the ship a few birds were singing on their way along the blue sky. On the ship were tourists; among them two kids. Brother and sister. Their names were Henry and Amy. They were on a boat trip with their family. Henry and Amy were having a lot of fun. They ran across the ship, went swimming and did many other things. That same evening, while they were eating dinner with their family, the lights went off. Henry’s and Amy’s mother went to look for a flashlight. Finally she found it. The family went up on the deck. There were many people standing there talking loudly. In the middle was the captain. He was holding a microphone. “Attention” he shouted over the people. “I am sorry to announce that the machine is damaged. But as we speak, my men are trying to fix it. Everybody should stay in their cabins while the machine is taking care of. “ When he had finished his speech, people went back to their cabins. Henry’s and Amy’s parents told Henry and Amy to stay in their sleeping cabin. But soon Henry and Amy got bored. Henry wanted them to do something exciting; e.g.to sneak up on the deck. At first Amy didn’t like the idea. But at the end she accepted it. They opened the door and checked if anyone was there. But they didn’t see anyone. Amy and Henry sneaked up on the deck and they ran to the end of the ship with a flashlight in their hands. When they got there they sat down and rest for a while. They felt like the darkness was absorbing everything. The sea was dark blue and mysterious. It was like it was trying to hide from the darkness. Just like an animal hiding from another animal. But soon the darkness covered everything. The stronger animal had won. At the time darkness took over, the kids had had enough of fun. They stood up but at that second the light in the flashlight went off. Amy tried to turn the flashlight back on but it didn’t work. They were getting scared. Henry got down on his feet and started to crawl back to where he and his sister had come from. Amy followed him. But they couldn’t see anything so it wasn’t going very well. When they had crawled there for a while without finding the door down to their cabin, they gave up. They sat up to the wall and tried to keep each other warm. They didn’t expect they would find their cabin until the next morning. Finally Amy and Henry fell asleep in the darkness. The next morning they woke up because the sun was shining into their eyes. They stood up and saw the beautiful and bright sun getting everything back to life. And the sea was blue and happy that the darkness had gone away. There was no one else on the deck but the boat was moving so it was not damaged anymore. Henry and Amy decided to go back to their cabin before their parents would wake up. But when they turned around they saw that they had slept out there in the cold and mean darkness for no reason; and obviously had given up too soon. Just a few feet away they saw what they had been looking for the whole night: the blue door down to their cabin.
Þórdís Eva Einarsdóttir, Húnavallaskóli
The business trip to the Earth Hi, my name is Babalue. I live on Max, planet of blue. To reach Max from Earth, you need to go through a black- hole. It is tricky no human has ever done it. My dream had always been to see a real human and Earth, but I was only 12 years old and dad wouldn’t let me even think about it. My dad was always talking about Earth and the weird aliens living there. He had been there lots of times, and every single time he brought something colorful as a souvenir. One day I was eating my favorite bluish food, when my dad came in and said "Babalue, I need to go on an important business trip.“I was surprised and asked,,Where are you going?“ He answered,,To Earth.” I jumped up, and carefully asked,,Can I… go…-“ ,,I have already answered this question several times. You’re just a young troublemaker that I love of all my hart and nothing else!” I already knew he was going to say this so I thought it would be best to keep my mouth shut. Before I went in to my room, my dad said,,I’m going tomorrow.” I was angry. My dad just trashed my strongest dream. I had to do something, it was so unfair! After an hour of thinking, I decided to hide in the spaceship and when it would reach the Earth, I would tell my dad the truth. At midnight I went down the stairs and into my dad´s office and took the garage key. Then I opened the garage and there it was! The expensive, huge and amazing spaceship! I went up the stairs and through a little door. I had been there before so I knew where I was going. I went into a little room. In there were many bluebags of many different kinds of blue food and other important things for a long trips. I went behind the biggest plastic bag full of clothes. I put over me some of it, and tried to sleep. When I woke up next morning, I wanted to make sure I was in space already but then I saw that I was flying. I wasn´t surprised. I had been in space before, when I visited my aunt Polly. She lives on the planet Lax. I wanted to find my dad and tell him the truth, but then I remembered that it takes two days to travel from Max to Earth in a spaceship so I decided to wait. Then suddenly I heard someone coming. I hurried to my old place and waited for that someone to come in. It was Sam, my dad´s best friend that came in saying ,,Hey, what do you want for breakfast?’’ my dad answered from far,,Something blue!’’ Sam laughed and said ,,Good joke, I wish there was more colorful food, I’ll just take something.’’ He took one bag from floor and was on his way back when my dad said ,,Sam, take some socks, I think I forgot mine.’’ The only clothing was in the bag that I was hiding behind. I knew if Sam would do like my dad told him, he would find me. I kept my breath down but was relieved when my dad suddenly said ,,No Sam it´s ok I found them!’’ Then Sam went out. For two days I was hiding. Several times someone came to take something necessary, but no one ever found me. I had everything I needed. But in the third morning I woke up when my
dad said ,,We are finally landing!’’ I forgot that I was in space and tried to walk but I ended upside down. I kind of flew out of the room and up the stairs. There was my dad, Sam and three other Maxians (what we call us) wearing green costume’s. First everyone just stared at me. Then Sam slowly said ,,Have I… mist something?’’ Then my dad got his voice back again and answered ,,No Sam you haven´t, but my son has. Babalue, do you want to explain something to me?! How you got here for example? Did you listen when I told you clearly that this trip is only for grownups? Have you any idea how disappointed… how angry I am?!’’ Now he was shouting ,,HOW DARE YOU! HOW COULD YOU! After all I have done!’’ Suddenly Sam smiled ,,I know exactly the right lesson for this boy. He won’t go out of this spaceship, he won´t see the Earth. All his work will be done for nothing. Stop shouting at him and let him deal with it by himself Basasasalue.’’ I was shocked! Usually I thought that Sam was a nice guy but from this moment I saw him as a nightmare. How could he do this to me? Dad agreed with him and I felt that this was the worst moment in my life. Then we landed and Sam said to me ,,Sorry, but this is the right thing to do.’’Then they went outside through the little door and locked it. I decided to check all the rooms. There could possibly be another exit. When I had been alone for an hour I found an emergency exit in the cleaning room. The door wasn´t locked so I opened it. All around me was something colorful and beautiful! There were trees! Not blue and not two times bigger than me like on Max, but colorful mostly green and huge trees! 5 times bigger than me! We Maxians are just 50cm- 1m small. Under the trees was green grass and colorful huge flowers. The sky was baby blue and beautiful. Then I saw a human boy running over the field and an older human girl running after him. I tried to hide behind a tree. They stopped and the girl said ,,We aren´t supposed to be here.’’ The boy answered ,,I know, but this forest is just so exiting!’’ ,,Ok, but we can’t be too long, just ten minutes.’’ Then the boy ran away and said ,,Catch me!’’ and the girl ran after him. I decided to follow them. They ran further and further into the forest and I followed them. The forest was so beautiful, I couldn´t stop.Then the boy stopped and asked his sister ,,Do you know the way back?’’ The girl answered ,,No, do you?’’ ,,I don´t think so...’’ The funny thing was that we were all lost in a place we had never been there and weren’t supposed to be. I didn´t know what to do. I was lost on Earth! What could I do? I decided to wait and see what happened, but when I had waited for an hour and the children hadn´t done anything but fight I decided to make another plan. While I was thinking the girl was walking towards my tree panicking,,What can we do? We are lost in a place we aren´t supposed to be! We have no phone, no food and it´s almost 5 o’clock.’’ She was now rather close to my tree,moving closer and closer. When she was so close to me, she could nearly touch the tree, I coughed. She jumped up and landed in front of me,,AAAAAAA!!! What is it?!’’ The younger boy came and seemed excited,,I think it´s an alien! Can you understand me little guy?’’ ,,Yes, I can. M… my name is Babalue and I’m from planet Max.’’ The boy wasn ´t scared like the girl, he was really excited ,,Linda, can you believe it? I knew they were real!’’ Linda looked at me like I was a huge and disgusting spider. Then she said ironically,,Well that’s nice… We’re lost in a dangerous forest and then we see a blue, disgusting alien who wants to be our friend. If we had a camera we would be rich! And
Michel, if it is an alien, then why is it here?’’ Michel looked angrily at his sister ,,Why don´t you just ask him? He speaks English!’’Suddenly we heard a weird sound up in the sky. We all looked up and there was something blue. It was my dad´s spaceship. It landed several meters away and my dad came out,,I told you to stay inside and wait for us. Now, come on, we are going home.’’ I couldn´t let Michel and Linda stay in the forest, I had to do something ,,No, we have to help them. They´re my friends dad.’’ He thought for a minute and then he agreed,,Fine, but I don´t know how. My spaceship is too small for them.’’ I knew what to do,,We can fly above them and show them the way.’’ So I went in the spaceship with my dad and we showed them way back. Michel and Linda never talked about the blue alien that saved them. I flew back to Max. I have to say that my mom had been really,really worried. Most likely it was for her sake that I never tried to go to Earth again as a child.
Eygló Anna Arnardóttir, Grunnskólinn í Hveragerði
Category: 9th and 10th grades / lower secondary
Colourful Eli was walking around in the gallery. His mom was an art consultant and sometimes he had to come with her to the gallery openings. At first it was nice and calming to walk around and look at the paintings but now they all just seemed to be the same. The artist behind this show was a postmodern artist and his art was mostly black and white. The creatures in the paintings all looked either depressed or scared and it was no fun looking at them. Eli was walking down a hall trying not to think about the depressing art when he looked up and saw that there was one painting in a little corner, almost hidden. That painting was way different from the others. This one had colours. He walked toward it and looked closer. It was beautiful. It was in a big royal blue antique frame. On one side of the painting there was a big rock and on it sat a kangaroo. Eli smiled. He wondered who could have made this. It was for sure not the artist with the gallery opening. No, this was someone else’s work. Something took his mind of the artist. He saw a movement. He looked at the painting and the kangaroo was gone. That was weird. He took a step forward and suddenly he fell into a blackout. It was warm and he felt the sun shining on his toes. He opened is eye and found himself standing in a whole new world. He was startled but then he smiled. Everything was so bright and beautiful. The sun was shining and birds were singing. He took a few steps forward and into the shadows of the tall, furry trees. He heard someone walking behind him and he turned around. There, only about two meters from him stood a big yellow kangaroo with a fruit basket in his hands. “Hey mate. I’m Kevin” the kangaroo said with an Australian accent. As weird as it was Eli wasn’t startled at the fact that that big yellow kangaroo was talking. Instead he said back “Hi, I’m Eli. Where am I?”. “You’re in the painting, obviously “Answered Kevin. “But, why?” asked Eli. “Don’t ask me, how could I know?” said Kevin. Eli looked around. “Hey, come with me” Kevin said and pointed Eli to follow him. Kevin jumped happily with his tail swinging side to side, through the forest with Eli almost running behind him. They chatted a little on the way and got to know each other. Eli found out that Kevin was a very happy kangaroo, always smiling and laughing and jumping. He had been looking
for fruits when he ran into him. After a little while they came to a little house. It was made from wood and on the roof grew grass. Kevin directed Eli to go inside. Eli wondered how they could possibly fit both in that small house but decided not to ask anything. Eli gasped when he saw inside the house. Instead of a little old living room like he expected, there was a big ballroom full of people feasting. Kevin looked at him and smiled when he saw his reactions. “Follow me” Kevin said. They walked past the dining tables and to the other end of the room. There were three long tables and they were all filled with food. The people at the tables were laughing and talking and didn’t notice when Kevin and Eli walked by. At the end of the ballroom sat a beautiful woman wearing a dark blue dress. She had long black hair and bright eyes. Kevin walked straight to her and Eli followed him. Kevin and Eli bowed to the woman. That was Selena, goddess of the moon. Kevin gave her his fruit basket, introduced Eli to her and then asked her why she had wanted to meet him. “You know that every year, the three of us sisters, moon and sun and dawn, have to give an egg to our mother Thea, goddess of the light, mother of sun moon and dawn.” She said. “Yes” answered Kevin excitingly. “Well I’ve picked the egg and I need someone to take it to Thea. I was wondering if you could do it for me. You should take Eli with you, it’ll be fun to have company”. Kevin almost jumped up from happiness “of course I will do that for you”. “And I’ll be happy to come with you” Eli said. A servant came with a large blue egg and handed it to Kevin. He also handed him a blanket and Kevin wrapped the egg in it. Selena gave Eli a map and wished them a good luck. They said goodbye and then took off. When they were outside they looked at the map. The journey didn’t seem long and Kevin showed Eli some fun places they could stop at. And so they went off. In about an hour they came to a lake. It was big and had giant water lilies. Kevin put the egg in his belly pocket and jumped on one of the water lily leaves. It started to sail forward and Eli hurried and jumped on another one so he wouldn’t lose Kevin. They jumped from leave to leave and then sat down on one of the lilies to rest. Right in front of them jumped a big frog out of the water and landed next to the flower. “Hi Kevin” the frog said. “Hello Paige. This is Eli, we are taking the moon egg to Thea.” Kevin said, took the blue egg out of his belly pocket and showed it to Paige. “Hey! I’m taking the sun egg.”Paige said and took a big yellow egg from a bag she carried “We should go together”. And so the three of them sailed to land with the
eggs and kept going. That day they had a lot of fun. They found a natural waterslide and went swinging in jungle ropes. When the night came they were all exhausted and fell asleep easily. The next morning they focused on the journey to Thea, it was not too long. They walked through the forest. It was beautiful and colourful. On the trees grew varied fruits. Eli wondered about the nature surrounding them. Everything seemed to be getting more lively and brighter the farther they got. It was afternoon and the sun was shining. They went through a bunch of bushes and when they came through they saw the palace, big and beautiful. Eli gasped. They hurried and within an hour they were there. They went in to meet Thea. She was sitting in her throne and stood up when Eli, Kevin and Paige came in. She was old but looked powerful and strong. They gave her the eggs and she thanked them. They all sat down on a dining table filled with food and talked. They told Thea about their little journey and more. When they finished eating Thea looked at Eli and asked “do you know why you came here? “No” Eli answered. “Everyone who comes here, comes with a purpose. You are tired of having to go with your mom, but you used to like it. I believe that you came here to remember how to live things like they are new. As a kid everything is new and interesting. You had just forgotten that. Now you have to go back to your own world. I hope you learned something.” “Yes, but I don’t want to go home. I want to know what will happen to the eggs.” He said with disappointment in his voice. “I know. You will probably find out later but now it’s time to go home.” Said Thea. Eli said goodbye to his new friends Kevin and Paige and to Thea. This had been a great experience, but he had to go. He was standing in the gallery in front of the painting but it had changed. Now it was of a big yellow kangaroo, a frog and an old woman, waving. “There you are” said his mom’s voice. She had finished working and they were going home. Eli smiled at the colourful painting in the blue frame.
Elín Ásta Pálsdóttir, Laugalækjarskóli
Blue Blood He had ginger hair. I noticed as much as I advanced towards him. It would run smoothly, I told myself as I grabbed him by the collar of his jacket, throwing him up against the wall. “Give me your wallet!” I screamed. I needed the money. I really needed the money. “C’mon man. Just get it over with,” Weasel meekly urged from behind me. I could almost feel his rat-like eyes on my back. “Calm down,” the ginger man said. I grabbed the gun from my belt loop. “Give me your wallet,” I demanded, slamming him against the wall. “Alright, I’ll give you my wallet. Just let me get it,” the ginger man said, reaching into his back pocket and pulling his wallet out. “Here you go.” I grabbed the wallet and let him fall to the ground. I backed away, preparing to run, but Weasel stopped me. “Woah, that’s got to be worth more than my entire apartment!” I turned to Weasel. “You squat,” I pointed out. “I squat in a nice apartment, and that ring is probably worth more than–are those real diamonds?” I followed the direction of his glance and spotted the ring lying on the ground. “No,” the ginger man sharply cut in. “You can have my money, but that’s mine.” Weasel scoffed. “How’re you gonna stop us from taking it?” he grinned, running his tongue over his lips. “With force, if I have to,” the ginger man told us. Weasel would have none of it. He crouched slightly and made an attempt for the ring, but the ginger man beat him to it and knocked Weasel into the wall beside me. I pointed the gun at him. “Give me the ring,” I said, my voice trembling. He doesn’t value the ring more than his life, I told myself. He wouldn’t do anything stupid, I added in my head. “No,” he stated firmly. “Please, just let me leave and let me keep the ring,” the ginger man pleaded. “GIVE ME THE RING!” I yelled, waving my gun at him. It felt like rubber in my hand. “No, just calm down, put the gun away. Nobody has to get hurt.” I could feel the gun wobbling. My hand was shaking. “THE RING!” I repeated, removing the safety of the gun. I hadn’t even realized the safety was on. “NOW!” He jumpstarted, moving towards me. It was just the matter of a millisecond. That was all that counted. The spasm of surprise rushing through my body, setting off the trigger. He fell down immediately. His hand moving towards his neck, where the bullet struck. His blood had sprayed over me. The blue blood, seeping through his plaid shirt, tinting his ginger hair blue. It wasn’t supposed to be blue. I know it wasn’t. I rushed towards him, placing my hands on his neck, trying to stop the bleeding. Weasel chose that moment to wake up. “Shit!” he gasped. “Holy fuck, you killed him!” he breathed. “C’mon, we’ve got to go before someone sees us!” he said, dragging me away from the crime scene, although nothing could hide the blue blood spatters covering my palms, or the slight spray of blue blood on my arms, neck and face. When I made it back to the apartment I ran to the shower and tried to wash off the blue spots, but they wouldn’t come off. No matter how hard I rubbed or scrubbed my skin. It was red from all the scraping, which gave the spots a slight purple tinge, but they wouldn’t come off. It was as if they were part of my skin.
Weasel had run off in the opposite direction, and I doubted I would see him again for a while. Not that I minded. I tried taking my mind off the spots, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t. They were as stuck to my mind as they were to my skin. I felt the anxiety seeping through. It was clear as day. I was a killer. A murderer. There was no going back now. If only I could get those fucking spots off my skin, I thought, throwing the scrub away forcefully. It smashed the small rectangle bathroom mirror into tiny pieces, but I wasn’t startled. All I could think about were the spots covering my arms and neck, and even my cheeks. There would be no escaping them. Not now. Not ever. When I finally got out of the shower, I walked through the sea of glass shards the broken mirror had created. I felt the pain. The slight sting, and when the shards were particularly ill placed, the searing pain of glass penetrating the skin, but I wasn’t bothered. I couldn’t be bothered. It was a short walk to the bedroom, but already the soles of my feet were drenched in red. There were red footsteps leading up to me, as if they were a line of clues, leading to the killer. Red. Blood red. Not blue. Not like the ginger man’s blood. Not like the blood of the ginger man I killed. Ginger man I murdered. I sat down on my bed. It was more of a mattress, but that’s not important. Everyone would know, I realized. The next day I spent my day sitting inside, waiting for the spots to disappear. They didn’t. Everyone knew. I could feel it in their eyes, that one time I went down the street to buy some eggs. Their judging eyes followed me everywhere I went. Condemning me. But they didn’t know! They didn’t know that it had been an accident! It wasn’t my fault, I swear. I didn’t know he’d try. He shouldn’t have tried. That stupid ginger man. That night the itching began. The blue spots itched, as a constant reminder, as if my tainted skin wasn’t enough. The itch was followed by the scratch. I noticed something as I scratched my wrist. The spots were fainter. So I got an idea, and I scratched even more. It had been a while, but I was still scratching, and I was starting to see results. No one would ever know I was a killer. I winced at the first penetration of skin, but I could only see red. There was no blue where the fresh blood and open wound covered it. I sat down in front of the mirror. Now no one could see what I really was. A murderer. Now I would be me again. I could be safe from their judgement. I dug my finger in to the wound and tore some of the skin away, leaving light pink flesh for all the world to see, but the red blood hid it quick enough. There was a lot of blood. But it was red blood. Good blood. That was okay. So long as it never went blue, I could continue. Today I saw small coverage of the ginger man. His girlfriend was still searching for him. So that was why he wouldn’t give up the ring. She was supposed to be his fiancée, or even his wife. That didn’t make me feel better. So I scratched. The blood had dried up slightly, which revealed some of the blue, so I tore it off, leaving an open gateway for the new and fresh to hide my flaws. As I looked in the mirror I saw the wounds on my neck, so I scratched.My neck was bloody, and speaking was painful, but there was no blue. So it was okay. I wasn’t bothered. When I turned on the TV his girlfriend was speaking again. Apparently the ginger man had some influence on a lot of people. He was a human rights activist of sorts.
“My Jimmy, was found dead in the streets!” she said, in a voice more suited for a activist pep rally. But maybe that was what it was. “Who knows who killed him! Was it an accident? I don’t know! Was it some oil company goons? I don’t know! I don’t know! I DON’T KNOW!” she screamed, close to tears. “I’ll never know because nobody will tell me-” I turned it off, and started scratching my face more furiously. If they could see the blue on my face they’d know what I was. She’d know what I was, and she’d know what’d happened. Would she understand it was an accident? Would anyone? Do I? The scratching was getting more and more linked with routine. My face was swollen to a point where I could barely eat, but no one would ever know. When there was no blue on my body, except on my palms, I realized that I couldn’t exactly scratch that blue off without any help, so I turned on the stove and let it heat up, and the I held my palms to it, writhing in agony. But it was okay. Because no one would ever know. Today everything went wrong. Weasel came over. He knocked, but I couldn’t answer. That idiot just kept calling me. He knew. He knew what I was. He knew what I was hiding from. So he kicked my door open, and found me on the couch. When he saw me he cringed. I hadn’t dared look in a mirror since I first scratched my face. I didn’t want to see the killer, even though no one else would ever know, I would. “Holy-” Weasel started. “What happened? Who did this to you?” He didn’t realize until later that I did it to myself. “You have to go to a hospital, those look serious,” he said. Then he pulled me from the couch. I winced. Why couldn’t he just leave me be? There could be more spots, people could see! He dragged me down the stairs and to the car, as if facing an imminent danger. I tried shaking my head, my my neck refused. “Nagh,” I whimpered. “Poh-ligh,” I told him. “What?” he asked. “Pohligh,” I repeated. “You want to go to the police?” he asked. “Mmhm,” I said. “We’ll put those jackasses behind bars when you can talk,” he said. “Nagh, poh-ligh,” I insisted. “Now,” I managed to say, in the strongest voice I could muster up. He glanced at me. “Okay then, we’ll go to the police station, but I’m driving fast. He did drive fast. We were there faster than traffic would have allowed us. He helped me through the station doors, and I walked up to the desk. The policeman behind it stifled a cringe when he spotted me. “What happened?” he asked, coming up in front of the desk. “I don‘t know, I just found him like that. He can barely speak, but he wanted to come here. “Caugh-feth,” I said. “What?” the policeman asked. “Caugh-feth,” I told them. Why couldn’t he understand I wanted to confess? I lifted my arms slightly and put them in front of me, as if readying them for handcuffs. “Caugh-feth,” I repeated. “You want to confess?” the policeman asked in a confused tone. “Mmhm,” I tried my best to nod.
Þórhildur Þórsdóttir, Laugalækjarskóli
The girl who came out of the blue “John! You have to wake up!” “Oh Jesus, is it already Monday again?” John thought before he responded to his mom. “All right, mom. I’ll be downstairs in a minute.” A few seconds later John had jumped out of his bed and started putting on a blue shirt and his old blue jeans. He brushed his teeth quickly and ran downstairs where his mother sat at the kitchen table, reading a newspaper. He kissed her goodbye, grabbed an apple and slammed the door behind him. There was nothing unusual about his school day and as he walked back home he followed the path by the lava fields. Suddenly a little girl in a blue dress appeared in front of him and looked him in the eye. A few moments later she was gone. John looked around startled and saw nothing but the lava. He spent the afternoon listening to blues and reading Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut. Then he went to the Blue Lagoon with his friends and when he got back his mother had cooked bluefish that tasted wonderfully. His father didn’t come home for dinner. Being the mayor of Álftanes he was extremely busy these days because of the road construction at Gálgahraun. John went to bed early and fell asleep the moment he lay down. He had a strange dream about the girl in the blue dress. “John, I need your help! Your father is ruining Gálgahraun. The lava field is the home of elves and if the road will be built where it is planned our homes for more than two thousand years will be destroyed!” The next morning he mentioned the road construction to his father while eating breakfast. “Dad, I don’t think you should go on with the road.” His father was surprised and said with laughter in his voice: “What is the matter with you, son? Have the Lava friends finally convinced you?” On John’s way to school he saw the girl in the blue dress again. She shot him a meaningful look before she disappeared. After school John’s father picked him up in their grand black Audi. “Dad, I wasn’t joking this morning. I really think you should call off the construction before it’s too late!” “Too late? Why are you going on with this?” His father sounded annoyed. “Dad, the elves have lived there for thousands of years! You can’t just deprive them of their homes!” His father
burst out laughing. “Hahaha, elves don’t exist! You are letting your imagination run wild, my boy! We are not changing our plans because of some stupid imaginary creatures!” They stepped out of the car outside their home and both of them panicked. The car was no longer black, it was blue as the sky! “What the hell has happened?” His dad was flabbergasted. “You believe me now, dad?” John said triumphantly. They walked into the house and his father sat down, still shocked. He tried to calm himself down and picked up his phone. John saw him talking on the phone so he went into the kitchen and had a slice of blueberry pie before he went into his room. He started thinking about all the blue things that had marked his day and suddenly remembered reading that the colour blue was often associated with elves and other mysterious creatures. A little later his father knocked at his door and said: “I’ve called off the construction. You were right!” They stood by the window overlooking the untouched lava field. In silence they watched as the car in the driveway was slowly turning black again.
Ragnheiður Ingunn Jóhannsdóttir, Laugalækjarskóli
Category: Upper Secondary
Matthías Baldursson Harksen, Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík
Hera Björg Jörgensdóttir, Menntaskólinn í Reykjavík
Blue Moon It was a calm night in New York City, Dario felt the cool evening breeze on his face as he walked towards Jackson‘s Bar on 9th Avenue. As he stood outside the bar he lit up a cigarette and looked up at the sky, the moon was enveloped by a blue glow that lit up the city streets. Dario admired the sight and thought it must be a good omen. He looked at the Hamilton watch that he had bought after his previous assignment, it was half past eleven. He did not like being late, so he had grown accustomed to showing up at least half an hour early for every assignment, it gave him time to familiarize himself with the environment and the people. Dario walked inside and sat down at a table in the far corner of the bar, it gave him a good view of the entire place. Thick cigar smoke covered the room and the stench of it overwhelmed the senses. There were few people at the bar that evening, two heavyset men in suits sat at a table by the entrance and drank cognac and smoked fat cigars, their obnoxious laughter drowning out the passionate singing of Frank Sinatra coming from the radio at the bar. A man sat alone at the bar and appeared to be talking intimately to his drink, he had clearly had a few too many. Beside the lone drunk sat a girl in an elegant blue dress. What‘s a girl like her doing alone in a dismal bar like this Dario thought to himself. Her long blonde hair seemed to glisten in the dimly lit bar and Dario found it hard to keep his eyes off her. Her smile radiated with such pure innocence that made it increasingly harder for Dario to keep focused, he wanted nothing more than to abandon the assignment and go to her, to be lost in her beauty‌ Dario forced himself to look away before his desires endangered his objective. He was here for the assignment, not for his own amusement he thought to himself as he pushed all thoughts of the girl out of his head. Dario looked at his watch again, only twenty minutes until he could get out of there, twenty minutes until he would be free from her spell.
He looked down at his briefcase, he opened it and inspected the contents carefully, everything seemed to be where it ought to be, the only thing left now was to wait. He put the briefcase away and his eyes went back to the girl in the blue dress. Such beauty, such perfection… And such a damned distraction. He looked away again and tried to focus his attention on something else, he picked up a magazine that was lying on the table. “Adolf Hitler man of the year,“ was written on the front page, how on earth did a Chaplin look-alike become man of the year at Time magazine, how utterly ridiculous. These blasted magazines never have anything useful to say, who the hell wants to read about Chaplin look-alikes he thought to himself as he looked over the picture of this Adolf Hitler and his sad excuse of a Chaplin mustache. He threw the magazine back on the table and looked at his watch, ten minutes. The two fat men who sat at the entrance had started to sing along with the radio, it was apparently not enough for them to ruin the music by laughing like big, fat hyenas. No, they had to make it worse by singing horribly along with it. Dario looked down at the table and took a deep breath. Calm down, try and keep calm long enough to finish the assignment he told himself as he rubbed his temples. When Dario looked back up he saw a man walk in, he was an imposing figure dressed in a fine Italian suit and his hair combed back and looked as if he owned everything and everyone in the bar. Everyone in there saw this was a man who was not to be trifled with, at least everyone who wasn‘t in a drunken stupor. And this was the man Dario had been waiting for. Dario looked quickly at his watch, five minutes before schedule, irritating he thought as he looked the man over. Dario reached under the table for his briefcase, opened it carefully without attracting the attention of the other patrons, which wasn‘t very difficult seeing as how most of the patrons were drunk out of their minds. He picked up his Tommy gun from the briefcase and laid it in his lap, and he looked back at the girl in the blue dress.
In another place, in another life you could have been mine. He lifted his gun and opened fire, he felt tears running down his cheeks as he watched the devastation in front of him with a smile on his face and thought to himself “Oh, such beauty.”
Ástráður Ísak Lárusson, Fjölbrautaskólinn við Ármúla