Writer's+Choice-last+project

Amilia Yun

What is love? By: Alise Dumford What is the true meaning of love? Is it really a symbol of doves? The strong emotion to someone, That is possible for everyone, But is that how I see in my eyes, That’s not me, it is lies.

I think love is the feeling, When my heart is pealing, When I know they’re true, The feelings all new.

So what is the definition of love? Not just 2 doves, You can’t define what it means, You don’t feel it in your teens, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">Don’t try to define, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">It is just divine, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">You let it come to you, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">People plus two.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">Love is true, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">And all new, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">The feeling is all mine, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">It just takes time, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">You will fall in love, <span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 10pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">Just like the doves.

Death in Kickball By: Zach Martin Dereck Mahlenkamp was one of the best players in the NKA, national kickball association. He was the star player on his team St. Peters Blackmen. Dereck played first base and was the league MVP last year, but his team lost in the semifinals. He was 6’ 3 and 215 pounds, a physical beast. You see I was one of Derek’s friends and teammates on the Blackmen. I played center field and had known Dereck for years. I was very suspicious of Shawn Nakakura, the team’s water boy. He was always jealous of Dereck and didn’t like him at all. Our season was just about to start on March 11, 2010. We were working out in the weight room when Bjien Rahimi, a football player, ran in and yelled, “Oh My God! Someone outside has two revolvers!” Everyone got real nervous except for our coach John Shisen. I noticed Dereck had disappeared. I found him in the locker room eating zebra cakes. He gave me one and said, “Man I have a lot of debt. That guy outside is Oliver’s Brother Phil.” So I found out Dereck owed a lot of money, $100,000 to be exact. Oliver Stange was our team’s number one pitcher. I went out and calmed down Phil I told him Dereck would pay him back in a month. After that shenanigan instead of finishing my workout I went home to relax. It was now March 10, 2010, the day before opening day. I was pumped and went to the team facility after breakfast. No one was there except for Shawn Nakakura. While I was running on the treadmill he came over. He hit me and yelled, “I will kill you if you don’t give me money and a tryout with the team!” I said I would but he pulled a knife to my throat and said, “You better Zach.” I was feeling much more tension on our team than ever before. I had just taken a shower when Demeco came in. He was our third baseman. We practiced kicking for a while then went home to relax before opening day. It was opening day against our rival the St. Joseph’s Whities. Our stadium was packed, the crowd was loud. Oliver’s first pitch was fouled off and the season was under way! Unlike baseball there is ten innings in kickball. After two innings no one had scored, but then I got a single. Now Dereck was up, his nickname was Big-D 33. I yelled, “Big-D 33 drive me in!” Now the pitch came and he hit a homerun! Ollie got out to end the inning so after three innings we were up 2-0. We beat St. Peter’s 5-1 at the end. A big opening day win over our rival, it doesn’t get better than that. The next day I got a call from Demeco he said, “Zach, I found Dereck dead outside his house you better come quick man.” I got there as fast as I could and saw blood everywhere. A knife was off to the side, and I thought Shawn! But I remembered Phil was after Dereck too. The season was officially screwed. I couldn’t believe it Dereck Mahlenkamp was dead. The whole team, The Blackmen, came to his funeral. I did not see the water boy though. I went up to him the next day with baseball bat and screamed, “Did you do it? Admit it, you killed Dereck!” He seemed to be happy, I was scared. I grabbed him snapped his arm and he said he murdered him. We took him in to the locker room and took turns hitting Shawn. We held him captive until the bruises went away. Now we turned him in to the police and he is now in jail for a long time. I still miss Dereck though and are team was never the same after our star died.



<span style="display: block; font-family: Calibri; font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;">December 21, 2012: A Day to be RememberedBy Bijen Alagha There is a lot of hype leading up to the 21st of December, 2012 but I think the whole world ending idea is a bunch of crap! My name is Bijen Alagha and I am not worried about tomorrow at all. Well it’s pretty late so I’m heading off to bed awaiting tomorrow. Ok so I go to sleep. <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I wake up around 8:30 and nothing “world-ending” was going on and I chuckled to myself about how people were so afraid of this! I hop in the shower only to get out to my phone ringing nonstop. I answer it and it was my dad. He had been out on marine duty and was on a ship somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. I could tell there was a problem because he was breathing heavily and I could hear the fear in his voice. He told me that several 9.0- 9.5 earthquakes had just erupted around their location and there were waves of around 75 feet tall crashing on their boat. I could hear the waves and it felt like to me that the waves were just playing with the poor people until the final blow. <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Then my dad screamed, “Son I’m not going to make it out of this, our boat is heading right into the biggest wave I’ve ever seen!” He said to me, “I love you so much son”. I was screaming through the phone and I was about to say I love you and then the phone cut off…. I was devastated that my dad was going to die out on the boat and I could do nothing. I called downstairs to my mom and told her to come upstairs. I started to cry on her shoulder. <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She said, “What’s wrong honey?” <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I said to her, “Dad called, Mom, he said there were earthquakes out at sea where he was, he said he was not going to make it, Mom.” <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">My mom broke down and started to tear up and said, “Well, all we can do now is hope and pray for him, Bijen.” Then all of a sudden the house started to shake and things started to fall off of the shelves. I went to look outside and I looked down the street and the ground was just falling into the earth! My mom and I jumped into the car and started driving anywhere away from the falling ground! Cars were being thrown and houses were just being eaten up by this giant earthquake. My mom screamed, “This is madness!” <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">I said, “Oh really, a little late mom!” ” Where’s the nearest airport, Mom?” <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">She said, “Right after 21st street- were close just keep going!” I rammed the acceleration because my back wheels were falling into the everlasting pit! <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">We got to the airport and I screamed, “Get out and get to the plane!” We got up into a small 10 passenger plane. I was an amateur pilot but I still could fly a plane on my own. We took off right before the collapsing ground could get to us! We really didn’t know where we were going but knew that we would have to outlast this fateful day where everything started off good but got bad real quick… <span style="font-family: Calibri; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">This story was found in the plane that Bijen and his mom took off on… Bijen and his mom’s plane was found in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, the story police made up was that lighting struck their plane sending it into a complete nosedive. No bodies were found from the terrible accident and Bijen and his mom are said to be missing. The last sentences Bijen had written in his notebook…Humanity was able to survive the end of the world or “Apocalypse”! I don’t think anything could ever wipe humanity off the face of the earth. Do You?

By: Demeco Richardson Friday, March 25, 2011 More than a game This was one of our most important games of the regular season. It’s crazy cause some of our players are just getting back so some of the positions are changing cause of them getting in trouble. I told them every day to stay out of trouble, and listen to the teachers it seems like it go in one ear and out the other man they will never learn I hope what I tell them today before the game will get them prepared. I knew it will we had a great starting five Demeco, Cameron, Ryan, Rodney, Ben and our bench was good to Chris Siegel, Chris Beckham, Brandon a little team. But we play, hard I think they will listen they do all the time to them it’s more than a game. They always have their head up in practice and listening Demeco is the one who stands out to everybody with heart like Rondo and skill like m. j. He comes in on the weekends only with me for more practice working harder than the others. It may cut out of his weekend but he doesn’t care basketball is his life with his buddies on the team when they play together. It is an amazing a sight to see I got a feeling this game is going to be great cause the last time we played them we lost we were up but we just lost it at the end and it’s time to get revenge. I saw the other team they looked like they had smiles on their face thinking it going to be just a walk in the park but my boys were ready. The referees were not here yet having a delay on the game come to find out they didn’t even schedule one. So we had to find volunteers to referee the game that had experience. Luckily one from the stands Chris Beckham dad and one coach from the other team but since the referees didn’t show up this game didn’t count on our record win or lose and both teams made it to the play offs. I told my team goes out there to play your hearts out and run our plays like high post, guard away, fist, stack and on defense run 2-3 until I say to run man up after the first quarter the score was 12 to nothing. By half time we were really started to beat them 30 to 2 that quarter. They had good team work the other team was so mad cause of how they were playing. Then trying to fight my player that’s how we know we’re getting under their skin finishing the game 50 to 7, a big blow out. I bet everyone on the team was going home to tell everybody ‘bout that I know that the guys on my team were going to play good high school basketball. Where ever they go especially that boy, Demeco.

Jack Lisac Team 8-4 A Hunting Trip It was about eight in the morning. I was sitting in a tree stand, waiting for a buck to pass me. This was my first time hunting, so I was eager to get a deer. I had waited for the deer for about two hours already, but I didn’t want to give up. All that I could do now is to wait patiently. A deer finally passed me. I looked down my scope and I shot at the deer. I missed the deer and it began to run. Unwilling to give up on the deer, I climbed down from the tree stand and I followed the deer. The deer was faster than I was. As I pursued the animal, I knew that the only way that I could get the deer would be to take a different route and convince it that I had given up. I took a path that branched out and it took me to the top of a hill. I moved into position and looked out over the meadow. The deer had finally stopped and was grazing. As I pulled out my rifle, I noticed another deer. I decided to try to take both of them. I waited on the hill for 15 minutes. Shrouded by the trees that surrounded me, I had the opportunity to wait for the deer to calm themselves. It would be difficult to shoot both deer when one of the deer had just been chased. I set the scope on my rifle to the correct distance. I loaded my gun and I looked down the scope. I pulled the trigger and I quickly aimed the gun at the other deer. I pulled the trigger before it could run. ` The second deer tried to escape, but it fell to the ground. I had missed the deer’s lungs and had hit its hind leg. I finished the deer with a shot to its organs. I walked over to the two deer I had just shot. The first deer was an eight point buck. There was a clean shot to the lungs. The second deer was a five point buck. Although I had missed one of my shots, I had managed to take both of the deer. I called my friend to come and help me take the deer back to my farm. He was able to find me easily. He brought his truck up to the edge of the forest and we carried the deer to the truck. When we got there, we set the deer onto the tarp in the bed of the truck. We returned to the farm around noon. We removed the deer and began to clean them. My friend was willing to help me clean the deer, but he would have to leave soon. We finished cleaning the deer at about one. I looked back at the day and I realized what I had accomplished. It had It had taken me all morning, but I had finally accomplished my goal.

<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Farewell Creative Writing…D: <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Kush Patel <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Entering the ice-cold room with the satisfaction that second period is finished, puts a smile on my face whether my teacher can recognize it or not. It puts a big smile on my face knowing the encore I’m going to next involves writing, one of my favorite things. The creative writing encore allows you to use computers every single day, and what every teenage kid will realize is, you can play games or do homework any time you want. But if you decide to be a rebel, Mrs. Kesler will catch you sooner or later, as she has caught my table on multiple occasions. If you are caught disobeying Mrs. Kesler, she will make you pay, by giving you points off on participation, although you can make them up by doing your work and sending that work to //Read Magazine//. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Enough about the crazy, energy-filled teacher, though. Let’s move on to the people in 3rd quarter 3rd period creative writing. Kush Patel (me), Cory Burlingham, Scott Faro, Anothony Corne, Jacob Simmons, and Michael Allmandinger. We are all friends with each other, and we get along pretty well most of the time. We sit in a table together, because Mrs. Kesler was kind enough to let us join into one huge table. Do you know any other teacher that will let you do that? I didn’t think so, and this is why Mrs. Kesler is one of the best teachers I have ever had. Cory Burlingham agrees, stating, “Mrs. Kesler is a good teacher, and this is a very fun class.” <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Our journey together has lasted a long time, from first quarter to third, and now to fourth quarter, and every time I get sad about leaving this class, I think about the friends that will travel with me next quarter, and have been traveling with me this whole time. I think about the great teachers we’ve had this year (seriously, great teachers: Mr. Suder, Mrs. Beelman, Mrs. Kesler, and next, Mr. Armstrong), and the relationships they had with us. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> Our work in creative writing could’ve been better, but everyone in this class will admit that one time or another, with a computer screen in front of them, were not doing what they were supposed to be doing at the time. I imagine Mrs. Kesler has mostly positive comments on our work, which together as a group, we feel confident about. Together the group feels good about their grade in this class, which is all A’s. This class is one that allows you to enhance your skills in writing, and boost your GPA (grade point average), and it has done both with all of us, me especially. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> I have created this piece in order to thank my teacher, my friends, and my peers. I guess what I am trying to express through this piece of writing is an important message: thanks to everyone involved in this class. Through the good times and the bad, this group has stayed strong with new additions and losses, through everything. I give a shout out to everyone in this class for one of the best quarters of my middle school career. It’s a shame it has to come to an end, but even the best things have to change, and the time has come for us.