Scout & The Bullies Of Barksville

 

SCOUT & THE BULLIES OF BARKSVILLE

By

Davan

                                                                 Chapter 1

                                                                

     Barksville is a town where ONLY dogs live. No pet-owners live here—the dogs take

 care of themselves.  Now as far back as anyone can remember, this Barksville place 

has been run by the Golden Retrievers.  Other dog breeds live here as well, but 

remember, it’s the Golden Retrievers that run the show!  The Golden Retrievers got

 dibs on pretty much everything in Barksville.  They got dibs on all the best tables at

 The Biscuit Café.  They got dibs on all the best public water fountains.  (The other

 ones only dribbled warm water.)  And they naturally got dibs on all the golden fire

 hydrants in town.  As you can tell, life in Barksville wasn’t all that great and fair for

 doggies—that is unless, of course, you were shiny-coated Golden Retriever strutting

around with a snout up in the air!

     Anyhow, if that all didn’t seem bad enough, the one thing about Barksville that

 really seemed more crummy than anything else was how these Golden Retrievers

 even had dibs on something called the Giant Golden Biscuit.

     No one knows exactly where this giant biscuit came from.  According to legend, 

however, it was supposed to be the biggest and most dog-drooling, tastiest treat 

imaginable!  It could probably feed a dog town like Barksville, and keep tails wagging

 for a year, (which is really seven years on a dog calendar). 

     Now in the middle of Barksville is a four-story building where this Giant Golden 

Biscuit is kept behind glass on the top floor.  This place is like a museum, but the only

 kind of art shown there, of course, is really for Golden Retrievers.  There’s    all Golden

 Retriever art, like the Bone-alisa and portraits of Golden Retriever presidents.  After 

you press “4” with your paw, you can ride the elevator with the automatic doors up 

to the top floor where there it is, there behind thick glass and guarded by spy 

cameras everywhere—the yummiest of yummy—The Golden Biscuit…

     It was on a rainy Sunday afternoon when a Black Lab by the name of Scout decided

 to go to this museum because he was bored.  Well, after looking at all the Golden

 Retriever art on the second and third floors, he finally got his chance to see for

 himself what this legendary biscuit thing was all about.

     The doors opened and he saw the biggest, shiniest, most golden biscuit of them all,

 and there was a sign under it that read “DO NOT TOUCH.”

     “I don’t get it,” he said to himself.  And then he looked at a dog family of 

Pomeranians all panting and standing next to him.  “What good is looking at a biscuit

 this amazing?” he said to them.  “Biscuits are for eating, aren’t they?… Not looking 

at!”

     They all looked at him as if somebody had rolled-up some newspapers, and then they quickly scampered away. 

     Scout was left there by himself, staring into the glass, wondering why it was under the glass.

     “Someday everyone will share this biscuit!” said Scout.

Then he heard a mean Doberman Pinscher growl, “HEY YOU!  YOUR’E NOT SUPPOSED TO GET THAT CLOSE TO THE BISCUIT!  GIT!” 

     Scout bolted out of there.

Chapter 2

     One breezy, summer afternoon, some of the snobbiest Golden Retrievers strutted 

into Spot’s Meat Shop Deli.  Mac, Ally, and George were ordering sausage and bacon

 and ham from Spot when in walked a little Maltese, panting.  He began slurping a

 bowl of fresh water and ice cubes.

     “Hey, Spot,” said George, “isn’t this deli for Golden Retrievers only?”

     “Ummm, yeah,” replied the owner.  “I’m sorry little guy.  You can’t stay.”

     “Huh?!?! Um, I was just getting a sip …”

     The three Golden Retrievers started all barking at the Maltese.

     “Stop flapping jowls!” growled Mac.  “Spot’s is for GRs only!!”

     The helpless little white dog lowered his head and whimpered all the way out the 

glass door.   The gang chuckled.

     On his way to the dog path, he bumped into a furry, black unfamiliar face.

     “Oh, so sorry,” he said to the Black Lab.  “My name is Tiny.  I’m new here.  Do you

 know where I could get a cold bowl of water?  I just got kicked outta that deli over

 there.”

     “Hello, my name is Scout.  I’m not surprised you got kicked out of Spot’s,” said the

 Lab.  “There are some rules you’re gonna have to learn here if you wanna get along.”

     Tiny tilted his head to one side.

     “What’s that?”

     “The GRs run everything here in Barksville, and they don’t let any other breeds in 

many of the best places.”

     “WHY?!?!?” asked Tiny.

     “Well, because they think they’re the best – so don’t even try to talk them out of it 

because they’ll beat you up like they do to everybody who doesn’t go along with

 them.”

     “They sound like nothing but bullies.  That ain’t so great!”

     “Nope,” replied Scout, “but you know what is great?”

     “What?”

     “Chasing your tail!  C’mon!  Try it!”

     They both chased their own tails till they fell to the ground laughing.

     “Hey, Scout.”

     “Yeah, Tiny?”

     “I’ll be your guard if you’ll be mine,” he barked bravely.

     “That’s a great idea,” said Scout.  “Thanks.  I’m glad I made a friend.”

                                        

                                                                Chapter 3

                                                                 

          The next day, after sleeping in the bushes, Tiny saw Scout digging a hole.  This is how he kept his nails super-sharp!  Now since Tiny really had nowhere to rest, Scout

offered him a sofa at his house.  Tiny replied with a happy yes, and he followed Scout 

two blocks home.  When they arrived at Scout’s house, he followed Scout through the

doggie door, and then Scout showed Tiny where he could sleep. 

     “You get my greatest couch, best seat in the house!!”

     “Thank you,” Tiny said.  “Hey, Scout, what breed are you?”

     “Black Lab.  Blackish.  What are you?”

     “Magnificent Maltese.”

     “Cool.”

     Life together at 12 Rottweiler Road was fantastic!  They talked about all kinds of 

stuff, especially what they were going to do about GRG (The Golden Retriever Gang)

and all their bullying, but they really never got anywhere with all their talks.  That 

was until one day, Scout remembered something.

     “Hey, Tiny, you ever hear about the Giant Golden Biscuit?” asked Scout. 

     “No…” answered Tiny

     “Well, let me fill you in on everything…”

      Scout told Tiny everything about the Giant Golden Biscuit in the museum, and how

 the mean GRs would tell everyone in town that the Biscuit was to be seen and never

 eaten.  He finally ran out of words to say. 

     “Hmm, that’s not fair!” howled Tiny, “that is terrible!”

     “Yeah, maybe one day we’ll get to do something about it, eh?”

     “Mmm.  Yeah.  Maybe.”

Chapter 4

     Tiny wanted to surprise his friend Scout with a present for letting him stay for so 

long on his sofa. 

     “I know,” he said as he was walking along the dog path, “a toy from Ally’s Toy

 Store.  Small toys are free on Tuesday!!”

     Tiny poked his furry head into Ally’s Toy Store and went inside.  It was full of toy

 bones, squeaky toys, and balls.  Suddenly, he saw that pack of Golden Retrievers. 

 This scared Tiny. 

     “Oh, no!  GRG!” cried Tiny, “and it’s that George dog from Spot’s deli!”

     He was the roughest GR in town.  Meaner than a hungry lion king.

     “Hey!  Look who it is, gang.”  Their teeth were pointy daggers.  “What’s the 

matter?” asked George, “You afraid or something?”  Instantly, they nipped him and

 then ganged up on him in the corner.

     “Here,” said Mac, “You want a toy?” 

George and Mac pushed a shelf of toys on Tiny.  Poor helpless Tiny squeezed out from 

under a shelf. 

     When they were done laughing, they all sprinted out of Ally’s store and left Tiny

 shivering.  He looked like he’d bungee jumped off the building without a bungee

 cord.   

     For the first time in Ally’s life, she felt bad for the horrible, cruel things GRG did to 

dogs.  Ally picked up a small blue toy and gave it to Tiny. 

     “Here’s your toy.  Sorry.”

     Tiny walked to Scout’s house with a long blue fuzzy toy in his mouth.  Tiny entered 

the doggie door smiling weakly, and he put the funny toy on Scout’s bed.  He went 

back on his sofa like nothing happened but was still shivering.  When Scout saw the 

toy he was happy, until he saw Tiny so beat up. 

     “What happened Tiny!??!!?”

     “Well, I walked into Ally’s to get you something for letting me stay here, because you are so nice, and that’s when I ran into the Golden Retrievers.”

     “Poor thing… I’ll clean you up.”  Scout brought back a wet cloth from the 

bathroom.  “Hey, little buddy, thanks for the toy!” said Scout.  “You know, I’m getting

 sick of the GRG.  We should fight back...”

     “How?  They run everything.”

     “Remember what I told you about that gigantic biscuit at the GR Museum?”

     “Yeah.”

     “Well, we’re gonna steal it.”

Chapter 5

     The day after the bullying, Tiny and Scout went to the GR Museum, and when it

 came time for closing, they kept very, very still. 

     “Tiny, if we pretend that we are statues, no one will know we are real, so when the

 Doberman security guys leave, we can steal that enormous biscuit on the top floor…”

 Scout whispered.

     “Okay, but shouldn’t we be golden?” asked Tiny. 

     Before Tiny finished another wag of his tail, Scout looked around and pointed to a 

sign that read, “NEW EXHIBIT!  NOT READY, YET!!!”  Above the sign was a statue of 

something GR behind glass covered by a golden drape.  Scout got his claw out and 

scraped round and round and round until there was a circle hole.  The glass popped 

out.

     “Come on little buddy, jump in, grab that blanket off the sculpture,” Scout told 

Tiny.  Tiny flopped in and pulled it out.

     When no one was looking, Scout threw the blanket up in the air and once it fell

 over them, they pretended that they were the new exhibit that wasn’t ready yet, Tiny

 hiding underneath Scout. 

     Once they saw the security guard dogs leave for the night and lock the door, the

 blanket flew off and they zoomed to the elevator and pressed the “up” button, their hearts pounding.

     When the elevator opened, they scooted inside and pressed “4.”  Up-up-up.  The 

doors finally opened.   At night, the room was very dark, but the glass case lit up with 

a very dark shade of gold. 

     “Wow!” said Tiny, “it’s beautiful.”

     “Yeah… yummy too.”

     “Yeah, I bet.”

     “Now stay close to me, Tiny, so that the security cameras don’t see you.  I’m black,”

 whispered Scout, “so I blend in with the dark…”

     They walked towards the Giant Golden Biscuit.    

     “Okay,” said Tiny, “now how are we gonna lower it outta here?”

     “We’ll float it out.”

     “Huh?”

     Scout snuck over to a fire hose by the exit door and pulled it back to Tiny.

     “Okay, now take this fire hose, jump up on my head, and drop the nozzle into the case.”

      Scout put his paws up on the glass and once Tiny’s teeth crunched down on nozzle,

 he ran up Scout’s back with it.  Once he was balanced atop of Scout’s big black head

, he dropped it over the side of the glass.  Then he jumped off.

     “Okay, now watch this, “said Scout, returning to the wall.  He used his mouth to 

turn the knob.

     Up-up-up, the water rose.  Up-up-up, the giant biscuit floated.

     “Yipes!” said Tiny.  “It’s almost at the top.”    

     “Okay, now go over to the exit door and open it,” Scout told Tiny. 

     The Giant Golden Biscuit floated up, and over the glass, and then in a waterfall it 

went down in a swoosh and gently floated out the exit door. 

     “Wow!” said Tiny, “Hurry, let’s go and follow it.”

     They watched it splash down the fire escape like a log streaming down a river.

DOWN it dropped until it hit the street and smashed into a million tiny little pieces. 

 Tiny and Scout scurried down after it.

     “Sorry,” Scout said.  “That wasn’t supposed to exactly happen that way, little 

buddy...”

Chapter 6

 

     Lights went on EVERYWHERE all over Barksville. 

     “What do we do now!” asked Tiny.

     “I don’t know…  I think we’re in trouble, little buddy.”

     Dogs of all colors all over town came out to see what happened.  The Golden 

Retrievers came out, too.  And of course, the Doberman Pinscher police arrived there,

 as well.

     Millions of golden biscuit chunks everywhere for as far as anyone could see.  The 

GRs and the Dobermans looked up and down and a police dog saw the exit door at 

the top of the museum open with water still coming out of it.

     The sound of chomping was everywhere!

     “Hey!” shouted Mac, “it’s the Giant Golden Biscuit!”

     “Ain’t so giant anymore,” said Spot.

     “STOP!” yelled George in his most ferocious voice.  “YOU ARE EATING THE GOLDEN

 BISCUIT!  STOP!”

     Ally was there, too, and she sniffed and nibbled a little piece.

     “Umm, George?” she said after she swallowed it.  “This tastes unbelievable.”

     “And we definitely can’t put it back together again…” added Mac. 

     George grumbled and growled and decided to take a bite.  Suddenly a dog smile

 came upon his face. 

     Dog smiles were everywhere!

     “Wow!” shouted Tiny.  “This town oughta be happy for years to come!”

     Scout slurped his jowls.

     “Uh-huh!  Which is reeeeaaaaalllllly long in dog years!”

 

                                                                                                                                              

                                                                                                                                                                                

THE END

End Story

End Story

By Lily

Chapter One – Jack

       “Jack!” called Luke as he burst open the door to my room. “Are you going to sleep all day?” He shook me and I groggily sat up.

“Huh, what do you want Luke?” I said wiping the sleep out of my eyes with the back of my hand.

       “I said,” he started, “are you…”

       “Wait,” I said, my eyes suddenly widening. “Is that a bagel?”

       “Of course, it’s a black sesame seed bagel with cream cheese on it.” He paused to take a bite out of it. “I was going to give it to you for breakfast, but,” sighing, he said, “it doesn’t seem like you want it. So I’ll just eat this delicious bagel.” Luke took another bite, chewing it slowly.

       “I do want it,” I said. “So give it to me.”

       “What’s the magic word?” said Luke.

       “Now.” I responded.

       “Wrong word.” He waved the bagel in front of my face.

       “Do I have to?”

       “Yep.” I leapt for the bagel. He moved it above his head. I knew I could reach it with a jump. Luke jumped, too.

       “I give up. Please.”

       “Please what?” questioned Luke.

       “Can I have the bagel?”

       “I didn’t hear a please in that.”

       “Please can I have the bagel?”

       “Here you go.” Luke plopped the bagel down in my open hands. “See, it wasn’t all that hard.” He pointed to my clock, “You do know that you’re going to be late, right?” The green face of my clock read 7:13 a.m.

       “Yikes.” I pushed him out of my room and locked the door. I threw on my best outfit, and stuffed my homework in my backpack, which was lying in a heap on the floor and swung it over my shoulder. I heard a rustling noise near my door. “Luke, come in.” He came in.

       “Just so you know,” he started. I ignored him.

       “I’m kind of in a rush, so you can tell me later.” I opened the window. The maple tree branches scraped the glass. “Bye.”

       “Jack, this is the second floor, you know,” said Luke.

       “Yep. I know, and this,” I gestured to the branches, “is a tree.”

       “How do you know the branches are sturdy enough?” Luke asked.

       “I’ve done this thousands of times before. Loosen up.” I stuck one foot on the windowsill. “Besides, Mom’s not here to tell me not to.”

       “Mom…”

       I cut him off. “I know, Mom’s still in Miami with her tweeting dolphins, she won’t be back for another week.” I can also miss Nora’s party, I said to myself silently.

       “Just who do you think is in Miami?”

       “Mom,” I gasped. She was standing in the doorway, arms crossed. “What are you doing here!”

       “I caught an overnight flight back here because I have a new offer. You’re coming with me back to Miami to listen to ‘tweeting dolphins’.” She walked right up to me. “Dolphins are intelligent creatures. ‘Tweeting’ is actually their way of communicating.”

       “I’m sorry,” I said hastily.

       “How would you like it if someone called your talking tweeting?”

       “I wouldn’t like it. So, when are we going to Miami?” I asked.

       “Tonight,” she said firmly. “Dad already has a room.”  Mom gave me a glare. “You are going to school and Nora’s party.” I groaned. School was fine with me but the party disastrous. Nora was my mom’s friend’s daughter who was five.  Every time she didn’t get what she wanted from someone she would throw a fit and everybody would go home and not come back next year. I was the only one who stayed last year after she put cake in everybody’s hair because she got a purple teddy bear instead of a pink one.  It’s embarrassing for a twelve-year-old to attend a little kids party, but it got ten times worse when my mom had said, “We’ll stay and help clean up.”

       “Party is at 4:45. Flight is at 6:00. We leave after the party. I think you should go because it is already,” she paused to glance at the clock, “7:15.”

       “What?” I exclaimed and leaped onto the nearest branch as agile as a monkey. “Bye Mom, bye Luke, see you after school!” I swung down, my sneakers hitting the ground. I took off running down the street. “Jacklyn! Never ever do that again!” said my mom. It was too late.

      

Chapter two – Kate

       The gravity pulling at my chest was immense. The front wheel of the plane was off the ground. The hum of the airplane vibrated my eardrums as I stared out the window and watched the heat waves come of the brittle grass. I squinted in the bright Hawaiian sun and shut the window. I could feel the plane rising. The bright sunlight was directed straight at my window. I snapped the window shut and took out a book. I opened the window. We were already in the clouds. Everything was white all of a sudden. We were in a cloud!

       “Dad, look.” I whispered as if it were a spell that my voice would break. “We’re in a cloud; everything is white!”

       “Interesting,” said my dad without looking up from his novel. I turned back to the window.

       “You don’t seem to care,” I mumbled. This time he heard.

       “I do care, it’s just that I’ve been inside a cloud before.” He leaned towards the window, his book now on his lap.

       “It’s all white!” I exclaimed in awe. “What would it be like if the clouds went all the way to the ground? Then we could be walking through clouds.” I turned back to look at my dad.

       “That would be awesome!”

       “Look,” said my dad pointing out the window. I glanced back, the cloud was gone.

       “At least I got to be in a cloud. I might not again though. My first,” I sighed.

       “No,” Dad said, picking up his book. “You’ve been in a cloud before.” He turned his eyes away from the window.  “When you were really little.”

       “Really?” I asked.

       “Yes,” he responded. “We were in a cloud.” He looked me straight in the eye. “We weren’t in a plane, we were in a boat.”

       “A boat?” I was puzzled. “How could we be in a cloud if we weren’t in the sky?”

       My dad leaned back in his seat. He winked at me. “That is what I don’t know. It is up to you to try to figure out this mysterious phenomenon.”

       “You know, don’t you?” I said.

       He winked at me again. “Maybe I do, maybe I don’t”

       “If you won’t tell me that, then…” I said, “Where were we?”

       “In a boat.”

       “No, I mean where was the boat?” He wasn’t giving me the answers I wanted so I was starting to get annoyed.

       “I’ll tell you later.” He looked at me. “Maybe at the airport.”

       “Okay.” I was satisfied. I reached down and pulled my bag out from under the blue plane seats. I reached in and took out a book and relaxed.

Chapter three – Anya

       The fog of a misty morning was not dispersing as the sun rose above the horizon line. Shortcut, I thought to myself, a graveyard shortcut.  I walked along the cracked and bumpy sidewalk.  The entrance was just a few paces.  I heard a rustle behind me.  I whirled around.  Nobody was there, just a moving bush.  Just the wind, I thought.  What else, it was just the wind.

       “Caw, caw, caw.” I jumped back.  My ankle hit a root.  I tried to stand but I fell.

       “Must’ve sprained my ankle,” I muttered.

       “Here,” said a voice.  I turned to look at the source.  It was a girl my age.  Waist-length blond hair and deep brown, almost black, eyes.  Her eyes didn’t look like dark pits, they looked more shiny black, as if they were made of the black stone, obsidian.  “Do you need help getting up?” she asked.

       “Um...Yes.”  I balanced myself on one hand and grasped hers with the other.  “I might have sprained my ankle.”

       “I’ll help you get home then.”

       “Thanks.”  I took her hand and she pulled me upward.  As soon as my ankle touched the ground, I winced.  “My name is Anya.  What’s your name?”

       “Ashlei.”  She bent down and undid her headband.  “You can call me Ash.”  Ash wrapped my ankle in the band.  “Where do you live?”

       “Twenty-nine Concord Street.  That way.”  I pointed east.  I leaned on Ash’s shoulder and hobbled down the street.  I avoided the cracks, afraid to injure my ankle more.  After a while, we got to the maroon house.  “Here,” I simply said.  Ashlei helped me up the driveway.  “Dad,” I called once I had opened the door.  “Are you there?”

       “Yes, honey?” his voice sounded from upstairs.

       “Can you come down here? I sprained my ankle,” I called out.  I heard the thump, thump, thump of Dad coming down the stairs.

       “Are you okay?” he asked once he appeared in the doorway.

       “I’ll be fine,” I said.  Dad just noticed Ash.

       “Who’s your friend?”  He stared at me quizzically.

       “This is Ashlei…” I realized I didn’t know her last name.

       “Kimberly,” Ash filled in.  “You can call me Ash.”

       “Hello, Ash.  I’m Anya’s dad, David McFyer.”

       “Hello Mr. McFyer,” said Ash.

       “No, just David is fine.”

       “Come on,” I complained, “injured person here.”  Dad and Ash helped me into the house.

       “Ash,” asked my father. “Could you please help me bring our suitcases to the front door?  We are leaving to go to the airport in a little bit.”

       “The airport?” asked Ash.  “What for?”

       “We stopped here because there was a two-day stop in between our super-cheap connecting flight.  We live in West Virginia, this is just my Grandma’s house, but she’s on a trip and she’s letting us use it.”

       Ashlei looked stunned for a moment. 

       “Okay,” she said, seeming to get what I was talking about. 

       “You had better hurry. We have to be at the airport soon,” Dad said.  He shut the door after Ash and I had hobbled past.  “Anya can you wake your sister?”

       “Sure,” I called behind me.  Ash and I were almost to the stairs by now. She was practically dragging me as I attempted to hop up them on one foot.  “Ash,” I said once we had gotten to the top.  “My room’s the one on the left.  No, wait, I mean right” I hopped down to the door on the left of mine.  The door opened with a creak.  I quickly shut the door behind me after I entered the room.  There was some light peeking through the windows.  “Heather,” I whispered.  No response.  “Heather,” I said a little louder.  “Heather, Heather, Heather!”

       “What is it?”  Heather groggily said.

       “Are you awake yet?  We need to leave to get to the airport.”

       “Yes,” she said, the covers pulled high over her head.  “The suitcase is by the door if you are looking for it.”  I shook her as best as I could on one foot.  “What?” she groaned.

       “You have to carry the suitcase downstairs,” I said.

       “Why?” asked Heather.

       “I sprained my ankle.”

       Heather waited a moment, then got out of bed.

       “I guess I’ll do it.”  She looked at my foot hovering above the floor. “Just don’t forget you owe me.”  I hopped out of the room and accidentally put my foot down.  It did not hurt anymore.  Heather came out of her room and noticed my foot on the ground.

       “So, you were lying!” she exclaimed.

“No,” I said.  “It was hurting then but now it doesn’t.”

       “Anyway.”  She tossed me her suitcase.  “You can carry this now, right?”  I sighed.

       “I’ll bring it down,” I said.  Tugging it down the stairs, I rounded the corner.  What did she keep in her suitcase?  I thought.  Rocks?  Concrete?

       “Did your foot get better?” my dad asked.

       “Yeah, it just suddenly did.”

       “Then it probably wasn’t a sprain.”

       “Most likely,” I said, hauling the suitcase into the trunk.  “Let’s get going.”

Chapter Four - Izzy

       The thump of the suitcases against a marble floor was like a heart beating.  I opened the employees-only door.  A few passersby gave me strange looks like, “ What’s that girl doing going into an off-limits place?”  And, “Should I call Security?”

       “Izzy,” I heard a voice call, “how are you?”  My mom came around the corner just as the door slammed shut.

       “Good,” I replied.

       “Can you take this letter to Ms. McGregory at the information desk?”

       “Sure,” I took the letter from her and turned to run.

       “Wait,” called Mom.  I turned.  “You might need this.”  She took her ID tag off her neck.

       “Why?”

       “There’s someone new at Security.  He might give you a little bit of a hassle.  So just show this to him.”

       “Thanks,” I said, dashing out the door.

       I had only gotten about ten yards when Fred, the head of Security at the airport, walked up to me.

       “I heard that an unidentified young minor had gone through an off-limits door.”  He paused and gave me a friendly glare.  “Was that you?”

       I crossed my arms.  “‘Unidentified young minor,’ who else?”

       “Knew it!” He said triumphantly.  “So best be on your way.”

       “Bye!” I said, sprinting down the hallway.

       “Izzy, no running!”  Fred yelled after me.  I slowed to a jog before speeding up after I rounded the corner, out of view.

       I got to the Security checkpoint and started to walk through.

“Wait!” yelled someone.  I paused to look at him.  “What are you doing?  You need to wait in line.”

       I sighed.  “I have a letter to deliver to Martha McGregory at the information desk.”

       “Do you have an ID pass?”  He asked.  I grabbed my mom’s pass and handed it to him.  He eyed me curiously.  “Come with me,” he said.  I followed him to the Security office.  “In,” was all he said when he opened the door to Fred’s office.

       “Izzy!” exclaimed Fred, spilling some of the coffee he was drinking.  “What are you doing here?”

       “Well,” I started, “I was going to see Ms. McGregory but…” I pointed behind me.

       “I see,” he said.  “Jacob let her go to Ms. McGregory.”  He spotted the ID pass in Jacob’s hand.  “Izzy did not steal that pass.  Laura Green gave it to her.”

       “Why would Laura give it to her?” Jacob pointed at me. Fred sipped his coffee.

       “Simple reason.  She’s her daughter and she does her errands, right?”  He winked at me.  Jacob left to go back to his post.  He gave me back the pass and I went through Security easy.

       When Ms. McGregory’s desk came into view I slowed down to a walk.  “Ms. McGregory,” I said, taking the letter out of my pocket.  “This is from my mom.”

       “Can I help you?”  She looked up from her work. “Oh.” 

       “A letter from Laura,” I said.  She took off her glasses which hung upon a string around her neck. 

       “Thank you, Izzy.”

       “You’re welcome,” I said before dashing off into the crowd.  Run right, run left, dodge the woman with the baby carriage.  I ran toward a girl standing alone in the center of a decorative circle shaped like a clock on the airport floor.  Was she muttering something?  I couldn’t make out what she was saying.  I couldn’t stop running. Everything seemed to slow down around me.  I hit her.   

      

Chapter five - Jack

       I kicked a rock as I walked along the rocky shores leading down to the ocean.  Something glimmered out of the corner of my eye.  I walked over and picked it up.  It was a stone, rubbed smooth by the beat of the sea so it looked vaguely like sea glass.  The stone glistened like a jewel, its colors changing from blue to fiery red in the sunset.  Pocketing it, I ran up the worn stairs to the bench in front of my house. The wet grass soaked my feet.  I sat down on the warped wood and stared out over the ocean to the West and watched the sun set.  It had been a horrible day, and now a party I didn’t even want to go to, and just to make things worse, we had to fly to Miami right after that.  My mind shifted to the stone.  I pulled it out of my pocket.  It shimmered in the dying sunlight, sparkling like a thousand diamonds.  I cupped my hand around the stone so no light would shine.  I marveled as the stone still held some glow. 

       “Wow,” I exclaimed. 

       The last rays of the sun were dying out over the ocean. The sun was being swallowed up by the waves’ ebb and flow. 

       “Jack, time for dinner,” came Mom’s voice from the porch.

       “Just a minute,” I cried back.

       “Don’t be late or I’ll feed your dinner to the cat.” She turned away from the edge of the porch and went inside.  I trudged up the slight slope, hearing the slish, slash, slack sound my sneakers made against the ground.  I started to climb the steps.  The sky was dark, but no stars shined.  The wind began to howl. Then the rain came down in sheets.  I was underneath an overhang so I barely missed getting wet. 

       “Jack” shouted mom, leaning out the back door.  “Jack!”

       “Mom!” I yelled trying to be heard over the wail of the wind. “I’m over here!”

       Mom looked down, her face concerned. “Hurry.”  I climbed the stairs, my back pressed against the wall to avoid getting soaked.  I quickly leapt through the doorway.  Mom closed the door behind me.

       “Time for dinner,” she said as if the storm was not raging outside.  I walked into the dining room and sat down at the table. 

       “What’s for dinner?” I asked.

       “Buffalo salad with extra mayonnaise and Brussels sprouts.”  She handed the bowl to me. I quickly pushed it away, wrinkling my nose. 

       “Yuck, I hate that,” I said.  ‘I should have come later then she would have feed my dinner to the cat,’ I thought.

       “You should just try it,” she said. 

       “I’ve tried it a thousand times.” 

       “Then you should try it one more time!”

       “I said I ha…” Mom gave me a glare.  “Extremely dislike it.”

       “You should try it,” said Luke from across the table “Don’t worry, it tastes good with ketchup.”  He was pouring a mountain of ketchup on his dish. 

       “Eww, Luke don’t do that in front of me!”  I tried to block him and his stomach-lurching meal from my view. 

       “Sure, Jacklyn,”

       “Don’t call me that,” I practically shouted.      

       “Sure, Jacklyn I won’t call you that,” he said sarcastically. 

       I sighed. “can I be excused?” 

       “You haven’t touched your food!” Mom exclaimed. 

       “I’m not very hungry,” I lied. 

       “Okay,” replied Mom, “but I can’t guarantee that there will be leftovers.” 

       “That’s fine.”  I left the dining room and climbed the stairs to my bedroom.  I fished out my old jewelry making kit that I had gotten for Christmas five years ago.  Then I pulled the stone out of my pocket, examining it closely I saw that there was a small hole that I could put a chain through.  I fished a silver chain out of the box and looped it through the hole.      

       “Jack, come, now,” yelled Mom from downstairs. 

       “Coming,” I replied.  I fumbled with the clasp and got it around my neck.  I glanced at the clock.  It was only 3:56. Nora's party was at 4:45.  Not bothering to dwell on it any longer I rushed downstairs. 

       Mom grabbed my shoulders. “Do you have all your stuff in the car?” she asked me. Startled by her sudden attitude all could do was nod.  “Come on, let’s go.”  She practically shoved me out the door and into the car. 

       Once I was in the car I asked her my question. “What’s going on?” Luke stuck his head into the back seat.

       “You see, because of this unpredicted catastrophic weather, our flight has been cancelled.  The plane company, Southwest, has been so kind as to give us a flight on an earlier plane, as in, a 5:15 flight.”

       Giving a sigh of relief that I didn't have to go to Nora’s party anymore, I leaned back into my seat.

                      

      

Chapter six - Anya

       The rain drizzled on the window making a tap-tap-tap sound. Tap-tap-tap. I glanced up.  The tapping noise came from my sister.

       "Hey spacey Anya, who was that girl?"

       "Girl?" I asked.

       "Blonde hair, creepy jet-black eyes, wandering about our house with your suitcase. Remember anything now?"

       " Oh," I exclaimed. "Ash."

       "Nice name," Heather retorted, her words coated in sarcasm,  "matches her eye color."

       “Ash has obsidian eyes not creepy jet-black, ash-colored eyes. Plus her full name is Ashlei."

       "Well, she went home," said Heather. 

       “Mmm.” I went back to staring out the rain-soaked window in silence.

       We pulled up to the airport terminal in a yellow taxi cab. The gruff driver unloaded our luggage and we wheeled it to the ticket counter. We checked in our baggage and got our tickets. We walked over to the security check point. I took off my shoes and coat. Heather put her purse in one of the baskets. I stepped forward through the metal detector with no beeps.  I saw a security guard, whose tag read Jacob, wince as he moved my sister’s suitcase off the conveyer belt for inspection.  I stifled a laugh.  I put on my shoes and hurried over to look at the arrival and departure board.

       "Gate C4 to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Gate C17 to Detroit, Michigan. Gate A11 to Chicago, Illinois. Ah, there it is," I murmured. "Gate B13 to Sacramento, California." Just then someone hurled forward toward me and hit me at full speed. The wind was knocked out of me. The girl looked my age, 12, and she had long black hair that was tied neatly in a ponytail. That was all I remembered.

Chapter 7 - Kate

       The impact made me feel as if I should be dead. I was thrown back and forth against the seat. Every bone in my body ached with the weight of the sky falling down on me.   Everything around me shattered, my seatbelt snapped, the plane was falling apart.  I was floating up from my seat.  Everything slowed down around me, then sped up.  I curled my arms around myself, bracing for the impact as I flew into the cockpit door.  The glass shattered in front of me, covering my arms in wounds that stung worse than a million hornet stings. They burned my skin, and froze it. I was being torn apart.  I hit the plane windshield, or where it should be.  The impact of my head against the fresh air jarred my vision. I tried to take a breath but my throat wouldn't work, and the ever-black sky turned darker.  I saw two girls sprawled on top of each other, another girl next to them with brown-blonde hair.  Just then I knew the answer to my dad’s riddle. 

       “Fog.”

       Then I felt nothing, eyes closed I plunged downward, towards solid earth.  I knew that I was going to die.   

       “...Up, Wake up.”  My vision blurred into focus.  I saw three girls standing around me.  The girl with the black hair spoke. I recognized her voice as the one who first spoke to me.

“Can you hear me?”  I nod.  “Who are you?” I ask.  The girl with the frizzy red hair smiled and answered “Survivors.” 

       “Your name?” The frizzy haired girl went first. “Anya,” she said. Then the brown haired girl. “Jack,” she said.  The black-haired girl replied, “Izzy.”

        I thought for a moment and then said, “I am Katerina Lariat.”  A voice in the back of my head whispered, ‘You should be dead.’  Then I remember.  The plane crash, everything.  I dropped my head, and gripped the covers of my bed.  ‘I should be dead,’ I think, ‘but that isn’t what matters. What matters is that I’m alive.’  After what seemed like hours of silence, thinking about what happened, reviewing the scenes, I slowly looked up at them. “I…”  the words caught in my throat. Taking a deep breath, I said my words with as much confidence as I could muster.  “I think it is time to write a story.” I forced a little smile onto my face. “Our end story.”