12/21/12 Three Days of Darkness

       Every time you turn on the TV lately you hear about the Mayans predicting the end of the world. If that is true i only have 12 hours to live, but i don't believe anything will happen. However i decided to stay up and wait the last 12 hours out, you know just in case.

       i fell asleep while trying to stay up but hey i woke up guess nothing happened. I got out of bed and checked my phone. It said it was 11 a.m. but when i looked outside it was pitch black. I went downstairs and saw my family huddled around the living room watching the news. I asked what was going on and my mom told me that because of some planet alignment we were going to have 3 days of darkness. So i thought hmm strange but whats the big deal that just gives me 3 days to sleep. 

        It was the 2nd day of the 3 days of darkness and nothing bad had happened. I went downstairs to watch the news to see if anything had happened. The first thing that came up was that people were panicking, and were starting to rob and loot stores. Hearing this my family knew we had to watch out for people trying to break into the house and robbing us. 

      It was the 3rd day and what was believed to be the last day of darkness, and on the news it said that their were over a thousand deaths from people being robbed and stores being looted. The light finally came back around midday and i must say it did not affect my life even a tiny bit. Although i will have to say it was the most interesting thing i have lived through. 

The Bully

Joel was a young boy at a measly 12 years old. He stood at a petite 4 foot 11 inches. At school, the other boys always made fun of him because he was so short. Joel was also a little on the heavier side. This brought on names such as Rolliepollie and Lumpydumpy. The name calling really hurt poor Joel's feelings, sometimes it even made him cry. But, in 7th grade, someone finally stood up for Joel.   Thomas had just moved into town and knew exactly how it felt to be bullied. When he saw the boys making fun of Joel, he walked right up to them an told them off. The boys backed away very quickly because Thomas was large than them. Once the boys had left, Thomas helped Joel up off the ground, put his arm around him and walked him into school. From that day on, no one ever bullied Joel again because he had his best friend Thomas there to protect him.

Championship Game

It was the moment we had been working towards for months. It was minutes before our state championship game. Looking around the locker room at everyone's faces you could tell everybody was serious and ready. Our coach didn't say much he had said everything in the week we had before for practices. We knew what we had to do and that it was going to be the hardest game we have ever competed in.

    The arenas lights were dark as we were walking from the locker room to the door to the rink. The lights turned on as we were stepping out onto the ice and all you could hear was the crowd going crazy. We were undefeated and we were not going to let this crowd down tonight. We loosened up during warm-ups and scouted out the other team and then we went back into the locker room for a few minutes before the game.

     Coach told us to settle down and just to play our game, the game that brought us here, that has made us undefeated. He said " You need to come out fast, don't be nervous about it being the big game just think of it as one of the others, We just gotta put more effort in this game for your seniors, for some of them it will be the last time they ever touch the ice." Somebody knocked on our door letting us know they were ready for us to come out. The game was about to start.

     I came out to the opening faceoff and my hands were shaking, i was quite nervous. I couldn't calm myself, but i just hoped as the game went on i would relax and get back to normal. The puck dropped i won it back to the defense. They dumped into into the zone, but the other team came out with it. They gave it to their star player and he got past us and got a one on one with the goalie and scored blocker side high. It was only 40 seconds in the game and they had already scored, so coach called time out. He got us in close so we could hear him and said " Hey what are you guys doing? you just watched him go by each one of you. You guys need to relax, Its a hockey game for gods sake! Play your game, Don't let the game get to your head." 

     After the time out we played like our normal team, but they were also a very good team. At the end of the 1st period the score was 1-0 them. In the locker room Coach told us we looked a lot better after the goal but now we got to get something going on offense, and then he walked out. He walked out to let me and the other captains talk to the team. I stood up in the middle of the locker room and started to yell " c'mon on guys what are we doing out there, we looked awful. Do you want to let down me and the other seniors and even your whole school? Or would you rather show some pride for your school and lets go out and destroy this team and get the win!" 

       We came out in the 2nd period a lot better we were skating better and out team work was much better. Halfway through the period we got a 3 on 2 and the Dan slid it over as the goalie slid over out of position and i caught it by the toe of my stick and put it in on a practically open net. After that goal our team was fired up we tied the game. The rest of the period we had the puck in their zone most of the time but the goalie was making amazing saves and kept them in the game. 

       Coach came into the locker room and told us he wasn't going to say anything because he liked how we were playing and didn't wanna screw it up. We Tried to come out in the beginning of the 3rd like we left the 2nd, but they must of had a good pep talk because they were coming out hard. They were taking good shots and i was surprised they weren't scoring but we had one of the top goalies in the state and he was having one of the best games of his life. There was about 2 minutes left in the 3rd with the score tied and the opposing team called time-out. Our goalie, Nick, Came over to us pretty much yelling at us saying we needed to get the goal and with all the shots their getting that he was just getting lucky. Coach kept me out on the ice most of the time in the last period. They Dumped the puck in and i got it and looked up and saw Eric breaking out almost all alone. i passed it up to him and looked at the clock which said 10 seconds left. I didn't even skate up i just stood there watching the freshman go down one on 0 with the goalie. He faked left and went right and put the puck right off the crossbar into the net. Goal! The crowd went wild There was only 2 seconds on the clock and as soon as the time ran out after the face up the whole team went and tackled Eric. He was the hero of the game, He even got MVP of the game and was the only 9th grader to get that. 

       After the game and the celebration in the locker room i waited until most everyone else was out. I went over and gave Eric a handshake and told him he did a great job and i see him going far and that i hope this isn't the only championship that he wins. He replied " Tyler without you i would have never gotten the puck or that opportunity." I got home and just went up to my room and rolled into bed just smiling and eventually fell asleep as a champion in my senior year, just the way i always dreamed of it.

Being Nice Has Some Benefits

Today is going to be the first day of my new life at a whole new school,My mother and i had just moved after a divorce with my father to a new city where nobody has even the slightest clue to who i am. Here I can become a whole new person and not have to worry about what was in the past because the people here wouldn't know what had happened.

    Today was the first day of school which had me very nervous because i was a nobody with no friends. I had moved here from my hometown in the summer of my senior year. I knew school was going to be tough because by senior year in high school people are already in groups and don't accept outsiders. I had hope though that i would find friends and have that senior year everyone dreams of. 

     I drove my old 99 malibu to school and parked in the back of the parking lot, trying not to draw attention to myself. My thought for the day was to stay positive and talk to a few kids and try to make some friends. My first class i had was English, nobody even noticed i was there. They all just talked to their friends about how great their summer was and about all the parties coming up. I didn't think to much of this just thought oh well one bad class to deal with. But as i went to all my other classes the same thing happened and not a single person had even said anything to me besides the teacher taking attendance. I didn't think it was going to be this tough to make friends or to even talk to a person in school like this, but i realized that i was going to have to put effort forth and put myself out there.

      I drove home which was just down the street, it only took me a few minutes to the school and home. When i walked in the door my mom came running down the stairs to ask me how my first day as a senior ast a whole new school was. I think she was expecting some exciting story about meeting a whole bunch of new people but instead i just replied "fine mom". She knew from the tone of my voice this it wasn't fine so she told me to tell her what really happened at school. so i said " nobody even talked to me or even glanced near me the whole day!" She replied telling me that its going to take awhile and it wasn't going to be easy and all i can do is be nice and to try and just say hello to a few people and see where it goes. I said alright i mean it sounded easy enough so i decided i would try and be friendly and say hi to a few people. Maybe it will work  maybe it won't but it's worth trying. 

      The next day i parked in the same spot in the back of the parking lot. I walked into my first class of the day being Math, my worst subject, and when i went to my seat i said hey to the girl whose seat was next to me. She didn't say anything back but she did smile which i took as a hello, so i guess its worked so far. In the middle of class the girl that sat next to me leaned over and said " hey do you have an extra pencil i could borrow?" I did happen to bring an extra pencil today so i gave it to her saying she could keep it. It wasn't much of a conversation but it was the first thing anybody had really said to me in the school, so i must say i was pretty excited. As i went through my other classes i would say hi so some of the kids in the class some would say hi back and others would smile but nobody really said much to me. I was alright with this because i thought this was a good start, at least they know i am a pretty nice kid. 

      When i got home today my mother didn't run up to me asking me how it was, instead i ran around the whole house trying to find her which i found her in the kitchen. She asked me if i had a good day and i said i had a great day, i took your advice and its working. I could tell she was happy for me but she said she had to leave and go run errands and i would have the house to myself for awhile. 

       I couldn't fall asleep at all during the night i was too excited for school, which i had never been in my life. But i guess the thought of making friends just got me excited. I eventually did fall asleep but i kept waking up thinking it was time to get ready. It came time to get up and get ready for school, so i got quickly and actually had a smile on my face the whole morning. I even got to school early but still decided for my back parking spot. 

       In my classes today i was nice and even got into some conversation with a couple kids in different classes. The conversations weren't anything special mostly just about what we were doing in the class and how to do it. I felt a lot more involved in school trying to meet new people, i was more focused on that than my actual school work. 

       By the end of the first week of school a few kids in my classes actually knew my name and i knew theirs. One step closer to becoming real friends, just have to keep being nice and helpful. The girl in my math class who was the first person to talk to me told me that she was single and i must say i felt more than wanting to be friends with her but that would be a while. 

        Days would go by and after a few weeks i actually would people started to consider me a friend and they would even introduce me to new people that weren't in my classes. I even got asked to sit with a few kids at their lunch table, which i was thankful for because i hated eating my lunch by myself. After about 2 months i felt apart of a group of friends. They were all like me nice kids, who got good grades but still liked to have fun. We would hang out on weekends and they would invite me to some of their parties or anything new that was happening and i would go to most of what they invited me to. My mom would often say that i actually look a lot happier here than i ever did in our hometown. I kinda think shes right but i guess that's what happens when you start things off right by being nice. 

1 Thing Could Change Your Life

Dan Wilson is one of the richest stock market brokers in the past decade. Mr. Wilson never knew how much money he had or how much he was spending, all he knew was he could do anything he wanted. He would spend thousands of dollars a day on stuff he didn't even need he just loved to spend his money. Mr. Wilson never donated money because he believes that people should work for their own money and not take in other peoples money. Mr. Wilson wasn't very liked but everybody had to deal with him because they all knew that he knew how to make money and make the right decisions.
         Growing up Mr. Wilson was in a very wealthy family. His dad was a successful CEO of a large corporation and his mother was a writer. His mother had many best sellers for three decades being one of the top writers of their time. Mr. Wilson had gone to an expensive private school full of other kids whose parents were well off. He didn't have many friends at his school because he sees others as competition and his way of thinking was that he wanted to be the best. He wasn't a bad kid and rarely got into any trouble, but he was more of a loner always keeping to himself. To this day Mr. Wilson has never been close to anyone and hasn't ever had a serious relationship with a woman. He only seemed to care about was making money which was what made him happy and that nothing else did.
        Mr. Wilson woke up at the same time he always did, doing all his morning routines as he did everyday before work. There was nothing different about this day, he was going into work to make more money for himself. He always walked to work since he only lived a few blocks away from his work. When he got to work he talked to some people asking anybody if they had any inside scoops about the day and what were good trades to make. He decided that this morning he was going to buy some expensive stock in what he thought were sure bets to make profit. The day was going great he already was making profits by selling off some other shares he had owned so he decided around lunchtime he was going to go out for lunch.
        Mr. Wilson walked down the street to a local restaurant called The Kings Restaurant. He ordered a big   burger which they were famous for. After his lunch he walked back towards the office, But when he looked through the front entrance he saw people running around all frantic and yelling. He ran in finding the closest person and grabbing them and asked what happened. He found out the Stock Market was crashing and he better start selling or else he was going to lose millions. Mr. Wilson ran to his computer to check his stocks, and he saw the guy was right all his stocks went down dramatically. He had lost already most of his money in stocks. Mr. Wilson being such a successful trader had put all his money in stock years before which had turned out now to be a bad idea. He thought no way this could happen it had to be a glitch in the system. When he finally realized it was really happening he quickly sold all his stocks for huge losses.
          It was 6 p.m. Mr. Wilson had just gotten back to his apartment and poured himself a drink. He was quite upset, in just one day he had lost nearly all his money. He knew looking around his apartment that his life was going to be dramatically changed. He poured himself a couple more glasses and decided to go to sleep, hoping something would change in the morning.
          He woke up the next morning got ready and decided to head to work a little early to see if there was any news. He got to work hoping somebody was going to tell him all of yesterday was a glitch and that all his money was going to be back. Instead when he got there he found out he was going to have to change his life. He Knew that he would never get that money back and that investing any more money in the market now would just add to his losses. He decided he was going to have to find a new job, find somewhere new to live, since he could no longer afford his lifestyle. He had barely any money left and he had nobody to help him out. His parents had died 7 years earlier in a car crash, and since he didn't have any money left, his rich friends stopped being his friend.
          Since the crash he found a cheap apartment that was a lot less nicer that his old one but it was the only one he could afford. He had to apply for welfare checks to help him get through each day. He turned to alcohol and abused it. He couldn't keep a steady job because of him abusing alcohol and even got arrested for a DUI. Mr. Wilson has now turned into the people he once wished never existed and thought they did it to there selves, that it was easy to get money and nobody deserves welfare. Before this he had never understood this way of life, that the people in his new situation are actually more hard working then the people who are making all the money.
         

Honesty is Always for the Best

It was the Christmas day, and mike was in the worst mood a 9 year old could be in after opening presents. All he wanted for Christmas was a Mp3 Player like all his friends had. He had written to Santa a Month before Christmas so he was sure Santa had Received it. In the Letter he had told Santa about all the good he has done and that he hasn't been in any trouble for the whole year. So when he woke up and ran down the stairs and ripped open all his gifts and saw no Mp3 Player he started to cry. He even thought that maybe the kids at school were right, maybe Santa isn't real! His parents wanted to get him what he wanted they really did but they just didn't have the money to spend this Christmas. Although seeing their son so upset they decided tomorrow they would bring him to the toy store and buy him a small toy of his choosing to try and bring his moral up.
Mike was still upset but the thought of getting another toy lifted his spirits. On the car ride to the toy store he thought about all the different toys he could choose from. But he knew the toy he really wanted he couldn't get. right when the car pulled into the parking spot Mike opened the door and ran into the store to find a new toy. His parents let Mike walk around the store by himself to find a toy. as Mike was walking through the aisles he was drawn to where they had the mp3 players on display. He thought to himself about how he had been a really good kid for the whole year so he really did deserve one. So He grabbed one of the ones from display and put it deep into his pocket. He went up to his parents and brought them a stuffed bear.They payed for the bear and Mike was really scared somebody was going to notice the player in his pocket. He almost lost it when they walked out of the store and the alarm went off but they checked their bag and though it was a mistake so they let the family go.
Mike and his parents got home and he ran right up and locked himself into his room which surprised his parents but they didn't think anything of it. The reason he did lock himself in his room was to go and play and use his new Mp3 player but he knew his parents would yell at him if they found out about it. So he decided he would have to keep it a secret and only use it when he was alone.
Then Mike started to think about what he had done. He knew it was a bad thing but he really wanted it so bad! However he knew he would never be able to look his parents in the eyes. He decided just to go to sleep and his guilt will be gone in the morning. Unfortunately he couldn't even fall asleep he just kept thinking about how much trouble he will be in if they find out. He then started to cry from the situation. Mikes mom and dad heard him crying and came in the room and asked him what's wrong. He told them he couldn't tell them that they would be upset and yell at him. But his dad promised if he was just honest and told the truth that he wouldn't get in any trouble, so he better just come clean now. Mike decided he better just show them so he could get some sleep. So he pulled out an old shoe box from under his bed and opened it up. He gave his dad the Mp3 Player and told his dad and mom that he took it from the toy store. His dad took the Mp3 Player and walked out of his room and told him to get some sleep but nothing else.
The next morning mike woke up not knowing what to expect from his parents during breakfast. His mom called up to him telling him to come down for breakfast. Mike sat down at the table with his head down staring at his cereal. His dad looked at him and said that they were going to the toy store after breakfast to return the toy. Mike was sad but relieved he would of never done it if he knew this is how it was going to turn out.
After breakfast he got into the car with his dad and they drove down to toy store to return the Mp3 Player. They went inside and his dad told him to go up to the owner and tell her what he did and to say he was sorry and give it back to her. Mike was scaredbut he knew he had to do it so he sucked it up and told the owner all about how he wrote to Santa about how good he has been and how bad he wanted a Mp3 Player and that it was the reason he took the one from the toy store. After Mike had finished telling her the story he went to give her it back but instead she said that he should keep it and that every time he uses it he should think about how telling the truth and being honest always is for the better. Mike was so excited he couldn't believe it and thanked her almost a thousand times, he couldn't believe that he now had finally gotten his Mp3 player that he wanted so badly. When he got home Mike told his parents that he would always be honest and good from now on.

My life As a Squirrel

As a squirrel, there are not many things I can do. Mostly I scam old people into feeding me. All they give me though is berries and nuts. Not even good nuts either, but walnuts. After I've gotten my fill, I scamper off down the road to the old oak tree. I am behind on food for the winter months and I'm unsure if I will be able to make it through the cold, frigid winter. As I was just about to go into my hole I heard a noise. What could it be? Another squirrel? An owl? I slowly peeked around the edge and came face to face with an owl! "Don't be afraid" the owl said, "I won't hurt you." I decided I'd be brave and try to befriend the owl so I slowly crept into the hole and stared up at the large owl. He didn't seem so bad but i decided maybe i should just stay away for now. When I woke up in the morning I was surprised to find that my nut stash had doubled! I knew right away that the Mr. Owl had done it. I knew that I would survive the winter with the help and protection of my new friend Mr. Owl.

The Boy and His Dog

It was Christmas Morning when the young Mathew was awoken by a dog bark. Now the Matt didn't think anything of it just thought it was one of the neighborhood dogs outside on a walk around the block with their owners. He had never had a dog his whole life even though he would ask and beg for a puppy every day, but each day his parents said no he wasn't allowed to have one. Matt jumped out of bed being excited thinking about all his presents downstairs. He went to go wake his parents up, because he wasn't allowed downstairs on Christmas until they were up, and to his surprise his parents weren't in their bed. So he yelled for his mommy and daddy which they were downstairs telling him to come down that they have been waiting for him to wake up. He thought this was strange, he had always had to pull and beg his parents out of bed but he didn't care. He ran down the stairs close to falling down the slippery stairs. Right when he turned the corner at the bottom of the stairs a puppy was running to him and jumped right into him knocking on the floor. When the puppy Finally stopped licking his face he sat up and his parents said "This is your present but you have to take care of him or else he has to go back." Matt was so happy and was so busy playing with the dog that he forgot to open any of his other gifts until his parents reminded him that Santa left him a few gifts under the tree. He liked all his other gifts but all he could think about is his new puppy and what he was going to name him. His dad suggested Max, and Matt and his mom agreed that it was a good name. After the rest of the gifts were opened they decided it would be a good time to teach Matt responsibility by letting him feed Max.Matt thought to himself taking care of max was going to be more fun then hard work. As he watched Max eat he couldn't help think about all the adventures they were going to have. From the moment he saw that puppy of his he knew he had a new best friend.