YOUTH WRITING

On this page, we will be showcasing short stories that were submitted by kids and teens. If you are a kid or teen and would like your short story showcased here, e-mail it to MaxMooth@aol.com for consideration.

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MEGGIE AND HER BRAVERY (6/12/06)

By Laura Murillo (10 years old)

In the early 1800’s there was a black girl named Meggie Campbell. She was a slave. Her master treated her cruelly. She tried to escape many times, but she always failed. One day, a man named Douglas was trying to fight for the slaves’ freedom. Meggie was happy to find out that she was free, but she was only 14. She didn’t have a family to take care of her. She did have an idea how to live by herself, though.

Eventually, she was captured again, but by a different person. Luckily, this person was nicer than the first. When she got to her new home, her master led her to a room. It was better than the first room she had. She was still mad about slavery, though. She was now 20 years old. She decided to go out at night and escape. In secret, she packed up her bags. At exactly 8:30 pm, she left the rich house quietly, making it to the woods safely. All of a sudden, she heard loud barking. She was so frightened, but made it quickly to the river. She began to cross it, and finally made it. Her first escape! She was relieved when she heard the barking sounds fade away.

As she was walking, Meggie saw a little cabin that didn’t look like anyone was living in it. So she opened the door. The cabin was nice and cozy. She guessed that someone must have lived in it because there was a bed, kitchen, living room, and some pots and pans. She put her bags down and laid down on the bed. She was so happy she made it.

In the morning she could now see the inside of the cabin even better. She was so happy that she started dancing on the shiny wood floor! The food she made looked even looked more delicious than before!

One day, she heard screaming and looked outside her window to see people running away because the slaveholders had found their hideout. Meggie was so frightened. She started packing her bags, when she heard a knock on her door. She did not answer it. When she was done packing her bags, she tried to find a way out. She decided to go to the back door. She heard the slaveholders kicking her front door open. She ran as fast as she could to the back door and stepped outside. She guessed it was only midnight, so she would have plenty of time to go to her home.

All of a sudden, she heard a woman screaming very loudly. Meggie followed the screaming. When she got there, she saw a woman being punched very badly. Meggie started toward the slaveholders. When the men were going to punch the women, Meggie punched them instead. She then helped the woman up and led her to the river boats. When she got there, she smelled smoke. She turned around to see that a whole families house was being burned down. The family ran out of the house, but then the mother stopped. She looked at her children, but saw one was missing. The mother then looked back at the burning house and started screaming and crying.

Meggie started toward the house and went inside. She heard crying upstairs. When she entered the room, she saw there was a baby crying. She picked up the baby and went to the window. It was high. She saw bars so she started climbing down from the building. All of a sudden the wall was tilting while she was still climbing down. Since she was getting close to the ground, she threw the baby into her mother’s arms. Then, just as Meggie was in the middle of the house, the wall collapsed. Meggie fell to the ground and  hit her head on a rock. Unfortunately, Meggie died trying to save someone’s life. She was only 24. Everyone was sad to hear that Meggie Campbell had died trying to save a baby’s life.

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A DOG NAMED RICKY (2/23/06)

By Soo Hyun Moon (9 years old)

A boy named Matthew sat on his bedroom floor and played with his cards. His dream was to have a Golden Retriever as a pet. He always begged his parents to buy him a Golden Retriever. Then, while he was playing with his cards, he heard his mom say “Matt! We’re gonna go somewhere!” Matthew hurriedly put away his cards and ran downstairs. Along with his sister, Michelle, Matthew, his dad and mom all stuffed and shoved each other to the car. Everybody knew where they were going except for Matthew.

As they parked, Mom told Matthew to immediately close his eyes – so he did. They were in the pet store and right in front of a handsome puppy Golden Retriever. Matthew opened his eyes and gasped. He said, “OH MY GOSH!” But not because of the ugly Great Dane next to the Golden Retriever, but how he looked. Matthew ran all around yelling, “CAN WE BUY HIM? CAN WE BUY HIM?” Everyone blushed and said, “Of course!” The excited family went to the cashier and the cashier said, “$900 please” very deeply. The dad’s chin dropped to the ground and gasped. But still he stood up straight and paid the $900. Matthew hugged and kissed the puppy everywhere.

A F T E R  T H R E E  Y E A R S

Ricky, the Golden Retriever, grew to medium size, got more handsome, and grew some hair. Everyone was very proud of Ricky because he won 50 trophies and 51 contests. Yet the 52nd contest was coming up. It was ‘Listening to your owner the best.’ In this case Michelle and Matthew had to train Ricky a lot. Every day they took Ricky out into the backyard to train him after tons of homework. Sit, stay, stand, fetch, come, shake hands, and high five were the things they were going to teach Ricky.

The first day was terrible. Second day: good. Third day: perfect. Fourth day: excellent. Fifth day: fabulous. Sixth day: the best ever seen. The contest day came and it was Ricky’s turn. He did everything better than the practices. The judges were calling out their scores and started with the Great Danes. The last score they called was for the Golden Retrievers. And Ricky was the only one. The judges called out his score. The goal was 30 points but Ricky’s was 100! Everyone’s chins fell to the ground except Ricky, Michelle and Matthew. Once again they got another 1st place trophy. They also brought home thousands of packs of gold so they became very rich.

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THE MEATBALL (1/02/06)

By Sogole Taba (13 years old)

I am a meatball. I am brown, covered in red sauce, and I am round. One day I was
cooked and put on a plate full of spaghetti. I was about to be eaten, when I rolled off the
plate I was on. I then rolled off of the table and onto the dirty floor. I kept rolling and
rolling until I came upon a giant elephant.

When the elephant saw me, it started trying to stomp on me and squish me. I finally escaped by rolling
under a fence. Next, I rolled onto the road and jumped onto a car with surf boards on it. When the car
stopped, I jumped off into a lot of sand. I kept rolling and rolling more, then I started going down hill
and I went into the water. As I went deeper and deeper, I encountered a giant fish that looked very
hungry. And that was the last thing that I saw, because I was eaten shortly after. And that was the end
of that.

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THE INVISIBLE PLANET (12/12/05)

By Curtis Liew (11 years old)

“3, 2, 1, BOOOMMM!” Tim’s spaceship blasted off from Miami Beach in Florida. The spaceship sped up and ‘Choooooooo’ it disappeared up in the sky. A couple of minutes later something bad happened – the spaceship was out of gas. So Tim decided to have an emergency landing on a planet not far away.

“Man, there’s nothing on this planet. Let me go check.” Tim walked down the planet. “Ouch! What was that?” Tim yelled. Voices yelled back, “Who are you, why are you here? This is our planet, and so, get out of here!”

“But I see nothing in front of me,” Tim replied.

“That’s why we call this planet Invisible, because all the people who live here are INVISIBLE!”

“Oh, no!” Tim screamed, but no sound came out. “So you were a human, but invisible?”

“Nope, I am invisible but I am an alien-human. My name is Frankie. Nice to meet you.”

“O.K,” Tim said in a shaky voice. “My name is Timothy, you can also call me Tim.”

“How did you get here?”

“Oh, my spaceship just ran out of gas.”

After they finished walking around the planet, Tim made an offer. “Can you help fix my spaceship, please?”

“Well, I’m so sorry to say that no one on this planet ever heard about an object called a spaceship, so no one knows how to fix it.”

“Did you just say no one knows how to fix it?” Tim asked suspiciously.

“Yep.”

“OH, NO!” Tim yelled at the top of his voice. “I CAN’T GET BACK!”
“Hey, don’t panic yet. Our planet has a ship that travels on the road, like a car. But the bad news is, I don’t have one.”

“Oh dear, what’s all the talking for if you don’t have one!” said Tim angrily.

“Wait, wait, wait, don’t be angry yet. I have a plan.” So Frankie whispered his plan to Tim.

“But where are you going to steal one?” Tim questioned.

“Shhh, I am going to steal it from my friends.”

“But they’re your friends, how can you do that to you friends? Otherwise, that’s called stealing. You will get caught,” said Tim worriedly.

“Well, we’re friends, aren’t we? So I will take a risk in stealing one and you can go back home.”

“THANKS!” Tim cried joyfully. And then they gave each other a big, big hug.

“O.K., now, there’s the plan,” Frankie whispered and drew out the direction how to sneak in his friend’s house garage.

“Alright, be really careful now,” Tim whispered and patted Frankie’s back. “Thanks.” “See you later, bye.”

Later, Frankie came back out from his friend’s house with bruises all over him, even blood.

“What – what – what happened?” Tim cried.

“When I got in the garage, some alarm detection went on, and …”

“And what?” Tim asked.

“And then – the security guards in the house came out and we had a fight. And, of course, they won, because there was a couple of them.”

“Do you want to go to the hospital?”

Well, it will be the best thing to do if we can go there now.”

“I’m sorry that I caused this big trouble.”

“Well, this lesson taught you a lesson. FILL IN THE GAS TANK BEFORE LEAVING!! Frankie demanded.
“Oops!”

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HULA DANCING IN HAWAII (11/26/05)

By Samira Taba (9 years old)

One day Michelle, the ancient Walugi’s great-great-great-great granddaughter was all alone praying to the ancient gods alone in the temple, when all of a sudden there was an earthquake. Michelle ran to the HumaLumaRumaRoo Room. That was where all the people who died in Hawaii were buried, and during earthquakes was the only time that the ancient door would unlock and you could go and pray. Michelle made it just in time to make the earthquake last long enough for her to pray. Michelle prayed to her great-great-great-great grandmother for help to become as ancient as she was – maybe even more of a legend than she was.

After an hour and a half of rumbling she was finally answered, and her wish came true. On her next birthday it all began and she and her friends decided to do some fun dancing. They thought they weren’t being watched, but they were. They were being watched by the Governor. He found out and arranged a meeting with Michelle the very next day. He said there was a TREMENDOUS contest for hula dancing. She must come up with a routine to beat everyone else.

Then she had an idea. She remembered her prayer to her ancestor and decided she could make a story out of it and dance to it while telling it. She never succeeded well at the contest before, but now the time was drawing closer and closer. She would have to get past Olivia, Samantha, Rokell, Vidia, and Mia. This would be extremely tough because they had their ways of winning and she had to get past them.

Finally she won first place successfully.
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SOMETHING I COULD HAVE DONE BEFORE (11/12/05)

By Jennie Kim (10 years old)

She was a girl with no hair except tiny specks on her scalp that I didn’t notice until something tragic happened.
----- teardrops ------

(2 Days Later)
It was a day of pleasure. My annoying wannabe friends were on vacation. I was alone, so at lunch I sat with a girl with an enormously small face because she had no hair. I ate without talking to her until she said hi.
I was deeply moved by someone so ugly talking to me as a brave person. I started gibbering about how pretty her clothes were and agreed to talk with her at recess.
And weirdly, but surely, we had a bond of friendship. People started to not notice me – a nobody – but I didn’t care. I kept talking to her and spent the night with her. I soon realized true friendship. The next day, it was Saturday, and the Make-A-Wish company paid for her trip to a private beach which took you on a boat ride – like Venice. We splashed each other and went on the boat and the person gave us crackers and goat cheese. We ate and talked. It was heavenly. At 9:00 when she started having a fever and turned all red, her mother said that she would drive me home.
“Why?” I asked.
She told me, my best friend – had cancer. In the car, I thought, she’s okay. She’s fine. She’s just…cold from the water. When I stopped, Cassie’s mom told me something.
“Janet, thank you for letting my dear Cassie know true friendship.” Tears were streaming on her cheeks. “Her time is limited, she’s going to die tomorrow.” She choked on her words.
Tears poured down my lips, now realizing yesterday and today were the only times I could be with her.
I slept when I went to my bed. In the morning, my mom came into my room all red and crying. By the look on her face, I could tell. “She’s dead, Janet, today at 3:00 a.m.” I didn’t believe it. She was strong and healthy just yesterday.
“Her mom gave me this to give to you.”
I opened it and found her favorite jewelry and a note. It read.
Dear Janet,
Thank you so much for your friendship. I die peacefully by knowing the meaning of friendship. Don’t be sad, I’ll be watching you from heaven by the time you’re reading this. I’ll watch you when you have your first date, when you marry, and even when you win a trophy, I’ll be watching you forever.

Thank you.

Cassie

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THE PLANET MARA (11/12/05)

By Michelle Luk (13 years old)
One stormy night, I boarded Space Shuttle America. All of my other crewmates had all somehow gotten sick and since I wanted to go on with the mission, they allowed me to go alone.

After crossing Earth’s atmosphere, one of the main gears jammed and I had to land on a planet fast. I randomly chose the closest planet, which was called Mara.

An hour later, I landed on Mara. When I got out, it looked like a desert, like in Egypt where they have the pyramids. After walking three miles, I found a small, white shed-looking building. Once I managed to pull the door open, my hands were red and filled with blisters.

When I peered inside, the shed was empty and all I could see was a door with a piece of paper taped to it that had red writing on it. As I walked toward the door, it slowly opened by itself and revealed a regular-looking world with bright colors and a cartoon mix. When I got closer, it started looking like a Candyland type of world. This can’t be happening, I thought to myself. People only dream about this, not actually go to places like this. I walked up to a lollipop flower, picked it up, and brought it to my mouth. When I licked it, the sweet flavor of the lollipop began to fill my throat. This isn’t a dream, I thought to myself. A dream would never feel this real to me in my entire life.

I then walked to the nearest tree and bit on the dark chocolate bark. As I scanned the green candy grass field that was filled with candy of all colors, a small candy-like dog caught my attention.

I quietly followed the dog, carefully making sure not to scare it away, and tripped every now and then over flower-candy lollipops.

The candy dog finally stopped in front of another shed, just like the one I had encountered several hours before. After filling my backpack with as much candy as it could hold, I opened the door of the chocolate shed. As I stuck my head inside, I could hear the sound of rushing water coming from the other side of the door. I quickly opened the door in the shed, eager to know where it would take me this time.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. The scene I was looking at was extraordinary. There, right before me, was a beautiful scene of nature, just like on earth. It looked like one of those pictures on the postcards that cost 25 or 50 cents that are taken at Yellowstone or Yosemite. As I took a big step forward, a big waterfall came into view in front of me. I quickly took out my camera right away and started taking pictures. The one weird thing about this environment was that there were no wild animals of any kind. Only birds.

I sat down, put my backpack on the dirt ground, and took out the candy and started nibbling on it.

For several days I wandered around, never going more than a mile away from the waterfall.

On the eighth day, I became a little braver and wandered farther than two miles away from the waterfall. Since the only item I had was an abundance of candy, I tore pieces of gummy worms and dropped them on the ground every three steps I took. By the time it was close to nighttime, I had used up half of my candy supply. As I turned around, I panicked. The trail of candy I had been leaving was slowly being eaten by birds. In a matter of seconds, my candy trail was gone.

I quietly sat down on a nearby rock feeling weird about the area around me. As I looked straight out into the darkness, I could see a small light in the far distance. Slowly I walked toward the light making sure not to trip over the many branches, logs, and rocks on the ground.

As I approached the light, I could see that it was coming from a shed just like the one I had seen before, except it was painted green to camouflage the trees. When I managed to pry the door open, it revealed the same desert, and in front of me was the Space Shuttle America. Quickly, I got into the space shuttle before seeing any more sheds that would transport me somewhere.

Once arriving back on Earth, I noticed different people helping me out of the space shuttle. I also noticed cars flying and I realized that I didn't recognize any of the people who helped me board the Space Shuttle America three weeks ago. I quickly got into a taxi, that could fly, to tell my parents that I was okay.

When I reached my house, I was surprised to find that neither of my parents were home, considering that my dad uses the computer all day. I asked my neighbors how long my parents had been gone, and they said that they had died years ago. Things were going through my head, like why I didn’t know my parents had died. I went home and took a nap until the sound of the doorbell ringing rang through my ears.

I opened the door and there stood a man and woman wearing long trench coats. They said, “Come with us.”

“Who are you?”

“We’re from the planet Mara,” the man replied as he turned to walk away.