Life Lessons

One of the biggest life lessons that I've kind of figured out this year is making more friends. Back in September I only had most of the friends I knew last year. Then this year one of my friends pointed out that one of her other friends was in my class. So after that I sort of felt relieved. At least I wasn't a complete stranger in the class. They asked me if I knew a specific person so I said yes. They looked at me and smiled and said I know her too. I felt happier because I had just made another friend, who would be in all of the same blocks as me on 1-2-3-4 days.
When we were downstairs at lunch, we met up with some of her other friends and that lunch time was the best lunch ever! I'd made lots of new friends that day... so I was definitely happy.

Another thing I've noticed this year is that not every friendship can stay the same. But I guess that what people need to figure out, is that when you make friends through life you have to lose some good friends too. That's what I noticed a few times this year, some friends will be with you for a really long time and others won't always stick by your side or won't be there to help you when things go wrong.
A few things have gone wrong in 2010 but all my true friends have been there for me. Some friendships make you really happy and others can sometimes really agitate you. The ones that make you really happy are the ones that you NEED to keep. And the ones that make you mad.... are the ones are the ones you shouldn't keep.

I think friendship is one of the main life lessons... because you can choose what you do with it. You can either let it help you with you're life or let it take over and sometimes ruin your life. So through life friendships aren't always going to be the same. Once again... friendship is the most important and great thing to have and succeed in!

Letter

Dear Movie Director/Producer,

I want to state a few opinions about double movies. How you should have less of the same movie and how single movies should have more sequals instead of being left at cliffhangers. These are a few of my opinions.

Many Citizens disaprove of more than one of the same movie. Many people love the original films, rather than the newer versions of that same movie. The original films seem to be longer and more entertaining than the newer versions, which have taken up more time to create and develop. You should really consider, creating less of the same movie.

Can you explain why movies stop at cliffhangers, when most have NO sequal? I think movies without a sequal should be longer and not left at cliffhangers. Citizens all over wait for other movies, as in sequals after watching the first that are left at cliffhangers. Cliffhangers make people wonder if there's going to be a sequal. Also they leave individuals wanting more. An example of a double movie is Karate Kid. The original was made in 1984 starring Ralph Macchio. The original is so much better than the newer version with Will Smith's son, Jaden Smith. The original has less edited scenes than the new one. So it's longer and makes people want to keep watching.

Please consider my ideas and how what your doing has affected lots of people.

Yours Sincerley

Lilie Everitt, Citizen Of Westbank

Ice Cream

It was a hot summers day.... and as usual I was lieing there sleeping in the freezer. I had lost my best friend to a little boy. My best friend smelled so fruity... but now that smell had gone. I had been waiting for days until a new friend would come along but I guess nobody else would be joining me in this freezer. After about an hour of driving over bumps in the road and through sand the ice cream truck stopped. Barry the ice cream man leaned over the window. I heard a little girls voice. Then I heard Barry.



"Excellent choice! That's my favourite." Barry opened the freezer and I felt all the hot air rush towards me. Barry's muscular hands wrapped around me.

"Here ya go young one." Barry answered with a smile. He handed me to the little girl and I left Barry's big hands. Small, young hands grabbed me. She opened the wrapper that was around me. The young girl looked so adorable. I touched her soft, little hands. The smells around me were smells I would never forget, salt water and sand. As she put me to her mouth I could taste her. She tasted like coconut. I could hear hear people talking about how much fun they were having and then I heard my friends name. LocoFruityCoco. I saw people attack my friend and eat him.... was that going to happen to me. The young girl started eating me.... but not from my head, so I still had time to think. Why is this happening to me? Why am I being eaten? Why am I melting? She had already eaten half of my body now. I'm feeling so confused as to why this is happening. I'm mad because I didn't actually want to die this way. I wanted to die because I'd gone out of date. I felt happy at the same time. Why you ask? Because I'd get to see my friend in ice cream Heaven. I even felt sad too, because I had a family back in that freezer and now... I would never see them again.



The girl stopped eating me. I was so relieved.

"Mommy.... I'm full." I heard her say.

"Well if your full, throw it away into the garbage can." Her Mom answered. As the little girl skipped to the garbage can I felt like I was jumping in the air. Her hand let get of me and I slowly slid of her hand. Did I not taste good anymore? Or was she just honestly full? When I finally fell into the garbage can, I felt the black bag burning me. Well actually the suns rays shone onto the black bag and onto me. I began to melt slowly... dieing. I saw someone lean over and tie the bag up, I was no longer melting. I was being taken to a garbage dump... there I would die peacefully along with the rest of the rotting garbage.

Schools Out For Summer

Happy Voice

Finally! I screamed as the bell rang. It's the first day of summer break and that means NO school! I'm so stoked! No more boring work... or homework. Just fun, fun, fun! All summer I'm going to go down to the beach and hang with all my friends for about three months! I can't wait to step into the sun and feel it's beautiful heat and see its blazing hot rays of light. All summer it's just going to be excitement... no boring learning. No trying to make our heads explode with knowledge! We'll be getting rid of that knowledge and just be thinking about the summer and how schools over. When I'm at the beach with my friends I'm going to step onto that warm sand and feel the grains between my toes. I'm going to splash around in the water and when I get tired, I'll lay my beach towel on the warm sand and just lie there. Feel the warm heat on my bare skin... slightly burning me as I make no movement since its way too relaxing.

Unhappy Voice

Uh... no! Schools over. I thought to myself as everyone else screamed with joy! It's the first day of summer break and that means No school. I'm so dissapointed! No more work... what am I going to do? I don't want to enjoy summer break, I just want to enjoy school. I don't want to go down to the beach all summer.... that would get really boring! I hate stepping into that sun. I don't like feeling its constant heat on my skin or seeing it's blinding light. Summer is going to be boring with it's continuous beautiful weather. I want to do more learning... I don't care if my head almost explodes, I just want to be smart! All I want to do is think about school not summer. No stepping into that boiling hot sand and feeling those uncomfortable grains of sand between my toes. When I get tired I could just come home and fall asleep in my bed.... I don't want to lie on a beach towel burning myself or sizzling like a piece of bacon. I just want to be in school working whilst being in those nice, cool classrooms.

Mr. Linden's Library

The noise of the thunder made the house shake. As the windows shook the small black kitten jumped off onto the floor. The black kitten ran up the stairs to its owners room. Light flashed into the house. It was like a huge camera flash. The kitten crawled along the floor to a bedroom. The bed was occupied by an old man. His room was full of books since he had his own library in his basement. He called it Mr Linden's Library. Mr Linden lay in his bed reading a book he had found. This was his last book out of the whole library. He wanted to read his last book since he would never be able to read any ever again. Why you ask? Well you see Mr Linden is deathly ill, he could die any second... any minute... any hour... even any day. But he knew he was going to die. He had heard rumors about this book... that once you reach the middle of the book you would get sleepy and eventually fall to sleep, leaving the book wide open. Then as you sleep a plant would grow and grow until it's vines strangled you to death. Nobody would ever figure that you had been killed by a plant growing out of book because once it killed its reader it would slowly sink back into the book.

Mr Linden slowly started to reach the middle of the book... He started to feel sleepier and sleepier. Maybe even sicker and sicker but he couldn't tell. There was exactly 200 pages in this big book. He had reached the middle of the book... exactly page 100. He tried to stay awake since he knew that something would kill him. His wife had died a year before from this exact book. Mr Linden leaned over as he saw a green tip come out of the middle of the book. That green tip wasn't small for long, it looked as though it could disguise itself as a house plant. The vines of the plant slowly moved towards Mr Linden. Wrapping itself around his old, wrinkled neck. It slowly began to kill him. As it strangled him he grabbed a piece of paper and a pencil. With some of his last strength he began to write a note. This is what he had wrote:

'Dear Reader, This is your last and final warning... PLEASE DON'T READ THIS BOOK! It contains real deaths. Do not read page 100... If you do YOU WILL DIE! Consider this your final warning.'

Mr Linden began to feel cold... the plant was crushing him. He could barely breathe. Five minutes of torture. After the five minutes was up... all the kitten could hear was the clock tick-toking.

14 Years Later

It was the beginning of July and Martha was bored. She felt as though the summer heat was going to burn her alive. She had just moved into a new house... the old man that died there 14 years ago was Mr Linden. She even had his old Cats, kittens living with her. She hadn't fully explored the house yet.. but she had heard that there was a library down in the basement. Some old books and some new. Mr Linden's library had been painted with pinks and blues and yellows... just so it felt more welcoming. Martha slowly brushed her hand along the shelf of books. Over the back of the spines of books. Then suddenly one book in particular had hit her. She pulled it out of the shelf and blew the dust off. The front cover read...'The Deathly Vines Of Spain'. The title seemed to catch her eye... just because it sounded really interesting. Martha liked books that caught her eye, mostly because they were to do with mysteries and deaths. Not that Martha liked that stuff in real, life just in books. As she opened the book a small note fell out of it. She read the same note that Mr Linden had written before he died. Although this note was warning her not to read this book she ignored it. She just kept reading it to herself thinking, 'What kind of stupid person would put this prank inside a book!'

In the hallway she saw her Mom. Mrs Lara Curtis loved to clean... everyday you would see her with some sort of cleaning supply in her hand. Dusters, Lysol, tissue paper, disinfectant. You name it and she'd be holding it ready to clean up ANY mess.

"Martha Curtis! What do you have there?" Lara turned around with the duster by her side.

"Mother! I have a book. It's called The Deathly Vines Of Spain." Lifting up the book, her Mother got closer.

"That's great darling! You've found something that you would actually enjoy to read." A big smile appeared on her Mothers... young, but forty year old face.

"Yes Mom.... I'm going to go to my room now to read it." Giving her mom a big hug, that she hadn't given her mother in a while. Her Mom turned away and scurried away down the hall singing... "Oh how I love to clean! Clean, clean... till the house sparkles!"

Inside Martha's room was a basket. Six little kittens beautifully sleeping. Three of which were black and white and two were black and the last one was white. Martha opened her window to let in some cool summer air. Then she jumped onto her double bed. The bed sheets were pink and white, they matched her bedroom color perfectly! Slowly Martha fluffed her pillow and then lay up ready to read. Opening the book... she smelt it. Although the book was tattered, dusty and really old... it still had that new book smell. Quickly she flipped to the back of the book. Exactly 200 pages!

After a couple of pages she had reached page 99... she began to feel very sleepy. Remembering that old note she turned the page to 100. The middle of the book. This was where Mr Linden had died. Too sleepy to carry on she turned on her side with the book wide open. Just like fourteen years ago a green tip appeared. About five minutes later it was a full grown plant... ready to kill. The plant moved its vines around till it found Martha. It felt her warm neck and knew it was time to kill. Dark green vines slowly wrapped around her neck. While she slept she also began to die. Slowly being choked by a monstrous killing plant. At least ten minutes later the plant sensed that she was dead and shrivelled itself up back into the book. It would be at least a couple more years before it finds its next victim.

After a couple of months... Martha's mother had a funeral for her daughter. She ordered the best coffin she could find and the best the best tomb stone. Although she knew it would get dirty she would come by every week to clean her daughters tomb stone. The words engraved on it were....

R.I.P

Martha Amanda Curtis

1996-2011

My dear Martha I have enjoyed these years with you. It will always be a mystery to your death. I wish you could still be here.

Back in the book the plant silently awaits for its next victim. The book wasn't in Martha's room anymore, it wasn't even in Mr Linden's library. The small book wait to be investigated by the C.S.I. When they open it that's when the small plant will attack. But when will it attack? Who will it attack? Nobody knows about this mysterious book and its evil ways. Martha's death will always be a mystery.

TOP 10 WORD CHOICE!

1.Blazing
2.Inferno
3.Bawled
4.Shattered
5.Enchanting
6.Exotic
7.Spectacular
8.Astonished
9.Glistened
10.Lucky

New In School

The sound of my alarm clock goes... ring-ring-rang! As I slowly get up my bed creeks. I open my door and walk into the empty hallway. The sound of the toaster popping and the smell of sizzling bacon in a pan. Wow... does that ever make me hungry! My mother turns around and smiles. I sit down at the dining table and wait for breakfast. My little brother screeches as I take the salt and pepper away from him. My father walks in with my little sister holding his had and my twin baby brothers in his arms. You think one kid would be enough... but sadly no. My parents end up with four more. As my father puts Dallas and Andrew in their play pen, my mother puts the breakfast on the table. Slowly I reach over to the plate of hot bacon. OUCH! I had just been stabbed with a fork!
"MARCUS! What was that for?" I asked. Marcus laughed. Marcus is eight years old, he still has a lot of learning to do before he realizes he can't stab people with forks! Since Marcus didn't answer my question I tried to reach for another piece. Gladly I didn't get stabbed with a fork but now my hand was covered in spit. Uh... I'd just been spat on!
"MOLLY! Why'd you do that? It's gross!" I asked. I was getting mad. Molly burst into tears. Molly is five years old, she also has a lot to learn before she realizes that she needs to keep her spit to herself!
"Molly... what's wrong dear?" My mother sounded so tired!
"Emilio yell at me!" Molly has such bad grammar! My mother turned to stare at me.
"Emilio!" My Mom was angry. I started to argue back.
"Mom! Marcus stabbed me with a fork and Molly spat on me! I can't take much more of this! I'M NO LONGER HUNGRY!!" Quickly I stood up and the chair hit the hardwood flooring. Dallas and Andrew hated that noise so they started squealing.
"EMILIO! GET BACK HERE AND EAT YOUR BREAKFAST!!" My mom yelled. I'd never heard her yell like that so I just ignored her. I slammed my bedroom door and opened my closet. I pulled out a pair of skinny jeans and a plaid shirt. I walked into the bathroom and opened up the medicine cabinet where the toothpaste was. Suddenly all of my Dads allergy pills scattered all over the floor.
"MOM!" Marcus was standing right at the door, ready to rat on me. I ran at him with rage and pushed him over! I grabbed my backpack before I could get in anymore trouble and sprinted out of the door.

As the yellow school bus approached the corner I began to think of things that could happen. What if everybody makes fun of me? What if I make no friends? Or what if I get run over by the school bus? Hmm... lots of questions. The bus halted to a stop. The doors swung open and that's when the butterflies started flying around in my stomach! As I walked down the isle to find a seat the bus started to move and I lost balance. I fell face first onto the floor. Everyone began to laugh at me. I felt like such a fool! I opened my back-pack and pulled out my favourite book. I felt someones heavy breath on my neck.
"Hey look everyone! It's Nerdy!!" Behind me the boy screamed right in my ear and everyone laughed. I sighed.

As I walked out of the bus someone pushed me down the steps and I fell... face first again. I got up and rubbed my cheeks. Ouch... How could this day get worse? Slowly and nervously I walked into the office.
"Can I help ya dear?" This woman was young, she looked fairly new and she had one headphone in her ear. How rude.
"Well... hmmm.. I'm new here. Can you help me?" The woman looked at me.
"Huh? I didn't hear you darling. Speak up." My body stiffened.
"I'm new here! Can you help me?" She nodded.
"Certainly," She handed me a timetable and a list of all my classes. "This will be your first class." She ended and walked off. Blankly I stared at the sheet. My first class is math... not my best subject I thought. I opened the door and walked towards the stairs.

On third floor I found my class room. My teacher was there. I stood nervously in the doorway. Worriedly thinking what if I make a bad first impretion?
"You must be Emilio Randles. Am I right?" The teacher looked at me. She was also a woman. I coughed to clear my throat. I don't want to choke or anything.
"Er.. yea. You are right." Struggling I forced a smile but it went back to an upside down smile! She smiled back.
As she smiled she told me to sit down and wait for the rest of the class. Silently I sat there. Waiting for others to appear. Tick-tock. I heard the clock, it was pretty loud. I saw some kids arrive. One boy just stood in the doorway and stared at me.
"You again?!" He sounded surprised and fustrated all at the same time."Kid! Your sitting in my spot!"
"Well... the teacher told me... to sit here." I replied with a few stutters here and there.
"I don't care what the teacher said! That's my spot." He just stood there looking like he wanted to punch me.
"Jackson! Sit down." He turned round and stared at the teacher. Oh, how I hate when the teacher tries to stare you down. Like a dog before it attacks. Jackson... if that was his real name, sat down. I could see him staring at me through the corner of his eyes. He looked so evil!

Halfway through the lesson Jackson stood up again. He walked over and pushed me out of my seat. He sat down in it yelling, 'Victory Is Mine!' Oh how I wanted to punch him.
"Ha,ha! Your such a loser! Elmo!" That was the last time someone was ever going to call me that in my life. I stood up at punched him. He fell to the ground, followed by a thump! I was shocked. What did I just do? I grabbed my backpack and ran! I heard the teacher yelling but I just kept on running. Fustrated I kept on running. After a long minute of deciding what I should do, I ran on home.

Opening the door my mother turned around to stare at me.
"Emilio? What are you doing home so early? Especially on your first day of school." She walked over and put her arm around me.
"I got bullied... From the moment I stepped on the bus that stupid Jackson kid, had to bully me!!" Tears started to form and my eyes began to swell up.
"Oh my stars! Emilio I'm so sorry" She pulled me into a hug. Under her arm was my head.
"I punched him Mom.." I burried my head into her arm deeper and her grip got tighter.
"You what Emilio?" Mother sounded so worried.
"I said I punched him mom, he called me Elmo! I promised myself that, that would be the last time someone would say that." I cried. After five long minutes she told me to get some rest. I nodded and walked to my room. Crying I lay on my bed and cry myself to sleep. Oh how my pillow was soaked with tears but I didn't care.