Escape the Woods

They shoved us into the cabin, slammed the door, and locked it. I heard the click of three chain locks outside. No way to get out by picking the lock now. It was pitch black inside, and I couldn’t see anything except for some faint outlines. It was nighttime, and the moonlight shining through the barred windows provided the most light.
Drew slammed her foot into the door, but it remained perfectly intact.
I heard them laugh, then shuffle away after a while.
“I’m scaaaared!!” Zoey whined. “It’s daaark!”
“Shut up,” Drew snapped, “let’s find a light switch. David, do you still have your flashlight?”
“I did, but he took my backpack,” he said glumly. “My books were in there,” he muttered.
“I’m scared!” Zoey shrieked.
Drew groaned. “Okay Zoey, just sit down on the floor and close your eyes okay? Pretend you’re in your room meditating or something We need to find a light switch.”
“Okay,” I heard her sit down on the floor.
The rest of us groped along the walls, but couldn’t find any light switches, there was a lot of wall to cover.
I stopped and closed me eyes for ten seconds, then opened them. It didn’t help much, but it helped nonetheless.
I could make out a bed, and table next to a nightstand. I walked slowly towards the bed. I could see something shiny under it.
I discovered that it wasn’t a lamp, but a book. I couldn’t see anything, let alone what the book said, so I went over to the barred windows to read it. It was total gibberish. It was written in another language, but it didn’t even look like any language I’ve ever seen. That wasn’t saying much though, since I don’t bother taking the time to learn to recognize which language is which.
I knew David, Drew, and Zoey didn’t know any language except English and French, but I asked them anyway, maybe David would at least know what language it was.
They crowded around me and peered at the book, squinting at it because of the small amount of light.
Drew rolled her eyes, “It’s English.”
“Uh, no it isn’t,” I said.
“That’s obviously not English,” Zoey agreed.
“That’s not any language I know,” David added.
“No, it’s clearly English,” Drew stared at us like we were the stupidest idiots in the world. “It says ‘Spellbook’.”
“I’m not falling for that,” I said.
“I’m not kidding Logan, that’s what it says!”
“How can you read that?”
“Because it’s English!” She looked and sounded highly irritated.
“Okay fine,” I said. I opened the book and looked at the first page. It looked like a table of contents.
“It’s the table of contents,” Drew said. “Give me that.” She took the book and started flipping.
“It’s full of spells,” she told us. She stopped at one page. It had some weird comic about a girl at a beach.

“Dihelio?”

she said it like a question.
Dihelio
Immediately light flooded through the window. We all turned behind us and saw the sun, blazing right next to the moon.
“But…” David looked completely flabbergasted, well, everyone did, “that’s not possible.”
“That was a spell,” Drew said, she was as amazed as we were, “make two suns. The comic shows two suns right beside each other, but I guess using this spell could also make another sun whereever we want it to be.”
“How come only you can read it?”
“How will am I supposed to know that?” She went back to the book. She flipped through a few, “Hey, this one’s cool.”
She held the book away from her a little and said,

“Centceph.”

Centecph
Zoey, David, and I screamed so loud we were probably heard in China.
Instead of one head, Drew had about a hundred heads. All blinking and grinning at the same time.
“Wow,” all the heads said. It sounded like a crowd of people, “your scream is very high pitched.”
Zoey fainted.
David stared in horror at Drew while I just stood there with my jaw hanging open.
“Um,” David said nervously, like her heads were going to chew his head off if he said the wrong thing, “can you…turn back to normal?”
“Monoceph.”
All the heads disappeared except one, leaving her back to normal.
“Ooh this one’s cool,

Polypub”

Polypub
She split into seven identicle copies of her, almost like the other hundred heads spell.
They looked at each other, “Awesome!”
David shook Zoey back to consciousness.
“Okay Drew, stop. Is there anything useful in there?” I asked.
Drew changed back to normal. “Hm,” she went to the table of contents, then flipped to a page.
“Hurry!” Zoey burst into tears the moment she regained consciousness. “They’re burning us!!!”
I thought maybe she was hallucinating, but then I turned to look at what she and David were looking at, and saw that the flames were burning the wall behind us.

“Mobilmacro,”

Drew said quickly.
Mobilmacro
She ran over to the door and pushed with one hand, the other still holding the book.
We heard a loud ripping noise, and the entire door fell down. The chain locks and the hinges had broken completely off, and the deadbolt lock had torn a hole in the wooden wall.
Drew grinned at the wreckage she had caused, “Wicked!”
“That was a bit loud,” David said.
“Pff who cares,” she said, “we have a bunch of awesome spells. Look there’s even one that can control time! It’s very complicated though.” She read a bit more, “And it’s extremely hard to do.”
We ran a bit farther from the burning cabin. Drew found another spell,

“Benescope.”

Benescope
“Whoa!” she looked around.
“What?” Zoey asked.
“I can see everything!” Suddenly she shrieked, “Ah!”

“Petrpopu!”

she yelled.
Petrpopu
I heard something heavy fall somewhere in front of us, maybe ten metres away.
“What was that?” Zoey asked nervously.
“A person,” Drew answered. She scanned the trees around us, “I don’t see anyone else…”
“I hear something,” David whispered.
“I hear you talking,” Drew whispered back.
“No, that’s not what I—”
“I know what you meant, now stop talking,” she said back.

“Inmem!”

Inmem
she shouted. She was pointing at some trees beside us.
A man burst out of the trees, yelling something incoherent as he charged toward us, then stopped and looked confused.

“Zoanthro!”

Zoantro
We stared as he began staggering around with a rabbit’s head for a head. He then dropped to the ground and chewed at the grass.
“Wow,” Drew said, “this book is awesome.”
“Is there anyone out there still?” Zoey asked.
“No, not that I can see.”
David pointed to the right, “If we walk that way for twenty minutes or so, we’ll probably make it back to camp…if I’m not mistaken.”
“Hm, I guess we go that way then,” I said. We trudged that way for a while.
Drew read the spellbook as she walked, “Ooh, this one’s cool,

Decachrom!”

Decachrom

Decachrom


A tree next to us burst into a rainbow of colours
“Why would they lock us in that cabin?” Zoey asked as we walked . “And who are they?”
“You think I would know?” Drew asked. Then she added, “They seemed to really hate me.”
“Not surprising,” I said, “you’re really easy to hate.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” she demanded.
“It means what you think it means,” I answered.
“Stop it!” David ordered. “We have bigger problems. Look!”
Two more men were coming at us.
Drew acted quickly,

“Oligmania.”

Oligmania
The screeched to a stop and started doing the tango while making chicken impersonations, which looked very strange.
“Can I try a spell?” Zoey asked.
“Sure.”
“Uh, I only remember the hundred head one, um…centceph.”
Nothing happened. She looked a bit relieved that nothing did.
David and I tried as well, but our efforts were proved futile.
“Wait,” David said suddenly, “who’s that?”
A woman holding a chopstick was walking towards them. She didn’t look threatening, but of course, looks can be deceiving.
“I have a spellbook!” Drew threatened, “I can make you turn into a frog! With huge and ugly warts!” she added.
“Oh, there’s no need for that,” she smiled. “I was the one who put that spellbook under the bed.”
Drew blinked, “You serious?”
“Yes, I am. I am a witch you see. You are one as well. You can read the Fantasian language, you can do magic while you’re friends cannot. You are a witch.”
“They’re not my friends,” she said quickly. “So why were those crazy lunatics after us?”
“After you to be exact. They hate our kind, burning us is kind of their hobby. You’re acquaintances were caught in this mess by accident, since they were with you, they thought that they were like you, wizards and witches. Those crazy lunatics are magicians, very different from us wizards and witches. They are an entirely different branch of magic. You are special, because you do not need a wand to cast spells. That means you are Extraordinary, with a capital ‘E’. You are the Extraordinary Witch, the first in decades. I am merely an Ordinary Witch. You with a wand, will be very, very powerful.”
“Wow,” Drew said, “cool.”
“But with great power, comes a great price. Magicians will constantly me tracking you, trying to get rid of you. Your friends and family as well.” She gave Drew a sad look, “You will never be safe from harm.”

The School Field Trip

March 12, 2014, Mackeral Middle School, Field Trip 9:00~3:00, Capilano Bridge.

I signed, what was fun about a bridge? Sure, it’s almost the same height as the Statue of Liberty. But the Grand Canyon is even higher! And collecting stamps in exchange for a “surprise?” LAAAAAMMEE!!!

As we walked to the bridge, I read the informational signs. It could hold about 100 elephants? Well at least I’m assured it’s not going to fall. We walked onto the bridge. Jessica was snapping pictures of everything. The boys were daring each other to spit over the side or throw pennies. Of course none of them did, only if Ms. Nun wasn’t looking. Ms. Nun is nice, but not if you do something wrong. If you make trouble in front of Ms. Nun, you will wish it had been Queen Elizabeth II who saw you do it.

“Wow, it’s pretty high,” Jeff said as he stepped carefully onto the bridge.

“It’s beautiful,” I breathed. I saw green pine trees in every direction, a wide rocky river flowing underneath. The light blue sky with puffy cotton candy clouds.

“I agree,” Cassandra said.

Jeff looked over the side. “Ms. Nun,” he said, he was turning a light shade of green, “I don’t feel good.” He was hugging his stomach. Everyone knew he was deathly afraid of heights. Uh oh, I knew everyone else was thinking the same thing.

“Is he supposed to throw up over the side or right here?” Cyrus yelled.

“None! I will NOT have you getting sick over the side or anywhere! Here, do it here.” She gave him a bag. It was too late. He puked all over the side of the bridge.

“Jeff!” Ms. Nun said, “Oh, well it’s alright, I should have been faster.” She called someone on the phone and told someone to come clean it up.

“AH!!” Jessica shouted. She was leaning over the side taking a picture of a Mallard Duck far below. But Logan bumped into her. Her she dropped her camera.

“Logan! Look at what you did!!” she shrieked, “You’re going to pay for that camera!”

“Sorry geez, hey look! It didn’t fall!” he pointed. He was right. It was dangling off the wooden plank sticking out of the bridge.

“Well I was lucky, Mom will never forgive me if I dropped it,” she said, “I can’t reach it!”

It was true the chain link wall was too high, “Calm down Jess, I’m sure we can get it back,” he looked like he was trying to reassure himself.

“Yes we will get it back,” Ms. Nun said, “everyone move forward, Jessica, a worker will come get your camera. At the end of the trip, we’ll stop by the Lost and Found.”

“Fine,” Jessica huffed, “now I can’t take pictures.”

“You can use mine,” Amy said, “I probably won’t use it anyway.”

“Oh thanks,” Jessica said.

We walked across the bridge and some people got some stamps. I decided to get some too. At the Trading Post I bought a dream catcher. I got a certificate in exchange for the stamps and we got Jessica’s camera back. Jeff threw up again but this time into a bag. I think the boys threw like $10 dollars worth of coins off the bridge and the cliff walk. This field trip turned out pretty good!

Inventions-Good or Bad?

This story takes place before the television.

The Professor always made me feel awkward with his crazy inventions, and this time is no different. He invented something called an iPad. He claims he’s the smartest person in the world, but I don’t really think so. Yes, he invented the television, the computer, call phone, and calculater. But he doesn’t make them good to use. I have no idea how to use them. And they make my eyes burn too. I just wonder when he would stop inventing stuff that are so hard to use. He invented something called and XBox and he wears these thick round glasses all the time. I wonder why. It’s heavy and when I wear them I get all dizzy.

At class, he started demonstrating how to use his inventions. This is weird, he usually never tells us how to use it, mostly just what is does and all the good things about them. He said that the radio is the easiest to explain. He explained how we use the remote to switch the volume and track. And how we put the CD inside. And then he explained the television, then the computer, then the iPad

It turns out that his inventions ARE good. You just have to know who to use it. Now I know how smart he is. He told us to not use it too much or we’ll have to wear glasses like his. I don’t think I will though.