

Short Stories
Thurgood didn't seem like a creepy place...
Rachel Ruffing, 7th Grader, October 2020
Thurgood was never a creepy place, but now everything has changed. The lights are hardly ever on, the students are almost always silent, but yet the teachers are still the same. They wear colors like if it where 2019, they don’t seem to age, they talk happily unlike the students, and they seem to find joy in every step they take. This just doesn’t match up, none of this does. The teachers act as if we where not all at the risk of dieing a slow death from lawnarko. If the person reading this doesn’t know this and it living under a rock then the corona virus has evolved into lawnarko in my town and many others but we cant leave because then we will spread it. By the way my name is Sam, and my town has chosen the stupid decision of not trying to stop the disease and just live a normal life until we all get sick. To me it’s a very stupid choice and I did not agree with this decision. The odd thing is that the teachers haven’t seemed to change since 2019, I have asked them about lawnarko but they have no clue what it is it’s almost like the are in another dimension or frozen in time. But that’s besides the point. The point is everything is creepy, creepier right now then ever the second our town made that choice everyone changed and I don’t mean like they grew taller or got glasses I mean they all turned dark. They walk around like they have weights on their shoulders, and drag their feet as if they where walking in quicksand, they all have circles under their eyes as dark as the night sky, they have the eyes of snakes and don’t remember what year it is. They all say its 2070 but its 2030. So if the teachers think its 2019 and the students think its 2070 am I lost in time?! But my family thinks its 2030, “ WHAT IS GOING ON!!!! “

Thurgood didn't seem like a creepy place...
Noah Vasallo, 7th Grader, October 2020
Thurgood Marshall didn't seem like a creepy place. Then I say Mr. Puckett’s second head. Then there was more Leroy wasn’t actually trying find the third floor he was protecting us from the evil forces of the vampires from above. Have you ever actually looked up at the ceiling? I didn’t think so. That is where the vampires come from. Leroy is always protecting us from them. Mr. Pucketts second head was actually from his former vampire body, but he changed into a human, though he just hadn't sheded his old head. He escaped the disease that made him a vampire and overcame it. Though his other siblings were still on the loose looking to destroy human in the middle school.

Scary 2 Sentence Story
By: Anna Wei, 7th Grader, October 2020
Mr. Puckett wandered the halls, looking for a place to hold his Omni Lit meeting without his voice echoing. He walked for hours, until he turned around and noticed that it wasn't his own voice echoing, but that someone was with him.

The Rock Cycle
By: Audrey McMurrian, 7th Grader, October 2020
I am an igneous rock, I formed under the earth from magma; this means that I am an intrusive igneous rock. uplift caused me to be forced onto the surface. latter it rained pushing me into a river. the river breaks into sediment. I settle down at the bottom of the river. other sediment from different rocks deposits over me. after being piled upon I become a sedimentary rock. one day a child picks me up and forgets me by the ocean. waves shove me into the depths of the ocean floor. convergent earthquakes cause me to be pushed back underground. heat and pressure cause me to become a metamorphic rock. more heat and pressure cause me to melt and become magma. the I spouts out the top of a volcano cooling quickly as extrusive igneous rock.
No Summer Break for you
By: Harrison Dunning, 7th Grader, October 2020
The man had just clocked in for the night shift as the janitor at an academy near his home. He had just got this job not too long ago, and he was not going to lose it early. He had been fired from his past positions, which made him curious of why this school had hired him with such ease. He got straight to cleaning the classrooms, as instructed by the academy’s principle. As he started to clean the windows, he heard a sudden whispering. He thought nothing of it and continued to clean, and immediately the whispering continued. What he thought he had heard was “leave me alone”, but he figured that his anxiety was beginning to get to him. Instead of continuing the windows, he decided to dust the lockers. He went from lockers 001 all the way down to locker 665. Just as he’d finished, he went to open locker 666, but it was locked. He took the key to the locks and unlocked it, only to see the dead body of a boy fall out. But the boy wasn’t dead, because he ran down the hall and jumped through the wall.
Scary Bellwork
By: Quinlyn Dalyander, 7th Grader, October 2020
I walk into my bedroom and shut the door quietly. Then I hear a raspy voice croak from under my bed "when is it time to play?" A shiver goes down my spine and I begin to sweat. I try to open my door but find it locked. I flatten myself against the door as a skeleton hand slowly emerges from under the bed. I feel my heartbeat speeding up in my chest. Slowly, a whole skeleton emerges, the bones clanking softly. The skeleton is draped in dirty clothes and it is splattered with blood. It slowly walks towards me, walking like an elderly man who hadn't moved for years. I try to back up, forgetting that the door is behind me. Soon the skeleton is so close that I can smell its musty breath. It begins tapping me on the shoulder with its bony fingers. Every tap makes the hairs on my back rise. I am frozen, unable to move. It begins tapping harder and harder. I finally unfreeze and slap it cold, bony finger. My eyes snap open. My sister is poking me with a stick. "See, I told you she wasn't dead," she says triumphantly, "she only fainted." I see my pumpkin shaped candy basket laying cracked open nearby. All the candy has spilled out. Then it all comes flashing back to me. The man dressed as a zombie jumping out from the bush, me falling backwards, and then darkness.

Dellian: Imagination Avenue
By: Sally Rozelle, 7th Grader, November 2020
Dellian was so quiet and peaceful at night. All the houses were dark, except for the occasional reading lamp. Savanah looked at her wristwatch. 11:05pm. She took a left on Imagination Avenue and then gasped. There was no one outside the gates keeping watch for all the dragons and other monsters out there!
Savanah bolted across the street and burst into her house. The family’s Winder was in the living room, floating near the floorboards looking for rats. Savanah’s mother, Ruby, was in the kitchen, brewing a dragon stunning spell. “Mom!” cried Savanah, “There are no guards by the gates!”
Ruby turned pale. “No guards!”
“What should we do? We don’t want any dragons coming into the—”
A loud growl cut Savanah off. Ruby dropped the spoon and ducked behind the boiling cauldron with fear in her eyes. Savanah, seeing that her mother was useless, realized there was no one else to help her.
Savanah ran into the living room, opened the window, and cast a cloud message to the Dellian Dragon Patrol. No one answered. What now?
Lights outside were turning on. Frightened witches and wizards dashed about. Some cowered behind lamp posts, hiding in the shadows. Others cast blocking spells, trying to protect the town from the family of dragons that had begun to wander into homes.
Savanah sprinted back into the kitchen to see a fluffy baby dragon in her path. What should she do? If she hurt it, the mother dragon would come and finish her off. Savanah had an idea. What if she changed her shape to look like a baby dragon? She tapped her watch.
Immediately, Savanah looked like a baby dragon. The true baby dragon moved aside to let her pass. Ruby peeped out from behind the cauldron and let out a shriek. There were two baby dragons in her kitchen! With a tap at her watch by her talon, Savanah was human again. Ruby sighed in relief, and then realized that there was still another dragon behind her daughter. The dragon turned and plodded into the living room. Ruby exhaled. She knew she had to be strong for Savanah. “We need to fight the dragons! They’ll kill us all!”
Savanah wondered if her mom was exaggerating. The only dragon in the house was playing with the Winder, and she had to admit, it was kind of cute. Savanah tried to remember what she had read in the book Questions Your Parents Won’t Answer About Dragons. Were dragons really vicious? They were only animals; like everything else, they had to protect their families and friends. Why did the village start to fight them without knowing what the dragons wanted?
Ruby picked up a flask full of dragon stunning potion and, despite her fear, ran outside. Savanah, hesitant, followed. Magician Koop and Magician Kent were fighting the mother dragon, who was standing in front of her babies. The Sorceress Flanie was battling two teenage dragons, and the rest of the villagers were attacking the biggest, strongest dragon Savanah had ever seen.
Well, maybe she could help stop this fight. Savanah tapped at her watch. Instantly, she was a child dragon. She plodded up to another child dragon, who was watching the fight from behind a dumpster. Savanah asked in dragon tongue, “What are we doing here?” The other responded: “Momma wanted to find a new nest for us. Remember?” Savanah snorted an “oh, right” and ran towards Magician Koop. He yelled and pointed his wand at her. Savanah tapped her watch with her talon and transformed back into herself. Magician Koop’s spell hit her in the chest. It was a dragon stunning spell, so she was not harmed by it. But if she had been a second slower in her transformation, she would have been stunned.
Magician Koop realized what he had almost done and yelled to the villagers, “Let her pass!”
Savanah tapped her watch again. She moved toward the big dragon, and spoke in dragon tongue. “I am not your kind. I am a magician. Changing forms is my magic. We did not know you were only looking for a new nest. We are sorry. Can we make a treaty with you? Can dragons and magicians be friends?”
Smoke sprouted from the dragon’s snout as he responded, “If my children are safe, yes.”
“Let me speak to my people.” Savanah changed back and walked over to the wizards and witches. She gathered them all and told them about making a treaty with the dragons. “All they want is a new place to live. We are hurting their children, and if we can all be friends, everyone will be happy.” They agreed.
“…and they lived happily ever after.” Ruby closed the book. Felipe, her dragon, was sleeping at her feet. Fluffy, Savanah’s dragon, was snuggled up against the soft rug beside the fire. On this cold Beepil’ evening, dragons were magician’s best friends. Especially fluffy ones.
Glossary
Dellian- a small village in the wizarding world
Winder- goast-like creatures, harmless, eat rats, live in old houses
Beepil'- a winter month
The Legend of the Thurgood Ghost
By: Robert Carroll, 7th Grader, December 2020
The ghost is said to happen in a number of ways the kids say. Some say it's from a death. Other say it's from a ritual. But none of them know the actual way, But me. Long ago when the school was just being built, the founder was short on cash. He searched and worked but came up a few thousand short. He went to church and begged the lord for money. He did get remaining amount, But with a cost. He drives back home and gets a call. He just got a bank loan for 10K, He was ecstatic! He called his wife, But no answer. “Weird” He thought. He called his Daughter, No answer. He remembers they left to go see the construction of the building. His Daughter always wanted to be a worker. He goes there to see his wife, But not another soul in sight. He looked below and saw his daughter; Crushed and smashed into the Earth. From that day forward, The Thurgood Legend Was Born.