Duck story

Today was a sunny, bright morning where the birds chirp and the cars drive by on the road. I start to waddle over to my pond that is only a few yards away; where the water-lilies  are bright green with the bees flying around the white and pink flowers floating in the water. The misty air that covered the grassy green floor is hard to breathe in at first, but after only a moment of walking, I could finally breathe yet again. My duck friends are already gathered around the petite pond, so I quack towards them, and they all turned. Quickly I waddled even faster towards them, so I could get a spot in between, to swim.

Once I finally reached the edge of the water, I jumped as hard as I possibly ever could, and landed directly on a water-lily. I came up from going under-water and realized I could barely move my wings. All of the ducks were starring at me, and I had to idea why. When I looked down at myself, I had a gooey green substance all over myself, and I realized I had a small frog on my head.

 I didn’t care if I couldn't fly, but man was the frog annoying just sitting on my head. So I shrieked my loudest quack and the frog got off and into the water. Of course, I had to chase after it. It was like a game between us. So I chased after this little frog, until I realized where this chase was headed to.  I slowed my pace down, because I almost just got hit by a car! I cannot believe a gigantic car would try to run over a sweet little innocent duck like me! Curse them.

On my way back from chasing after the frog, I realized everyone was swimming in the substance I just was. It was so much fun when I jumped in too! My duck friends and I played together all day, until it started to become dark.  I was beginning to yawn, so I called it a night.

Win and Die?

Author's Note: My class and I read a short story of The Lottery by an author who lived in California and wrote this in 1948. Her name is Shirley Jackson and I believe this is a great, but saddening story.

In the short story "The Lottery" by the author of Shirley Jackson, Tessie Hutchinson one of the main characters in the village, was killed by stones and rocks that the other families and her children, had to throw at her. I thought this was kind of ironic because Tessie was late to the gathering, and she had gotten upset when her husband was picked. One sad moment that had happened in the story was when the younger boys in the family had cheered when they didn't get the black dot on their sheet of paper, but they just realized that their mother had to pay the price; of dying by rocks that they had to throw at her themselves.

I believe that the black box and the black dot for the lottery was a sign of death for anyone who entered their name in it. When you first begin to read the story, people most likely thought it would be an actual lottery where a family earned money and became rich. In this case, it was the exact opposite and I thought that was unbelievable and ironic for the story. Therefore one of the themes that I believe could fit for the short story would be the theme of survival. Why I thought of survival was because every year the villagers had to enter their family's name in this box and see if someone had to lose their life for this traditional event. If you weren't chosen, you could happily live your lives without the fear of having to be sacrificed for a inhuman tradition.

This story should have a happy ending, but sadly it is the exact opposite and it makes you think to yourself what happened back then, and then compare it to now. Are there still traditions like that, in the world? There is mostly likely a tradition or sacrifice in other countries, but I personally don't believe there are any in the United States. 

The True Killer

Author's note: Here's a story that I came up with. From my story the perspective will be from two children, out of the six. The perspective is from two children that are twins, and their names are Jason and Jasmine. I am going to write this piece for my District Assessment paper. 

In the midst of the night, almost about two in the morning, it started to drizzle outside the old mansion. The young twins, Jason and Jasmine, woke up startled; not from the rain, but from a terrible nightmare that they somehow had together. This nightmare was about the two of them being captured, and killed.  The twins had no idea where the source of the nightmare originated from, or how they had the same exact dream, but it happened. The thing that they aren't aware of is that they aren't the only children in the world that had the dream. Little did they know, they weren't the only two kids that had somehow created this life-like nightmare that included four other children, all over the world.

The next morning, just after sunrise, the two twins adventured downstairs into the kitchen, where the parents were sipping coffee, to tell their parents their horrendous dream.  "Good morning papa! Good morning mama!" said the twins as one. "Good morning sweethearts. Did you sleep well?" asked the mother who was in her purple pajamas. Jason looked at Jasmine, and they both got wide-eyed while they thought of how to start to explain their dream. Slowly, but steadily, they turned to their half-asleep parents and explained that they had a nightmare together. Their parents then took precautions and got worried.

From there on out, for an hour long, the twins were explaining, or trying to, that frightening vision they had together, and what all happened. When they were finally finished explaining themselves, the parents looked concerned. The father questioned them on who was all in it, what happened to them, and finally if they had ever had the same dream before. The last answer was a no, and that got the parents even more worried. The parents told the children to ignore it all, but it kept happening for the rest of the week; but all of the other times, the kids would act like they were insane, and needed medical help. That’s when they finally packed suitcases, and traveled to a mental institution in South-eastern Carolina.

That very next day they traveled to South Carolina. From there six hour flight, to the parents starting to become cranky from their kids constantly wanting to jump around; they just wanted to get to a hotel, or even the mental hospital and see what the problem was.  As they all traveled in a rental car to the mental hospital, Jasmine  watched Jason start to have a spasm attack, and she then  started to hyperventilate because she was scared of what was happening. The father saw and pressed as hard as he could down on the accelerator to get to the hospital quicker. "Thank gosh there's no cops around" thought the father. After at least 10 minutes, they were finally at the hospital, rushing in, and the mother screaming "HELP! SOMEONE HELP MY CHILDREN!" In the next second a load of nurses came rushing around the corner, and grabbing the children away from the parents and dragging the twins into a room. Jason had finally calmed down, after the nurses gave him a special, shot.  Now he was just plain out dizzy, but yet screaming out to his sister that he saw across the room, trying to breathe from an oxygen tank.

When he tried getting up and walking towards her, he stumbled across the room, like a person that just got finished drinking; Knocking over metals of some sort, and medications.  Just before he reached Jasmine, he stumbled over a table, and feinted, hitting his head on the white, stone-cold floor. When he awoke, he was facing the ceiling and could tell that he was lying in a cold bed, with his arms wrapped around himself. Although he was comfy just lying there, his thoughts slowly seeped back to him, and he remembered that he was in a mental hospital, and something happened to his sister. He shot up quickly from the bed, just to find that his body was connected to so many tubes, and his arms were tied together. When he was searching around the room for his sister, he saw four other children, about his age; possibly a year or two younger or older. There were two boys and two girls separated throughout the room; and they looked restrained, such as himself. Finally, in the corner next to the other two girls, he saw his sleeping sister. Who looked so innocent and sweet while she dreamt. Jason knew he couldn't walk over there, so he called out to Jasmine, but there was no answer. He thought she was just deep in sleep; nothing else to it.

Although he felt as if he was a trapped monkey in a cage, he just stared at the kids in the room with him. He was becoming curious as to why they were here with them, and what they did to have come here in the first place. After about twenty minutes of staring at one boy laying down six feet away from him, the boy turned, and smiled. "Hi. You must be new around here." All Jason could do was stare, but then a minute later nodded slowly. "Well I've been here at least a month. It's boring around here, but I'm glad there are new people around. My name's Robert. Yours?" stated the other boy; who seemed to be older than he looked. "My…My names Jason. Over there is my twin sister Jasmine." he stammered, but felt like adding in the last part, so that the other boy would know that there together. "Twins? That’s different. We haven't had twins in here before." and from there on out, for the next two hours Jason spoke with every sibling in the room, except for his own sister.

Even though Jason is becoming comfortable with the other four kids in the room, he still couldn't shake the feeling of distrust and worry for his sister, and these people. He figured out the names of everyone in the room, and why they were here. Robert and Stephen were the two boys, about his own age, and the two girls names were Angelica and Nicole, about his sister’s age. They were all here for the same reason as Jasmine and him; because of the nightmare and the actions after it. Jason started to wonder where everyone's parents were, but shook off the feeling when his sister finally woke up from her deep sleep, bleary-eyed. She looked confused and frightened, almost in tears, because all of the kids were looking at her. She finally stopped once she placed Jason at the far end of the room, looking at her, with his smile.

In the next several days at being in the hospital, it was the same routine; going into the room to sleep and hangout with the four other kids, eat in the small cafeteria, get shots everyday to calm ourselves down if we start to act strange, and this week the parents were able to come visit. Just, the only difference that day was during the middle of the night, it started to thunderstorm outside of the room that they were staying in. You could see lightening through the window, and it looked like a nasty sight outdoors. Everyone in the room took a deep sigh and turned to face each other. Right after that, Jasmine realized she's seen all of this before. She remembered it from their dream, and after she explained that to Jason, he also remembered it.

Then in the next second, a wailing of a siren went off. Everyone in the room, including Jasmine and Jason, jumped up from their beds. They didn't dare move, because sirens have gone off before, but they were fake alarms. It would take at least ten minutes for the nurses to declare it was fake, so the children waited, and sat back down. Jasmine came close to Jason and whispered "Do you remember this from the dream too? This is scaring me Jason." "I know Jasmine…I know. But I'm right here. I won’t leave you." just then did Robert ask "Is it too quiet in this building, or is it just me?" We were all quiet, because no one knew what to do, or say. "It is awfully quiet out there…has everyone left and forgot us? What happened? Why aren't the nurses saying anything, or checking up on us?" Thought Jason. "Well…I'm going to see what's happening out there. Anyone care to join me?" wondered Stephen. Everyone crept along with him outside the doorway. We all were wondering where everyone was, because we didn't even see one nurse or child in the hallway like we normally do.

After a few minutes, Nicole thought of the idea of splitting us all up into pairs, to cover more ground in the hospital. Everyone agreed because none of us knew what else to do with ourselves. Within twenty minutes, Jasmine and I both were almost on the other side of the hospital. It was a lonely feeling, and every hallway was as dark as the night sky. It was a creepy and nauseous feeling looking through rooms and hallways alone, but we handled it well enough. *BOOM* The thunderstorm outside was still going strong, and it made the night worse. "Should we turn back and look for the others?" Jasmine questioned as she tugged at Jason's arm. He nodded, so they turned back and started to walk the way they came. "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Help me! Help me!" someone close by screamed. Jason started hurtling himself forward as fast as he could, but it wasn't fast enough. When he reached the room where the scream came from, no one was there, except for part of a ripped shirt which looked like Nicole's. "Now I'm completely freaked out." thought Jasmine. They kept moving towards where they traveled from, but one by one, almost every five minutes, we heard a scream. Some of them the twins recognized others they didn't. But every time they reached the location of the scream, something from that person was left behind.

Jasmine started whining, then crying after running around and finding objects that belonged to the people they just got to know. Jason kept trying to sooth her and make her smile, but nothing worked, and he soon gave up and broke down with her. "For some reason", thought Jason, "everyone keeps dying around us and we don’t even know why. Is there a murderer on the lose? Or are they playing a sick minded joke on us?" "How come I've seen all of this in my dream Jason? I don’t like living this nightmare." questioned Jasmine. "Let's just try and find a way out of here before we answer that." answered Jason who all of a sudden had enough courage to stop and think of someway of breaking out of the hospital. "How about we try and find the entrance to this place, and then we'll find some help along the way" Thought Jason out loud.

After an hour of searching throughout the night for the entrance, they finally found it. When they looked outside, it was almost dawn, and the thunderstorm was slowly coming to a halt. They could see the horizon, and the sun peeking out from the clouds above. It looked like it would be an amazing day, once they could get out of this spine-chilling building. After a few minutes of double-checking that no one was around, Jasmine and Jason slowly walked out of the building, until they heard one more shriek of help. Then dead silence walked the halls.

Give Your Heart A Break

Author's note: This is just a poetry piece I chose to write for one of my language arts goals. I wrote this poem after I listened to the song "Give Your Heart A Break" by Demi Lovato.

All day and all night
To sunrise
And sundown
I've only been thinking
About you

 I threw a wish
In the well
And wished for you

I didn’t know
I would feel it
But in the end
I fell for you

That first day
That I met you
My world would never be
The same way
It was before

I've tried playing it cool
But when I'm looking at you
I can see it in your eyes
That smile you try to hide

I don’t know what it is
But I'm going out of my mind
Just to let you know
I love you

Did you believe in love at first sight?
I didn't
Not until I first saw you

And yet
In the end
I'm still crazy about you

Common Cold

Author’s note: This is a research essay for my science class. It is about the common cold, how it could affect you, how you can cure it and the differences between colds and allergies.

 Everyone feels the horrible dread of feeling like they’re going to puke, or pass out. Every single person in the world goes through this feeling, but it may be more serious, or it’s an overreaction. Feeling this queasiness of not feeling well, you may have something wrong going on in your body, which you’re not exactly sure of. Although sickness and viruses may be deadly to the body, you can still cure and react to your common colds. Possibly not knowing what’s going on in your body is a good thing. On the other hand, it’s also a terrible thing. Most of the time if someone doesn’t feel well it may be because they have the common cold.

 A common cold is a virus or disease spreading throughout your body and it interacts or mingles with your cells, until it goes away. Even though there are more than 100 types of sickness, or viruses that spread around the world, people mostly only get unwell at least 4 to 8 times a year (Common Cold, 1998 - 2012). This mostly happens during the winter season, when it is cold and wet. When you first catch a cold, you may have been with it for a few days, without even realizing it. The virus doesn’t take effect until at least 2 or 3 days later (National Center for Biotechnology Information). Normally, whenever you catch a cold or small sickness, you receive it from another person, possibly even a friend or family member. If you want to try your hardest not to take delivery of this illness, then try and stay away from someone that was, or is sick, until you positively know for certain that they have gotten rid of it. Another risk of becoming in poor health would be going someplace where there is a huge crowd, because of all the germs and illnesses that could possibly be spreading through the air. One other step you could take is to wash your hands constantly in case you touched someone that has a virus, or something that they may have touched themselves (MedicineNet).

While you are on your infection or condition, you will be hoping to find cures to get rid of them. One cure is eating chicken noodle soup. For the most part, that does help prevent it, or makes you feel better for a little while. On the other hand, taking medications might also help with the pain and prevent even more damage to yourself, if you have gotten worse. Lastly, another treatment you could try would be either gargling salt to help your throat if it hurts, or to drink lots of fluids, such as water, orange juice, milk, or anything else that might possibly help with curing your unpleasant cold (Common Cold, 1998 - 2012).

 If you have ever thought or confused a cold with some other symptom, it might have possibly been an allergy, because they are closely similar. You catch shocking colds from other people that are sick, but for allergies, you would catch them from your other family members, when you were born. Normally whenever or wherever you have an allergy, it is most likely to be indoors or outdoors (Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.) If you have an allergic reaction, you might have the symptoms of runny nose, sneezing, itchy nose, congestion, sore throat, headaches and possibly more (Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp). You can use medications to help prevent these affects of the body, but it may not always help. If you go to the doctors and they give you a certain medication, you must take it, to get rid of the reaction. The symptoms of an allergy and an illness are almost identical, but if you’re not quite sure which is which, ask a doctor.

Meanwhile, if you’re possibly feeling ill, is it because you have an allergy, disease, or something worse? Or is it just a simple common cold? If you feel unwell or appalling, it most likely has the results of you having a cold, in which you recovered from someone that has been by you recently. Most people would take medications to prevent the pain, or runny nose, but you can also just simply rest and take care of yourself.


 Bibliography Common Cold. 1998 - 2012. 18 April 2012 . Jack M. Gwaltney, MD and MD Frederick G. Hayden. What a common cold is. 1999 - 2007. 18 April 2012 . MedicineNet. "Common Cold Symptoms." Common Cold (1996 - 2012). MedicineNet, Inc. A cold, or seasonal allergies? 1996 - 2012. 19 April 2012 . Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, N.J., U.S.A. Indoor and Outdoor Allergies. 1998 - 2012. 19 April 2012 . National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine 8600 Rockville Pike, Bethesda MD, 20894 USA. Common Cold. 2012. 18 April 2012 .

Shari Cooper

Author’s note: This is a Character Development piece about the main character in the novel Remember Me and how her actions affected people around her. Her name was Shari Cooper and she was a dynamic character.

in the beginning of the novel Remember Me , Shari Cooper was just a young, eighteen year-old girl that was just starting to figure out what to do with her life. Her flowing blond highlighted hair and her eyes as green and bright as springs grass, are now gone forever from the world. She was once the popular rich girl, but now is the girl that has been murdered. Shari Cooper has developed and changed in a way that makes her a dynamic character.

First off, Shari Cooper was an innocent, sweet, popular girl in her school and at home. She was especially sincere to her older brother, who had diabetes and color blindness. She loves him more than anyone in her life, even her best friend and boyfriend. But, that innocence was lost when she started doing drugs and drinking. She became pregnant with her boyfriend’s baby, and it seemed like she didn’t care as much for her other friends and family members.

Even though Shari changed in ways that she shouldn’t have, she is still the same girl that she was before, just a little more disobedient. During the party, where she died from a balcony, she found out that her boyfriend was cheating on her with one of her friends. She became depressed and then wouldn’t talk to anyone. But then later on in the novel, that is especially when she has changed into a dynamic character. When she died, she turned into a ghost roaming around the world, looking for things to do, such as helping her friends understand that she will be fine, and so will they. She protected them from their dangerous fates, and her own, until there was none left.

For the rest of the novel Remember Me, Shari was helping another girl that has gone through the same thing as her. This girl was taking drugs and failing in school, until Shari came and helped her secretly, without the other girl knowing what was happening. Shari Cooper has changed lives, as of her own, and she is always constantly helping other people, even if she is dead. Shari herself has changed because she normally wouldn’t help any other person, unless truly wanted to.

Although Shari Cooper has helped people out in their lives, she has helped herself too throughout being dead. She has changed in a way that most people wouldn’t understand, and she has helped change other people’s lives for the better. She started to see the world as a better place for others to live in. This happened in another story too, such as The Outsiders. Ponyboy, the main character in that short story, was also a dynamic character who changed the way he saw things, and he helped the society he lived in, from becoming friends with other people, rather than just hiding, or staying the way he was. He helped his family members through rough times, such as losing some of their friends along the way.

The reason I believe the ghost Shari Cooper has turned into a dynamic character is because she made her life, and the people around her, see that life is great to be living in. and that you should live the best of it for what it’s worth, rather than dreading it. With her actions, she has helped save a few lives of her friends, and has learned a few things of her own. That goes for the main character in The Outsiders, because he has learned how to create a better environment and he has changed a few lives around him.

Big Yellow Taxi & Field Below response

Author's note: I am going to do a short response to the two poems of Big Yellow Taxi, by Joni Mitchell and then the other poem of Field Below by Regina Spektor.

In the two interesting poems, they both relate to each other because they both are missing something to do with nature, or where they used to live. The poems both are depressing or sad, for the tone, while in the mood of the poems, they both are sad, or feeling alone. Both poems miss something, and they can't possibly get it back. You don't know what you have, until it's gone.

When I listened to both of the songs for the poems. The poem Big Yellow Taxi, was more up-beet and energetic and happy. While when I listened to the song Field Below, it was still a depressing sound, like it sounded in the poem. Therefore possibly the true meaning in Big Yellow Taxi isn't supposed to be depressing, but just telling a story of a young person, still happy, but missing something. On the other hand, the Field Below poem was just like the song, because it was a saddened story, or depressing, and the music was slow and meaningful.

I believe that the author's of the two poems did a great job, but when it came to the music, they should have changed it. The Big Yellow Taxi music should have been slower, like I expected it to be, because of the tone and mood of the poem. For the Field Below poem, the music was perfectly fine, because it was some-what of a depressing, slow song that fits to the poem. I believe that both of the author's did a good job on all of it, and I especially like how they relate to each other.

Parodies

Author's Note: These are two parodies of the poem This is just to say by William Carlos Williams. These two poems are about the novel Deadly.

I’m sorry I have loved you
I know you don’t feel the same
You were just there

And you can not
be to blame
you must have saved your love
for a very special day

forgive me mister
you were just there
my eyes couldn’t resist
your handsomeness stare


I have breathed
in the air
That the sickness is in
In which so many others have

I bet
you didn’t know
You breathed in too
Until that one fatal night
Where you might just not wake up

I’m sorry for the sickness
And the curse
at hand
I just didn’t know
That you felt that bad too



These two short poems are about our group book Deadly, by the author of Julie Chibbaro. The first is a love poem, about Prudence who has fallen in love with her job, and with her boss. She can’t have him though, because she is only a teenager, while he is a 30 year old man, who doesn’t need nor want love in his life. On the other hand, the second short poem is about the disease and sickness that a cook was carrying around, and making everyone around her sick, and dying. The problem is, this woman Mary Mallon, doesn’t know that she carries a sickness that can kill anyone besides her.
The mood and tone of these poems is mostly depressing because it’s about a young girl that has fallen in love with someone, which she can’t ever have. While in the other poem, it’s about an older woman who is slowly killing people around her, unless doctors and policemen can bring her in and cure her.

Parodies

The sickness is a curse
But isn’t love to
Happiness Is sadness
Are you sad too?
It starts with a woman
Then a man
It’s like a disease
A curse at hand

Every time I sneeze
Will you say bless you please
Because when you sneeze
You stop and can’t breathe
And soon to be told
I will not be there to hold
As I sit here in pain
I can’t be to blame
And sorry doesn’t explain
I can’t lie
But goodbye



These two short poems are about our group book Deadly, by the author of Julie Chibbaro. The first is a love poem, about Prudence who has fallen in love with her job, and with her boss. She can’t have him though, because she is only a teenager, while he is a 30 year old man, who doesn’t need nor want love in his life. On the other hand, the second short poem is about the disease and sickness that a cook was carrying around, and making everyone around her sick, and dying. The problem is, this woman Mary Mallon, doesn’t know that she carries a sickness that can kill anyone besides her.
The mood and tone of these poems is mostly depressing because it’s about a young girl that has fallen in love with someone, which she can’t ever have. While in the other poem, it’s about an older woman who is slowly killing people around her, unless doctors and policemen can bring her in and cure her.

mother to son response

Author’s note: this is a short response for the short poem Mother to Son, by Langston Hughes.

This poem could have many different meanings to it. The mother is telling her young son that life can’t and isn’t perfect, even if you wish it were to be. In this poem Mother to Son, there are different examples of figurative language, such as “life for me ain’t no crystal stair”. That quote is a metaphor, meaning that her life, and everyone else’s life in the world, isn’t perfect, no matter how hard you try it to be.

One the other hand, the mother is saying to her son, that he should keep on moving forward with his life, and not look back on all of the hard times he has had. She’s talking about how her life has been, and that his life will be the same; with ups, and downs throughout his lifetime. Langston Hughes can relate to this short poem, because it was part of his life. He hasn’t had the best life in the world, like he wishes.

There are different tones that you could come up with for this poem, but to me, the tone would have to be protective, sympathy and inspirational, to all young children, if they ever read this. The mood in this story is most likely caring, stern, and patient, because of how the read must feel, and how the mother must feel saying that to her son, because he must learn how to deal with life; and that it isn’t “a crystal stair”.

is she dead or alive?

Author’s note: This is a word choice and description about a girl named Shari Cooper from the novel Remember Me, by the author of Christopher Pike.

A senior in high-school that has just figured out what she wanted to do with her life, and who she wants to spend it with. This five-foot four; eighteen year-old has dark blond hair that she wore at shoulders length in layered waves. Her eyes were bright and green as the grass during spring day, and her straight-toothed white glistening smile won “best smile” in her junior year in high-school; with her big cherry lip glossed lips. The last night she was alive she wore a plain yellow t-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans, with blue Nikes sneakers. Most girls were jealous of her looks, but she thought she was just average looking, like any other girl in the world.

In the midst of having a dare-devil, and cheating boyfriend named Daniel, she also has to take care of her sleep-walking, six-foot two, brown curly haired brother; With his wacked-out black shining haired girlfriend. Yet, she has another problem. She is dead. Splat! Someone had pushed her down a balcony at a party one night, and now her life is ruined. Even though she is a ghost roaming around earth, she still takes care of her family and friends, with her true love that has died a few years ago, the charming, pro-baseball player, college student young man named Peter.

Throughout the adventurous few days that she was scared to death, she had found the answers she was searching for, thanks to very own “superman”, or Peter; who has given her all of her answers. While she walks the empty streets of California, she finds her investigator for her murder scene and follows him back to the apartment where she had died. Night mares come rushing back into her head while she comes up with ideas of what all happened. The nightmares are so terrible that she starts to tear-up, just like a leaking water faucet.

On that very night of the party and murder, she had talked to spirits or ghosts thanks to her best friend Jo. They had used her body to communicate with them, and that scared the crap out of her. She lay down on her back and the people at the party pretended that she had died, so it could start up the ghost communication. Apparently it had worked, because a few minutes later, one spirit that everyone recognized, had talked through her, to them. The spirits name was Peter that had died two years ago, from a truck running over him. The young high school girl was so frightened; she woke up from the trance, and ran out of the room crying, onto the balcony, where she had died a few minutes later.

This young girls view of what all happened had frightened her to death, but she finally understands what had all happened. Someone had pushed her. This strong and brave teenager went through a lot, and all she asked for in return was to be remembered. She was remembered as the young, popular, beautiful eighteen year-old woman named Shari Cooper.

Remember Me

Author’s note: The book Remember Me by Christopher Pike, has one main theme to it, but there are also others. Here is an essay of one of the themes, such as Bravery.

Shari Cooper was just an eighteen year-old senior in high school, when her life flashed before her eyes, and ended. She doesn’t quite know how she died, except that she has fallen head first into cement, from a four story building. Everyone thinks she has committed suicide, but in fact, she had not. She becomes brave and chooses to seek out who had killed her, even though she is now dead to the world.

When Shari had died, she didn’t know anything about what was going on. She had to find her way through what had happened to her and how she can comfort her family members, to let them know she’s alright. “I’m told everything’s going to be fine. But I have to wonder what I would have done with my life, who I might have been. That’s what saddens me most about dying. I’ll never know.” In that quote it shows that she finally has overcome her fears and has moved on that she is now a ghost, and that she can only walk among the living.

Between her trying to find her murderer, and trying to figure out who to be now, and where to go, she also has a dilemma. She must hide and run from The Shadow. The Shadow is a monstrous creature that preys upon ghost souls. It seeks into their hearts and scares almost every ghost there is, until you concur your fear and stick up for yourself. Shari did stick up for herself because she learned how to be brave enough to go straight up to her personal Shadow and learn why this creature was haunting her.

In another novel that I am currently reading, the main character Prudence Galewski from Deadly is yet another story that has a theme of bravery. Just like in the book Remember Me, the theme is bravery because Prudence has followed her heart and found a job working with all older men, and she gets to work with sicknesses and bacteria’s. Everyone around her seems to disagree that she has made the wrong choice; that she should have stayed in school and became a typist, like almost every other girl has become. Instead she skipped out of school and followed her dream of helping other people become healthy.

As you can see in both novels the themes revolve around bravery for the main characters, and how they have overcome how they feel. Even though Shari Cooper has died in the book Remember Me, she still lives among the living and has overcome fears of her own. Since she has faced The Shadow and fought to finally figure out that she is dead, and how she died, she can now be ready to move on with her so-called life.

character description

Character description:

The main character in the novel Remember Me by the author of Christopher Pike is named Shari Cooper. Shari is a senior in high-school that has just figured out what she wanted to do with her life, and who she wants to spend it with. This five-foot something; eighteen year-old has dark blond hair that she wore at shoulders length in layered waves. Her eyes were bright green as the grass, and her smile won “best smile” in her junior year in high-school. Most girls were jealous of her looks, but she thought she was normal looking.

In the midst of having a boyfriend named Daniel, taking care of her sleep-walking brother, and his wacked-out girlfriend, she has another problem. She is dead. Someone had murdered her at a party one night, and now her life if ruined. Even though she is a ghost roaming around earth, she still takes care of her family and friends, with her true love that has died a few years ago, Peter.

Letter to Melinda

Author’s Note: This is a letter from Rachelle to Melinda about “IT” or Andy Evans. This letter talks about how Rachelle didn’t know what happened, and how sorry she must have felt after she found out about Melinda being raped from Andy Evans, without her knowing.

Dear Melinda,

I’m sorry for everything you have been through the past year. You never told me what happened to you! I thought you just called the cops because we were all drinking. I mean, if it got out of hand, then I would have understood why. But I was having so much fun talking to those older guys! I thought you were having fun too. Then all of a sudden the next minute I was heading home, so I wouldn’t get caught by the cops.

I should never have broken up our friendship because of that little incident. I overreacted and I am terribly upset for how I have been treating you this school year. A true friend would have asked why you called the cops, because there must’ve been a true good reason; and now I know why. I cannot believe Andy raped you! He is just a stupid jerk. Even after you wrote that note that I thought you lied about, I still wasn’t convinced he was a bad guy. How could I have been that stupid? At least I broke up with him, once I found out what he did to you. I guess all of the girls are right about him; I was just too blind to see it.

I am so sorry for everything that you’ve been through lately! I should have been there for you. I hope you forgive me, but you probably won’t because you haven’t talked to me sense. Anyways I hope you’re content with yourself now because you are finally getting attention and making friends again, even if it did hurt my relationship status. Andy Evans should not have ever raped you, or even touched you or any other girl like that, for that matter. You did the right thing by calling the cops, but I wish you would have at least explained to me what happened.

Melinda I wish that had never happened to you. If it didn’t, then we might still be best friends, unlike now, when we are enemies. I’m sorry Andy hurt you, and then almost hurt you again at the end of the year. I wish I could have seen it coming, but I didn’t. So I’m sorry. Now I finally understand why you called the cops, and no one should hate you for that. I hope we can be friends again Melinda.

Sincerely,
Rachelle

Future or Past?

Author’s note: This is a prediction essay for my group book Speak. In this piece I will be predicting how the main character will act later on in the future, compared to how she acted during the school year.

Melinda was a frightened, lonesome high school girl that has been acting up with her education. No one knows why exactly, but by the end of this novel of Speak everyone finds out why she has been quiet and not herself. I predict that Melinda will change even more than she already has, in the future of high school.

I predict that Melinda will change her attitude later on in the story or in the future for the next few years of high-school. By the end of the novel Speak Melinda did finally change how she acted, how she looked, and even how she treated others. Therefore by doing that, she finally stuck with one true friend, and is slowly building up more. I hope she will even learn to care about her grades and make even more friends later on.

One reason why I chose this prediction is because when Melinda was in a tough situation by the end of the book, she learned that she can stick up for herself, and say what’s on her mind. Sometimes she stays like she used to be, but now on she has mostly been hanging out with people, and getting more involved with talking, and hanging out at school events. Also by sticking up for herself more often, she might get into a tough spot again, with bullying or losing her friends, but hopefully she won’t go back to the way she was.

Another reason why I chose the prediction is because Melinda is slowly building friendships again with her used-to-be best friends. During the novel, she made one friend, but she found out that this girl named Heather, her friend, was just using her for her creativeness. Melinda learned how to drop their friendship, and start new ones. Heather wasn’t such a great friend because she also dropped their friendship to join a group called the “Martha’s”. I think Melinda will make even more friends later on during the year, or in the next few years, because of who she is, and how she acts.

In the story Speak the different characters have learned, such as Heather, Nicole, Rachelle and of course, Melinda. They all changed in many different ways. I predict that Melinda, the main character, will change even more than she has, in the future. By the end of this novel, Melinda has changed how she acted, and she has spoken up for herself a few times. In the future I hope, and predict, that she will change in ways that are good enough to make her happy.

Man or Woman?

Author’s Note: This is a creative writing piece for the writing rubric. It is about a person that kills innocent people living in the same neighborhood as the killer; but there’s a twist in this story; the killer is a woman.

There have been skin crawling stories that give you chills or goose bumps on the news lately, about a few suicides around the neighborhood. No one knows why these enlightening, positive, kind people would have gotten depressed all of a sudden and hurt themselves. But it was obvious there were pretending about everything.

One frightening evening, a woman was watching her three year-old boy in her massive kitchen; with her white tiles on the floor that were so clean you could look at yourself in them, and the tan paint on the walls; when all of a sudden she hears a “Bringggggg Bringggggg” of her annoying door-bell. She carefully sets down her son in his worn out wooden stool, and walks to the front door. When she opens it up, she sees one of her neighbors standing outside the door. The neighbor quickly looks up and gives an apologetic smile.

“Hey there neighbor! What brings you to my household?” says the enthusiastic mother.

“Oh. I am sorry if I am interrupting anything. I was just wondering if I could have my movie back that you borrowed. Is that alright?” asks the tired and nervous man.

The mother notices the nervousness in the neighbors tone, but lets it slide. “I bet he’s just thinking he is bothering me” “Of course you can have your movie back! I mean it is your movie and all. I’m sorry I haven’t gotten to handing it back over quite yet. As you can tell, I’ve been busy with my son.”

“That’s fine.” There was a long pause….”May I come in and grab it?”

“Oh right. Sorry! Come in. Come in. The movie is by the T.V. over in that room.”

The mother points in the direction of the dim-lighted room with the plat-screen T.V. She thinks there is something not quite right about this visit, but she blows it out of her mind because she thinks she is acting silly. The neighbor quietly walks into the dim-lighted room and looks around for the movie. That’s when the mother finally understands what has been bothering her about this visit.

“Wait...I thought my husband took it over to your home last night after we watched the movie?”

“Oh, right. He did! But does that mean I have to leave now?” wonders the suspicious neighbor.

“I am afraid I’m going to ask you to leave. I need to take care of my son….” Now says the nervous mother.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you do that.” The man quickly brings out a knife from under his gray, torn sleeve. “Now please. Don’t make this difficult. Go into that kitchen of yours and say goodbye to your son. Then call your husband and also say goodbye. Don’t tell them anything that’s going to happen. Or I will kill you this instant.” Then the worst thing that the neighbor did was smile at the mother! The woman couldn’t believe what was happening. She started to shake and almost shrieked with fear, but apparently the neighbor sensed that, and shook his head. “Tisk, Tisk. I thought you could behave.”

All of a sudden the neighbor sprints to the woman, and stabs her in the side. The woman goes down on her knees with tears glistening down her cheeks. Now, there is a pool of blood surrounding the woman, with her wet salty tears mixing into it. The poor woman lets out one last gasp before she fully dies. The man then walks out of their house and strides back home.

On the evening of that very night, the news caught hold of what happened. They televised that this mother was murdered by being stabbed in the side of the stomach. “From what the husband said, she was just watching their son a few minutes before he left for work.” And “This is not like the other murders that have happened in that neighborhood, but the FBI is searching into it more.” It was true. The FBI is searching into it more, but they didn’t know whether or not the killings were all related.

Apparently one detective had a gut-feeling about these cases and sensed that they were all related somehow. He went straight to the head manager of the agency and told him what he thought. The manager disagreed, but told the police officer to stay on the case and learn more about what all happened. Then he was sent off to say what was on his mind, and see if it all was truly true.

Meanwhile the killer is still on the loose, and no one knows who killed all of the innocent people living in that very same neighborhood as the killer. The killer is literally smiling at the news that he has heard. But then, after seeing the news, he undresses, and turns back into a 40 year old woman. All this time she was a “he” so no one would know who has done all of the killings.

At the police station the detective has figured out that the “suicides” were actually killings when he looked at the pictures of the homes and victims. He saw small bruises that looked like fingertips, by the wrists. When he told his boss, then everyone started to believe. Everyone then dropped what they were doing and searched more about the killings. They each got a family to interview again, and they started from scratch from there.

The next day the police, and FBI found a few addresses that were all close by the murders. Therefore the FBI took charge and ordered everyone to put on their vests, grab their guns and search the houses for any clues or people that might help out. Just an hour later they all arrived at each of the houses and searched the premises.

*Knock Knock* goes the door of the woman’s house.

She quietly gets up off of her couch, turns off the television, and stomps to the front door. She looks through the peep-hole and sees that there were four policemen standing there waiting patiently. Oh no! Have they already found out that I’m the killer? How could they have? I didn’t leave any evidence behind!!

The woman quickly turns around on the back of her heels, and darts to the basement. She’s starting to panic. She has nowhere to hide. She thought she wouldn’t ever be caught. She thought she made sure that no one could find her!

*knock knock* “Miss we know you’re in there. Please don’t try to escape. We will find you. All we want to do is talk about the suicides in your neighborhood lately. Please answer your door.” The policemen walk to the window and try and look in. The window is covered. He tries to open it. It is locked with about three bolts, which he sees. “You guys…knock down the door! I think this is it!” In the next second of him saying that, one of the other cops kicks down the doorframe and rams himself into the door. They are finally in.

They search the house and find the woman locked up in a small room. It takes about an hour of them to open the steel door, but when they do, she turns into her killing type, and tries to hurt one of the officers. They pull up their guns and are about ready to shoot, when the woman just sits down on the cold, dusty stone floor. “she gave up that easily?” wonders one of the cops.

When they travel back to the police station to fully arrest her, she starts to cry and wine. The policemen get annoyed and tell her to stop. She does it harder and harder every time, until the policemen are about to scream at her. But then all of a sudden she shuts up when she gets out of the car and starts to stalk up the sidewalk, to her new jail cell.

“When I get out of here, all I’m going to do it kill more and more people each time. Just beware.” She smiles evilly and then walks into her new jail cell to never be seen again for the next 25 years. But is this the end of the killings? Or will she live to the day she gets released?

life goes on

Author’s Note: My group book “Speak” by the author of Laurie Halse Anderson has written an interesting quote in her novel. A great quote that I had found was “Life goes on”. I want to choose this quote for my writing piece for my Inference goal.

An interesting quote in the book "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson that I have found while reading was "life goes on". This quote has been around the world, and I bet everyone thinks differently on this subject. But to Melinda, the main character in the novel, has found out one of the true meanings of this saying, or quote.

During the story of the 14 year-old girl named Melinda, she has been having troubles in her life. But all she can do, or think about, is that life will go on eventually, even if it does not entertain and make her happy. All she can hope for is that her life will hopefully become better quickly, that way she won't have to worry or become upset over so many things. Even when her grades are dropping, she lost all of her friends, and her family doesn’t quite care about anything anymore, she really doesn’t have much. But all she can do is make her life go on.

What do you think when you see or hear the quote "life goes on"? To other people, I bet they think that they will live longer. On the other hand, to me, I personally believe that, that quote describes Melinda and everyone else in the world. Life does go on, even if you don’t enjoy it. No matter how hard you try to pause time and enjoy what you have, you may lose it all, but yet life will keep going on. It may possibly become much better, or worse. People just have to live through it, and enjoy what they have.

Sometimes people will think that life is too short. People should make mistakes in their lives, laugh endlessly, get upset once in awhile, because it’s all part of life. I mean, you only live once, so why not use the best of it? People should cherish what they have, instead of what they want or don’t have. More often people should take care and love for the things they have received and be lucky for their friends and family members.

With the quote “life goes on” there are many different definitions that everyone could think of if they have said, or heard of this quote. No matter what you do to either make your life better, or worse, your life will always keep on traveling forward. If you’re not happy with your life, just change it and move on. Then hopefully later on at some point in time, your life will become much better.

conflicts

Authors note: This is a group book called "Speak" by the author of Laurie Halse Anderson and it has many conflicts with the main character.

My group and I are reading the marvelous novel "Speak" by Laurie Halse Anderson. This book is about a young girl named Melinda and the problems she has been having in her life this past school year. No one knows exactly why she has been acting up; because normally she is a straight A student and used to have many friends. Now she is getting horrible grades (almost failing) and she only has one friend.

Melinda has lost all of her friends, and she is starting to not care about anything. this causes problems with her family and the teachers.
She is going to fail school, unless she helps out with activities such as basketball, then she might be able to get better grades.
IT is Andy Evans and he makes Melinda upset for some reason; just even by looking at her. this causes awkwardness between the two, but no one knows why. Everyone just thinks that they had a fight or something. These conflicts get resolved later on in the story when she makes a friend, and is slowly getting better grades when she is restricted from her parents.

This book is a person-to-person, person-to-self, and person-to-world novel. Melinda is a person-to-self because she keeps everything to herself and hasn’t shared her emotions or thoughts with anyone all year. Lastly, she is person-to-person because she has conflicts within her new friends, and her old ones. Also because of her parents and teachers always bothering her about her school work, this story could possibly relate to other people, if they ever read it.

Conflicts in the story "Speak" by the author of Laurie Halse Anderson, will hopefully be resolved soon enough if she can learn how to keep control over her life, and make it better. if she does not contribute and help herself with her grades, family, and used-to-be friends, she wont get anywhere in life.

Thank You Ma'am

Author's Note: This is a short response to the short story of "Thank You, Ma'am". This is a point of view, or mind, from the old lady in the story

In the story "Thank You, Ma'am" there is an old woman named Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones. She was walking around town one night, and when she turned a corner, she would have thought she would see people or more buildings; no. What she saw was a young man smack into her, trying to grab her purse, or pocketbook.

In her mind I am guessing she would have thought 'Oh my gosh! Give me it back you thief! That is MY pocketbook! HELP ME! HELP ME!' You would have thought she would have acted and said those words right? Wrong. She did the exact opposite. She stood her ground and clung onto that pocketbook of hers and kicked the little boy. She was brave, people might have thought if there were any on lookers around. No one else would have ever thought about behaving that way if someone tried to rob them.

Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones was a harsh old lady, but also very kind and caring. She was only harsh to the boy only because she wanted to take him to her house and clean him up. She was hoping that he would gain her trust, such as she had to him. This old lady was just trying to change this young man to become a better person, and to not steal anything ever again. She had hoped that would happen, and she received just that.


After that one night of kind gestures from the old woman, Roger has changed for the ways that he acts. I think Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones was a joyful lady for helping the boy, but she will never know how he turned out, because she never once sees him again. People should act more like her, because she is a stern, and caring lady, that helps out complete strangers.

Kill Alex Cross

Author's Note: This is a retelling book ad for the book "Kill Alex Cross".

Genre: Drama, Fiction, Action, Romance

364 pages in this book


Have you ever wondered what it would be like if you’re family was kidnapped and what would all happen with the investigation? What if you received a note from the kidnapper stating that he will kill your family? I recommend the book "Kill Alex Cross" by the author of James Patterson, for readers that like action and crimes in their stories.

Dead Man's Path Response

Author’s note: Writing a letter to the headmaster (Michael Obi), on why he closed the path, when all of the villagers loved that path because of their ancestors.

Dear Headmaster Obi,

Why did you block the villager’s path with sticks and barbed wire? It’s not fair that you did that. Now every villager in town has become upset at you, because of what you did. Just because it went through your school yard in the back, doesn’t mean you should block it out so us, the villagers, can’t get through and travel to places.

I understand that you are probably just trying to protect the students if anyone walked through, but you have to understand the citizens of town and I, have the right to walk through if we have to go someplace. You should trust us. You should have listened to the priest of Ani. If you re-open the pathway, then there will be no troubles. Such as the priest said “let the hawk perch and let the eagle perch”.

On the other hand, now I understand why you shouldn’t trust some of the villagers, because of what we have done to your wife’s garden and flowers around the school and in the school yards. I am sorry for what we all did, but we were just trying to prove a point; that the path that you blocked out was important to us all because of our ancestors and family members. Now a few of the towns people believe that people will become ill and possibly die, because you closed off the path. Such as that one girl, that was in childbed and died.

We, the villagers, are just wishing and hoping that someday soon you will re-open the pathway, so we can get through. Also to be connected to our ancestors from the past. If you ever do re-open the pathway, there will be no more troubles between us.

Sincerely,
The Villagers