The Big Game

By Alexander

 In the first half I scored one goal that went in the lower right corner of the goal. I took a corner kick and my friend Matt headed (headed means when the ball hits your head) it down between the goalies legs 2-0. We scored then the other team scored 2-1. Then I scored again in the lower left corner to make it 3-1 at halftime. Our coach said we were doing well. I scored three goals in the second half. The first goal I scored a ball that just went under the cross bar for an upper ninety goal from outside the box (it is a really hard shot to make). Next I scored again by putting a ball between the goalies legs for a goal making the score 5-1. Then the coach pulled me out, it made me mad because I wanted to play more. Coach told me he did not want to run the score up too high and also that shows sportsmanship. He put me back in after five minutes. He put me at midfield so I could pass the ball to the offense to help them. So I crossed the ball (crossed means when you are on one side and your pass it to the other) and he headed it in but he was off sides (off sides means you’re behind the last defender and pass it to them their off sides).The next pass was not off sides. I dribbled down then passed it to teammate then he passed back to me outside of the box. I shot it and scored another outside the box. After a couple minute the game ended and we won 6-1.

Camp

By Emilie

 My mom dropped me off at riding camp first thing after lunch. After spending hours in the mess hall being bored, we had dinner, then we learned from a counselor that we would be sleeping in a small building for the for the night. We were supposed to sleep in the cabins, so we were really mad. But at least we slept in them for the rest of the week. When we woke up, we walked the two miles to breakfast, then the three miles from the main camp to the barn, which was very tiring.The first half of the week went smoothly, but Wednesday was a completely different story.

      Star, Sapphire, Lilly, and I were on a trail ride (Star and Sapphire were counselors) Star was 23, Sapphire was 22, Lily was 13, and I was 11.We had just stopped in the main camp for lunch, and we were cantering across Bald Eagle Field for fun. Lilly and I had finished, and we were walking back to the other side. Star and Sapphire were still cantering across, suddenly, Sapphire slipped and fell, landing on her back. She was crying the instant she hit the ground. She was trying to sit up, but Star told her to lie down.

        Star told Lilly and I to go get help but not to canter, because she didn't want anyone else falling off on her watch I was more terrified than I had ever been in my entire life. We trotted back, and got Mustang( another counselor ), She drove down in her pink spray paint covered pickup truck, and she didn't come back for a long time.

While she was gone, two people fell off. Actually, one person fell off a horse, and one horse fell on a person. Mads just gracefully slipped off her horse, and my friend Caroline was riding around in the arena when suddenly Luther slipped, and fell on top of her. Caroline hurt her knee, but mads and Luther the horse were fine.

            When Mustang got back, she told us Sapphire was okay, and she was being checked out by a doctor. We were all very relieved. We cleaned out the water trough, then we all started drinking from it. I know that doesn't sound very sanitary, but it was Mustang who started it, not me.

My Two Dogs

By Conrad 

       In the beginning, before I was born, my dad had a black Labrador retriever named Tank. She had died a couple years before I was born.  But when I was born my mom and dad already had our dog, Summer for a couple of years. My dad told me he planted a dogwood tree for Summer when she was born. When I was born Summer was about 6 years old in human years. When I was about 6 we got a new puppy, and around that time Summer was 12 years old in human years.

      My dad had just arrived home in his truck from the airport. When I ran out to greet him I noticed something big and rectangular in the trunk of his car. After I gave my dad a hug he opened the trunk to his car. I could not believe my eyes. In the trunk there was a dog kennel, and inside that kennel was a puppy. It was the cutest dog I had ever seen. My dad told me the dog was a girl. She was an English Labrador retriever from a very good purebred dog breeder in the U.S.

       I ran back into the house and screamed “we got a puppy!” At once my two sisters came running down the stairs. Soon everyone was gathered in the family room. My dad had let the puppy out of her kennel and she was happily running around in the family room. And by then Summer had walked over to greet the new edition to the family. Once everyone had said hello to her and got to pet her, we started thinking of names for the new puppy. Then my mom had an idea. She said “since Summer is named after the season, why don’t we name the puppy after a flower that blooms in the summer?” .Our dog was officially named Daisy.

    After a while we found out that Daisy was a smart dog. She was the smartest dog I ever knew. She would know she was being fed because she could hear the sound of her dog food hitting her bowl and she would come running. She would also know when she was getting a walk because she could hear the sound of her box being open, and then her leash hitting the sides of the box.

  She also became good at listening to commands. The reason for this was that Daisy went to a kennel across the bridge to become a trained dog. When we dropped her off at the kennel, she still looked the same from when we first got her. But when I saw her two months later, she had grown so much. Her legs had grown longer, her coat was a darker shade in some places, and her black nose had turned pink. Another big change was that she listened to commands a lot better. She had changed into a more obedient dog.

    A couple months later, Summer had started to suffer. She was an old dog by when. After a couple weeks it was clear that she was still suffering. My parents decided to put Summer down.  We went to Ocean City and left Summer at the vet. When we were gone Summer was put down and then she was cremated and we put her ashes in a box. Then we buried her next to the tree that was planted when she was born. It was hard for all of us, because Summer was put down on her 13^th birthday. It was also hard for Daisy. She was whimpering for the first couple of days after we came home. She was very confused because Summer wasn’t there and Summer was always there with her. But after a while we all got used to a house without loving, sweet old Summer in it.         

My Not So Great Birthday Party

By Pauline

            A couple weeks before my 5^th birthday (I think), I told my mom that I wanted to have a scavenger hunt for my party. She thought it was a good idea, and she got my older brother to help her with it. I woke up really excited the morning of my party. When I got to the living room, my mom told me that she had set up some kind of hunt in the backyard, and that I shouldn’t look for any ribbons. I didn’t really know what the game was, but my mom wanted help making the teams. Of course I put my crush on my team and a kid I didn’t like too much on another.

            When everyone got there, my mom started explaining the game. There were three teams, and each team had a different assigned color. Ten ribbons with each color on them were hidden in the yard. The yard was pretty big with a swing set, sand pit, little crappy house, and a garden in the back. There were some bushes and trees along the perimeter of the yard.  Each team had to find all of them and then go back inside the house to give them to my mom. She would count them and make sure we had all ten. If we didn’t we would go back and look for the rest. If we did she gave us a paper puzzle of an object. Once we figured out what the object was, we had to go find it and look for a key in it. Once we had the key you could unlock a cabinet with treasure in it.

            She started telling us who was on what team. There was a blue, a green, and a red team. My best friend and my crush were on the red team with me. The kid I did not really like, Cirdec, was on the green team. My best guy friend, Arthur was on the blue team.

We all got ready to go outside and my mom yelled “go.” My team decided to split up a little and we started looking around the yard. We had a little trouble keeping track of how many ribbons we had. We thought we had all of them so we went back inside, very excited to be first. But when my mom counted then we only had eight of them. She sent us back outside to look for the rest of our ribbons. We spread out one last time and found the rest of the ribbons really easily.

When we finally had all of our ribbons, we went back inside to get our puzzle. Everyone was already working on their puzzles, so our team was a little stressed out. Cirdec’s team seemed to be in the lead so I was a little agry. But we finished first. It was a picture of a little plastic house. I knew where it was, so I told my team to follow me. I led them back outside to the front of the yard. There was a little plastic house for tiny kids. We couldn’t all fit inside so three of us went in (there was no roof). All the other teams had followed us, with my mom in front of them. I saw there was a blanket on the ground, so I picked it up and underneath it was the key. My team was so excited, but I think I was more excited than any of them.

We followed my mom back inside. She told me which cabinet the key opened. I was having a little trouble unlocking the cabinet. When all of the sudden, the kid I hate the most comes up next to me, opens the cabinet next to the locked one, reaches inside (all the cabinets are connected in the inside), and gabs a box of candy. The kid ruined my birthday party!  Everyone was cheering for him. I was supposed to get the candy out. It was my team who won! He had no right to open that thing! I will never ever forgive that kid!

VBS

By Marlena

            VBS is Vacation Bible School. It is where young kids come to learn about Jesus. I was a teacher for a preschool class. The first part of VBS is setting up. My co teacher and I made name tags for all of the preschoolers. We had to meet up a couple times to get to know each other and to see how we wanted to teach. We decorated the room to look like Ancient Athens. It is in a mountain range by the water. The week we were studying was Paul’s dangerous journey. It’s about how Paul saw so many scary things and his faith was tested so much yet he still depended on God. My co teacher and I looked over the lesson to make sure we could understand it.

            On the first day of class, Monday, the preschoolers arrived almost all at the same time, just before class started. They came to class like this every day. It was a little hard to memorize all the names of the kids. Each day there was a coloring sheet for the kids to do as they arrived. Since most of them couldn’t write their name, I had to go around and write names on their papers. I got through the day just fine and the kids were very sweet.

            On the second day, the kids weren’t quite as nice as the day before everyone wanted to be the line leader. They would whine until I gave each of them an answer, and if I told them that I already chose someone, they would pout and then ask to be the next line leader. When I asked who hadn’t been the line leader they all would deny ever doing it even though I remembered seeing some of them leading that day. It’s silly to think how worked up some of the kids got over nothing.  Since I taught preschool, some of the age requirements were fuzzy. I was supposed to have 3-4 year olds who were potty-trained, but there was a kid, let’s call Kid 1, that didn’t exactly know how to use a big toilet without help. I found a teacher’s aid walking through the hall who knew what to do and was able to help me. Kid 1 clogged the toilet by using too much toilet paper. The woman told me I should take Kid 1 back to class and that she would take care of the mess. I was grateful for all that she did.

            On day three, kid 1 fought with Kid 2. Kid 2 was four. They fought over everything, who got to hold my hand, who would sit in my lap, who was the line leader. They were really competitive. While they fought, I had trouble with Kid 3, who was running around, disobeying me, and wouldn’t listen to me. When Kid 3’s mom arrived I explained that we had a little trouble and she said tomorrow would be better.

            On day four, Kid 3 was a little better but still didn’t listen to me. She still ran around and disobeyed me. Kid 2 refused to sing the song we picked because she thought it was a “baby song” she wanted to be with “the big kids” like me, most of the teachers were adults. I finally convinced her to stand with her class, but I had to stand next to her instead of in front of them with the other teachers.

            On day five, the week was over. I gave up on making Kid 3 listen to me, I tried not to get mad at the kids who ignored me or lied about being line leader, and I tried my hardest to leave the week on a high note.

            On Sunday, most of the kids came back to sing their song. We sang in the church service, so I had to try to keep about ten preschool kids quiet for one hour in church. After church everyone got ice cream, and I decided that next summer I would teach older kids.

The Grand Canyon

By Steven

 My family had never been to the Grand Canyon before, so during the first night of our rafting trip, we camped in what seemed like a good enough spot underneath some trees by the side of the river. It was cool enough and the trees provided some shelter and privacy, but as soon as it was time to sleep we realized the severity of our mistake.  What we didn’t know was that recently, an invasive species of beetle had been released in the area, and were killing all of the native trees.  There were millions and millions of these things, but even more numerous than the beetles were their larva.  Hundreds of the larva lived in each tree, and they would fall off of the trees to make huge piles on the ground an inch tall.  So as we lay on our cots we could feel the slimy worm like larva falling onto us.  There was nothing we could do.  All the other spots had been taken, and brushing off the larva was useless because they were so numerous.  They would fall as quickly as you could remove them. The only choice was to cover your head with your sheet, and try to fall asleep as you felt the steady drop of larva.  Thankfully I survived the night and by the end of the second day, we had moved to a place in the canyon where the beetles had not yet spread.

 Rafting in the Colorado was unlike anything I had previously experienced. The water was less than forty degrees, and the air was over a hundred.  I was constantly hot or cold.  It made for an odd experience because I was always uncomfortable; it was a land of extremes.  For the most part the rafting was a lot of fun, the rapids were huge, and the scenery was cool.  The people we were taking the trip with were lots of fun too.  There was a nice family with two kids, and a friendly guy who brought his girlfriend.  There were also a couple of really grumpy old people that were always angry at someone, and appeared to be upset that there were children on the trip.  The old people always ate there food away from the rest of the people and would get mad if and children got too close to where they were sleeping.  Except for them, everyone was nice.

We were led down the Grand Canyon by four river guides; there were two men, and two women.  There were two rafts and each one was led by two river guides, one of the guys, and one of the girl.  They had all been rafting on the Colorado for their entire lives, so they knew what they were doing.  They would cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us every day, and help us with our stuff.  It was by no means real camping.  Practically everything was done for us.  That didn’t make the reality of our remote location and lack of resources any less obvious. 

            I was in the Grand Canyon standing near, but not in the water, because although it was over one hundred degrees, the searing heat was no match for the piercing sting of the melted glacier water of the Colorado River.  I was on a three day river rafting trip down the Grand Canyon with my a group of strangers, family, and my dad’s friend from college.  It was the third day of our trip, the last day, and we were eating breakfast on the sandy shoreline of the Colorado preparing for the ten mile hike out.  I had been having fun for most of the trip, and had survived the not-so-pleasurable experiences, now I was ready for the final day. 

We boarded the boats to cross the river; once we got there we would hike to the Bright Angle Trail, a steep, ten mile long path that leads out of the Grand Canyon.  It was still dawn as I hastily made my way up the trail at a fast pace.   I was excited to once again be amongst civilization, so instead of pacing myself, I sped up the first half of the trail before noon.  At this point it was beginning to get hot.  For some reason, instead of continuing on, I waited for my sister.  As I waited for my sister, the sun rose higher in the sky.  As the sun rose, temperature climbed, and forty-five minutes later the temperature was no longer in the nineties, it was well into the hundreds.  When my sister finally caught up we continued on together, but the second half of our hike was steeper and hotter.  So as we hiked we got more and more tired.  Three quarters of the way through the hike, we began could barely walk.  We were also really delirious.  We started to sing, and as we climbed our singing got much louder, and much worse until we were just mumbling.

When we finally felt as if we could go no further, we saw the end of the trail.  At the end was a small village.  Although we had made it past the Bright Angle Trail, we were not done yet.  We still had to find our hotel, and every person we asked gave us a different answer.  Finally, a old guy with a huge mustache pointed us in the right direction, and we found our hotel.  It was already the middle of the afternoon, and I enjoyed the air conditioning for the first time in days.  I had finally made it to civilization.  Soon after, our parents caught up and I took a long nap.  At last I had survived the Grand Canyon.                      

Gibson Island Race

By Tyler

            Over the summer, I spent most of my time learning to race sailboats. I was racing for my local yacht club, and it was my first summer that I have done racing. All of the summers before, I had been learning how to handle the boats I sailed. I had been sailing since I was 3 years old. We would attend events called regattas, which are a series of races in one day. One regatta was held at Gibson Island.

When I first showed up, I realized I knew most of the people there and knew that I would have some tough competition. All of my friends were there, and they were good sailors. My friends and I sailed boats called 420s, which are two person boats. Some people also sailed Lasers, which are one person boats. There were about 30 420s and Lasers. We launched our boats and headed to the race course. The Lasers did their races first, and then the 420s. The wind was about 14 miles per hour. I was sailing with a friend that I had known since I was in kindergarten. He didn’t have any racing experience either, so we were learning together. He sailed 420s for 3 years.

            In our first start, we didn’t do too well, and the wind was dying. We finished 11^th. After the race, we figured out that one boat was trying to follow us, and we sped ahead of them.

 In our second start, we were second to the first mark, and then the wind died to five miles per hour. Two boats passed us because they could handle the light wind better. When we got to the second mark, six boats were lined up side by side, and no one had enough space to cross the mark because of one boat that was on the very outside edge. Everyone called for space to get around the mark, and there was a lot of contact. It was that one boat’s job to give us room to round the mark, and he didn’t. My friend Harrison had sailed up next to me and he was yelling at me for space to round, but I couldn’t give him any space. I managed to cross, and I sped ahead of everyone there, and finished sixth. After the race, Harrison asked me if I knew who didn’t follow the rules in that one mark rounding. We asked around, and eventually gave up.

My next few races weren’t very good. We finished 11^th again, and then 17^th twice. We scored tenth overall, and it was our best regatta all summer. At the club, I saw my good friend whom I haven’t seen for a long time, and we talked. She ended up beating me by one place. Maybe I’ll beat her next time. I found the people that followed me, and we also talked. I beat them by 17 places, and they weren’t very upset about it.

Two of my friends placed in the top three positions, and Harrison got fourth. He was frustrated that he wouldn’t get an award, and he wanted the awards to show the top five, but they didn’t. After the race, we towed back to the yacht club, and I let my crew drive on the way back, even though everyone else knew how bad he was at driving and they told me to drive. It was his third time driving, and he did well.

I look forward to going back to race at Gibson Island next summer, and I hope I do even better than before. Since my family just bought a Laser, I knew I could practice when I wanted. Maybe I’ll race it at Gibson Island. I can’t wait for next summer.

The First Friends of My Life

By Mitchell

            My first day of Nursery I was taught that we are all friends and that violence is not right from nursery to prekindergarten I followed that rule. But in kindergarten that rule started to slide away from my mind because I had met two kids that changed me. In kindergarten I had the most fun because these two friends that were amazing to play with, their names were Buddy and Quin. Quin was a very small dude he was about 3 feet tall and he got chased around a lot by the girls a lot of how cute he was. Buddy was an average size kindergartener who was very active and was not shy at all. We used real toys occasionally but not as much as we used our imagination we pretended we were jedi, super heroes, monsters or all sorts of things. We never did the same thing each day.  Most of the things we did we weren’t allowed to do because it was violent. We didn’t care we were in kindergarten.

            While we were playing imaginary swordplay with our light sabers (or sticks) we were threatening each other. We were playing all over the playground running around chasing each other. The teacher didn’t know that we were playing a violent game.  After a while she spotted us in the “peaceful kingdom” so she yelled at us from the other side of the playground.  We didn’t hear her the first few times because of how loud we were, and she got really mad after that and she came over and told us to stop or we would sit down for the rest of recess. She told us nicely at first but Trinity, Buddy, and I still kept playing, but with less enthusiasm than before. I played with the least of energy of us three.  I didn’t know why we kept playing this game. Then the teacher came over a second time and she yelled at us and I crumbled to the ground right in the middle of her yelling after a few seconds I ran to the big thing with the slide in the corner and cried. After the teacher stopped yelling at each of them both Buddy and Quin came over to me and asked why I was crying and if they could help and they helped me stop crying.  The teacher was a substitute so I held a grudge against her so I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the day and whenever she substituted, in the future I don’t even remember who she was.

The rest of the day Quin, Buddy, and I just kind of talked about Star Wars. And she didn’t care about that at all because we stayed far away from her whenever she substituted. The next day we started to play something different: superheroes and the teachers thought it was ok as long as no one got hurt. Occasionally we got hurt. Sometimes one of us was getting chased, sometimes all three of us were getting chased by the rest of the class. Either way we had fun doing it. Most of the time teachers didn’t notice because they couldn’t keep track of us because we were too fast for anyone in our minds. Even during nap time we were restless. Trinity, Buddy and I always found a way to make anything exciting for a Kindergartener.

Lately I might have seen Trinity playing lacrosse, but I’m not sure. Buddy I saw at a basketball camp that I went to and I found out his real name was Nicky at the end of the camp. It looks like we still have the same interests though except for imaginary swords and the Force. Now that I know they still live in the area I’m going to need to have more “dangerous” adventures with them some time.

The Heat Wave

By Emily M.

     It was on a hot summer day, during a heat wave. I was relaxing on the couch watching T.V. when I saw the swishy tailed mass of lazy fur I call my dog, Barney. He thumped down in his favorite spot on the couch (with clumps of loose hair flying everywhere) and just laid there for about 15 min. Then he went outside. It seemed like a normal day.

         He came in from the backyard limping and stumbled to the ground. My sister and I rushed to his side. He was twitching and his mouth was clenched shut. We called my mom at work and she told us to keep him cool and to stay by his side. My sister and I both dashed around the house to get what we needed; a fan, a water spritzer and all the hope we could scrape up to see if he would recover.

                  *        *        *

It took a few minutes for my Mom to get home, but it felt like an eternity.  All attention was on Barney when she got home. We were waiting and waiting and waiting! (It was only like 13 min.) Finally he stopped twitching, unclenched his jaw, got up and walked away. He trotted to the living room and plopped down in his favorite spot, and that was that. That experience was scarier than the feeling of going on a roller coaster. You get to the top and wait for the moment to fall off the track but you don’t, you have a great time. For me I thought Barney was going to die, but he shook it off. That day I vowed to always keep an eye on that lazy mass of fluff.   

The Farm

By Ivy

My family and I flew on a plane for 27 hours to Australia. Then, after a few days we drove 5 hours to my friend’s farm. When we arrived we ate breakfast we went out to and got our boots on then ride horses. My friends and I went out and got then went out e horses out of the pasture. My horse, waffles, was being stubborn and not coming with me. He was eating the grass which he shouldn’t have done because it is not good for the rider because when riding they may eat and you may fall off. I pushed him all the way down to the stables. We washed them up and then saddled the horses up and road them around and saw kangaroos, wombats, koalas, red belly black snakes that almost bit my dad because he was throwing rocks at it. We were careful not to get lost because, trust me, it was easy. After that we went to bed. In the morning we rode the mule like golf cart down to collect pine cones. Then, we went see the wombats, and the kangaroos. We rode the horses again when we got back to the house. The next day we went to the river one my friend’s property and swam. It was so fun because you could swim in on place and not go any were. The river was so fast because it hit some small rapids then a Mini waterfall that we all went down. It ended in a small pool with fish, tadpoles, and frogs. So me and my friends got a few cups and caught them. When we got back to the house we had to pack up to leave to Sydney to stay for the next few weeks.  At my family’s apartment that we were renting on the last day, it was Christmas so we had to pack up all is stuff to leave. Since, we were going back to the States so we had a 40 hour Christmas. 

The Revenge of the Snow

By Andrew K.

December 12, 2009, a terrible thing happened. That year, there was a terrible snow storm that lasted two days. Eventually the snow stopped falling hard and I went outside with my mom. There was snow, as far as I could see. There was three feet twelve inches to be exact. My mom started shoveling, but that was boring so I went off and explored. I started walking on a fence covered in snow, but since I wasn’t paying any attention I fell flat on face and passed out. About five minutes later, I woke up in three feet of snow. I felt cold, wet and terrified. I was starting to get frost bite. I was wet from the melted snow in my jacket and freezing from the wind. I couldn’t stand-up, so I started to dig and dig and dig. While I was doing this I was yelling for her. Eventually I got to the side walk and rested until my mom found me. I was annoyed because I had been yelling for ten minutes before she found me. She found me when she was shoveling the sidewalk. She helped me walk to the front door, took my coat off, turned on the fire and then I fell asleep on the sofa. Later, I ate a cup of soup and felt much better. 

To China

By Wayland

            Two years ago, during the summer, I was on a plane. We started to feel like we’re moving. I opened the window and saw ants. Then realized we were actually leaving America.

            Fourteen hours is a very long time. China is at the other side of the planet, so I expected it to be a very long trip. I thought I had enough patience for that amount of time on a plane. The problem was I needed to stretch. I didn’t have enough space to move my legs without disturbing the person sitting in front of me (who didn’t look too kind). The next problem was I couldn’t sleep well. I mean, it was quiet and all, but I just couldn’t sleep after my first eight hour nap. Instead, I was thinking about America and my memories. After that I was simply bored. The need for entertainment made me lose some brain cells. I continued to suffer until we reached China. I was so happy until I realized I had to do it again after a month.

            We met one of our aunts and her family right in Hong Kong after we left the torturous plane. Hong Kong is a city full of tall buildings, kind of like New York. It was night time, but that didn’t make me want to sleep. The different time zones prevented me from being tired during the night, and made me sleepy during day. We stayed at my aunt’s apartment. I managed to sleep, but it was an uncomfortable sleep. I woke up sleepy again, and my legs refused to move.

That day, we went on a tour to visit some monuments. The heat of the sun during summer was burning my skin. I was pounded with waves of heat. Hong Kong is close to the equator, so the heat was more intense. The combination of being tired and sweating made me want to go home after 50 minutes. Even in the blazing heat, the tours were enjoyable. It made me forget about the heat and the sweat. Most of the tours contain sculptures of emperors, holy animals (especially dragons and lions), and Buddhas. Sometimes, a tour contained a fort or a Chinese building full of artifacts. There were some tours that were really distant, so we had to use the  underground train.

For food, we went to restaurants, or we cooked. It usually had rice with dumplings, chicken, and more. After the main meal, the after-dish contained citrus and watermelons.

            After one week of tiring, fun tours, we went to Guan Zhou which is south of Hong Kong. Unfortunately, Guan Zhou is much less sanitary than Hong Kong. We met the rest of my aunts. In Guan Zhou, there were a lot of people trying to sell their goods on the streets that were mostly fruits and vegetables. We did the same thing we did in Hong Kong, but went on different tiring tours. It had the same things: forts, shrines, and Buddahs. Then, I got sick. I had to drink medicine through a straw three times a day. I was like “Three times a day! Uhg.” I had to drink it once during the morning, once at noon, and once at night. I mostly complained about taste. Drinking the medicine is like drinking a used toilet in the public. Luckily, I grew better after two days, but I never gave credit to the disgusting medicine.

            After another whole week of the same thing, we went back to Hong Kong and stayed there for a week. On that week, we played ping-pong, surfed the internet, and slept during the day. That week was probably the emptiest week I’ve ever had. On the final day, we went to the airport waving goodbye to our aunt’s family. We took off into the air; I started to think about China. 

Wyoming

By Thomas

 This summer my family on my mother’s side went out Wyoming.  I was the only person in my whole family that did not want to go.  It did not make it better when my parents decided to take a train that takes two days to get there ‘’ just for a better experience.’’   It was a pretty cool train because between the five of us we had two rooms each with three beds and a shower, fridge, bathroom, and sink. The first night on the train was boring, because my brothers where annoying me in our room.  The next day was a whole different story because we made a stop in Chicago. I loved Chicago because the water looked so tropical because of the color blue it was and felt like I was on the boardwalk at the beach. After Chicago we got back on the train and the next day we made a stop in Denver. Although I did not like Denver as much as Chicago it was still a pretty nice city.

When we were ready to leave, we went to the car rentals and took the car on our way for a 10 hour drive.  During the car ride I felt like I was going to, and my parents not paying attention to my oldest and youngest brother annoying me by screaming in my ear or punching me.  So then I tried to fall asleep so it would go faster but because of my brothers that did not happen.  When we got to Wyoming, we thought the drive was over until our parents told us there were still another five and a half hours. That was when I flipped out a screamed and punched my brother.  Then we got to Yellowstone national park witch was our destination.  We came up to the gate which we thought meant we were there, but then we told the gatekeeper where we were going she said we still had another two hours.  That  went by fast because the sun was setting and the scenery was beautiful.  Once we got there we put our room key in the slot and it did not work, so they went back to the lodge office and got the right key.  That night I could not fall asleep, and I could not go on Instagram or Facebook because we had no service, so I just lied in bed and eventually fell asleep at about 2:00 am.

The next morning we went to the grand canyon of Yellowstone was really cool and my mom would freak out when we went to close to the edge, because we were 500 feet up.  After that we decided to go the Old Faithful and had lunch in that dining hall. After two more days after Yellowstone we went to the main part of the trip.  Red Rock Ranch.  It was really cool there because there was a heated pool, a hot tub, tennis court, a pool table, ping pong, and a basketball court.  After we arrived we god ready to have dinner and met all the other families that where there for the week.  It was the weirdest thing because they all had a kid in their family that played lacrosse.  The next day I learned how to ride a horse for the first time, we would ride through the whole week.  Every Tuesday we would go on an all-day ride and bring lunch.  The first time we went we collected rocks off of a cliff. When we first came down to the cliff there was a stream under it so they said we would have to get wet.  We thought they we joking until they jumped  in with all of there clothes on.  That was when we jumped in and really felt like cowboys.  We could even go under water to pick the minerals off the side of the cliff.  The one after that it was just our family.  And we didn’t really do that much.  On the last day we had a barbeque and camp fires.  The next day we packed up and left the ranch to go to our family’s ranch.  Red Barn Ranch.  Red barn ranch was my favorite part of the trip because we shopped in Jackson Hole Wyoming and that is what we did every day for the rest of the trip.  On the last day we packed up and said our goodbyes to the animals on the ranch and got in our car and started are long trek back to the car rentals. 

The Weekend

By Grayson F.

            My mom, my brother , his friend, and I were heading to our beach house. During the car ride down we watched a movie. The movie was called Bansky. A great movie about one of the all the time greatest graffiti artists ever. After we arrived, and then we put on are bathing suits and, headed to the beach. We swam at the beach for at least four hours. After a long time spent in the water, we went to get ice cream on the boardwalk. We got the ice cream and while we were walking back we remembered that my mom told us to not take too long because she had an appointment for the new pool. We raced back to find that she was gone. We were all very disappointed because we had spent all day at the beach in the water and we didn’t want to walk a few miles home. We started walking home and realized that if we stop at our mom’s friend George’s antique store it would take half as long as walking. So we asked if we could use George’s phone and we called our mom. After waiting an hour she finally came to pick us up. It was pretty bad but at least we made some money helping George move some furniture.

            We knew we were going to be at George’s for a while. We had nothing to do so we got asked by George.

            When we got home we took showers. We played outside until it was dark and then we went inside. After deciding what we were going to do that night we got in the car and drove to Harris Teeter.  We bought diner and we bought a movie. The movie was called “Hunting Season” with John Travolta and Robert Dinero. We got home and ate. After we ate we watched the movie. The movie was horrible and it was too violent for my mom. So we had a great suggestion from Cameron to watch a movie called “Donnie Darko”. It was a great movie of a boy with a bad sleep walking in the night because of this bunny named Frank. The bunny was a man wearing a costume. The costume was pretty scary. And every scene in the movie that included Frank she fast forwarded. It was now my favorite movie.  After the movie we went to bed. Although it was only about 8 o’clock on a weekend. But we had to get up in the morning and clean and then go home because Cameron and I had a lacrosse game.

            The next day we didn’t clean that much because there wasn’t that much to clean. We ate breakfast and we were off to the lacrosse games. That was the only reason that we woke up early. We were going to try and miss the traffic. Everyone must have had the same idea because we were stuck in the traffic for two and a half hours. We knew we were going to be late but we also had to drop off Berj, pick up the right equipment, and then head to the game. Cameron’s game was starting right when we got there. My game started right after Cameron’s game. I was the first one there and there were only eleven kids there. You need at least fourteen or fifteen.  The game was starting but we had no subs. The other team didn’t offer to give players off their team. Well it was only an hour had bad could it be. I will just say it was very bad. Our team was horrible compared to theirs. I scored with my left hand though. I don’t remember what the score was but I would rather not tell. That’s how bad it was. All the kids on my team were new so they didn’t know how to play. The good thing is nobody got hurt and nobody’s stick broke. I was sad when we lost. I am not a good loser. But hey I scored with my off hand. So in a way I was proud of myself.

Halloween Dance Party

By Sebastian

     So there I was, at school watching strobe lights coming out of the windows like Nyan cat barfing out the window. I walk in and saw everybody in the parish hall in their little groups and the food and I ate some of the cupcakes and four cookies. I saw my friend Ben in a Halo 3 Master Chief mask. We talked for a bit then I heard a song. I got down with my bad self. So I am doing robots, turtle shells and more dance moves that I taught myself.

 Ben says “Man where did you learn to do that?”

 “I just have skills, man.”

 “Dude, get on the dance floor and party.”

      Then I said no because I was shy. So guess what? He pushes me. All I saw was 200 pairs of eyes looking at me. I was tempted to say bye, run to the hall and go to the bathroom and hide, but I faced my adversary, which at the time was my stage fright so I prepare myself. My heart stopped, I tensed, then I danced like a party boss. Everyone sees me brake out my moves of awesomeness, and they started moving to the beat. Then I swear someone shouts out “Party out loud!”

      Then people started dancing one by one then the party truly got started to get funky. After an hour I got out with my dignity intact somehow, I knew Ben with his smug grin behind his mask and I gave him a cold stare, as cold as ice and we held that position for two minutes, then we laughed and got water, and told jokes about random stuff that happened when I was dancing. Apparently he overheard a couple of kids talking about me.

     Afterwards I was noticed by people and some kids were challenging me to dance duels. Two girls said they thought I was a good dancer. Someone took a video of me dancing on the dance floor then showed me the video. I looked awesome, but a teacher told him to delete it.

     Now one or two hours of awesome dancing and snack brakes and then we came to the best costume award, I was wondering if it would be me but it was someone else. But, someone told me about best dancer award so I waited and waited, then figured that it was not happening that night, but I could have been man, I could have been noticed for something awesome, but you get what you get. After that things where crazy, it was like a huge strobe lighted war with kids that had way too much sugar and cake and just junk food in general. But when we were cleaning up I thought of next year and getting an award. 

May the Best Team Win

By Ashley

            It was the fall of 2011; our first soccer practice of the season. I remember my friend and I had arrived late, and the teammates were already shooting on our goalie. Aside from my one friend, I knew no one else on the team. So when it was time to pick a team name, I was too shy to suggest a name better than the Flaming Unicorns or the Tough Cookies. Instead, I voted for the best option. And so we became the Tough Cookies.

            A few practices later, my team had our first game. The Tough Cookies played the Orange team. They were an easy team to beat, but then again, my team had great players who worked together really well. The forwards (including myself) each scored a goal, and our defense was great. We had a new goalie who hadn’t played goalie much before, but she was excellent. The win motivated the team to win the next few games and motivated the players to get better and better work together. My team was undefeated and motivated until we played the maroon team.

            “Guys,” one of my teammates said, indicating one of the players on the other team, “I know that girl, and she’s really mean to me and my sister.”

 Turns out she was mean to my whole team. She wouldn’t stop fouling and shoving, and, of course, the bad teenage referees didn’t call anything. Anyway, they were still a good team, but we were better. We beat them, but it was a close game. So the “Tough Cookies” continued the undefeated season. But we were determined to beat them if we had to play them again.  

we didn’t play them again, until the championship game. The undefeated “Tough Cookies” were in 1^st place, and Maroon in a close second. It would be pretty evenly matched, if not for one thing. One of the players on my team, Kaitlyn, was out. We were down a good player, and had one less sub. We were going to have to fight really hard to win this, and we did.  The first half, we scored once, and kept them from scoring. At halftime, we were up 1-0.

            We were winning, but we still had half a game to play, and sometimes, it’s not that hard to come back with one or even two goals in that amount of time.  It would be easier for them because now my team was facing into the sun. Coach told us at halftime, we would have to work even harder to keep them from scoring because this was the championship.

            The second half started in their favor. They kept possession of the ball, but my team kept them from scoring. We played well, and eventually regained possession of the ball. We kept it for a while, and eventually we scored again. They quickly came back with a goal. The score was 2-1, and we were getting really nervous. The end of the second half was tough. The other team played well, but also unfairly. They were very mean players, and I got tripped, stepped on, and hit in the head. I was really mad at them.

            One girl on the other team was on a breakaway, which is where she has possession of the ball and is heading toward our goal, when coach said something I’ll never forget.

 “Come on Ashley, get that ball. You’re better than her and you know it.”

 So I did. I took it from her and passed it down field.one of the girls on My team shot, and we missed. The other team gained possession of the ball again. Their players moved the ball downfield and took a shot. Our goalie saved it, and she threw it to one of our players. Unfortunately, the ball was intercepted by the other team. In an attempt to trap the ball, she accidentally kicked into the upper left corner of the goal. It spun and was too hard for any goalie our age to save. It was just luck.

            The score was tied 2-2. We tried to regain the lead, but the game ended. Coach talked to us off the field, and chose, along with our goalie, four or five other players, myself included, to do the shootout.

 “What is a shootout?” I thought. I was so nervous. I was about to do something I didn’t know how to do to decide which team, mine, or the other, would win the championship. Coach explained that a shootout is where each team sends a number of players on the field and they take turns shooting penalty kicks on the goalie. So we lined up. two of the players on my team, and two of theirs both scored. Then the goalies had to take turns shooting on each other. We were worried, because their goalie was one of the biggest girls I have ever seen. She blocked Corinne’s kick with ease, and when it was her turn to kick, she shot it into the top of the goal, too high for our goalie. There was silence, and then the other team celebrated. They had won the game. We walked off the field sadly. Then we received medals for being the runner up, and it turns out, I was playing up a league, with girls up to 2 years older than me.

            When we left the field, we were all disappointed, but we knew there was next year, and that the better team didn’t win. A few lucky goals and fouls had won the game for them. 

            But we knew we were still better.      

Falling Slowly

By South Carolina

Slowly they began to fall,

red, yellow, orange, to brown

as the birds began to fall,

the leaves slowly fell down.

The trees began to go bare,

the sun wasn’t as near,

the trails lead to nowhere,

streets were no longer clear.

Kids were all around the town,

carrying bags of sweets,

some will fall and hit their crown,

dropping all of their treats.

Saving for a Dirt Bike

By Jonathan 

            In the middle of August, my mom and I went to the Honda Motor Sports just to look around.  We were in the store for five minutes when I saw a dirt bike that spoke to me.  The salesman could tell I loved it and walked over.  He told about all new upgrades from last years model an electric start, four speed transmission, and light weight frame.  It was about Three thousand dollars.  Then my mom walked over, and she was actually thinking about letting me get one.  I could see it by her facial expressions.  So as we were talking and walking around the store my mom said “If you can pay half of the cost and get good grades, you can get a dirt bike."

I was so happy and once we got home I looked in my wallet to see how much money I had.  I counted it all up; it was four hundred and two dollars.  I started to go around the house looking for change.  That night I was on my laptop looking at the online store.  I kept saving and saving, looking for more loose change and asking for change after my mom would pay with cash.  I had been saving for quite a while and my piggy banks were getting heavy and I turn it into money.

            We went back to the Honda store a week later just to look around see if anything changed.  Of course I went over to the dirt bike section and surprisingly the price had gone down.  I asked the salesman and he said it was the end of the year blow out sale, and now it was only two thousand five hundred.  I was so amazed and was looking at the bike closer, looking at all the cool things , then realized that the price would soon go back to normal in a couple of weeks.  I knew I would never have the money by then.

            Once we got in the car, I asked my mom a question.  I asked if “I do yard work and clean the house can I get twenty dollars per hour?” 

She said “Um ok that sounds fair.”

That weekend I did a lot of work.  I mowed the lawn which took forever and I had to cut my neighbors grass too.  Then I cut trees into logs then stacked them in a pile to dry.  That took at least three hours and I almost cut my leg off with my chainsaw.  I had been doing yard work for about four weekends and was hoping for big results. 

I started to count my money $20, $40, $50, $70, $400, $420…$800.  That was the total $800.  I had come a little short, but I still had many more weekends to come.  We went back to the store and the guy must have thought we were crazy coming in and not buying anything.  I went over to the bike just to get a glimpse of it, and the same guy came over and asked how much farther I had to go and I said I have a little more to go. 

He told me to go look at the helmets and see what one I wanted.  So I went over to the helmets and there were so many of them and one popped to me. It was a grey and red Fox helmet.  It was and shiny and awesome.  Then my mom came over said it was time to go.  I said thank you looked at the bike and left.  We got in the car and drove off and I asked what my mom asked.  My mom said she asked what the monthly payments would be, and what would be included in the price.  I told her about the helmet I saw.  My mom said cool, and we drove to go get my sister.  I told my sister about how I could get a dirt bike, and she looked really annoyed, but I kept talking and told her about all the cool features.  She said nothing looking at her phone and then said “finally you are getting a dirt bike.”

            I had not saved enough to get a dirt bike. I am proud and disappointed because I worked hard, but did not reach my goal.

I Got Up

By Grace

I see surfers surf all the time, I really wanted to try it, so I did.  I thought that surfing was the coolest thing ever, I was pretty much right.  It was really lucky that my uncle was a surfer, he had boards and he could teach me.   Two summers ago we decided to go in the water and try.  I was too scared to go out deep, so I went up to my waist.   I used one of the boards he got my family which was a foam bored, it’s a board but it is covered in foam.  My uncle pushed me into a wave, and I tried to stand up. I failed.  I kept trying, but all I did was fall.  I then I thought that I was never going to stand up and I should just give up.  On my families last vacation of the summer I went out with my friend because I thought she could help me.  I tried to surf one last time, and guess what? I got up! I felt so proud, my parents took a picture of me, and it looked weird. My waist was bent and I was leaning over, but I knew I could fix that.  But summer was over, so I was going to try again next summer.

            The next summer, in June of 2013, my uncle came out with me again, I remember him giving me corrections, so I took his corrections and bent my knees not my waist.  My uncle let me use his fun board, which is a real board but it is thicker.  Now I can surf on a better board!   My dad now likes to come out with me on his paddle board and paddle out deep while I surf.  I got way better this summer, and I can’t wait until next summer.

Greasy Noodle Fingers

By Brandon

When I was very little, my mom got a brand new fridge. I watched in amazement as she peeled off the plastic sheet revealing its true color. The black refrigerator was like a polished slab of obsidian. It was so shiny! What my mom didn’t know was that the obsidian surface soon wouldn’t look so polished.

 The next day, my mother came home from work as tired as dog that ran a marathon. Since she was so tired, she decided to order take out from Little Chino’s. She ordered me an amazingly delicious order of fettuccini alfredo, which I enjoyed very much. Once I was done, instead of wasting the remains of this luscious meal by putting it in the fridge, I looked over to the shiny surface of the fridge and decided to give it a beautiful decoration. I started carefully slapping my half eaten dinner onto the now not so shiny face of the fridge. I began making smiley faces and stars.

 “Greasy noodle fingers, greasy noodle fingers, greasy noodle fingers,” I started chanting until my mom came in the kitchen to see what was happening. Instead of her being proud of my wonderful artwork she was as mad as a shot bull. Instantaneously I was sent to my room.

At the time, my room had a door that went into my back yard. It was locked to keep me in my room. The lock was up so high that I couldn’t reach it on my tippy toes.  Right then and there the solution hit me. All I had to do was move my bed right to the side of the door, stand on the bed, and unlock the door. It was as simple as that. When I escaped outside, I entered back inside the living room through the main door. That was a mistake because my mom sent me back for more locked-in-bedroom time.

Goalie

By Marley

            When I was about eight, I started playing lacrosse. I played midfield, and that means I had to run up and down the field. The field was very small It was as small as from one side of a football field to another, so I could do it easily. When I was nine, I tried out for a lacrosse club  that would travel. I made it on the b team. I tried out for midfield, but my coach put me in as defense. No matter what position I played I tried my hardest. The coach said that I should play defense, so to stay on the team I played. I got better and better at it. We had a lot of practices. But I was scared that I would hurt somebody so I wasn’t playing aggressively enough. When my coach told me, I explained why I wasn’t playing aggressively and he told that I couldn’t worry about that.

               After about the fourth practice I was the most aggressive player on the team. Slowly, I worked my way to the top. I played more and more. Then I started playing the whole game. I had a lot of fun on this team, but then I realized no one on the team liked me because they wouldn’t pass the ball to me and they wouldn’t really talk to me. When we would take breaks after the games at the tournaments, I would sit there and wait for the next game and nobody would talk to me. The only reason I still played is because I had no other team to go to.

            Then I started to play for this Green hornet’s team. I found about it because my friends would talk about it in school.  My friend from school Caroline, her dad coached the team. I tried out for the A team and didn’t make it, so I made it on his team a B team with my friends Katie, Emily, and Caroline. We had this little pre-season tournament we didn’t have a goalie so we had to switch on and off with goalie. I played goalie and I kind of liked it, and so did Katie. The first game came and Katie wasn’t there so I played goalie. We won, and I saved a lot of goals about five out of seven after a while of games I decided to become the official goalie of the team.

The season was almost over. We won every game and tied one. This game we were playing the team that we hadn’t beat with. We played super hard. And it was the last quarter. It was a tie, I saved the ball and cleared it to Ashley, and she passed to Emily. Emily ran down the field she crease rolled (she ran around the boundary of the goal) she shot it went the top right corner. I saw the net shake. She did it we were going to win. After the next Draw the whistle blew. It was the end of the game we won!

            After that we played a couple more games and became undefeated. I got MVP. I also got asked to play goalie for my coaches tournament team. I was already signed up for another tournament team, so after the summer season I tried out for another club team. After the tryouts, I went to California to visit my aunt one morning. My aunt told me she had to show me something. She logged into her email and showed me that I made the team. I was so happy that day I just couldn’t stop jumping at the thought. I was so happy and I practically screamed the whole day.

            When I came home a week or so later I told everyone. After a couple weeks we had our first practice. For about an hour I went with a goalie coach would warm me up. It was a super-hot day. I tried my hardest to prove I was right for this team. I had a fun practice, but it was hot. Then I had my second practice. My coach wasn’t there so my assistant coach practiced with us. I didn’t get to warm up so, I was scared I wasn’t going to do ok. But I had nothing to worry about because I did just fine.

The Last Shot

By Caroline

            It was halftime at the field hockey game.  The Green Hornets A team was playing the Crofton A team. I think the score was 1-0 and my team, the Green Hornets were winning.  The second half of the game started.  We were getting so may fouls.  It was a whistle every couple seconds.  It went on the whole entire first half of the second half.  In the middle of the second half Crofton scores.  The score was tied and the pressure was on.  We were fighting as if it was the championship game but it was really the first game of the season. We wanted to start off our season with a win.  The time was running out and the game was still tied.  It was down to the last five minutes of the game and we were fighting as hard as we could.    The time was going so fast and both teams couldn’t get full control over the ball.  It was down to the last minute and we were still fighting for the ball.  All of a sudden we all stopped when we heard the buzzer ring.  The game was over unless they let us go in to overtime.  The referees discussed and overtime was about to begin.  

Our coach was talking to my team.  They went out on the field against the five other Crofton players.  They did the draw and the other team wins the ball. They tapped sticks three times and then fought for the ball.  They start dribbling down the field.  They pass to a girl close to the goal. She shot.  Our goalie saved it.  We ended up fighting for the ball.  It was a constant battle for the ball.  The players know that they only had five minutes of overtime.  They had now wasted at least three minutes.  They were still fighting but after a few more seconds we had finally got possession of the ball.  The other team played defense to get the ball back to their team.  But, we still kept control of the ball.

            We finally got full possession of the ball. I believe Sydney passed the ball to Erin.   Then, Erin passed the ball to Hunter.  Hunter got a long pass and she started dribbling down the field.  My teammates and the Crofton players were chasing her from behind.  Our whole team was on the sidelines screaming as loud as they could.  Hunter finally made it down to the goal.  She went to shoot and the whole crowd got quiet.  If she didn’t make this shot there would be fifteen seconds left to shoot again.  She shot.  The goalie made a quick slide for the ball.  I heard a “bang” on the backboard of the goal.  The goalie didn’t save the ball.  Hunter had just made the winning shot of the game.  We all went crazy and we were screaming as loud as we could. 

My team sat down to talk about the game after we shook hands with the other team.  Our coach congratulated us and told us our next practice time.

            As soon as I got in the car, I soaked in what had just happened.  It was amazing.  We had just scored in the last fifteen seconds of the game.  It was a great game and I was still in shock.  I woke up and went down stairs.  I stared talking to my mom but realized it was more like a whisper.  I had then remembered that during the whole overtime I was screaming as loud as I could. 

I still remember this game as like it was yesterday.  I miss my team and that game.  I wish I could replay that game over and over and over again. Hopefully my team this year will be as great as a team and as good friends as my team last year.  I will always remember that field hockey team as the dream team and the best field hockey season ever!