The Secret

 Author's Note: I wrote this piece in about 30 minutes in the reading lab so when you read through it, please look for any small mistakes I may have made.  

...When she saw troy again, he would not be the same person as he was before...As the jar was opened, Troy found himself staring straight into a black, swirling pit of darkness. Seconds passed, and a foggy cloud of mist came floating out from Troy. Mr. Mason, with a half witted smile, listened to the painful shouting he had always heard when a loud and annoying student was interrupting his class. The cloudy figure started spiraling down the jar, leaving Troy with no spirit to support him. Falling hard to the ground with a loud bump, Molly ran into the room to see what had happened. Mr. Mason was surprised to see her, except he didn’t worry.

“Molly, there is no running in school,” Mr. Mason chanted as though he has said it a million times.

“Mr. Mason! I saw what you did to Troy! Why are you torturing our students!”

“I’m not torturing them, I’m simply capturing their souls so I can have more power to return.”

“Return to what? Is troy going to be alright?”

“You could say that I guess.” Mr. Mason answered with a smirk on his face. “I was once ruler of this world, a long long time ago. The people didn’t agree with my choices, so they decided to take away my powers.”

“I command you to return these poor students souls back! This is not right!”

“Oh, look at you. A brave 8th grader trying to stand up for her fellow classmates.” Mr. Mason was impressed with the way she spoke to him, unlike she does in school.

“What if I told you to take me instead?”

“No, that is not possible. Unless....”

“Unless what?” Molly nervously asked.

“Unless you promise me that you will never get your soul back, and no one can save you from the torture you go through.”

“I accept.”

“Very well then. Troy will return to school tomorrow like normal, and you will not be able to tell anyone what I have done.”

“I promise.”

The next day, Troy came to school wondering why he hadn’t remembered what had happened after school the day before. Whatever the reason was, he didn’t care, all he wanted to do was find Molly.

While listening to the short story of this piece, the first thing I thought of was magic. Listening to the descriptions of Mr. Baker and the kid that got transformed, it made me think of Harry Potter and the many spells they can do to people to change their appearance. Throughout my ending, I tried to explain that Mr. Baker was not a normal person and that he had some kind of special powers that only Molly noticed. 

Fall DWA

Author’s Note: Writing about fish was defiantly a different writing style then I’m used to. Usually my stories are fiction or about a book I read, but this one I had to do some research to find facts and information.

Memory Myth

P. Sherman, 42 Wallaby Way, Sidney. Finding Nemo’s Dori repeats this with excitement over and over because it is the only sentence she is able to remember. Is this possible? Although she is a cartoon, people would like to know, Fact or Fake?

People are now starting to want to know if fish have short memory spans or not. St. Andrews University decided to teach fish to go through obstacles, remember people, and even when to eat. Teaching fish to learn when to eat sounds very complicating, but it’s actually not. All the scientists had to do was make a certain noise around lunch time and the fish would sooner or later realize that every time that noise would go off they would get to eat. After a while, the fish caught on and were able to get to the food before the sound even turned on.

Teaching the fish when to get their food was very impressive, but the scientists wanted to do more. They decided to try to put them back in the ocean to see if they would get the same results. Divers took the fish back to the ocean and made the noise just to remind them. They then left, and came back three weeks later with the same noise and food for the fish. It so happens, that the fish were able to remember the sound and were capable of finding the food.

Since the tests went extremely well, scientists decided that fish defiantly do not have a memory span of three seconds. Although we did unfold the mystery, that doesn’t mean we want to end the research. Scientists still want to know if all fish have a long memory span or what the longest one is. Seeing how we were able to solve the memory mystery, we should be able to find out more soon.

Even if we aren’t able to figure out all the unanswered questions, we were still able to find the truth on their memory. With all the technology we have now, scientists have proven to us that the myth of the three second memory is defiantly fake.

Turning in Time

Author's Note: In writing lab, Mr. Graf told us to write an ending to "Thank you Ma'am." Writing this ending was actually fun, and I liked what I wrote so I decided to post it on my blog. Please watch for good sentence fluency throughout my piece.

...He barely managed to say “Thank you” before she shut the door....

As the door was slammed into his face, the boy started to question the old lady. Why had she given him $10 after he was trying to steal from her? Why did she invite him into her home after he showed disrespect for her? These questions were re-playing through his mind over and over again. As he started walking down the street, to the store with the shoes he wanted, he heard screaming coming from behind him. Turning around, he saw the lady chasing after him. Without question Rodger stood still in his place on the side of the road. When the lady finally caught up to him, Rodger found himself staring straight into the eyes of someone you don’t want to mess with.

Wondering why she was so upset he asked, “Why did you run all the way here to talk to me again?”

The lady replied, “Do you have a place to stay?”

“No ma’am”stated Roger.

“Then lets head back to my home, I’m sure my family wouldn’t mind a visitor for a while.”

“Ma’am? Why are you inviting me back? I just tried to steal from you?”

“You have learned your lesson, yes?”

“Yes ma’am.”

Rodger had nothing else to say, and he knew the lady wouldn’t let him walk away. So, on the way back to the house, they talked about where they were from and about their families. When they finally reached the door, Mrs Jones stated,

“Tomorrow,we can head to the store and pick up your new pair of shoes”

“Thank you ma’am.”

Our Free Country

Author’s Note: When writing this piece, it was really hard to complete because I don’t know much about our country and I wasn’t really into writing this so it was a lot harder than I expected. When you are reading this, pay attention to the sentences to see if they make sense.

When most people think about America, we think about our free country. Without our fifty-five Founding Fathers, there would be no freedom. Women would not have the right to vote, slaves would still be working hard just to feed themselves.  Nobody would know what it would feel like to be free. If I could go back in time, I would like to ask our Founding Fathers,  what do you think life would be like without freedom?  

“Government is not reason; it is not eloquent; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. “ George Washington, our first president, stated this to portray a new country and our new freedom. In 1776 when the declaration was created, our country took a huge turn and we ended up being more successful than ever.

Even though we may not realize it, our country would be completely different without the Declaration of Independence and our Founding Fathers. There would be no presidents to vote for, there would be no American flag and national anthem. Freedom is very important to us, and it is very hard to imagine what our lives would be like without it.

My point is, if I were to ask George Washington what he thought our country would be like without our freedom, I’m sure he would say that without freedom, no one would be proud to say “I live in America.” No one would want to fight for our country to make it an even better place than it is now. No one would stand up for what is right within our communities. Thanks to all the Founding Fathers, without you, America would not be able to say their free. 

New Beginning ~ Cause/Effect

Author’s Note: I had a hard time coming up with ideas of what to write about so I just chose Twilight because it is my favorite series. Please watch the commas and punctuation throughout my piece. Hope you enjoy!

Twilight’s Bella Swan changed her whole life because of two words, “I do”. The wedding and honey moon was only a small part of this relationship, but after finding out Bella is pregnant, she realizes she still wants to start a family with her vampire husband, Edward. Although it was almost certain Bella would die, she would refuse to be transformed until she had her baby. Barely being able to hang on, Bella was determined to stay alive long enough to deliver her one and only child.

The cause in this book is that Bella got pregnant and doesn’t want to let her baby go by killing it to save her own life. The effect, is that the werewolves find that they need to kill Bella because of the treaty. The Cullen's do everything in their power to fight off the werewolves and take care of Bella. When the time comes, Bella has the baby and for an instant, she dies. Edward does not want to admit to himself that she is gone, and he is alone, so he tries everything to bring her back to life. Fortunately, Edward got enough venom in her body to repair all of the broken bones she has. In the mean time, Jacob is trying to get to the baby to finish her off. The minute he sees her, he falls in love. Nothing can hurt the Cullen family now because the werewolves and vampires are working together to protect each other. Thanks to Bella’s bravery, everyone is closer and safer than ever before. 

Survivor ~ Conflicts

Author’s Note: I wrote about the Hunger Games and the conflicts that occurred. When you are reading this, look at the commas and punctuation that I used. Hope you enjoy.

Imagine being in an arena with multiple teens who all want to live, where the only options are to kill or die. In the book Hunger Games, by Suzanna Collins a girl makes the decision to save her only sister from entering the torturous arena filled with many obstacles and 23 other contestants who all want one thing, the title of winning the 74^th hunger games.

The girl on fire, Katniss Everdeen, is favored all around Panem because of her daring outcast during the reaping. The gifts she has received, have helped her and Peeta Mellark, the bread boy from her district, survive all the dangers surrounding them. Without the “star-cross lover” act, there would be no chance of survival. 

Surprise

Author’s Note: I wrote this personal narrative piece about the time we went to a haunted house for MacKenzie’s birthday. Give me feedback on whether this had too many details or if it was too descriptive.

Imagine being trapped in a small room with a dozen doors and a clown running around screaming and laughing. Sounds like torture, right? We were all brave enough to get through the first half of the haunted house, but running into the clown was one of the scariest moments of our lives. We had to find the right door fast, before we all started to lose our minds.

Although we heard the screams ahead of us, we didn’t know exactly what to expect. Fortunately, my group of Haylie, Katie, Mada and I were lucky enough to have Alec who was confident in leading us through the multiple obstacles we faced. All the mazes, creepy zombies, and scary noises prepared us for one of the scariest rooms throughout the school. After bumping into a few people and screaming our heads off, we ended up arriving at the clown room.

Slowly, we walked inside, very confused at all the doors that were surrounding us. Then all of a sudden, a big clown popped out of nowhere. We tried to run back out the door we came through, but it was lost? Which door was it? Without hesitation, we started searching the doors and yes, that doesn’t seem too hard, but after about three minutes we had no progress. I finally gave up and just sat on the ground with my head in my knees trying to forget about the clown, hoping that someone would find the right door soon. About 2 minutes later, Alec shouted that he had found the door. With so much excitement, I tried to stand up as fast as I could but found myself staring straight into the big red eyes of the clown.

With the suspense of the eyes on me, I screamed loud enough to even scare the clown a little bit. He ended up jumping back a few steps, and that’s when I bolted straight out of the room to find the others. It didn’t take us long to finish the haunted house after a few more screams and a Glee musical at the end. Receiving our diplomas, we walked outside to see a long narrow path that was supposed to lead us to the parking lot. We all thought nothing of it, so we just started walking down the path. It didn’t take us long to realize that someone was following us. I turned around slowly and saw a man in a mask holding a chainsaw. He pulled the lever, and the machine made a huge thundering sound that made us all shriek and book-it to the parking lot. All of us were easily able to outrun him, so once we got back, we saw the two groups in front of us laughing and telling stories of what happened.

Even though there were parts of the haunted house where I just wanted to quit and leave, I was glad to have friends there to support me when I needed help. There will also going to be a ton of entertaining stories to tell everyone when we got back to school. I’ll be excited to go again this year with a bunch more of my friends.  

Divergent

Divergent is a thrilling story about four different types of communities that soon realize that they have to work together to overtake the others. The divergents will use everything in their power to save their homes, families, and friends. Overall, the Divergents were able to stop the invasion of the upcoming war... at least for now.

Make a Change

Author’s Note: People may wonder why things aren’t going their way. Every single person is different, you will always be you, but the change you can make is the ones you really desire. I wrote this essay because I really care about eating healthy and staying active. I wanted to show people that being healthy is very important and will affect your life later.


Cancer, heart disease, and obesity are the three main health issues caused by an unhealthy diet. It is a proven fact that you will have a shorter life span just because of what you choose to eat now. People don’t realize how different their life could be; healthy foods are very important for your body; therefore people should take more caution on what they are eating. Treating your body is one of the most important things in life, organic foods, eating healthy, and exercising are good habits to maintain for a healthy lifestyle.


To sustain a strong life, eating healthy foods is just one way to get started. For instance, when picking out fruit, such as apples, you want to choose the ones that look the best. Maybe for some it might be the shiniest, and for others it could be the course textures. When it comes to apples, the shiniest ones are not always natural, they’ll have wax on them. The wax makes the apple more appealing no matter how many chemicals are added. This proves that not only apples can be deceiving, but that all different types of foods can be misleading and untrusted when it comes to having a healthy diet.


Though many foods are unhealthy whether you can see it or not, organic foods are different. Organic foods taste, smell, and look the same when compared to unhealthier foods but the difference between the two is how they are grown and processed. Organic foods are not just made for money, yes they can be more expensive but that’s only because the food is made with healthier products. In the end, it would all be worth it.


Food is not the only way to maintain a healthy lifestyle, daily exercises and sleep is also very important when it comes to staying fit and being active. It’s easy to work out, either running or lifting weights, but to actually improve your immune system you have to be consistent. With a strong immune system you will get sick less and you will have a stronger heart which makes everything else in life way easier.


Newspapers, T.V’s, anywhere you go, you will see people influencing you to make a healthy decision. No matter how hard that may be, you should never give up.There are many more ways to make your life worth wild, but if you are able to eat healthy and exercise daily you will defiantly see a change; big or small you won’t regret it.

Story of a Lifetime

Author’s Note: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn the number one series in America, at least in my eyes, is something I will never forget until the day I die. All the detailed descriptions and many adventures have changed my life all because of one person, Stephenie Meyers.

Get her out! What are you waiting for?!” (371) Bella screamed with only the last few minutes of her human life left. Seething pain running throughout her whole body, she wanted nothing more but to end the pain with death. Bella then sat up and asked “Can i hold her?” (372) With the warmth of a little baby and a small heart beating, trying to live, Bella finally got what she wanted... Renesmee was safe. In the well known novel Breaking Dawn, Stephenie Meyer has yet again written a chilling attention grabber with the use of loneliness, pain, fighting, and then finally success.

In this novel, Meyers has written a startling surprise story that clarifies all the loneliness weaving throughout the years Bella and Edward have been together. In each other’s eyes, there is no point in living without the other. They want to be connected in every way possible, even if that means getting married right after high school. While their education is now over, they are both ready to face a new future that could change their lives forever.

Not only did the feeling of loneliness change their lives forever but, also the isolation of pain during the drama of becoming immortal. Holding a half-vampire baby that is breaking her bones from the inside is the least of Bella’s problems. Venom is the only solution of life, but has a huge sacrifice to pay. Bella was passed out for about 2-3 days trying to fight back the fire burning inside of her, trying to save Renesmee’s life.

Although Bella had fought back through all the fire and then saved not only her life,but the life of her sweet little half-vampire’s, that was only the beginning of what the Cullen family had to face. At first Renesmee was just a new joy in every ones lives. Not only that she has a special power, but she is starting to grow bigger and bigger. Being able to walk and talk at a couple of months old is only 2 of the many amazing aspects about Renesmee. Though all of this is amazing, it is very hard to hide.Unfortunately someone saw Renesmee and raced out to the Volturi right away. Knowing that they have no chance against the Volturi, all they can do is wait for them to attack.

Edward and Bella have accomplished the undone, and will live for the rest of eternity. This book is the first thing I think about whenever I’m in a bad mood.I give Stephanie Meyers a ton of credit for writing the number one book in my life which includes not only loneliness, fighting, and pain but many more exciting adventures that I will never forget.

Grease

Author’s Note - I decided to do a review on grease because this is one of my favorite movies. Haylie, Katie, and I always have to watch this whenever we hang out. Even though it’s kind of old we still find it really funny and decide to watch it over and over again.

We love grease so much because of their songs. We have them pretty much all memorized. Whenever a song would come on we’d turn up the t.v and start dancing around. Another reason we like watching this is because every time we do we always find something new that we’ve never noticed before. It always makes us happy whenever were in a bad mood. I give this movie 5 stars. It’s enjoyable, gives us something to do, and whenever we’re not happy about something we just get together, eat frozing, and start watching. By the end of the movie everyone is all happy again. I suggest you watch this sometime with friends or family, it’s really good either way.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

LOVE

Author’s Note - This is one of my favorite songs we sing at church. Marissa and I always sing it when we’re talking about church, Peder Eide, or even when we’re just bored. We like this song because it means something special and reminds us of memories of our church.

“Love will hold us together, make us a shelter to weather the storm.

And I’ll be my brother’s keeper, so the whole world will know that we’re not alone”

- Matt Maher

One of the great memories at our church is camp. Every year we get to go to Lake Lakota and swim, sing songs, play games and just hang out with friends. We sung a lot of Peder Eide songs because he came to camp with us. Everyday at church we sing this and think about church camp. I think this song means that love is everywhere you go. It will help you get through life no matter what happens, either good or bad.

The Lion King

Author’s Note - I decided to choose this quote because I think it teaches a good lesson. Even though you may not get what you want all the time or nothing ends up going your way, you just have to realize that it was the past, and now you can start over with something new.

The past can hurt. You can either run from it or learn from it.

The Lion King

I found this quote on a Disney website, I wanted to choose from a Disney movie because they are fun and even though you don’t really recognize it in the movie they actually mean something special. In the lion king, a new cub is born and will someday become king. Although someone else wanted the job it's not a total bad thing, and they will just have to move forward and forget about the past.