This is a story about a 12-year old kid named Marc that drinks a potion, and develops narcolepsy… *Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring Marc throws his alarm clock at the wall. “Ugh!” he shouts. Shut up, clock! I’m up!” He’s exhausted out of his mind. “Welp…time to get up from my luxurious sleep.” His mom walks into his room, looking at the cracked clock at the floor. “Marc, why did you throw your clock at your door, causing a ruckus at this time?” she asked. You woke your father up!”“I’m just bugged I’m waking up on a Monday at 6AM, AGAIN! They should really call them “Mundanes” instead. >:( ” he grumbles. “You can’t argue with law,” his mother said. You know this. Now chop chop! School starts in an hour and 30. Out the bed, now!” He gets his stuff ready, and is out the door at 6:30. “Bye, Mom,” Marc says, hugging her. Love you.”“Love you too, son,” she reciprocates. Now hurry up to the bus before you’re late.” He guns out the front door to catch his bus. As he’s walking he’s about 5 minutes from his bus stop, and he’s rushing. “I’m almost there! I can make it!” He approaches the alleyway, which is a shortcut that leads to the bus stop, but he never goes through because “it’s where the hell happens”, according to his mother. “I’m a little behind schedule, and am about to miss the bus!” Marc panics. I should take the shortcut! But…my mother told me about the hell lurking there. What should I do?” He thinks hard. “I’ll take the shortcut,” he said, confidently. He starts walking through the dark alley, and realizes that it wasn’t all that bad. “I thought that this was gonna be bad,” he commented. This is pretty chill for a place where “the hell happens.” He continues walking down the alley, and then stumbles across- “A potion?” he notices. What is this doing out here?” He looks to his left, and sees a homeless man blackout drunk on the floor. He is uneasy. “I’ll take this potion with me, and leave!” Marc says. This place is not safe!” He gets out of there, and starts drinking the potion to calm himself from his walk in the alley. A few minutes later… “Alright, I’m here at my bus stop!” Marc says. The bus should be approaching any second now. He sits down to wait, and sets the potion down by him. “You know, this potion really calmed me after my experience in that dark alley. I feel…at ease. So relaxed. I could sit here forever.” Then his bus pulled up. “But not now, anyway,” he said, getting up. I’m gonna be late.” He walks on the bus, and sits down in the way back. He sits in the corner, and soon after, his eyes get heavy. “*Yawn-huh…I thought I got enough sleep last night…but I’m…so tired… Then, he falls asleep. A little time later… He wakes back up, and then finds the bus…EMPTY?! What the… “Wha…? Where is everyone?” He is still trying to wake himself up, but then, he comes to an awful conclusion. “Wait! Don’t tell me… I slept all the way to the last stop?! Great, now I’m gonna be super late to school. He checks his watch for the time, but it doesn’t work. “Drat, my watch ain’t working. I guess it’s dead. Did I not charge it last night? I guess I was being very forgetful last night.” He looks back up, and notices the bus driver sitting in the driver’s seat. “Excuse me, Mr. Bus Driver,” Marc says. Are you heading back the other way? I need to get to school. The bus driver slowly turns his head to Marc, and reveals his corrupted, inky, mangled face. “School…huh…,” the driver groaned. Marc froze in shock. “Wha-…Who are you? What is this? The bus started to drive at a very fast rate. The bus almost crashed into a nearby car on the road, a hydrant, and a pedestrian. “OY! I’M WALKING HERE!” the pedestrian yelled out. “WHAT IS GOING ON?!” Marc yelled out. The bus driver’s arm reached back, and grabbed Marc from all the way in the back, and the bus around him, it all went dark. Marc started hyperventilating. There, in the darkness, stood a dark, black, inky figure. “Mmmmarc…” it said. “Who said that?!” he responded. He revealed himself. “You poor, deluded child,” he said, shaking his head. How dare you not listen to your mother! You drank that potion, and now…your life…is bending into narcolepsy.” Marc didn’t know how to respond. Shards of the potion he drank were being thrown at him, while the being grinned at him maliciously. “And now…,” he continued. You will be suffering…” Then, behind him, stood his mother. He turned around, and called out to her. “Mom…?” Marc said. His mother, silhouetted, slaps Marc awake; he’s back to the real world. “What the?!” he exclaimed, breathing rapidly. “Where am I?” He looks up at everyone staring at him. “What the hell is wrong with you, kid?!” one of the passengers asked. Why are you moving around in your sleep?” Perplexed, Marc gets up onto his feet. “But I-Wha-…but there was a guy covered in ink, and the bus driver, he was all mangled, and destroyed- “Kid, next time, get your sleep, and not move around the bus hitting people!” one said, angrily. LOOK AT THE BRUISE YOU LEFT ON MY BROTHER’S FACE!” Marc felt like that one boy who cried wolf. He didn’t know what to do, he didn’t know what to say, but he reached his stop, and got off the bus. Then, he walked the rest of the way to school. THE END!

I am from a place of sharing and cooking I am from many spices put in dishes Where those same dishes fill peoples’ hungry bellies I am from a place that smells like fabric saris I am from a place where bangles jingle like a door bell I am from a place where Bangla is spoken I am from a place where Muslims pray I am from a place with many villages I am from a place that has milky sweets I am from a place that smells like fresh hennah I am from a place where people are kind I am from a place that has hard and soft fruits I am from a place with different kinds of tea I am from a place I love I am from Bangladesh!

I pushed my box braids out of my face, and tried to concentrate on what my teacher was saying, but it was hard, even though Ms.Neo was my favorite teacher because she taught science. But then some words caught my attention: “Guys, I have a special surprise for you! Our students in the science class with the highest grades are going to space, to do a research on black holes! There will be no adult astronauts on this mission, but the rocket will be on permanent autopilot, and there will be gravity! So who are these lucky ones? They are Amanda, River, Leo, aaaaaand……..” I held my breath.’’Mina, you can have the privilege to lead!” The class erupted into a chorus of whoops and cheers. A space mission, all by ourselves! I just couldn’t get my head around it.”And one more thing, I already told your parents, and they know, and agree. You’ll be going away for 5 weeks, and I know you’ll get a good grade!” I looked at my future colleagues. Amanda fiddled with her bracelets looking thoughtful, River was jumping up and down, and Leo was rapidly talking to his friend. I felt a tap on my shoulder, Ms.Neo came up to me and said:”Mina, this mission will be harder for you, because you’re the captain, and you decide what to do. But you’ll do great.” I lowered my head deep in thought. When I came home my mom and my older sister Sammy smothered me in hugs. “I’m sooooooooo jealous!!!!!!!” Sammy’s words oozed with envy. I chuckled. Sammy was 2 years older than me, and when we moved here, I went to 4th grade, and she had to go to 6th, so we’re in different schools, and Sammy’s SO not going to spacewalk. Sorry, Sammy! My mom made a whole celebration dinner when my dad came back from work. He picked me up and twirled me around the room. “Dad, I’m 10!” I giggled. “Since you’re going tomorrow, I thought we should pack your bag together.”Sammy appeared out of nowhere. “Good idea.” I nodded. This evening after dinner we crowded in my room with a large duffel bag. “Pack me in it!” Sammy howled snapping selfies. We laughed. I threw my toiletries and half of my spring wardrobe in. Sammy ironed and stacked everything neatly.I put everything in. The duffel bag was stuffed. I was ready. In the morning, dad drove us to Washington,to the launch site. I saw my groupmates, also with bags and backpacks.I felt an urge of excitement. This is finally happening! Sammy gave me a broad smile full of pride, and I thought I saw a hint of envy or sadness in her eyes for a moment. I felt a twinge of guilt. After all, it was me going, and not her, and I knew how much Sammy loved space. It was unexplored. But there was nothing I could do, but keep her proud.” Promise you’ll text.” Sammy whispered to me. I nodded. “Do this for me, ok?” She said. We exchanged looks. We always had this special power of telepathy, which we could use when having eye contact. I squeezed her hand and silently told her. ‘I’ll do it,’ Sammy hugged me. We said our goodbyes, and strapped into our seats. We could see Ms.Neo waving, and our parents whooping. “3,2,1, Launch started.” And just like that, we were off, launching into space. After that, we quickly unstrapped and Leo, Amanda, and River went to unpack, while I remained in the cockpit. I thought for a minute. We needed to research black holes, so we should try to come near one without getting sucked in. Then I said. “Autopilot, head for the nearest black hole.” “Heading for the nearest black hole.” An automated voice beeped. We flew for a week. The gravity was okay, the food was nice, and I was sending constant updates to Ms.Neo and Sammy. (And my parents of course.) On the 7th day of flying, I was texting Sammy, and I said:’The ship is ok, but I miss U a lot.:(:(!!!’ Then I added a crying emoji. We reached the black hole. I was about to get out observing equipment from the lab, when suddenly the whole ship jerked, and we began racing towards the black hole. “What’s happening?!” Leo screamed. “We’re being sucked in.”I whispered. Someone screeched. I saw Amanda under a pile of boxes that have toppled.(We had gravity after all.) I climbed up the boxes and tried to reach her hand but I was too high, and Amanda wouldn’t cooperate.”Grab my hand!” I called.”I can’t!” Wailed Amanda.”Yes you can! Grab!” I hollered. Amanda finally grabbed my hand and I pulled her up. We still continued spinning like on a crazy roller coaster. And then it all stopped.I looked at the space map on the screen. “We’re 100,000 miles away!” Amanda blurted out. “The black holes are portals.” I uttered.”What?” River demanded. Leo and Amanda explained it to him, while I grabbed my phone and sent off a flurry of texts. A few weeks later we arrived on Earth and got a perfect grade on our report. The End.

I am from that big bright light in the hospital to my mom’s arms. I am from chilling on a big purple couch in my mom’s room. I am from SpongeBob and melodies while I want to sleep. I am from complaining that my dad snored too loud. I am from spicy mint gum on the way to school in the car. From wearing a uniform every day to school. From second grade drama. From crying for my mom at sleepaway camp. From my ancestors, who I’ve never seen before. From me, precious me in the clouds of my dreams. Oh me, me, me.

Hey there! Do you know about pasta? Pasta tastes so good that it feels like you’re in another world. There are also so many types of pasta; it’s literally almost endless. So today, I will talk more about pasta and why you should try it. Pasta is one of the best foods in the entire world. Millions or even billions of people eat pasta every year. Pasta is an Italian food. To make pasta, you boil noodles in water. Then, add some tomato sauce to the noodles and BOOM, the pasta is now ready to eat. You can also eat pasta with other foods too. If you like pasta now, great! You can add some food into the pasta. All you have to do is add the food with the noodles into the boiling pot of water. There are also lots of types of pasta. You can add a bit of salt to make pasta even more wonderful, and its simple cooking process means it doesn’t require such a long time to make a meal. My first memory about pasta is from when I was in a restaurant. I really wanted to try pasta, so my parents ordered it. After that, it only took ten minutes to cook it. And when I tried the pasta, I felt like I was in a dream right there. Yeah seriously! The pasta was that amazing, it blew my mind. Remember, you don’t always have to eat pasta in a restaurant; it can be suitable anywhere and anytime. You can eat it at home, in the park, on the subway, even in another country—if possible—and many more places. Basically, if you are hungry and don’t have too many other choices, go for pasta. It is very delicious and is very quick and simple to cook. You can eat it anywhere and anytime. You can even eat it outside with your friends and family. Just remember to eat it before it gets cold.

There once was a man, whose name was Federico. He worked at the San Diego Zoo, but he never enjoyed his job. He fed the animals by throwing food into the creatures bowls and spilling it in the animals faces. He enraged them and caused them to throw their food back. He never cared for the animals either, so one day he decided to take a walk on the beach. And on that rainy day during his break, “that’s a beautiful shell!” he said, as he crouched next to the bright blue seashell. Federico surprised himself because he never took interest in seashells. He carefully picked up the shell and saw it was attached to a black leather rope. He blew off the sand but instead of the little grains of sand flying off, a sparkly blue mist circled around him. Suddenly, the blue mist circling around him flew up into the sky, then the rain abruptly stopped—startling him. He put on the necklace and ran back to his job. He felt something new and no longer felt annoyed. As he passed through the hallways he heard a lot of bustling, he kept walking to his office. The noise started getting louder. “That’s odd!” he thought. “Here comes that annoying little rat,” said the gorilla. “He is super annoying,” replied the giraffe. “Everyone can agree with that, even his co-workers because all he does is complain about his job saying, ‘I wish I could stay home playing video games.’” “Oh my God!” exclaimed the ape. “Remember when he threw the ape chow into my face and onto my fur? I had to wash for an hour to get rid of the dried chow. It was annoying.” Federico stopped and looked around and thought to himself, who said that? Walking slowly looking around the corner, he saw no one down the hall. He still heard the voices, kept walking towards the animal cages and stared at the animals. As he stared at them, he realized that the animals were the ones who were talking. “You can talk?” he exclaimed. All the animals looked in his direction and stared. The giraffe approached the metal fence, and Federico looked up at the tall neck. The giraffe looked down at him and said, “You understand us?” Federico’s eyes slowly turned blank, and he fainted. A few minutes later he woke up. Still, he couldn’t understand what had just happened. He got up, approaching the metal fence again, and stared at the gorilla with a focused stare. The gorilla looked at him and said, “can you understand us?” Federico’s eyes opened wide with surprise and he fainted again.   To be continued . . .   Federico finally woke up and accepted what was happening. He walked around the zoo staring at all the animals and watching carefully how they all complained about him. Murmuring and staring his way, all the animals except the panda had something to say about the way he had treated them. He stopped with his hands on both sides of his hips and said, “Why aren’t you saying anything?” The panda looked his way as he was chewing a peeled bamboo shoot. “When I was in the wild, there was a balance in life.” The zoo keeper got closer to the fence with interest. “Go on . . . ” he said. “All the other animals give you a hard time because you are mad, and you are mad because they give you a hard time.” The zoo keeper crossed his arms and grabbed his chin with a thoughtful look as the panda kept chewing. “There is no balance,” the panda said. He walked away thinking about what the panda had said. The next day he went to work like he did every day, but this time he had brought treats. He’d given an individual animal a treat and asked how they were feeling. Federico also asked, “What was difficult about living in the zoo?” He used the information and began to improve the animal’s way of living. In return, the animals were happy and more approachable. Now they had someone who could help their way of living. Federico would bring a different animal to the petting area during operation hours, and people were happy to approach the different animals and touch them. No other zoo was capable of such a thing. From that point on, Federico enjoyed going to work and made all the animals happy.

Whenever he’s near, I feel a strong breeze around me, as if feeling him passing by. I just know he’s out there grinning, sitting on the dashboard of my car. Although I believe he’s near, I know it’s only my thoughts, and maybe even a coincidence. He never seems to be near when I’m struggling in school, stuck on something, or even have to clean my room. Back to reality, I’m in my car, going past the speed limit of course. I’m running away from everything. I would have liked to say my goodbyes, but I’m not in the right state of mind to do so. Green, white, pink, or yellow, I don’t care since he’s my fellow, the plastic Jesus sitting on the dashboard of my car. All of a sudden . . . Boom! A huge explosion. I wake up to a soft beeping and look around to see an all-white room, surrounded by the smell of latex gloves and the coughing of middle-aged men. Of course, I had relied on my plastic Jesus, and he let me down. Should I try the Virgin Mary? I punch out of the hospital, my car gone. Disappointed, I walk to the exit . . . “Wait? Hold on a sec . . . is that?” The doctor hands me my plastic friend, obviously, the only thing that survived the crash. I take it angrily and leave, throwing it across the street. I go home and get into bed. In my sleep, I have a conversation with Jesus, he tells me he tried. He tells me how he’s pushed out all the sickness to assure my well-being, he’s made sure I’ve gotten challenging questions on tests because he wants me to succeed, and he’s made sure I survived the crash. I wake up feeling new and refreshed, but confused. I go outside, barefoot, looking around me. I see balls being thrown by children and people playing, none of which hit me. I see planes in the sky, none of which fall. I see people all around, none of which die. My conversation with him changed something in me that night. Bad things happen by chance, or maybe when one from above thinks it’s time to go. I’m lost deep in my thoughts when all of a sudden, I hear a voice, “Miss . . . Miss . . . you dropped something . . . is this yours?” “Huh?” I didn’t have anything with me. I turn to the guy. Looking down, I see none other than my plastic Jesus.

Did you know Rufus King Park is the best place for celebrating parties? Rufus King Park is a good place to feel happy and calm. Rufus King Park is a good place to have fun because there is a playground to play. Rufus King Park is a good place to feel calm and happy because there is a lot of space to run and if you like soccer there is a big soccer court in the middle of the park. Last week I went to Rufus King Park and saw so many people playing soccer, playing in the playground, and playing basketball and they all looked like they had a lot of fun. Rufus King Park is important because if there was no Rufus the people that live close would have to walk far to go to a park to have fun. People should come to Rufus King Park because you can have a lot of fun and there are four different sports you can play: volleyball, soccer, basketball, and tennis, and there is a playground that little kids can play in. The park also has a garden and has flowers and there is a path with a lot of trees and when it’s summer it looks so beautiful. When it’s raining a lot there is a place in the park that can help the people in the park to not get wet from the rain, and there are a lot of benches so old people can relax and take a little nap.