🅵🅰🅻🅻

By: Haley Ritt

Fall is, in my personal opinion, the best season out there. September 22, is the best day of the month (maybe even the year, not counting any other holiday or my birthday), the start of Fall.

Now, when I say fall I'm not talking about the first slushy snow of the year, 20 degree weather, cold puffy scratchy breath, sore throats, colds and heavy coats. I’m talking crunchy colorful leaves, warm colored trees, Halloween, pumpkin flavored EVERYTHING and hoodie season. Friday football games, warm apple cider, pumpkin carving, hay mazes, and racing around in pumpkin patches with my friends. Fall is absolutely most definitely perfect, everything about it, the view, the smell, the sound, it’s absolutely wonderful.

The worst part of fall is when it's over, when the heavy white snow falls to the ground, when you take ages in the morning because you have to wear tough heavy boots that take ions to put on, your socks get all soaked as soon as you step in the slushy, slippery snow, dry skin EVERYWHERE , snow days ( because it's a zoom call on the computer), and colds that give you red, runny noses and headaches.

I love stepping outside in the morning and feeling the brisk cold breeze and seeing the leaves making tiny tornadoes on the ground. I love wearing baggy hoodies and sweatpants because that's just the fashion in fall. I love rapping up in fluffy blankets and watching scary movies with my friends until we fall asleep totally terrified and making Halloween themed sugar cookies. I love going out and carving pumpkins and drinking warm sugary apple cider. I love the season in general. If the earth could stay in one place the entire year (without the end of the world going down), I would want it to stick at fall.

Concluding my obnoxious rant about the thing I love, Fall is the best season.

Ghost Town

By Karol Cortes-Gomez

I wake up, and I don’t feel the same. My head hurts really bad, and to make it worse I had woken up in panic due to the fact I just had a very weird and creepy dream. Clearly I’m going to see some stuff today I might not want to. Everything feels the same except, my eyes. I think they are rolling around my head, they’re dizzy somehow. When I checked the time, it's only 4:45. It's way too early to get up for school but I’m not sleepy anyway, so I decide to make myself some breakfast. I couldn’t find anything, I’m not really good at cooking anyway and to make things worse my mom is not awake yet. Which means I’m going to eat some classical oatmeal, yay.

Chapter one

I’ve Gone Insane

My bus is here, finally . I hurry and get all my stuff together and run out of my house without closing the door, don’t worry my mom is awake already.

On the bus I meet someone new, though I feel some kind of weird energy around him. His name is Wilbur. He says he has been here all the school years. I noticed something, everyone was staring at me and then someone finally speaks to me. A rude guy (who by the way sits next to me) named Percy says

“ Who are you talking to Rachel, your invisible friend ?” really obnoxiously.

That got on my nerves so I screamed “HIS NAME IS WILBUR, CAN’T YOU SEE HIM OR ARE YOU BLIND ?” I ask Wilbur “ You’re not invisible are you ?’’

He says softly “ The thing is ,” he stops there.

I realize what he means and finally say “ You’re dead right?” it sounded sort of mean when I said it like an insult. He nods, looking at me as if that would ruin us. I seriously can’t believe it, I am friends with a ghost.

It all made sense now, my creepy dream, weird looks, my all-the-sudden-headaches. I have changed overnight, into something that I really didn’t want to be.

I realized that I could see so many other things. I could choose which way of the town I wanted to see, the past version or the present version. I wish I could see the future, but I can't, which is a bit disappointing. I’m pretty sure someone else can.

I think I might have a little thought of who can see the future, and I have a hope (my best friend), I sort of hope it isn’t my suspicion, I sort of hold a grudge against him.

Chapter two

Things get Weirder

Finally the bus stops and drops us off. Should I mention I think my ears got permanent damage from how screechy it is.

But anyway, at school I meet my friend, Elizzabeth Rose. She’s really smart, like really, really smart. She skipped a grade and is somehow still smarter than me, she’s in eighth grade math class. She’s really pretty and everything. She’s only in seventh, like me but smarter, one of the only things we have in common is we are both drama club.

Sometimes I feel like she’s just my friend because I just sort of am a person who understands weird things a bit too much. By weird I mean I pretty much understand anything, really anything.

The stage we use is creepy, you hear these noises coming from underneath, or else where the clothes go. In case you’re wondering I mean clothes as in clothes for us the people on stage. I have heard some things like ever since I started drama club. No one else hears them though, if they did they would put on their disbelief/freaked out faces depending on the person.

Classes go so slow usually except gym, that will be that one class that changes like everyday and it depends what we are doing. Social studies is actually my favorite class. I really like Greek, Roman, and Egyptian history.

When school ends I go to my locker, get my stuff and run straight to the auditorium. I'm usually the first one there. Same as usual I’m alone for five minutes, sometimes more than that, I mean what does it take them so long. As if they had so much to put in their backpacks.

I see Wilbur and whisper-scream “ What are you doing here ?” sounds sort of mean coming from me.

“ I live here,” I’m confused. Then I see all these other weird shapes, they are plain sort of invisible white, like Wilbur except they look like pancakes that were made by me, very messed up. I’m most likely going insane or it’s just I’m dreaming. Maybe if I tried pinching myself *pinches* ow, nope it’s real

Chapter three

I Have a Connection with my Enemy

My character is this girl named Bailey who is basically just the one who falls, trips, slips on things and overall does things wrong. Sort of a background character, I only have like 4 lines, and a lot of appearances. You know just in the background falling and dying in the back.

Elizza’s (that’s Elizzabeth’s nickname) character is a girl named Clarisse, she’s a really mean person who is sort of villainous except for the fact that she’s not the actual villain. She got the part because Elizza is really tall and Clarisse is supposed to be tall.

I hear footsteps, someone’s coming at last, they’re talking with someone else. I only hear one person’s footsteps though. When I saw who it was I thought it was better to be alone, it was Percy yay, but he was alone and he looked a bit startled as if he didn’t expect me to be here.

I ask “ You think I’m crazy huh ?” obviously, I don’t mean it to sound mean but meh.

He says “ Okay, yeah, sure, I’m weird like you,” personally, I’m insulted.

I don’t see anything like a ghost or something so I ask “ What do you mean ?”

He says “ I can see things except the future, not like you the one who can see dead things,” that was sort of mean, I knew he didn't want it to sound mean or anything but it just did, like his tone, his voice is just always very dead.

Oh, okay that makes sense, I would ask but just then when life was getting interesting more people came over and we both decided that keeping our little secret to ourselves would keep that reputation of hating each other not get ruined.

Everyone was getting really loud for the first few minutes, our teacher lets us practice our lines before we act out the play. When that time was over our teacher made us say our lines in order.

We also had to hear some plans from the stage crew, that was “interesting”. They’re planning something like making that one forest scene have some leaf props. You know that they’re on top of the stage but not on it, dropping leaves around.

Another of my friends, May, is in stage crew. She says it’s fun, she gets to do our make-up and outfits. I guess she thinks that’s fun but, really it doesn’t sound that fun.

Chapter four

I Disappear out of plain air, literally

You remember how I was telling you how I saw at least a hundred thousand ghosts here in the drama room. Yeah well those ghosts pulled me out of my body, not in an idiom-ish way, just literally.

To a normal person, also known as anyone who is not me or Percy, this would have looked as if I had some kind of faint, maybe a coma or I died. I don’t really know if Percy could see my soul, ghost or anything because if he can see the future he could see that I am still there and just going to return in a little, maybe.

A few seconds later I can’t even see the auditorium or the other people in the drama club.

Now instead I see the grayest place you could ever go to. It was a place that looked like a 19th century school (thanks a lot, grandma) yep, a one class school.

This might have seemed weird for some people, including me. Of course by now you are probably thinking that well there has to be some color, only in really old movies there are no colors, but I need you to remember that this a ghost land not a human land.

The ghost started to look more humanistic except that they were a little transparent. I’m actually sure this is the town I live in, I mean used to like two minutes ago. Why am I so sure ?

Well, it says right in the entrance to the town “Welcome to White Bridge” the only difference from their sign to the more human world, the population was way over.

I think it’s because the population is made up of the people who have been buried here in White Bridge, or else all the dead.

A horse out of nowhere comes up to me and spits on me.

I guess if I get wet in the real world there will be a random reason for the dead world. Due to the fact that I was placed right back to my body and I saw a bucket, being held by the nurse.

Elizza came up to me and asked me “ WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED TO YOU ?!?!” really loudly. Sometimes I forget how loud quiet people can be if they really try. I try to say calmly “ Yeah, um I think I forgot to breathe,” I’m pretty sure everyone was laughing on the inside, on the outside they looked as if they cared.

ℝ𝕦𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕒 𝔸𝕥𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕜𝕤 𝕌𝕜𝕣𝕒𝕚𝕟𝕖

By: Metztli Vallejo

Hello students of Genoa Kingston middle school today we're gonna make opinions of what Russia is doing to Ukraine.

So Russia always wanted to rule Ukraine but the Ukrainians hate Russians they want nothing to do with them from 1932 to 1933 the Russians starved the Ukrainians on purpose and now again they want to rule them and why the Ukrainians are not fighting they are just fleeing and looking for help because they don’t want nothing to do with it.

If you think they fight Russia seriously you should see the size of Russia and the size of Ukraine. Russia is so huge and Ukraine is tiny. Russia is 28 times bigger than Ukraine, wow right.

Guess what, they want to rule Ukraine so they can expand their population and in a website I found says “The Russian leader's initial aim was to overrun Ukraine and depose its government, ending for good its desire to join the Western defensive alliance Nato. After a month of failures, he abandoned his bid to capture the capital Kyiv and turned his ambitions to Ukraine's east and south.”

So as you read it kinda sounds to me they want to expand their population. Also do you think Russia is bigger than the US you might say no but guess what!!! Russia is bigger than the United States of america!! Russia can run us over as one of the biggest countries in the world. They already have enough land and population. Ugh sometimes I don’t understand the leaders. The leader of Russia is second place of evilness to Adolf Hitler, crazy right.

Did you know that 43,000 Russian soldiers died in the war and the Russian leader wants to send more soldiers to Ukraine, it’s like he wants million and millions soldiers to invade a tiny state.

They look like they are in sync literally. The current Russian government are just so cruel, they bombed a hospital and there were 3 killed 17 injured that is just think of the people that were there like doctors, patients, and visitors, it's so sad.

Halloween Trivia

By: Madison Morgan

Are you excited about Halloween coming up! It is going to be so much fun. What are you going to be for Halloween dinosaur, ghost, M and M’s. I’m going to be a Kpop girl and I’m going to make my own costume.

I’m going to just use some of the clothes I have. But a good place to get a halloween costume is the Spirit store, I have gotten most of my Halloween costumes there. They have so many costumes. They have blown up costumes too. Like I told you, there are so many costumes there just in one of the stores. Did you know that there are 1,400 Spirit stores in the US.

The most popular costumes this year are Stranger things, Eleven Geometric Romper, Elvis costume, Top Gun, Harley Quinn. These are all very good costumes. Are you going to be one of them?

Are you going to be a person from a TV show or from a movie, A band, or a famous person, a candy or a whimsical person? Any would be very cool.

What is the most famous candy is given out on Halloween? The most popular candy given on Halloween in the US is Reese’s Cups, and the next two that are skittles and M and M’s. Do you want to know more about candy? The most famous candy in the UK is Snickers.

Did you know that there are places that don’t celebrate Halloween? Russia, Ireland, Mexico, Italy, Portugal. But everywhere else they celebrate Halloween.

These were some of the best costumes and best candy and where some places don’t celebrate Halloween. I hope you like all of this spooky Halloween stuff. Also Happy Halloween and what is your favorite candy.

The Halloween Night

By: Emma Kuschel

I was getting ready to get some groceries at Jewel for the biggest Halloween party ever. I was super excited to start cooking. I was going to make mummy dogs, spider burgers, and a giant Frankenstein cake. As soon as I arrived, there was nobody there. I was kinda suspicious because I thought everyone would be out the day before Halloween, but no. That is when I went up to the door and something happened…

I couldn’t remember what happened, but it was dark. I was really scared. I tried to reach my phone but I was tied to the chair which I had just realized I was sitting in. I wondered who brought me to this dark place. It wouldn’t have been a friend because they know I hate dark places.

I started to see something glow in the distance. It was green and it looked far away but I felt as if I was in a tiny room. I needed to know what the green light was so I tried to scoot my chair over there, but I fell on the second try. Now I was on my side because there was no possible way of getting up with a chair on my back. I just stared at the green thing and it started to get closer and closer. I thought I was losing it because I had just hit my head on something hard. It couldn’t have been the floor unless I was standing on my head. I now saw the light a few feet away. It was shining so bright. I couldn’t look. Then I heard a scream. It wasn’t my own…

I was sure it wasn’t some weird dream. The scream was so loud. I was shocked nobody above us could hear the obnoxious scream that I had just heard. I thought I had figured out we were in the Jewel basement because where else would I be if I was trying to go shopping at Jewel. I was wondering who screamed. I was so worried, I didn’t want to move. I froze completely. I turned my focus back to the other thing that was bothering me greatly. The green light still shines but it drifted further and further away as I had just laid there focusing on the scream. It felt like my head was spinning as everything was going on all around me.

I figured it was morning because I could hear the birds chirping loudly and the room was a little lighter than what it had been. I was well rested and happy that I was in the same place as before. I needed to find a way out of here. I must have been a ninja sleeper because the rope had loosened and I could get out of this dark creepy place. I was so excited to get out. I ran up some stairs and I was… actually into the Jewel main shopping part! Nobody was here and I was alone. I ran to the doors that were locked. I pushed and pushed and then BAM the door came unlocked.

I wasn’t prepared for my party, but it was still the best ever. I had meat left over for the spider burgers and I didn’t do the mummy dogs but I did get to do the frankenstein cake. It was vanilla with food coloring and not mint. It all worked out and I had a spooky Halloween story to tell all of my friends and family!

Softball Trip to Florida

By: Kailey Haberkamp

“Are we there yet?” I asked as I looked out the airplane window.

“ Not yet, are you excited?” asked mom.

“YAY!” I said. We were going to Florida for softball. I had tried out and made the All American softball team. I was a direct invite so I got to know first. There were a lot of teams but my team name was called DI Red.

When we got to Florida we had to get our luggage and a rental car. When we got our rental car we went to the hotel but we were not allowed to check in yet. So we went to go get some food. When we were done eating I went swimming. When I was done swimming we went to our hotel room and I changed out of my swimsuit.

The next day we went to the store and got some food and drinks. When we got back to the hotel we relaxed in the hotel room.

Later that day we went to the softball field. And there were little shops and we got to meet our teemates.When that was done we got to run on the professionals fields. After we were done we watched the professional play.

The next day was game day. I was so excited. We had our first game and we won. After that game we had our second game and we tied.

When we were done with our two games, we went back to the hotel. I got my swimming suit on and went to my friend's hotel and went to the beach and to the swimming pool and it was so fun.

The next day we had one game and we lost. Afterwards, I went to my other friend's hotel and we went swimming. When we were done swimming we went shopping.

The next day we had three games and we lost one and won two. My mom and dad and I rushed to my friend's hotel after our games to watch a rocket launch. I changed into my swimming suit because I brought it with me.

It was the last day and we played one game in the championship but we lost. We got third place. I said bye to my teammates and coach. I did not want to leave, but I had to because we had one more week until school started.

That was my trip to Florida for softball. I had a lot of fun. I want to try out next year again.

The Ballad of Swords and

Shields

By Edward Evinger & Andrew Cline

_________________________________

Book-1. The Endless Waves

Alexious descended from the deck of the ship,, to the solid ground below, having just arrived from months at sea. He had decided to make a speedy return from his trip to the eastern kingdoms, once hearing of the outlandish rumor running throughout the empire. He rushed past the citizens of Lythrina as they went about their daily business. People haggled with merchants, beggars sat on the sides of the dirt roads shouting at the passerby. Children ran after run away dogs, people from all across the world were crowded in the streets, from the heavily clothed tribesmen of the Thiráz Highlands up north, down to the wild, dark skinned hunters of the Confederacy of Elphantrön far south. The press of humanity was enough to overwhelm most first timers to the great city, but Alexious had grown up in the farming villages on the outskirts of Lythrina. After a while, you just get used to the many sights assaulting your vision. He walked right past a merchant trying to offer him a “fine” garment from the far Eastern kingdom of Xīnderön, or people of the stars. It was clear to him that the fabrics were not manufactured anywhere near there, and he made a mental note to examine anything he was going to buy here. As with any international trading center, Lythrina attracts many honorable merchants, and tradesmen. But it also attracts many thieves, liars, and cheats to come and make a fortune scamming civilians.

Alexious turned down a side street and entered a more residential part of the city. As with most cities in the Great Empire of Alexandriana, the citizens living in the grand cities mostly live in an apartment-like building, white washed wood with stained planks outlining the foundation of the buildings. The people lived in these buildings close together, each having a small room. Other citizens, usually outside of the major cities, lived in small cabins. Normally these cabins were on the farms that feed the empire. Alexious turned towards the humble abode of a man who was a part of a group of very remarkable people. Math was a core concept of certain parts of Alexandriana, mainly in areas which were the earliest to be pacified by the empire, this allowed people to specialize in certain fields. Some of these people decided to get more theoretical and thus began the birth of mathematics. Alexious had heard that, in this building, resides Pythagronius, one of the more respected mathematicians in this area.

He knocked sharply on the door and a voice from inside beckoned him to enter. He walked through the passage and entered the home, inside parchment plastered the walls, with ink numerals scribbled on certain pieces. It had a homely, slightly cluttered, but other than that it seemed like a fine home. He wandered into the courtyard in the center and found a man sitting, staring at a finely carved fountain. A dolphin head spewed water out of the blowhole, and down into the marble covered basin of the fountain.

“Hello,” the man said without looking behind. Alexious was confronted with a thought that the man resembled his own grandfather,

“Hello, I am here to speak with Pythagronius. Are you him?” The man turned around at that and stated,

“I am indeed, I assume you are the Alexious that sent me the note about wanting to speak with me.” Alexious nodded affirmatively. The man seemed almost ancient, with long gray hair cascading down his back, and a balding crown. His features almost resembled that of a vulture, a hooked nose with a gaunt appearance. The only feature that didn’t go along with the theme were his remarkably blue gray eyes, which were large and seemed to be looking into his soul. He wore a robe of dark blue, almost black. He sure did look the part of a scholar. Alexious shook his head and continued,

“Yes, I wanted to meet with you because of some rumors that I have heard spreading around.” Pythagronius shook his head, with a somewhat grim expression on his face.

“I figured as much, if people were just able to see the logic in my theory, then I would be a lot better off.” He walked over to a small table at the edge of the center garden. He picked up a scroll and unrolled it. He then showed it to Alexious. As Alexious looked down at the scroll, he could see many small numerals and symbols scribbled on the long piece of parchment. He had grown up with a fair education. His grandfather had been the famous Marcos Poliŭn. He was one of the most famous explorers ever to have originated from the empire. Marcos was the man who traveled all the way from the city of Ratrita, all the way over the High Walls and to the eastlands. He was the first Alexandrianian citizen to directly make it to these far off lands. Before this, all trading between the two was conducted with a middle man, mostly being the ancient kingdom of Yikrēade. Because of this, his family had been able to corner a certain market with a merchants company. They ended up selling it and now were very well off. Because of this, Alexious was given a very good education, about as good as any commoner would be able to get. He learned the basics in arithmetic, reading and writing, art, music, sailing, and riding. He went on to gain a deeper knowledge in all of these fields. By his 24th birthday, he was able to do fairly complicated equations in his head, paint and draw like an artist born to it. He was able to play three different instruments with varying levels of expertise, and he was able to read, write, and speak five different languages. Even with all of this training and education, he could not bring himself to understand half of the symbols and equations scribbled on that small scroll. Pythagronius noticed the confused look on Alexious’s face and began to explain,

“You see, It has been common knowledge that the world is a globe ever since the brilliant Therius calculated the general circumference of the world. Then the magician Arthurian sent out his mind's sight into the heavens and saw the very curve of the world.” Alexious nodded, this was fairly common knowledge, “ Now I was thinking one day, the weight of the continent of Therbiu has to be an almost unimaginable amount. So I did a couple of calculations (He pointed to a handful of symbols and numerals.) And I calculated that the weight of the continent would literally implode on the planet. Now the only thing that would stop the planet from collapsing on itself would be some other counterweight on the other side of the planet.” Alexious was a bit lost, he understood what Pythagronius was saying, but he didn’t understand most of the mathematics on the parchment. Pythagronius slowed down a bit, “Logically speaking, the only thing that would be able to counterweight this would be another landmass. This would mean that across the sea, is another continent.” Alexious nodded. That had been the theory that he had overheard, there was a man claiming that across the endless sea was another continent. It sounded ridiculous at the time, but now that he was watching Pythagrronius explain it, it now made a lot more sense.

“You know, that does make a fair amount of sense. I still don’t understand the ways you got to this conclusion, but I am a man who's still thirsty for adventure. Why would you want to tell me this anyway?” Pythagronius chuckled,

“Well I was actually wanting to find someone who may be crazy enough to try and discover this new land. I was really hoping that you would be able to help me.” Alexious thought upon this. He had always had an extreme sense of adventure, but he also had a level head and could immediately name countless risks to the journey. This resulted in a battle in his mind as he tried to weigh the choices. After a couple of minutes of just standing staring off into space, he finally made up his mind.

“You know, that does sound like a mighty adventure, which does make me inclined to agree. But there would also be a lot of dangers. If I were to go I would need a captain and a crew who knew what they were doing. Now, if we can get that, then I’d actually really want to go,” He grinned, “Besides, as I said the adventure is calling to me.” Pythagronius agreed and they decided to keep in contact, and meet up at the docs when they get the crew. As Alexious turned to leave, there was only one thought in his mind: what had his insane sense of adventure gotten him into this time?

Alexious walked through the empty streets towards the doc. It had been three weeks since he had talked to Pythagronius, and in that time a lot had happened. HpHe had set out trying to find a ship and a captain, eventually discovering Arithricson, or as he was known on the seas, Captain Red Beard. He was a merry fellow from up north, the villages in the mountains south of the Thiráz Highlands. He was tall and strongly built, with red hair down to his shoulders, and a big red beard. He almost resembles a dwarf from the child's tales, except for being considerably bigger. He had been reluctant to sail the journey at first, but after some convincing, and a couple raises, he had agreed. Alexious decided that he was fond of the man, he might be a bit rough at times, and was most likely a liar and a pirate. But he was still a nice fellow and would be loyal during a fight.

After finding Jonith, Alexious had left him to find the crew, then he went and found an old friend, Rathen. He was the head of a mercenary band, and Alexious figured his skills and crew may be useful for the journey. Rathen decided to help his friend, and agreed to go on the mission. Pythagronius was busy recruiting more specialized crew members. He was able to get a bit of funding from a nobleman, then he convinced a reclusive magician to join the fray. Alexious hadn’t met either man, but he decided to trust in pythagronius’s judgment and kept to his own tasks. He came up into the docs and saw the Swift Raven at anchor in the bay. He walked up to it and saw the crew already on deck, getting ready to set sail. He ascended the steps up to the deck and looked around. He watched as deckhands and sailors rushed about unknown tasks. Captain Arithricson stood ordering about the men, he saw Alexious and waved to him.

“Ah, there you are, you land loving rat.”

“It’s good to see you again Jonith. I see you are very comfortable,” Alexious commented. Jonith did seem to be in tune with the ship. He would move to balance himself with every slight movement of the boat , while still listening to every single order, and questions shouted aloud. Jonith responded,

“You have the right of that Alexious, honestly I feel a lot more comfortable on the high seas than anywhere on land. Well anyways, that mathematician you had brought along is down in his quarters talking to the magician, ``We're pretty much ready to leave whenever.” Alexious nodded,

“Well no point in tarrying for a lot longer.” The captain nodded and put his focus back on the crew. The Swift Raven left the harbor about an hour later.

The journey across the sea was pretty unfaithful. There was a small uprising among the crew, about a day into the voyage, once they learned where they were actually going. But after a bit of “convincing” from the captain, the crew decided to see it through. Of course, the band of 25 mercenaries also helped. Other than that, they sailed for about five weeks. They ended up having to partition out all of the resources because they had no clue when they might see dry land again. Everyone was starting to feel a bit hopeless when, on the third day of the fifth week, they saw some small islands. They landed there and found them to be uninhabited, but it was still nice to see dry land. They diced for two days, gathering some more resources in front of the land, before setting out on the ocean. They had been about 4 days front eh islands when the lookout above shouted,

“Land Ho”,

“Where?”shouted Jonith back up to him. The lookout looked down and shouted back

“Dead ahead capt’n,” Everyone aboard looked beyond the bow of the ship and gasped. They could see the faint traces of land, stretching as far as the eye could see.

They sat and stared at the faint piece of land for minutes before finally coming back to their senses. This could be the very proof that they were searching for, that there was indeed another continent on the other side of the planet. Finally Jonith barked.

“Alright, everyone get back to work.” They made quick work of the distance between themselves and the land, eventually landing at sunset. The crew hurriedly cast the anchor over the side, and finished up the other duties around the boat. Alexious and Jonith sat watching the sun set over the vast ocean, and they didn’t even notice Pythagronius and the magician called Vasilius walking up and standing with them,

“The sunset is beautiful, isn’t it?” Vasilius stated. They both nodded without turning around. Everyone sat in silence until the sun had finally set below the dark blue waves. Jonith looked around after a moment and stated,

“We will go to explore on land tomorrow. Right now I suggest you get some sleep, we will have a long day ahead of us.” With that, he turned and went below deck to his quarters. Slowly, the rest started to make their way to bed, with Pythagronius being the last awake, staring at the vast body of stars suspended above the small ship.

Middle school Friend or Foe?

Written by: Sienna Mueller

When I asked adults to describe middle schoolers, these are some of the words used…… Funny, disturbing, uncertain, scared, happy, desire to succeed, a roller coaster, a surprise everyday, like a reality show.

What do Middle Schoolers do….

*This is what some kids in my school have said.*

Sixth graders play a lot of sports! Like football, baseball, soccer, volleyball, softball, track, swimming and practically any sport. We also talk about things like social media, DRAMA, people we like and stuff like that. We talk about grades, classes we are failing, classes we are doing great in, classes we like, teachers we like.

We text our friends all night practically, we gossip and we get emotional. I can't tell you how much we mess around. We create so much drama. We also are trying to figure out who we are. We hang out with our friends and we play A LOT of video games. Also people talk about inappropriate stuff, but most of the time we are talking about stupid stuff. We also distract people, we can be VERY annoying. We also brag about stupid things!!! We also don't check our grades like we should.

I was wondering, “what does google think middle schoolers do?” and this is what I got. They care more about the opinion of their peers than pretty much anything else. They are horrified by what their bodies are doing. They trend toward hyperboles-over exaggeration. They are mortified by public praise. They can't all be trusted.They just now realize that you're a human being.

They are pulling away from their parents. They are still kids. They like visiting the park, watching educational television shows, playing entertaining video games, learning to cook simple snacks or reading

I don't really think that what google said was very correct and I think that a lot of middle schoolers would feel the same way. I think that it should be definitely updated and or changed. I'm sure you most likely feel the same way. I think that the part that says “they just now realize that they're humans” is kinda weird. It kinda makes it sound like, I dont no - we thought we were aliens or something? I did not think what google said made not a lot of sense and didn’t agree with some statements