7/29/1987   As I walked into the Complex, the usual yellow walls and buzzing lights greeted me. Johnson already had the rope on him, so we were clear to start the exploration. As we walked, we talked about things such as how we found out about Async or Mr. Beck’s failed assassination attempt. This went on for a while, but we found nothing except yellow hallways and lights. That is, until I heard something. I turned around and it seemed to be coming from another corridor. I walked ahead of the others into the hall, and as I got closer, the noise started to sound more like a crowd of people. I then turned again to the source of the sound, but instead of people, all I found was a dead end. The chatter was definitely coming from the wall, but how? “Hey guys, do you hear this?” I asked my comrades. No response. I turned back to the hallway where they were walking past me. “Hey!” I called out, but they didn’t stop. All of a sudden, a flash of black light obscured my vision, and just like that, they were gone. I ran into the hall and turned to the right. “Guys?” I asked. They weren’t there. I turned to the left. Still no one. “George?!” I called out, panic rising in my voice. I ran forward only to find more hallways. No, no, this wasn’t how I would die. I had to find the exit. I kept walking, but then found some kind of auditorium. The walls were still yellow, and the carpet was as moldy and brown as ever. However, there was a pile of what seemed to be charcoal in the center of the room. I went over to it and touched it. Thanks to the hazmat suit I was wearing, whatever chemicals it contained didn’t poison me. The substance definitely wasn’t sentient since it didn’t move or produce any heat. I immediately went back to searching again. I then came across some kind of security room with a poster of the Async Foundation on it. I was relieved to see a sign of my employers, but the poster also seemed recently placed. I opened the door to find power grids and computers all over the place. The room smelled fresh, and was dimly illuminated by blue lights. “Is anyone here?” I asked out loud. Just then, the lights turned a glaring red and an alarm went off. Three guys in hazmat suits burst through the door and pointed their rifles at me. However, one of them noticed my nametag and asked “Adam?” “Yes,” I replied. “Why?” The guard took a deep breath and then . . . “Sir, you’ve been missing for 4 years.”

Trees would grow money. Money would be the seeds for the trees. Carbon dioxide will exist no more. We would be free to do anything. No more cars, they pollute the air. Electric cars, no more pollution! Recycle everything that is recyclable. If they are not able to recycle, burn them!   I would be able to control weather and seasons. Every wish you saw will be granted. You will live forever for as long as you like. Any game you want, you’ll get it. Get anything you like, even if they’re expensive. You can revive extinct animals, See ghosts and have superpowers!

Pineapple: I WILL EAT YOU BACK! Candy: I’m sweet, you will LOVE eating me! Gum: Chew me, chew me, I’m stress-relieving and yummy! Salad: I’m for vegetarians so enjoy! Bitter Melon: Yuck! I’m bitter and gross. Bleah! Durian: Ew, I smell gross but I’m sweet and custardy!

It was early in the morning about 5 AM when Eros came back from the forest to the hidden village. She was wearing a silver cloak to camouflage herself with the early mist and dew on the leaves. Since it was early a lot of monocorns were out somewhere preparing to leave the village in search of food while some were just simply walking around or practicing their magic. Finally Eros arrived at her dome shaped hut and since she was the village’s oracle her house was a bit bigger. She slipped inside and shut the door quietly. “Hey kid, I’m home!” she shouted as she walked up the mussy spiral steps to Lucky’s room (Lucky’s her adopted daughter). “Good news kid. Since I got up so early I found a big batch of clover before anyone else could find and eat it,” Eros said as she put down the basket. But Lucky wasn’t listening. She was sitting on her bed with something in her hands. “Lucky … what do you have in your hands?” Eros asked cautiously. “A snake,” Lucky said as she lifted the tiny yellow and green snake in the air. Eros was shocked and used her magic to fling the small snake out of the window into a tree outside. “Lucky you know I’m deathly afraid of snakes!’’ Eros shouted. Lucky flinched. Eros’s face softened. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to raise my voice at you,” Eros said as she sat next to Lucky. “So how were you when I was gone? Did you make any friends?” Lucky shook her head, “I didn’t go.” “Why?’’ “I don’t like anyone here.” “How can you say you don’t like them if you haven’t met them?” Lucky shrugged her shoulders. “[Sigh] Listen kid I know you’re going through a hard time right now but you have to try to meet some people. Do you have any friends? Real ones? Not imagined or drawn or reptilian.” Lucky shook her head. “Look I know this is a hard chapter in your life and you’re too young to experience, but I do think you should get out of the hut more and at least try to take a few steps toward the better. It’s what your mother would have wanted.” Lucky’s golden eyes lit up, “That’s what my mother used to say to me.” Eros gave Lucky a small smile. “Me and your mother were friends. Did I tell you that?” “Really?” “Yep, we did almost everything together. But then we sort of grew apart . . . You know the more I think about it, you look just like her. She had a dark skin tone just like you.’’ Lucky, for the first time in a very long time, smiled.

Ben runs away cuz the car is very scary. “AAAAAAAAAHHHH,” Ashley said. Ahahahaha the car is moving! Wait for Chapter 2. “I like cars like a Lambo,” said Ben. They got a bat and a basketball and smashed it. They dented it.

Every Christmas my family gathers around my grandmother’s house to get a taste of home from her homemade recipe of fruitcake. With her bedazzled apron, big bowl, and spatula she gets to work making magic that still sparks thirty years later, we hear the clanks & clacks as she works. We don’t always know what draws my family every Christmas to my grandmother’s fruitcake, but I know it makes magic that still sparks everywhere it goes. Children laugh, adults drink, but grandma cooks, she cooks because she can, she cooks because she loves to, and she cooks because of the magic it makes thirty years later. Even though I never got to say it, I thank my grandmother for all those years of love, I thank her for all those years of cooking, and I thank her for never giving up on us. Every Christmas my family gathers around my grandmother’s house. We laugh, we drink, we eat, but most importantly we thank her for the years of magic with fruitcake.

That summer of 2012 my child like hands were lost Wandering for something to hold, But all I had that summer was my bike This summer I found someone to ride with I remember riding as fast as I could just to keep up I would ride hill after hill just like a bird of the eventide With every ascent I would inch closer to the radiant sun I wanted a long ride but they gave me a test drive I still look at my hands and remember all the late rides The dry summer wind blowing through my hair, But the ride is over now

We’re the people who choose who we want to be. Everyone says, “We’re the only ones to make our dreams a reality.” They are the ones that say no be what they see, they go from sun to the doom of my growing dreams ones, ones, ones, we are the ones that get to choose my parents tell me but the constant fear of no always haunts me they ask me why I read all time? I say that’s what I like But in reality I like to drown in lines of the character’s emotions or the fun times Like to drown the thoughts out of my mind Ignore the chaos on the outside who am I?, who am I?, I ask myself all the time will I become legendary? or a forgotten memory? work a boring job at an office filled with papers? Or be a free bird who just roams around and wonders? Flowin with the current, with the freedom of discovery, just going where the world decides to take me Or be a robot filling what my family sees of me fill in the blank spaces in my mind with the dreams that I want but will always hide Maybe in an alternate universe I am free, flying over sea with the midnight breeze But you know what? We can achieve our dreams I can achieve what feels like is beyond my reach It’s still not clear what path is set ahead of me but whatever it is I hope for something that’s right for me I hope it’s something I can look back on at an old age when my story’s told and say, “Yes, that girl was me” Different