Winter Amusement

Authors Note: Remember when you were younger? Everything was fun and easier. You made everything into a joke or a game. In this piece I tried to capture the essence of childhood memories and the beauty of winter. When I wrote this I was thinking of waking up to the loveliness of winter.

I wake up early Monday morning. The sky is still dark. Slipping on some boots and a coat; I walk outside. My spine has chills going up it like when I watch a horror movie. The snow is falling lightly, but it looks like it has been snowing for days. It’s as white as a blank sheet of paper. Silence surrounds me and I turn my head as I hear a still noise; a tree branch is shaking and the snow shatters to the ground.

A creek behind me makes me turn my head; to see my mom standing in the doorway. Staring in awe at the beauties of nature. Everything looks the same. Our car is buried in snow,  I can’t tell anything apart from another. Sometimes I wish I was a little kid. When I was younger I felt infinite. Like nothing could hurt me.

      The memories start to rush back to me; making snow angels, snowmen, and dancing with the flakes as they fell. I do a twirl as I think of it. All I do is smile when I think about these things. Snowflakes start to come down faster and gracefully dance through the air as they did when I was smaller.

Winter is a wonderland. I love the snow when it is untouched. Where everything is the same. When the snow falls I know it will be a day of joy and memories. Being little was the best, I was happier then.  Snow fills me with childlike happiness.

Cheer Experiance

We are waiting to get on the practice mats;I hear music and I turn the corner and see our biggest competition of the day is warming up their stunts.I don’t think I’ve ever seen at team our age hit those stunts as well as they did. They only have one good flyer, but their stunts are clean and sharp. My coach blocks my view.

        “Stop watching! Its going to make you more nervous!” she says.
        I can’t help it though, I want to see what we are up against. I’m the tallest on the team so I could easily see them.
        “Pewaukee!” a man screams.
        “Alright opening stunts,” our captains say
I take my stunt group to the corner mat and begin our show and go. It hits; next is the “press extension quipee”. That hits too. Right about now I’m feeling pretty confident. Our stunts aren’t as good as the other teams, but all of our flyers are tight and sharp. Lucky for us they only have one flyer like that. We finish our stunts and hit the full mats.

“Nine mats? We’ve never had nine mats!?” I say.

        “Hit it,” Taylor, our high school coach, screams. Our music starts playing. We hit our stunts, all of them, except our ending stunts bobbles.
        We walk through the hallway, the nerves start to set in. This is it; the one day that we spent months and hours working on our routine. Three or four girls on my team are huddled together talking about their stunt group, two girls are crying into each other arms, and me and my friend are trying not to hyperventilate.  
        “And here are your Pewaukee Pirates!!” The man says.
        “Hands in,” the team captains say “One. Two. Three. LETS GO!!”
        We run on the mats and sparkle. “Go Pewaukee! Let’s go Pirates!!” Our music starts, my heart sinks as we missed our “show and go” by about half a count. We run to the next stunt and they are perfectly on time, tumbling pass is great! We’ve lined up perfectly, Halftime stunt is good, then comes our cheer, we sound the best we have ever sounded, only three of our four stunts go up on time, the teams three show and go’s are all off they come up in a ripple.
        The dance was spot on; everyone hit! And then our ending stunt comes. This is what we’ve spent hours upon hours working on. It all happens so slowly. My heart jumps! I can’t believe we just did what we did. I know we’ve made mistakes, and I know the other teams did too, but all I can worry about is our ending score. Our win or loss is in the hands of the judges.
        After we are off the mats, I can’t help but cry. I pull Olivia in for a hug and start crying into her shoulder. Our couches tell us we did good and how proud of us they were.
        “Was that our best?” I ask one of our high school coaches.
        “You guys were great, but last night for the parents, that was your best. That was definitely close though,”                                                                                                                               She was right: we performed for our parents and that was our best. During the awards we stood up for every first place winner. Then came our category and they called third. Not us. Second it was us. My heart sank becasue we wanted first so bad and worked so hard to get there. We stood up with smiles on our faces though. I congratulated every girl on the winning team and told them they were amazing.  
        Even though we didn’t win the competition, I still think we won. Because, we worked hard and we became a family, even with all the drama. I made close friends and worked hard. My team isn’t just my team; they’re my family.               



                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

point of view; Nobody knows

                My first tape starts playing. When he hears my name I see to chills go down his spine. Not because he knows what he did. Because, I’m dead. I committed scuicide about three or four months ago. I just wans’t happy anymore. Although no one really seemed to care. They all carried on with their lifes as normal. As if they never even knew me. As he listens to the rules he nods. I know that he will go along with them. He’s smart, to go along with the rules. He knows if he doesn’t the tapes will be exposed to the public.

 This tape actually has his name on it. How we met that summer. Then at school I fell head over heals for him. How he was my first kiss, it was everything I wanted.But then something so horrible happened and I thought you might want to know what it was. 

I go through a few more. Blah blah blah. Then Clay gets my tapes. He was on my list? Oh now I remember. We were at a party. I saw you, you saw me. We talked and then we kissed. We never had a real conversation. But, then it happened. The reason he was on these tapes. He was probably wondering why I had thirteen people I had problems with. Well they will all get them. And when he's done he gets to send them off to the next person, then that person will send them to the next. Or maybe he's number thirteen. 

I never really had a problem with Clay, did I? Well obviously I did if he has the tapes. Maybe they are at the wrong person. No no no. I'm so confused. Ever since I took my life I am so confused. I don't know where I am. Or what I am doing. I just can't think straight.

The next day I follow Clay to the park while he listens to the first tape. That was about.....Justin? Maybe. It doesn't matter who its about. They all did something wrong. They have to pay now. I will get my revenge one day.

~Hannah

NEW theme essay

Have you ever felt weak, even when you have people you love in your life. Stolen By: Lucy Christopher and Before I fall, are two very common books. Both books are about love and strength. When the girls in these books go through tough times they both have people they love but can’t turn to therefore; they have to be strong on their own.

In Stolen by Lucy Christopher, even though Gemma tries to convince herself that she hates Ty, she knows deep down she loves him. When he saved her from dying in the desert Ty told her “I love you,” In the end of the book she says “I’ll tell them how I fell in love with you.” She realizes that she did not hate him ever that she in fact loves him. She had to have strength to admit the love for him.

Also, Gemma has to have strength to be strong and not admit her love for him. Because if she admits that, then Ty will think she wants to stay. He would have never taken her back then. She also had to be strong when she was in the desert. She was determined to get home or to safety. Even though she failed , she kept going until she couldn’t go anymore. She was strong.

In another novel, Before I fall a girl named Sam is in love with her boyfriend Rob. But, when Rob starts acting weird she can’t trust him. She knows that he just wants to “be” with her. Sam truly does love Rob, when she keeps reliving valentines day she can’t tell him. He’ll just think she’s crazy. She has to go with her gut and fix this without him. She had to be independent and fix everything on her own. Without turning to her boyfriend for help.

Sam has to be strong because, if she gives up she’ll keep living the same day over and over again. She has to fight to get her boyfriends, friends, mom, dad, sister, and her life back. At first she thought it was cool but, now she has to stay sturdy so that she can get back into the real world.

In both books, love and strength are important themes. They both love a certain person but, they can’t trust them at the moment. The themes in both books play out very similar. They have to be strong on their own.

Prediction :

                Gemma, a recently kidnapped girl, is trying to find any and every way to get home in Stolen by Lucy Cristopher. But that’s not possible if she doesn’t know where she is. She’s tried taking his truck but, that didn’t work. She just got stuck and lost, dehydrated, and ended up back with Ty. Ty is her capturer. She has a knife hidden in between the mattress and the spring board, she can’t kill him though. He’s her only way home.

                At first when I started reading the book Stolen I thought she was going to escape, make it home, and tell the authorities about Ty. Now that I am farther in the book, my prediction has changed. I think that Gemma will want to stay with Ty. Maybe she will realize that he cares about her. He told her

with people that treat her badly. Everyone was mean to her. But, she always saw her friends and family as the best thing in her life. They really don’t care about her.Her friends ditched her in the park when she didn’t want to be alone with a boy that himself that he loves her. Ever since he said that she has changed her attitude towards him.

                He starts to care more about her, than having her with him. When she gets bitten by the snake, he says that he’ll take her back even though that’s not what he wants to do. After that my prediction would be that she says she’ll go back with him. Gemma would realize she’s happier with him, than was obsessed with her at the time. Her mom and dad are always traveling. Her parents even said work is the most important thing. If Gemma goes back home I think that the book would be very boring. It’s been more adventuress with Ty in her life. When they are together I can sense the love that he has for her through his words.

Letters from Hollis Woods

Dear Hollis,

            I know we have never met. But I recently found out that you lived in the same orphanage as me! My name is Roger. The “mustard lady” told me about you. How you changed. She said that you used to be quiet and to yourself. That you would constantly come back. Here, to the orphanage. She told me the story of when you lived with that boy, and his parents. You know the ones that were in the crash? I just want to let you know that I never felt loved and cared for either. Then I met this lady Mrs. Jones. She was walking down the street and I tried to take her purse. But she took me by the collar and pulled me all the way home with her. Taught me the really meaning of trust. I was just a boy all alone on the streets, a thief. The day I met her changed my life forever. I am now serving at a soup kitchen, I have a job, and a nice family is thinking about adopting me! I hope you are doing well.

Sincerely, Roger

Dear Roger,

            You are right. I never felt like I had anyone. Not even the kids at the orphanage. When I moved in with Josie I thought that it was temporary. But, I ended up living with her long term. I loved it! She was the best person in my life! She helped me and I helped her. Mrs. Jones sounds like a nice woman. Maybe she could teach me a few things to? We should all meet up one day. I would like that. People used to be so judgmental. Everyone even myself. Just never give up. You can become the person you’ve always wanted to be.

Sincerely, Hollis Woods