The Boy who Lived in the Woods

The Boy who Lived in the Woods

by Jai treestar

Dedicated to my brother Rowan,

who inspired me because he likes the woods,

and also to

Riley, Iain, Alex, Huxley, and Tyler Clews.

Copyright 2015

Maple Leaf Writing Project

Brattleboro, Vermont.

Once there was a boy named Rowan. He was 13 and in middle school. He didn’t have the best life, because his parents were murdered when he was 11 years old. He wanted to find out who killed his parents. He had no relatives in that were alive. He moved to the woods after his parents died. In the woods he build a skatepark. He knew he had to go somewhere secret. He told the social worker that he would go live with his friend’s uncle. The social worker said, “That they would have to ask if Rowan could stay with the uncle.”

So the social worker asked. His friend’s uncle said, “Yes, he can live with me and my son.”

Then Rowan said, “Can I live in the woods where no one goes?”

No one goes in the woods because 20 years ago a boy got taken by a grizzly bear team. Rowan wasn't scared cause the story happened a long time ago

The uncle said, “yes” because the forest was the safest place if you live in a tree.

So Rowan went to the woods and looked for a good tree. He found a nice strong Spruce tree. He was planning to make a tree house, because he knew everyone hated the woods, because of the bear problem. He went to the bank then, went to the hardware store to buy some wood for the tree house. Rowan had just enough money for the tree house. He had 13,000 dollars in his bank from his parents when they died.

Rowan was also looking for who killed his parents. He had to find out how long of a ride it would be to where his parents died. Which is one town away from Jacksonville. The town is called New York. Rowan knew New York was busy town. So it would be hard to find the murderer.

He realized he needed a job. So he asked his friend’s uncle, named Seth, the guy that he is supposed to live with. Seth said, “yes, you can have a job as a carpenter with me.”

He got the job at a young age, because Seth was his caretaker. Rowan made 130 dollars a week. Every day after school Rowan went to his job. He had enough for food and clothes.

After work Rowan went home to investigate and find who the killer could be. He read every article about his parents’ loss. Then he thought, what if the killer tried to kill Rowan next, or what if the bear took him.

Every now and then he needed matches, to build fires. He had to bathe in a lake nearby. The lake was big and it went into a river. He found a rack for cooking, so he made a small homemade grill thing, that the rack could sit on. He had to figure out how to make a lot of foods on a grill. He had to buy food without anyone seeing him go into the woods. It would be tricky. He washed his clothes in the lake. He picked berries and herbs to eat. He made it so he didn’t have to buy a lot of food.

He went to a public school. His school was called Heller Elementary School. Rowan was one of the most popular kids in his school. He had black curly hair and brown eyes. He liked to skateboard and play soccer. He played for the best soccer team, called O.U.S.S.S which stands for Organization Under Super Soccer Skills. He was one of the best soccer students for his league, so

he got moved up from Storm (which is the level below the best team) to the O.U.S.S.S team.

Skateboarding is one thing Rowan just loved to do. He was sponsored by O.U.C.H, which stands for Organization Under Constant Harassment. That’s what he called his skateboarding team too. He had 6 kids on his skateboarding crew: Zach, Iain, Joey, Ben, Robin, and Ethan. They liked to film a lot of videos. They made one video that was 20 minutes long. That's long for a skateboarding video. He wanted to become famous and known around the world for skateboarding and soccer. He has been skateboarding for twelve years and he’s only thirteen so ever. He has been playing soccer since he could walk. Rowan skateboards to help him travel and get around.

He would normally have 5 kids total on his team versus the other team. That’s how they play at their school because Rowan is so good at soccer.

One day in math, Rowan was working on his test. He was annoying Chip a lot. Rowan was distracting Chip from his test. Chip got in trouble for talking to other kids during a test. Chip said, “I’ll get you one day, Rowan”.

Rowan knew he was in for trouble because Chip was 6’4”. Rowan just tried to avoid him to not get beat up. He thought Chip forgot all about the test.

Rowan knew he had to tell the teacher that it was his fault for making Chip talk. Rowan knew he had to be responsible. The teacher wasn’t mad because Rowan told the truth. The teacher said, “Rowan you shouldn’t try to talk to others on a test. There are many ways to cheat. If you talk to someone during the test they could look at your answer on a question that they don’t get", said their teacher Mr. Merica.

Chip went home every day after school. His dad is an engineer/ carpenter . Chip has a lot of cool things that his dad had made. He has a soccer net built by his dad. Also he has skateboarding and snowboarding ramps and rails. He either played soccer or skateboarded after school every day, except in the winter he would snowboard. He would snowboard at Carinthia. He was good at all the popular sports, but he was supposed to be the bully. So Chip just went with it. Chip didn’t like that he was the bully. He didn’t tell anybody, he just went with the flow.

Chip wasn’t the richest kid but he still got cool clothes. He dyed his hair red. Then it started fading so he had a fading hair color that went into blonde. He was known as the little kid. He enjoyed being called that cause he was so big and tall.

So one day at school they were in science. Chip was making the coolest science experiment. No one would say that they thought that it was the coolest though, cause they thought he was a mean kid. Then Rowan got paired with him. Rowan thought that Chip was gonna kill him. When they were working Rowan realized that Chip was a nice Kid, but they only talked to ask science questions. At Recess rowan did his own thing and played soccer with his friends. He saw Chip doing his own thing and walking around near the trees. He thought one day he should invite Chip to play soccer. Rowan asked all the other soccer players if they wanted to see if Chip would like to play soccer. All the soccer players replied, “NO,” because they didn’t want to get trampled by a tall big mean person.

“He is nice if you meet him,” said Rowan.

After school Rowan found Chip skateboarding in his backyard. Rowan saw that Chip had a skatepark in his backyard. Rowan walked over and asked if he could skateboard with Chip. Chip said, “sure but nobody has ever asked to hangout with me. It’s kinda weird”.

Rowan said, "no problem. You seem like a cool guy. Everyone makes fun of you, but just don’t listen to them. You are unique in your own way. Thats what I do when someone yells at me for skateboarding". Rowan said, “we can be friends and then in school I’ll help you become popular”.

Rowan went home after that and he felt happy. The next day at school Rowan told his friends how cool Chip is. They didn't believe him though. So Rowan said, “meet me at Chip's house at 3:30”.

Later that day Rowan told Chip what happened when they were in science class. Chip said, "yes, cool. I'm gonna be popular. It will be so cool”.

Rowan replied, “just meet me there a little early”.

After school Rowan went straight to the store to get sodas for him and Chip before the kids got there. Then Rowan met Chip at his house. Rowan said, “I’ll teach you cool new tricks on your halfpipe till they get here”. What do you want to learn how to do?" asked Rowan.

Chip said, “I want to learn how to do a hurricane."

Rowan said, “this trick is hard but I’ll teach you how to do it later on”.

It took Rowan 4 months to learn how to do a hurricane. “Chip do you watch the X-Games”?

“yes”.

Rowan said, “pay close attention to the street league for skateboarding. Look for a good skateboarder. Then get inspired by this skater and make him your favorite skater. When i watch the X-Games, I look at all the amazing tricks my favorite skateboarder does, then I say I want to learn that trick. Here, I’ll teach you the hurricane in 1 or 2 weeks. For now I’ll teach you some of the tricks that I learn that are easy. I can teach you a tre-flip those look really cool,” said Rowan.

Finally the kids all got there. So the kids said “Rowan and Chip have to play skate to prove that Chip isn’t a bully".

Skate is like when you play horse with a basketball. So they started out with playing rock paper scissors to see who would go first. Chip got paper and Rowan got rock. Chip won so he went first.

Chip's heart started beating and his face started sweating. He didn't know what to do. He was scared. So he just went for it.

He landed his heelflip. A heelflip is when you kick off the front side of your board with your heel. Then Rowan did the heelflip and didn't land it so he had "S." Then Chip tried a variel heelflip and didn't land it so it was Rowan's turn. Then the game went on Rowan and Chip getting letters. Finally, the last letter, and it was Chip's turn. Chip was sweaty and couldn’t think of a trick so he went to try the tre-flip. OH NO, will he land it? Yes, Chip landed the trick for the first time in his life! The crowd went wild and decided that Chip could be on O.U.C.H.

Next Rowan talked with his crew and they all decided that Chip could be on the team. Rowan and his team walked up to Chip and said, “Chip you can be on O.U.C.H.”

Rowan still hadn’t seen anything weird so he just went on with his day. Every day Rowan was scared that he had a chance of getting hurt. Next Rowan signed up for karate so he knew self defense. Rowan felt more free so he could do more stuff.

Rowan went to school and talked to the school counselor for help about his parents. The counselor said, “you must be very brave if you’re thinking of taking this challenge all by yourself.”

Rowan responded, “don’t worry about a thing because every little thing is gonna be alright. Don’t worry.”

Then the next day Rowan asked O.U.C.H if they would be up to solving the mystery of his parents. They all thought it would be a good day because the next day was Saturday. Rowan said, “bring a backup sweater cause it might get cold. Also bring backpacks and lunch. Cause tomorrow might be a long day. Oh, one last thing. Meet at Soccer Park at 10 a.m sharp and bring your skateboards.”

O.U.C.H replied, "what we’re gonna skate to New York? Thats such a long way."

On Saturday morning Rowan got up and got ready for the big day. Rowan left at quarter of 10 because it took a little while to get to Soccer Park. Rowan got there and he saw all his friends there. It was perfect. They talked for a few, then left at 10:30 a.m.

Next, on their way, all Rowan's friends said, “how long will this take to get to New York?"

Rowan replied, “about 30 to 45 minutes.”

When they got to New York Rowan said, “let's investigate where they died.”

Zach said, “look, there are red foot prints into the woods.”

They walked into the woods. Robin said, “there are more prints into a tree.”

They all started to climb the tree. Then something moving up in the tree. Rowan said, “oh no.”

Finally, they got to where the murderer was. Rowan had the feeling that something bad was gonna happen. Rowan said, “you killed my parents. Why?”

The bad guy said, “first, my name is Rob. Second, it wasn’t on purpose. They handed me a gun.”

“WHY?” questioned Rowan.

“Then I pulled the trigger because they said, if you don’t pull the trigger then we’ll end up shooting you.”

Rowan asked, “why did they want you to shoot them.”

"Said they were wearing a bulletproof vest, that they made made.”

Rowan questioned, “what if it doesn’t work.

Will be fine if they die because, we are old. We’ve had a peaceful life.”

Rowan said, “did they mention me?”

Rob replied “no, they just said hurry up after they said that.”

Then Rowan and his friends said, “thank you for the talk and the story.”

Rob said, “no problem”.

At last Rowan knew the truth. Now they started to head home for lunch. By the time they got home it was around 12:30 p.m. They all went home for lunch. Then they called each other. Chip called everyone and said, “wanna come over and skate my half pipe? Maybe we can even build some more skate ramps.”

All the kids replied, “YES DEFINITELY!”

THE END