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.

I woke up in the forest. A campfire nearby was crackling. Something wasn’t right . . . In the distance, I saw a shadow figure that was large and animal-like. It seemed to have bright red eyes that sent shivers down my spine. The figure started moving towards me and then it broke into a sprint. I started to run away without a second thought. I left everything I had behind and jumped over branches and rocks in the forest. The figure got closer and closer, slowly closing the distance between us. I slipped on a wet, loose rock and fell to the ground. Mud splattered all over my clothing. I saw all of the stars in the sky. I looked at the moon and noticed that it was a full moon. I tried to get back up and then a sharp pain went through my knee. I winced and sat back down. I heard a roar and saw the figure. It was more clear now. It had a lion’s head, A bear’s body, and a tiger’s fur. The animal leaped at me with its mouth open, and I accepted my fate. Just before the animal devoured me, a spear whooshed by and stabbed the animal in the chest. The animal fell over and wailed while slowly fading away into the night sky. I felt relieved and heard footsteps behind me. I looked behind me and saw a large rock raised above my head. The rock dropped and I blacked out. I woke up feeling a pain in my head. I moved my hand to the back of my head and felt a large bump. I definitely had a concussion. I heard footsteps outside. I hadn’t noticed that I was in a large tent and sleeping in a bed. I looked at the entrance of the tent and saw the zipper moving. I stiffened as I slowly saw the daylight come into my tent. Wait, this tent isn’t even mine. Whatever. I saw a short creature come into the tent. I looked down towards it and noticed that it kind of looked like a stuffed animal. The creature had white skin and a white mane with slight evidence of yellow in some areas. It came up to me and said hello in a high-pitched voice. “Hi,” I said. “What is your name?” the creature said. “My name is Michael. What’s yours?” I asked. “Mine?” It asked.”My name is Wy, I am the leader of the Wyon tribe. I am here to bring you on a quest,” Wy said. I thought about the idea of going on a quest. “Fine then, let’s go on this quest.”

Rainbow loves to lie down on the grass. She also loves to feel the nice and fresh air. It was a beautiful day and a perfectly good day. Then a group of men wanted to cut the trees. They wanted to make a little park and a big mall plus a huge big mall. There was an ax too! Rainbow told the group of men to stop cutting the tree. She told them it was her home. She got so mad at them. She decided to scare them. But she wasn’t scary. She was cute. She needed a disguise to scare them. She checked her closet, but no luck. Then she checked her attic and then she found one. The disguise has . . . sharp teeth, a big foot, black and red fur, stomps loudly, has long toenails, has a sharp nose, and has a big roar, like a ghost talking. She put it on. She looked at the mirror. She looked scary. She went to scare the men. Then . . . IT WORKS! The trees smell like flowers. The flowers are colorful. The grass is soft. There are a lot of trees, long trees and short trees. There is a little pond, frogs, butterflies, and lots of animals. Inside the pond are fish and frogs. The fish’s color is orange and white stripes. She replanted the tree. The group of men wanted to build so much because it was for the people. Rainbow lived happily ever after.