"Specter" by Noah A.

You ever wondered what it feels like to see the face of death, giving you that grimly grin, with open arms, just waiting to welcome you in its embrace? Those soulless, black voids of obsidian, boring into the thoughts of your heads, distorting your judgments until you’re driven to the point of no return, staring directly at the entrance sign to the land of madness? Obviously I’m exaggerating to an extreme right now, but if you were in my position, you wouldn’t be having the best of thoughts either. People say that life is like a rolling hill, constantly going up and down. But for me, it was more like skydiving from the moon to the deepest trench in the ocean at terminal velocity. Now, don’t get all sorry for me and say, “Oh you poor, poor creature! How could you deserve this?”, because I don’t need your sympathy and your sentiment. I’ve given up on caring about others an eternity ago. Which leads to the question, where am I right now? Currently, I am dangling, by one arm, holding on to a branch the size of my foot over a cliff so big, the guy that free-falled from the stratosphere would literally scream himself to death. I have a broken leg, my heel is diced like a tomato, and I have a searing burn wound located in the middle of my palm. And yes, it is the palm of the hand that is the only connection I have between the cold, despair of death, and the dreaded life I’ll go back to if I survive, which is practically impossible at this point. The longer I hang, the warmer Death’s arms and skeletal smile seems to become. If only my dearest friends hadn’t betrayed me. Oh I probably should’ve mentioned how I got here shouldn’t I? Well, I’ll cover the long story later, but for now, here is the short, abridged version. A few guys wanted me dead so I got my two closest friends to help me escape them, but it turns out that my pursuers bribed them, held their families hostage, leading them to inflict my current injures upon me, and push me over the edge of a canyon. What a beautiful world we live in! Now prepare your ears-or your eyes in this case since you’re not listening to this but reading it instead-  for the most convoluted, distressing, hilariously pathetic stories of all time. Isn’t this going to be fantastic!!!!

            It all starts with who I am and where I came from. Well, I’m only 15 with a license to kill, and I have more registered assassinations then the one and only James Bond. That puts a pretty massive bounty over my life, and people really, REALLY like the color green in this world. Money practically sets the boundaries and limitations of our lives. Anyways, I had just returned from a mission called, Specter, where I killed the corrupt, government leader of a little country called  England. Lets just say the people haven’t been following the example of their predecessors very well. Turns out it went wrong; I killed the wrong guy like the stupid idiot I am would. My “target” was actually the leader of the secret organization called Specter, hence the mission title, which I gave it. His facilitates weren’t very pleased with that and came after me faster than a bull who wants to stick his horns right through you. I saw them coming for me, grabbed my besties from our agency, Piper and Nico, and we took off. As we were driving my tire popped, flinging us out of the car, and “coincidentally” placed me on the edge of a canyon. This broke my leg, threw a piece of shrapnel through the end of my heel, and severely burnt hand. They then proceeded to roll me over the edge, while the whole time they monologue and threw the ugly exposition of why they were doing this, and why the HAD to do it. So I fought back as best as I could resulting in them receiving many broken bones and dislocated joints from my superb assassin skills. Luck soon decided to withdraw from my area, because they overpowered me, and finished the job. Or so they thought. While rehashing this story to you, I climbed up the Cliffside, only like 30 feet or some stupid American measurement like that, and am now standing over the container of my death, a.k.a my blown up car. They thought I was dead. I didn’t die. I can’t die. I won’t die. My last breath will be used hunting them down. I will scavenge across the world if I have to. You know what, they did kill me, because part of myself died on that cliff. It is only a ghost, a specter, of who I am now. They turned me into a killing machine. But I’ve malfunctioned, and become aware of what the truth is. Nothing can stop this. They set this course of events into actions. Catalysts are what I’ll call them. And far as its concerned, the Catalysts are good as dead. To me and everyone else. They won’t exist anymore. They’ll simply be ghosts, fragmented images of the past

"What I See" by Jorge R.

            I remember the day, like everyday I remember waking up to the sound of my family. They are always up so early and I would have no other choice, but to wake up with them.  We would always love traveling to places. We love to wander the woods and explore new things. Man I love how beautiful nature is. The warm sun always hitting my beautiful colors making me warm and full of happiness. I love seeing the flowers bloom and how their colors shine with a bright delagate texture. I love the food I eat and the air I breathe. Birds flying at patterns that can amaze many and bring them to tears. The sky, bluer then blue, having clouds all over giving a beautiful piece of art to look at. The trees, oh my goodness the trees! They hold such beauty with the green leaves and brown textured bark. It gives me so much shade that I can sleep there forever. My family though don’t give me the time to enjoy what this beautiful world has to offer. No matter how nice nature is, my family and I always have to keep moving to different places. After quite awhile of traveling, we began to enter a city. So many lights in this city, I think darkness never existed. So many cars and people honking their horns and many people having road rage. In my case though, I don’t like being in these type of places. Its always cramped and noisy, I mean, I NEED TO FIND A QUIET PLACE TO REST! I found a tree line so I figured I go to it in hopes of finding something quiet to sleep at. I left my family for now, but I figured I meet back with them soon. As I kept on walking towards the tree line I began hearing a lot of crunching noise from the leaves that have fallen from the trees. I begin to get scared and start to run, faster then I ever ran. The crunching had then stopped and I figured I lost whatever was following me. I stood at one place catching my breath. Then  I began to think about the beautiful nature again and how much I love living. Then after that I just heard a loud noise,”BOOM!” Everything went black after that. I couldn’t remember anything after that noise. Although I began to open my eyes finding myself standing in clouds. Everything was white and it looked as if I was flying. Then I looked down through the clouds and saw my body. It was a horrible sight! I saw people stuffing my body with some sort of food and putting me in the oven. Then they took my body out and set it on the center of the dinner table surrounded by a family. They begin to bow their heads and pray, then they begin to feast. It was so horrible and I wondered,”Why are they doing this!” Then I remembered, that my mistake was wandering away from my family… a day before Thanksgiving, I hate being a turkey!

“Wake Up” by Christian O.

I still remember the day she came and laid on my bed. She laid down and for a moment I paused... I looked at her and could see the glare of her eyes. She is beautiful. Her hair is spread out across my pillow, its color blended in with the night. I approach the bed slowly. Carefully stepping over a pair of cleats I got last season. Each step is heavy... but I finally lye myself down and sink into the pillow alongside her. I can feel her hair on the back of my head. It is dark. We can only see the head lights of passing cars reflect through my window onto my ceiling. I can’t see her face but I can feel it through the pillow. Through the darkness I look at her and say "****, do you lo..." Before I can finish she says "always, *****".

It’s quiet now. A line of light runs across the ceiling as we hear the sound of another car pass by. I gaze at her in that moment of light... then I see her smile. Everything felt slow. My body began to grow stiff and soon I became immobile. She comes closer and lays her head on my chest. It begins to move up and down higher each breath. She laughs and says "don't take such deep breaths" but it was not my breathing that lifted my chest.... It was my heart. It was beating slowly but powerfully.

           

She is asleep now. To savor the moment, I pretended to fall asleep as well. I mean...how could I sleep? Such a moment I was in...Would I ever have this experience again? Her head begins to weigh me down. Her earring presses deep and molds a mark of a sunflower on my chest. Her breath is warm. She mumbles "ugh" in her sleep. She reaches out and pulls my arm over her...as I begin to brush my fingers through her hair. I then tell her a story about a boy who met a girl and their journey up until that point. I know she is asleep but maybe...maybe my voice will soothe her. Moments later she wakes up. She shakes me to see if I am awake but I continue to pretend. She then tells me a story but pauses...."Do you love me?" she asks. I wait a moment to respond. "To the moon and back". Silently she replies "okay..." She then hugs me tightly, pressing her cheek against mine and whispers "Wake up....You're sleeping"

My eyes frantically open to the sight of the same fan I have owned since 4th grade. I turn to my side only to see nothing but my phone charging on the pillow. The time ironically reads 23:40 pm. I had truly believed she was there but much like the previous nights she wasn't...and once again....it was time to "wake up".

"Ambitions" by Victoria H.

Have you ever longed for something so badly it just drove you crazy? I know it sounds a bit cheesy but really, how could you not want something so bad you’d go half insane just thinking about it? Whether it’d be to visit a different country, see an old friend, become wealthy and live a luxurious life, or even get accepted into college (which I know is the struggle for most of us). Truth is we all have something we want more than anything and I feel like that’s what keeps a person sane. To have a sense of desire gives us a purpose- It gives us a goal to reach and a mission to pursue. 

My mission is to become a teacher for elementary school children, to travel the world, and to make my family proud. To set out a plan for myself and actually achieve everything I want to accomplish will be the greatest form of happiness I can come across. I’m sure many things await me In my lifetime and maybe I’ll change my mind about my goals and ambitions but as long as I set out to be what I dream of I know I’ll be fine.

Whether making that destination takes us one try or a hundred tries, as long as we make it is all that should matter. There will be though times along the road but it’s important to know that it’ll only make you not only stronger as a person but it’ll teach you a lesson of determination. Nothing can get in the way of what you want to do besides yourself. Sometimes tough trials tend to lead to greater things if you let them anyway. I tend to look at the optimistic side of things but that’s where I think it balances out- a bad situation and a positive mindset only leads to lessons learned. A failure in one aspect only gets you closer to where you’re striving to be by learning from mistakes and making tougher, and effective attempts. If you really yearn for something make sure you chase it without restraints and if you mess up just try harder.

We all have purpose in this world and I believe we’ll all find it and figure out where we belong as long as we chase what makes us happy. Everything we desire is what leads to true bliss and contentment if we contribute an effort to get there. 

"Discovering Fire" by Michael D.

        35,000 BC searching around, scavenging for any thing to fill my stomach. Traveling with my brothers to make the trip less agonizing to bring food back to our village. It's been days without the love from my wife and children which hurts me deeply. I continue to pray for the loyalty of my woman, while she is the most praised at our village. During the winter, the snow floods the entire hemisphere and the breeze is brutal. Finding shelter for all of our men is vital for our survival. As we look for plants and berries to collect, we spot a cave a mile north east. It brings us joy to have an opportunity to rest and gather our thoughts. As we enter the cave, the smell of dampness and coco butter fills our nose. I analyze the cave lit up with red luminescent lights. The walls are filled up with pictures of a young man. We continue to be puzzled as we search the rest of the cave for clues for these preposterous images. Until we see "Trapsoul" written on a rock. I pick it up and a sound of beauty fills my ears as our whole pack falls deep into their feelings. We are amused by such a greatness that is being projected from the rock, we bring it back to our village. As we arrive with this gift of life, the whole village is awoken and starts to cry tears of happiness. It was as if the great sound had solved our problem of hunger. Soon other villages travel from far and wide to feast their ears on such greatness. Our tribe continues to prosper, while gifts of food and diamonds are given in exchange for listening to the magical sound. The days and nights were filled with the beautiful sound, but soon it started to get out of hand. Soon the village began to die out, as I was the only one left listening to it. Until I finally realized my soul was trapped.

"Grind Time" By Salman A.

     When i was younger i used to be the only one home with my babysitter. The only thing i wanted to do when i was alone was watch tv, but i didnt no how to change the channels. Thus, whenever i turned on the tv the only channel would be playing was ESPN’s Basketball Classics. I was really intrigued by the the intensity of how the basketball players played. The way they emphatically complained when they missed simple shots always amused me. I would go hours and hours watching basketball and soon enough when i went to Toys R i begged for my parents to buy me a Fisher Price junior basketball set. My parents eventually did buy me that and that's when the dream of becoming an NBA player began. Every Day for almost every hour, i would bounce my mini basketball around the house imitating the intensity of how the players on tv dribbled the ball. My mother would scream at me as i would just bounce the ball around the house breaking anything in my site, but my inner five year old self knew the ball was going to take me places.

      I would go to my neighborhood park and practice playing basketball with my elementary peers. I felt that everything i had watched on tv was starting to become a reality. A Lot of years passed and i found myself in high school. I finally got a pass to 24 Hour Fitness and i was really jovial about getting to play basketball their. I remember stepping on the court and seeing the all the men playing basketball. I thought to myself, wow these guys all have beards and tattoos, and i'm just a mere kid. I felt worried and almost didn't want to play, but i got trapped when someone picked me on their team. As we played everything that i had imagined would happen did not happen. I air balled my first shot and i lost the ball as soon as someone passed it to me. Every Time I ran back and forth across the court, i felt as if my confidence was depleting, and it almost felt as if i had never played basketball. I remember hearing what one of my teammates had to say about me. “Man this guy ****** sucks!” As soon as the game was over i sat on the bench and waited for a whole hour. No one gave me another chance to play again that day.

      I laid on my bed and tried to think what went wrong. I turned on the TV and found myself to ironically turn to ESPN’s Basketball Classics. This time the whole segment was based on Kobe Bryant. I watched the tapes and studied vigorously how Kobe Bryant, a 17 year old at the time, was competing against veterans. This was then followed by an interview, in which Kobe was asked the same question that i had. “Kobe how is a kid like you who just came out of high school able to step on the court and play against people who have been in the league for more than 10 years.?” And with no emotion, Kobe simply replied, “Because I'm the best.” I felt as if everything i had been taught was a lie. How could a simple self assertion make one feel so astronomical? I realized that it must’ve worked because look how far it got Kobe. Thus i started to use that assertion in my everyday life. I used it at school and most importantly when i played basketball.

      The next time i stepped on the basketball court at 24 Hour Fitness, i felt different. I kept on repeating in my mind how i was the best and nobody in the world is better than me. When i got the chance to play i made sure that i was going to make this remarkable. As i got the ball i stared in my defender’s eyes and shot the ball from so far. And thank God the shot went. I continued to play at an optimum rate and was doing all the moves that i had studied when i was younger. And because i was playing so good, i ended up staying at the gym later than usual because everyone wanted to play with me. Even the same people who used to say i would never be good, were in shock

     Confidence is everything. With self confidence you can achieve anything. There will always be people who will tell you how you can do this or that, but they're wrong because only you know what you achieve. As high schoolers, we face many stressful situations. But, Just remember to instill confidence because you can do anything you set your mind to!

"Rock climbing 101" by Karina B.

 Most of you probably assume there's no more to rock climbing than heights, ropes, and falls. This is where you learn you’re wrong. The rock climbing community has rapidly grown over the past few years. With this growing community of rock climbers, you may not know that there are climbing teams to join and even competitions for ages 7 years and older. So let me teach all the basics.

 Rock Climbing 101
There are two different forms of rock climbing, which are typically referred to as “sport climbing” and “bouldering”. “Sport climbing” or routes involves the use of a rope, a harness, chalk, shoes and well a rock. There is more needed, but this is rock climbing 101 so we’ll keep it simple. “Bouldering” is when you use nothing but shoes, chalk, and a crash pad. The grade setup, or difficulty of a climb, for “routes” begins at 5.0, which is the easiest grade and is like climbing a ladder. The grades gradually increase and climbers advance quickly past 5.0. When using a rope, 5.5 is the most common grade. If you are a brand new climber going for the first time, you will probably stay within the 5.5 to 5.8 range. As you begin to get better, you work your way up. Once you reach 5.10, letters are added, such as 5.10a, 5.10b, 5.10c, and 5.10d, as the difficulty increases. This can continue forever. However, the hardest sport climb ever completed is a 5.15c, which is extremely hard. The grades for “bouldering” are anywhere from vB to v16. VB means for beginners then the scaling goes to numbers such as v0 and higher, the hardest bouldering grade ever done is v16, which again, is super hard.To put that in to perspective there has been more people on the moon then people who have climbed v16! When bouldering outdoors climbers commonly bring a crash pad, which is pretty much a portable mattress. A crash pad is a better option. Instead of hitting solid dirt or sharp rocks, you fall on a cushioned pad!

Youth Teams
Kids will usually meet twice a week to practice at an indoor rock climbing gym. At team, which is a climber’s way of saying practice, we learn the fundamentals of rock climbing. We usually start off practice with traversing, which means, instead of going up and down, we go left to right or vice versa. We also warm up on the easiest of rock climbs known as v0 or v1. If a climber begins to climb without warming up it can seriously injure them. For example, you can’t just expect to do a marathon without at least stretching beforehand. After warming up for 1530 minutes we work on technique such as exact foot placement. This helps us in the long run to not burn energy while working harder climbs. About half way through practice the team has core, which is a climber’s personal work out. The team is put through 30 minutes of intense exercises from lunges and situps to pullups and pushups. After core we usually will project, which means we pick a climb we can’t do and work out the beta, or moves to get to the top of the climb. Depending on the youth team, you will be assigned homework. Homework is usually learning more about a famous rock climber or a popular rock climb in the outdoors. This is to expand the knowledge of the youth team members.

 Competitions
When competing you are placed into a category. The category you are placed in depends on your age. For example if you are 11 or younger you are placed in division D. If you are 12 or 13 you are in division C, and so on. There are two different types of climbing competition formats which can be used with boulder or rope (route) competitions. One of the two is a “redpoint” where you can choose which climbs to try and take however many falls you would like. You will record the number of falls and the climbs you complete on a score card. After you finish a climb you must get it signed off by another parent, coach, competitor, etc. who actually saw your entire climb. Your goal is to get the highest point climbs, so the harder the climb the more points you get. After three hours you turn in your score card with your top five climbs added up. It’s usually an hour before you know where you placed at the comp. The other competition format is onsight, where you have 56 minutes to look at the climb for the first time, read the beta, start and finish it. Then 5'6 minutes of rest before moving onto the next problem. The gym who’s sponsoring the comp will set five specific problems according to the division you are in. If you do fall on the designated climb you may try again as long as there is still time remaining. By now you are probably either asking your self whats the point of climbing? (And i don't blame you considering it is the hardest way to get nowhere.) Or your telling yourself you would really like to try rock climbing out sometime! Either way i hope you learned something new and valuable. And will give rock climbing a chance!

"Almost, But Not Quite" by Ariel F.

They slowly come to a stop at the light. All she can hear is his laughter that fills the car.  She recollects all the memories they have growing up together to this point. She thinks to herself, ‘ How’d I get so lucky? I’m in love with my best friend and he’s in love with me.’  She’s content with the life she was given. The light turns green and as they cross the intersection, someone’s headlights shine from his side in the passenger seat and a forceful impact consumes the car. She yells for him and sees his hand which is attached to his body as she crawls out of the turned over car. She screams his name begging him to wake up as she grasps his hand for dear life. Then it all fades to blur.

She wakes up in a hospital and sees her parents, they’re sleeping. She tries to speak but her parched throat wont allow it, ‘what am I doing here? Why do my parents look like this is the first time they got to sleep? ‘She thinks to herself. She looks to find something to show her family or the nurses that she’s awake, but she sees a button that says nurse and she presses it. A nurse comes rushing in to see her awake and thanks the heavens the poor child was saved. The nurse wakes up her parents and her parents realize their baby girl is awake. They start crying and tell her they are so lucky that she’s alive and that it was so hard to hear what happened. All the girl can do is look utterly confused as to what her parents are talking about. She reaches for water and once her thirst is quenched she faintly asks what happened. Her parents tell her that a drunk driver hit her and the car had flipped over, she’s been sleeping for 2 days because of the impact of the collision and the amount of blood she lost. Images replay in her head and she remembers her boyfriend and grasping his hand. Her parents tell her he had been flung out of the car and that he is still in ICU, but it doesn’t look too good.

She fights the nurses to let her in his room and they reluctantly give in, she goes in and sits at his bed in ICU, she grabs his hand and cries. Praying, hoping that he will make it. She continuously goes over and over how she can’t loose him; he’s been in her life too long to leave now. She starts to talk to him going over the best moments they’ve shared together which is every moment she got to be with him, she does this for 30 minutes until the nurse comes in and tell her she needs to rest. The girl reluctantly gets up and before she leaves she faintly touches his cheek and says, “you’re the strongest person I know, you can get through this, I love you.” As she reaches her hospital bed, she clings to her mother and desperately asks for a miracle. “Mom I can’t live without him,” she looses all feeling at the thought of not seeing him again. All her mother can do is stroke her daughter’s hair and calmly tell her everything will fall into line soon.

Days pass by and she was released within a day and a half of waking up, but she’s been at the hospital everyday in his room, not leaving his side until the nurses have to physically take her out. She’s always prompt to be at the hospital when the visitor hours begin so she can spend the whole day hoping for a miracle. She doesn’t sleep because she fears that when she does, something will happen. Out of pure sleep deprivation and exhaustion she fell asleep for the first time in what seems like days. Unluckily she forgot to set an alarm and when she woke four hours after visitor hours began she rushed out of the house, still in her PJs and sped through all the traffic, not even bothering about a ticket and parking in a red zone. She runs through the doors and runs to his room only when she gets there, he’s not there. She goes to the nurse’s desk and hysterically cries while asking where they had taken him and the nurse says he woke up in the middle of the night, and his parents wanted to take him home. the hospital reluctantly allowed it. As the nurse was trying to finish what she was telling her the girl bolted back to her car and continuously sped through traffic to make it to his house. She thinks to herself, ‘this can’t be happening, thank you for saving him.’ She doesn’t realize she’s still crying, but now it’s out of happiness.

She pulls up to his house and runs to the door furiously knocking, begging someone to answer. His parents open the door, doe eyed and redness consuming their face, they try to tell her something, but again she runs to his room. When she reaches his room she stops and takes a breath, as she steps in she sees him watching TV, she runs to him and hugs him while speaking incoherent words to him. She realizes he’s not hugging back and looks up at him and realizes something’s off when he pushes her off.

They meet each other’s eyes and he’s the first to speak up and say, “Who are you?”