The Trojan Horse

Author’s Note: I am comparing and contrasting the cops from Twenty-One jump street and the Greeks in the Trojan Horse.

The Trojan Horse is like the two cops from Twenty-one Jump Street. They are alike in many different ways, one way is that the Greeks gave the Trojan Horse to the Trojans and hid people inside of it. In Twenty-one Jump Street the two cops go undercover back to high school as teenagers to help solve who is dealing drugs at their school. Both the Greeks and the cops are undercover. What were their differences? Did they have any?

Maybe there weren't a lot of contrasts, but they sure did have one! In the Trojan Horse there wasn't just one person nor two people, there were multiple. For Twenty-One Jump Street there are only two undercover cops. I think that only have two people go back to high school was a smart choice for that situation, so that if they didn't have like five new kids, people wouldn't be suspicious that something was going on. I also think that having multiple people go undercover for the Trojan Horse  was a good choice for that situation because they were planning on attacking. When you are planning to attack you want to have as many people as you can.

Pretty Feet?

Author's Note: In this essay I decided to write about China and it's culture and how it compares and contrasts to ours. Make sure to pay attention to the introduction. 

Imagine someone judging beauty by your feet. Well. in China, you were judged on the size of your feet. If you had small feet, you were bound to be liked and you were considered beautiful. In the US, it's a whole different story. If you had long feet, you were more likely not to be liked as much as the girls with the smaller feet were. Here in the U.S, unlike in China, you are not defined by how pretty you are by your feet, but by who you are and what you look like.

People get defined by a lot of things, looks, style, or even actions. One of the more common ways that people are "defined" is by their culture. Some people just look at someone and say "Oh, they’re from China," and they judge them solely on their culture and ethnicity. Here in the U.S, our culture is what we are taught from our families. In China, their culture is different from ours. Everyone in China does the same things. For instance, back in the older days for girls, to be considered beautiful, you had to have small feet. Therefore, if the girls had long feet, some of their parents would either tie ribbons around their feet or make them wear really small tight shoes to make their toes curl under their feet.

Here in the U.S you are noticed for your features. Many girls wear make-up to make their faces look "prettier". Some people wear it because their friends wear it, and they want to be like their friends. On the other hand, some just wear it to make them feel better about themselves, and to hopefully make them look more "pretty."

In my opinion, trying to look pretty or to be popular isn’t important in life. People should either just like you for who you are, or don't like you at all. If you think you look pretty, then you are pretty. Don't let people change you if you are happy with who you are. Eventually, you will find someone who is right for you and will treat you the way you should be treated.

To me, beauty comes from inside, but to most people beauty is defined by a combination of qualities, such as shape, color, or personality. In general, things that are pleasing to the eye of someone are considered pretty or beautiful. In the U.S, you are not defined by how pretty your feet are, but by who you are and what you look like.

New Cause and Effect

Author's Note: This is my new cause and effect piece, I wrote this piece on the book I Know What You Did Last Summer. The cause is driving drunk and the effect is killing a little boy.

Have you ever done something so stupid that you regret it to this day? In the book I Know What You Did Last Summer, by Lois Duncan, a few high-schoolers thought that it would be a good idea to go hang out on a Friday night at one of their houses and have a few drinks. But drinking was not the stupidest thing they did that night. After they were finished drinking they decided to go out for a drive. What they didn't know was going to happen, was that there was going to be a little kid riding his bike down the hill on his way home, while they were going up it. Drinking that night wasn't the mistake they made, the mistake was driving while intoxicated. 

This incident affected a lot of people. It affected the teenagers, the little boy, and the boy's parents. The teenagers made the situation worse on themselves because they pulled a hit and run. They called the police to alert them of the issue but they called and drove away. To this day the occurrence haunts them, in the mail two of the four now "adults" have gotten a slip of newspaper from that night containing everything that happened. This occurrence  will forever haunt them until they come clean about it. This also affected the boy and his parents. For starters, because the boy was killed which of course affected him but also affected his parents majorly. The parents had to deal with the great loss of their child passing away, and not even knowing who did it or what happened. The impact of the effect of those teenagers decisions that night was huge. 

Trojan's Vs. Greeks

The conflict is person vs. person because the Greeks were fighting against the Trojan's. The conflict was resolved because the Greeks infiltrated the Trojan's "space." 

The most devious thing through-out the whole story was that the Greeks had given the Trojan's a "gift" (the Trojan Horse) and they said that it was just a gift when really they had people hide in it and then they had them attack when they opened the horse. Of course the Trojan's were drunk when the Greeks attacked them, so they were not ready for battle. 

I think that something like this could happen nowadays because we still have our battles in the world and people have crazy ideas. I don't really think that anyone would think to put something like this at a school or a small work place but someone could certainly do it yes. I think that someone might do it because they wanted to rebel against something or against society. I have never really seen something like this in a film or tv show but I have seen the Trojan horse at Mount Olympus, but the only thing that is really similar about the the horse at Mount Olympus and the story is that they both have an opening in the stomachs. 

I Know What You Did Last Summer

Prediction: 

My prediction of this book is that the main character Julie, had a little incident last summer with her old boyfriend Ray. What really caught my attention was the sentence "Then he left home and took off for the coast." When I read that sentence I thought right away that something terrible happened between Julie and Ray, that Julie had to "end" the relationship between them. When I mean end I don't just mean a little sad break-up or something that you can forget about over time, no I mean like this was a permanent thing that Julie wouldn't be able to forget.

Not only did that one sentence make me feel like something horrible happened but on the cover of the book there is a little quote saying "some secrets refuse to stay buried." When I read that I figured that Julie is the one keeping the secret and when it said buried I figured that Julie had either buried Ray after she murdered him or her and Ray buried a "curse" or something like that and that made Ray move out to the coast. 

Ribbons

People get defined by a lot of things, looks, style, actions. One way that people are defined is by their culture, people can just look at someone and say "oh their from China." Here in the U.S our culture is what we are taught from our families. In China their culture is different from ours, for instance back in the older days in order for a girl to be considered beautiful they would have to have small feet. Therefore if the girls had long feet some of their parents would either tie ribbons around the feet or make them wear really small, tight shoes to make their toes curl under their feet.

Here in the U.S you are noticed for your features. Many girls wear make-up to make their faces look "prettier." When people wear make-up and dress in nice clothes, people tend to think that they are popular. Some people wear it because their friends where it and they want to be like their friends.

In my opinion I think that doing things to look pretty or to be popular is a bad thing, because I think that people should either just like you for who you are or don't like you at all. Eventually you will find someone who is right for you and will treat you how you should be treated. 

Who may I be?

Two left feet and still walks straight? Has holes that can sing the beautiful tune of a violin. Yeah I’m pretty cool! My best friend has 5 arms and lives under a rock. I have a great neighbor that loves me dearly. Plays his music ever so well. I have a job that I love, and I am the best in the business. I always am ready for work. Always riding my unicycle, happy as ever.

My boss has an evil nemeses, who ever so sadly, works right across the street from us in a bucket. Always trying to steal something dear and important to my heart. It’s not so bad that he lives, and works in a bucket, because he is right across the street from a lobster trap. Ever so famous in the rough waves, down deep with all different creatures.

I’m as yellow as the sun, and as square as box. My teacher is very puffy and ever so lovely. I have been in school for as long as I can remember. I started way back in December. Always trying to achieve that main goal of getting that rectangular piece of happiness. I always end up going back home to my favorite snail, that thinks he is a cat. 

Here are a few tips to you,

The best time to wear a striped sweater is all the time. Especially the ones with the turtle necks! 

Black and White

Author's Note: This essay is written to show my understanding of text analysis. Make sure to pay attention to my introduction. 

‘“After you, my dear Alphonse,”  “No, after you, my dear Alphonse,”’ equal outlooks on race are obviously shown through the this text by the two little boys in the story “After you my dear Alphonse,” by Shirley Jackson. Showing that without a influence by a parent, teacher, or towns people children don’t notice the difference between black or white. How a child often shows more respect or gratitude than an adult of more than twice his age is shown very much in this piece. 

In the story "After You, My Dear Alphonse", Mrs. Wilson is a very judgmental person, she makes a lot of assumptions that are not true. Just saying these few words gave me an idea that she is an example of reverse racism; meaning she doesn't try to be racist but it comes out sounding that way. "Boyd, Johnny has some suits that are a little too small for him, and a winter coat." Mrs. Wilson wasn't trying to entail that but ended up sounding like that. 

In another line Mrs. Wilson was trying to force Boyd to eat stewed tomatoes because she thinks that he is so poor that he will eat anything that he can get. To me it sounds like she is trying to help him but yet she is saying it in a not so nice way. Reverse racism doesn't just happen in stories or novels, it happens here in Pewaukee, it happens in Waukesha, it happens everywhere in the world. 

There are many times in the story that Mrs. Wilson sounds rude. In this line: "And he certainly has to be strong to do that -- all that lifting and carrying at a factory." Mrs. Wilson is implying that Boyd's father is a poor man who has to work in a small factory and make very little money. It was only till Johnny said "Boyd's father doesn't have to, he's a foreman." that Mrs. Wilson thought she knew everything about Boyd and his family.  

The short story, "After You My Dear Alphonse," children seem to show more respect and make less assumptions than the adults do. There are many lessons that can be learned from this story. Overall I think that the main lesson here is to try to teach not only kids but also adults to not judge other people by what they look like. You always want to get to know someone before you give them a "name."

After You, My Dear Alphonse Analysis

5/1/13

Write an analysis of how this story relates to the topics of naive and reverse racism. How does it compare and contrast our society in Pewaukee? Other areas of the country/world? What lesson do you think Shirley Jackson is trying to teach us? 

In the story After You, My Dear Alphonse Mrs. Wilson is a very judgmental person, she makes a lot of assumptions that are not true. Just saying these few words gave me an idea that she is reverse racism. "Boyd, Johnny has some suits that are a little too small for him, and a winter coat," In another line Mrs. Wilson is trying to force Boyd to eat stewed tomatoes because she thinks that he is so poor that he will eat anything that he can get. This doesn't just happen in stories or novels, it happens here in Pewaukee, it happens in Waukesha, it happens everywhere in the world. 

There are many lessons that can be learned from this story. Overall I think that the main lesson here is to try to teach not only kids but also adults to not judge other people by what they look like. You always want to get to know someone before you give them a "name". 

A Clean, Well Lighted Place 2 paragraphs

When I pictured the cafe, I pictured it as a small little shop that was near other shops and it was gonna be really light and comforting. Then I watched the film and the cafe was dark, pretty big for a cafe and it didn't seem so comforting when the one of the waiters was yelling at the customer to leave and be done so that he could leave. In the beginning of the film they showed the cafe with a few lights on outside, it looked kind of like one of the little shops that you found driving in the middle of no where that sits on the side of the road. Also when starting the film the music the director choose was kind of creepy and depressing, that definitely made me think different things about the film. 

Overall I thought the short story had a good point to it, but personally I didn't really like the story. I thought the overall point was that you should have patience because there are people less fortunate than you, are lonely and who want someone to be with. I didn't like the story because I am really interested in mystery books, so I guess the story didn't really grab my attention. 

Two things that I liked about the movie, were the characters and the cafe. I liked the choice of the characters because I feel like it was interesting to have sottish characters. I liked the cafe because I think that it was a nice big area to film a movie.

Two things that I didn't like about the movie, was the setting and the lightning. I didn't like the setting because I feel like it was in the middle of no where. I did't like the lighting because I think that it was too dark for a movie to be shot. 

A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Comparing to something else

The impatient waiter from the short story reminds me a lot of my sister because my sister is a very impatient person. Just like the waiter she does not like waiting too long for other people, appointments or movies to start in the theaters. The impatient waiter also reminds me of violet from Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. Violet is a little impatient girl who does not like waiting for things. She was told specifically not to eat the gum because Mr. Wonka hadn't fixed all the glitches yet. What does she do? She goes ahead and eats it. Like the waiter she is a very impatient person.



Willy Wonka part, credit to : Madison Moroder

Mean Girls

Author's Note: In this essay I am trying to show my understanding of text analysis and word choice/ context. Make sure to look for how I make real world connections.

Imagine mean girls tearing apart your decisions and actions every day, most people don't even have to imagine this because they live it every day of their lives. Girls can be rude and horrible to each other, this is true and it proves itself many times in reality and fiction. Just like in the book, The Clique, by Lisi Harrison. In the book, Massie and her friends are mean to the new girl Claire because she isn't like them, she’s not rich and she doesn’t care about her image as much as Massie and her clique do. This kind of judging and meanness happens everyday in real life, and in school. One of the most popular movies in America is Mean Girls, and you can tell by the name that this movie, similar to Clique, is about girls and their rudeness towards other girls. This movie is based off of making fun of girls behind their back and talking bad about them and putting this all into a book. In Mean Girls,  in The Clique and in life there is no way to avoid “mean girls”, they are all around.

The book, The Clique, is a good example of how mean girls can be. Girls say snotty things about other people behind their back. In this quote the four girls in their clique went to the principal to expose their ex-best friend for cheating during the uniform contest. The quote “ My mother came with us and made it very clear that if they went forward with your idea, she would expose the entire scandal on The Daily Grind,” (125) shows how mean the girls in the book can be. There are many more rude and unkind things that the girls say in the book that really hurt people.

Like in the book, The Clique, the girls in the movie mean girls are horribly cruel to each other. In the movie, Mean Girls, Regina George is one of the rudest girls at North Shore High School. She can be mean to your face or she can be mean behind your back. For example, she told this one girl that she liked her skirt and then turned to her friends and said that is the ugliest skirt I have ever seen. This proves that mean girls can hide their meanness from people, but show it to their friends.

Not only do you encounter and have to deal with mean girls like these in movies and books like The Clique and Mean Girls, but also in life. I have definitely had my share of mean girls in my life. They are rude, they are annoying and they think that everyone and everything should revolve around them. Girls like this are self-centered people who are mainly rich snobs. I’ve learned that in the society we have today you get out -casted for the simplest things, for example if you don't have long bouncy, vivacious, blonde hair, or if you don't wear makeup. Living in the society we live in you learn early in life that there will always be those mean girls who will try their very best to make yours and many other peoples lives as miserable as possible, but you have to realize that there will always be those girls and you can’t start believing what they say.

In conclusion I think that I can say that everyone has interacted with a mean girl at least once in their life, some people more than others. There is no way to avoid “mean girls”, they are all around: in books, in movies, in life, the only thing you can do is ignore them.

Short Response Post

This story is about a young boy named Bill got got kidnapped by these 2 guy and they decided to write a letter to his father to pay them money and the father wanted the kidnappers to pay him money for kidnapping his son. I think that the most interesting thing about the story was how the kid didn’t want to leave the kid. I think this because if I was in that kids position I would be freaking out and I would try to escape from the cave. I am not a person who likes being away from home for too long. 

The Song

Author's Note: In this essay make sure to look what I thought the tone was. 

Think if you were on the ocean, catching some waves, I bet you could feel the wind blowing in your face. When I read the poem "Song for a Surf-Rider," by Sara Van Alstyne Allen I felt that there was a lot of tone and figurative language within it. When you run through this poem and go back to how you felt when you were reading this you will be reminded of how vibrant the poem really was. 

There was different kinds of figurative language in this poem, one of the main kinds was personification; it helps give a clear image of what's going on. The author really wanted us to feel like the wave was a human. To show how she did this she referred to the wave saying him or he. Another example is when she said "We race together, the sea and I." When I read that personification I really felt like the wave was a human. 

One other kind of figurative language that was used in the poem was metaphors. The author really compared the waves and sea to a horse, "I ride the horse that is the sea." The quote, “His hoof beats echo on the sand,” shows how the author uses personification to make it seem like the sea is a horse. These two kinds of figurative language are used a lot through out the poem. 

Tone is how the writer feels and how they show their attitude toward something through their writing. Tone helps the reader understand how the author feels and possibly get the feeling of how the author is feeling themselves. Within this poem the author used tone. The tone of this poem I would have to say is friendship. Sara Van Alstyne Allen wrote this poem to show friendship, like how the sea and the person work together. Great writers use tone, they use it to make people feel emotion within writing. 

Tone and figurative language was shown a lot throughout this poem. Remember to always look for figurative language and tone in poems and short stories that you read. Look for how the tone really affects the piece and see how it makes you feel about that story. The tone can really change how you feel about the story.

A, B, and C Point of View

Author's Note: I'm writing this piece to show my understanding of point of view. While reading through this make sure to pay attention to how me as the reader felt while reading this book.

A. The book the Clique was written in the eyes of Claire Lyons. In the book Claire basically explained how she moved to Westchester and moved into a rich snobs guest house, Massie. She describes how Massie ruins her life and tortures her during and outside of school. She tries to stand up to her fear and tell Massie no and stick up for herself. Sometimes it works and most of the time it doesn't. 

B. Me, being the reader, I felt that the book made me feel that Massie actually cared and liked Claire. For instance, it was the night of Massie's annual fundraiser for her school and Claire's and Massie's parents got on stage and called them to the stage. Massie helped Claire find them a hiding spot so that they could get out of having to be embarrassed by their parents. But there are other times where I feel like Massie hates Claire's guts. For example, it has only been a few days that Claire has been living with Massie, and it was the first day of school. At this point Massie hasn't really gotten to know Claire and what she is really like, but Massie assumed that Claire was a LBR--loser beyond repair--so Massie thought it would be funny to ruin Claire's life and hope that it would make the Lyons move out of their guest house faster. Claire was wearing white pants, so Massie thought it would be funny to order her friend to "accidentally" spill red paint on the back of her pants so it would like Claire got her period. Now if I was Massie, I would at least try to help Claire and help her become a friend of Massie, but Massie does the total opposite and messes Claire's life up. 

C. If the book was told in the eyes of Massie, I feel like it would be more about how she tortures Claire instead of how Claire gets tortured. Massie is a totally different person so it would be a totally different point of view. Massie has the personality of what she is.. a snob, but Claire has the personality that a regular person should and would have, therefore I think that the story would be different. 

Compare and Contrast piece

Author's Note: I'm writing this piece to show my understanding of compare and contrast. While reading this, look for the ways that Massie and Roger are alike. 

In the story Thank you Ma'am Roger is living through a tough time. He is living out on the street, with no parents, no money nothing besides him and his hope to one day get off the streets and live in a real home. Meanwhile Massie Block is living the life in her huge house, getting everything she wants whenever she wants something. There are many things that are different between the two but there are also many things that are similar. 

Roger and Massie have a few things in common, one thing they both have in common is that they both don't care about other people. Roger goes around stealing purses from ladies and Massie pulls mean and cruel pranks on her new "room mate". In a way I can say that they both don't care about other people as much as they should. Massie cares about clothes and accessories more than she does about the less fortunate. I can see why Roger doesn't care about other people as much, but stealing from people is just making his life worse and making it harder on himself. 

“Claire, did I invite you to my barbeque?" Massie asked, her neck tilting to the right and her arms tightly crossed. "Huh? No. I mean, I don't know," Claire said. "Then why are you all up in my grill?" Massie said through her teeth.” These are the kind ignorant things that Massie says to Claire. Roger is also a very ignorant person, if he wasn't ignorant he wouldn't be going around stealing purses and wallets from strangers. Ignorant is the perfect word to describe both Massie and Roger. 

"Massie Block is the perfect definition to describe something that is perfect" some girl said to suck up. Massie is a girl who gets everything she wants, she is spoiled and is the perfect definition of a snob. She is the total opposite of Roger. Roger is a boy who has nothing good in his life to look forward to. While Massie is out shopping and spending money like money is free, Roger is barely getting by with stealing money from people. On one hand you have Massie and on the other you have Roger, both people, but very different life styles. 

While reading both of these books, I've learned two lessons: to always respect others and never to take things for granted. Sure, sometimes you get everything you want like Massie, but you could also end up like Rodger and have nothing. There were many similarities and differences between these books. They start off as not the best people, but in the end they find out where they really stand and start to appreciate what they have.

Personal Metaphor

I am a guard dog, I am a good listener and will always be there when you need someone to talk to. I am very protective of what is mine and of my friends/family. If something is mine you better stay away from it.

Are All Friendships Real?

Author's Note: This is my second time writing a point of view essay. I hope that this will be the last time that I have to do another point of view piece. I decided to write this essay on The Clique because this is the book that I recently read and I liked a lot. Today I am going to be telling the story through the eyes of Layne, one of Claire's friends. Massie and Claire are the main characters in the book, just a heads up. I really want you to focus on how people change over time and how that can affect friendship.

It was the first day that I had met Claire. She was looking for a seat to sit at lunch, when she saw that there was an empty seat next to me. All that I knew about her was that she was friends with Massie Block, the queen bee of seventh grade. As she approached the table I wondered if she was going to sit at my table or continue walking and attempt to sit with Massie and her friends. When she reached the table she said "Hi, my name is Claire." I didn't want to be rude and ask if she was talking to me so just in case, I replied saying "Hey, my name is Layne." "Is that seat taken" Claire asked. "No you can sit here" I responded quickly. I thought to myself this girl seems like she would be a good person to hang out with, but you never know people change and can affect friendship. Knowing that she is friends with Massie I had to be cautious, she could either be just like Massie and be mean or she could be the total opposite, sweet. It was the first day of the seventh grade and I had already made a new companion, a comrade that is friends with Massie Block. 

Fourth period was about to start and I wanted to ask Claire if she was doing anything tomorrow. I ran over to her locker as fast as I could, since we had just met that day I wanted to go see a movie or go shopping with her so I could spend some quality time with her and get to know her a little bit better. Hanging out with her would help me get a better handle on what she is like. If I had to guess what she is like I would think that she is like me in ways, I am kind of an odd ball and I can be shy at times, but when someone is really making me irritated I will come out of my shell and do what I can to resolve what ever the problem is. I could see Claire being that kind of a person. After all we got along pretty well at lunch. I got to her locker with a couple minutes to spare before the bell rang, I quickly asked her if she was doing anything tomorrow and she said no, allowing me to ask her if she wanted to hang out and chill. She liked the idea of hanging out and getting to know one another further. Just before I left for my class she said "can't wait to hang out tomorrow." 

The night before the movie I received a call from Claire, she said that she couldn't go to the movie anymore because she has to babysit her sick brother while her parents went out on a date. I decided to tell my mom so that she wouldn't have to deal with this in the morning when she is at her crabbiest. I was kind of disappointed that Claire couldn't go anymore, I was really looking forward to hanging out with her and having a relaxing day.

On Sunday when I called Claire, I asked her how babysitting was, she didn't know what I was talking about at first, until I refreshed her memory. Suddenly I got this good feeling that Claire had bailed on me and did something else. I put the pieces together when I saw Claire walking into school with Massie and her friends. I figured that she had ditched me to hang out with Massie. The more I thought about the more I got confused, because during lunch that one day Claire told me that Massie didn't even really like her all that much. I then realized that someone can change in the blink of an eye. 

It was later that night that I was sitting around thinking about how if I was in Claire's position I would have probably done the same thing. If I could have the chance to hang out with Massie Block I would take it. I decided to call Claire up and apologize for ignoring her during school. I explained why I was ignoring her and she also apologized. She didn't think that I would ever know the truth, that's why she did it. Since we had made up we decided to schedule another day that we could hang out and see a movie, but this time there wouldn't be any excuses. 

Sweetness

Author's Note: For my creative piece I decided to write a cinquain poem. As you can see I wrote more than just one poem. I couldn't decide which poem I liked the best, I asked my mom and my sister and they couldn't decide either. I decided to write a poem(s) because poetry is one of my favorite ways to write. 

        Cheesecake

        Heavenly rich

   Eating, tasting, filling 

 Every piece is delicious 

           Dessert 

           Sisters

       Sweet, Mean

Caring, Loving, Fighting

   Love them to death 

           Family

           

New Compare and Contrast

Massy-
- Rich
- Snob and stuck up
- Friends, but they are snobs
- Wears fancy clothes



Claire-
- Not a lot of money
- Innocent, sweet and friendly
- Not a lot of friends
- Wears hand-me downs



Both-
- Want to make more friends
- Teenage girls

A Summer Day

In the book Bridges of Madison County the story is told by Francesca, one of the main characters. Today I will be telling the story in the eyes of her kids. This story begins when the son and daughter of Francesca find out that their mother just passed away. It begins with them driving to the home where they grew up in. They go over her will and everything that happens when someone dies. During their mothers story be sure to pay attention to how she finds love for the second time. Love is a strong thing. Even if you meet someone and only know them for four days, you can fall in love with them. 

It was the night that you kids and your father left for the Illinois state fair. I read this from the three journals my mother left us. She wrote them telling us about the time that she was unfaithful to our father, and little helpful things to keep us moving on in life. We were leaving right after we ate and packed. You could tell that my mother was getting excited for us to leave. She was going to have four days all to herself. The sun was just setting when we left. My mother sat on the porch for a couple minutes for some fresh air. After a few minutes of sitting on the porch a car approached the house. My mother is a very brave women, so her first instinct was to stand up and walk to the end of the driveway. A man got out of the car and started walking towards the house. He was just about to speak when my mother quickly said are you lost?

An hour or two had gone by and Robert, the man who was in the truck, and my mother were still talking. She said it felt like they were really getting to know each other, and eventually it got to the point where my mother asked Robert to stay for dinner. "I really liked getting to know Robert," said my mother. He seems to listen to my problems and everything that I had to say. I want you guys to know that I lover your father, I really do! said my mother. As I read on, I started learning things about Robert. I found out things like his last name is Kincaid and that he is a photographer for the National Geographic Magazine. It was getting kind of late and my mother didn't want to just say you have to leave, so she invited him to spend the night on one of the couches. He accepted the offer and took the couch. 

It was the next morning and Robert was still asleep. My mother wanted to give a good second impression. She took a quick shower, and made some breakfast for them to eat. It only took a couple minutes for Robert to smell the bacon and eggs for him to wake up. We didn't like the fact that this stranger slept on our couch. 

It was the second day that we were gone and he was still at our house. My mother was starting to like him, she said he was nice, sweet and handsome. While we were reading this we were getting kind of upset with our mother. Not the fact that she didn't tell us that she cheated and acted like she was still in love with our father, but the fact that she didn't tell us right away. I guess you could say that she was probably nervous to tell us because she didn't want us to hate her and go and tell our dad. 

For the second day that Robert was there, they took pictures. The only reason that Robert was in Madison County was to get pictures of the old Roseman Bridge for the National Geographic Magazine. It was something new for my mom, her usual life was cooking, cleaning and doing other things for us and the house. My mother described the day to us as one of the most romantic days of her life in a while. 

We were starting to understand why our mother said it was one of the most romantic days in her life. We didn't really do anything for my mother, she was the one who did everything around the house and for us. Occasionally we helped out, but not on a normal basis. 

We kept on reading the diary and it was the third day that we were gone and Robert was at our house. For that day all they really did was relax and get to know each other. They talked and talked and as we read we even learned more about out mother and Robert. The sun was setting and it was getting close to dinner time. Robert asked if he could take a shower before they ate. While Robert showered our mother got dinner ready. My mother said that he came down from his shower and said he was looking pretty good. They were just about to start to eat when a romantic song came on and he asked her to dance. Things were getting intense they were getting close and touching. Eventually he leaned in to kiss her, our mother said she was wanting for him to do that all day. They ended up skipping dinner and just danced and had a great time. 

It was the morning of the day that we were coming home. Our mother wasn't too happy that her romantic weekend was going to end and she was going to go back to cooking and cleaning. Robert left decently early in the morning; he didn't want to take any chances with getting caught being there when we got back. As my mother watched him drive off into the distance she said she was wishing he would turn around and come back. She noted that we got back late afternoon and when we did she was happy to see us. 

We ended up living our lives as we did before she met Robert. She wrote that she thought about him everyday until she passed on. Love is a strong thing, even if you meet someone and only know them for four days, you can fall in love with them. 

Tulsa Shock

Author's Note: Today you are going to be reading a creative piece. I decided to write this because I was inspired by her talent with a basketball. Make sure to pay attention to how they work to get better.

Congratulations Mackenzie Schill, you have just have been accepted to the WNBA, read a sheet of paper from the Tulsa Shock. When she opened this letter she was so happy that she fainted, in other words gravity pulled her down to the ground. When Mackenzie came to, she knew that she was going to really have to work her butt of to play.

It was her first day playing with Tulsa Shock. She felt like she had to use a lot of speed in order to keep up with the other players. They did a lot of drills involving momentum, after a while of those drills they got into shooting. A lot of taller stronger people aren’t as good at shooting as guards, you could tell because the taller people had to force the ball to get the ball to the hoop. Now Mackenzie is a guard so shooting was one of her specialties.

After they worked on their shooting skills, they helped the centers work on their moves. They had little girls guard the big girls so that if they had a mismatch they would have the advantage. The posts also practiced going up against girls that were the same size as each other, so that they could improve their moves and be able to beat anyone under the hoop.

For the next part of the girls practice they worked on acceleration. They had to learn how to speed up and beat their defender down the court. They practiced this by doing suicides. Suicides are sprints running from the baseline to the free-throw line back to the baseline to the half-court line back to the baseline then down to the opposite free-throw line back to the baseline, then to the other baseline and back. This helped with acceleration because you have to work on stopping and then starting up and regaining your speed.

Since the girls were already working so hard, their coach decided to make them push them a little bit harder. The team was pretty fast with their feet, but their coach wanted to make them even better. She wanted to make them do defensive slides, which are where you slide from one lane line to the other and you go for as long as your coach tells you to. It kills your legs, after you do them for about a minute, your legs start burning. I can relate, since I have had to do them a lot in my career.

The coach finally decided to lighten up on the girls since they were working really hard. Their coach wanted them to do free-throws while their legs were tired, so it would prepare them for tough games. After shooting about 20 free-throws each practice was over. Mackenzie knew that she was going to have to work her butt off for the rest of the season, seeing as this was her first practice. She knew that it would get harder as the season went on. 

Compare and Contrast

Colton

-          Not a bad kid
      Has parents

-          Lives in a house with family

-          Good friends

Roger

-         Troubled child

-          No parents

-          Lives on the street by himself.
      No friends 

-        

       

      Both  

      Both at a young age. 

-         Both have problems in their life, right now.
      Both scared because of their situation. 

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