School Assignments I Wrote in 7th Grade

[Black Sakura]

Here's the first.

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A Special Day

The spaceship was speeding ahead with all of its might. As it neared the planet, it narrowly escaped being dashed to pieces by an ungainly asteroid. The enemy was coming up ever closer to the vehicle’s starboard side. The prestigious passenger looked desperately to the pilot. “Can’t this thing go any faster?” he demanded. With a suave grin, the pilot nodded and pushed a lever. The ship twirled forward in full thrust. Now behind them, the Imperials mirrored their motion and sped ahead. A few laser-gun hits, and the pursued ship exploded, pieces of it falling into oblivion. A red phrase appeared on the screen of the TV. “Game Over!” stated the throaty voice of Darth Vader.
“Natalie! Why did you bump into me? You made me lose the game!” My ten-year-old brother Patrick had been playing a Nintendo Gamecube Star Wars game. Now he looked at me with animosity.
“Sorry!” I protested, edging out of the room.
“But you made me lose! I almost won it, and--”
I interrupted. “Patrick, It’s just a game. It’s not the end of the world.” How many times had I used this argument this week alone? Three times, four times…
“It took me a week to get to this level. Now I have to start all over!” He was in an irate mood.
“Look,” I said, desperately looking for a way to escape, “Why don’t you go yell at Teddy? I have to get ready to go.”
“Go where?”
“Remember? Oma and Opa are taking us to Rankin Ranch.” I looked at Patrick. He was clothed in nothing but pajamas, and it was noon. “You don’t look very ready yourself.” I said disgustedly. “They’ll be here any minute, and you haven’t even gotten dressed yet!”
“That’s today?” He was surprised and had evidently forgotten.
“Yeah, ask Mom.”
“Rats; I need to pack!” He was up and off the couch in a second and dashing down the hallway. I sighed and picked up my duffel bag. Did I have everything? Toothbrush, toothpaste, pajamas, hairbrush, shampoo…In the midst of my accounting, the telephone rang. With a spring, I was at it. I picked up the receiver.
“Hello?”
“Hi Natalie, this is Oma.” (Oma is what we called my mother’s mom; Opa is what we called my mother’s dad)
“Hi Oma. Are you almost here?”
“We’ll be there in half an hour or so. Is everyone ready?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” I said, hearing Patrick yelling from his room, “Mom, where did you put my socks?”
“Ok Natalie, remember that you need clothes for the whole weekend” Oma reminded me.
“Of course. See you later.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
I slammed the phone down and yelled, “Pat, you have to have enough things to last till Sunday!”
He replied, in a whining voice, “I know!”
I answered back to him, “Just making sure.”
Half an hour passed slowly. I was so excited to leave for the dude ranch in the High Sierras! Eventually, a horn honk sounded outside. Pat and I raced to the door and over to my grandparents’ car. We tossed our duffel bags in the trunk and got in.
Oma arrested us in our motion. “Wait; I want to go see Mommy first.” (she called my mom ‘Mommy’ because she was our mommy.) We waited patiently for ten minutes. She came back and got in again. Opa, who had turned the engine off for the ten minutes, tried to rev it up again. It would not start.
Opa used his cell phone to call my Dad. Soon, my Dad showed up in his white GMC.
“So, the car isn’t working?” he asked impatiently. He was annoyed because due to his profession, (doctoring) he couldn’t go with us. We assented and kept clear of him. Opa and my dad used jumper cables and other such devices to attempt to recharge the car battery. Nothing availed, though. In the end, the amateur technicians decided the best place for the car was in the auto shop. A tow truck came and pulled it away. Patrick and I stood with Oma, disappointed, watching the car and truck fade slowly into the distance.
I wondered if our trip, due to this conflict, was aborted, but did not ask aloud. We went in the house and had Spaghetti Os for lunch. Afterwards, we watched the last half of Notorious. The afternoon went ticking by. Hours we should have spent in travel were wasted moping at home.
At two in the afternoon, Opa came back again with a surprise. He had brought a rental car so that we could still go on our trip! Everything had already been transferred from the broken car to the loaner, so all we needed to do was get in the latter and go. And that’s what we did.
Our trip was really a blast. Every day we went horseback riding and swimming. White and purple lilacs bloomed everywhere, spreading a layer of sweet-scented snow on the grassy soil. I even learned how to play shuffleboard. Nevertheless, what I remember most about this trip was how much of a hassle it was to get there.

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[Black Sakura]

(Untitled)

The boat rocked gently from side to side. The damp sea mist hung about us so that we could scarcely see the RV boat tied to the dock on which we stood. I felt somewhat apprehensive about our fast-approaching snorkeling excursion. After all, I had only just turned ten years old, and I had never gone snorkeling before. I stood shivering alongside my dad near the boat, wondering if they had heating on it. A dramatic female with blazing, curled auburn hair stepped through the settled clouds to the snorkeling group. She wore a hat much like what one sees naval officers wearing in movies. I conjectured that she was the captain. In a moment, a stream of words flooded from her mouth at a rapid pace. It felt too cold to pay attention to what she said, but then again, my watch read 5:30 AM. This, I must note, feels especially early for one who always wakes at eight on normal days. She concluded her address and we all boarded the RV boat. Not much later, the RV cruised out of the harbor and into the Pacific ocean.
The ride out was not very enjoyable for me. I always liked to feel sorry for myself at that age, and I made myself believe I was seasick the whole way out. I don't even believe I wanted to go on that trip, so I made myself even sicker in imagination than I normally would have. My mother had packed some citrus-lozenge things which she said would help sea sickness wane. According to my dad, I consumed the entire tin just going out! Then I suppose I felt better, and I ran out to the bow, where everyone crowded about with their cameras. I pushed my way through the crowd easily and looked into the water. Dark shapes wiggled up and down in the water. Eventually, one surfaced. I looked, astonished, at my first glimpse of a dolphin. I had heard we might see dolphins, but I had expected bottlenose, not these! Disgusted yet exhilarated, I went to an uncrowded place along the stern to read my favorite Boxcar Children book, Mystery at the Firehouse and to let the ocean spray hit my face. I wondered when we should go in the water and pondered that perhaps this trip should be better than I thought.
Soon the sun shone high in the sky (at about 10:00 AM) and we finally stopped, somewhere along the coast of Catalina. I got into my wet suit and jumped in the water with a boogie-board. I swim well, and soon I loved coasting on the dark waves, looking in the water once in a while to watch for sharks. Eventually, I did see one, but only a sand shark, a harmless creature who kept to the bottom, but a thing that scared me somewhat for its size. If I remember correctly, it must have measured at least ten feet long. I did not try to swim to the bottom after seeing it. I should have committed a very foolish act to have done so, but not nearly so foolish as what I did on "Pebble Beach."
I suppose there are several small, secluded beaches surrounded by cliffs that are accessible only to those who come by water on the island of Catalina, but this particular one seemed special to me. I dubbed it, "Pebble Beach." I came leisurely all the great distance, about a mile, to this place. I had aimed to do so ever since I spotted it from the ship,and, miraculously, I achieved my goal. I took off my flippers and wished I had worn swim-shoes. The entire beach had become a rock deposit, and not every stone had smooth edges. I made my way to the top of the rocky beach and, feeling victorious, I sat on a log washed up from high tide. The coastal shrub looked intriguing. I edged at a snail's pace to examine it, as I cultivated a minor interest in horticulture. Soon I committed the most imbecilic act I have ever done. I tasted some of the red berries from the scrub. They actually tasted very good, I remember, much like strong lemonade. Never thinking that they could have poisoned me, I threw myself to the waves once more. I never shall forgive myself for doing that. I am fortunate that those berries, called "Indian Lemonade" or something of that sort, were not toxic, and, in fact, edible. I felt no afteraffects.
After lunch, I rested a while as the other members of the expedition dove into the water again. We moved to a new location and then I joined the dolphins once more. There was no beach at this location, but a beautiful kelp forest made up for that. I never thought that a Mako shark or a hammerhead could have attacked me, kept undercover by the kelp. I swam to a clear place with no kelp to observe the wildlife. This area, compared to the kelp forest, seemed very shallow, but it must have measured 20 feet deep. I espied a lovely conch shell at the bottom and resolved to get it. It took many unsuccessful tries and a pair of over filled lungs, but I got it. For a full ten minutes I reclined on my boogie board regaining my strength and mental capacity. Then I slowly swam back to the ship, exhausted and oxygen-deprived. They had an observation tank on the ship; the captain (the lady with the red hair) put my shell in the it where I watched the shell for a very long time. I believe it had no creature inside, for it did not move. Dumping the contents of the observation tank, which included along with my shell a few fish and an abalone, was a ceremonious process to me after my efforts to retrieve the shell. Then we headed back to Dana Point Harbor.
Then the ship headed home. Obviously, I no longer felt "sea sick," and I had a grand time catching fish and tossing them back to the waves in the stern. The captain and her crew prepared a bar-b-que dinner with hamburgers and hot dogs for everyone. Sitting down with my hot dog, I paused to think back about my day. Not realizing it, I had just experienced the happiest day of my life. I had spent most of my day in the ocean, which I did not mind at all, and I felt happy to have 'discovered' Pebble Beach and my lovely conch shell. I no longer feel scared about swimming in the ocean, and if I could relive this day, I would, even if it would mean becoming a ten-year-old again to do so. We arrived home very late that night, and I went to sleep as soon as my head touched the pillow, with an unconscious smile on my face.

[Black Sakura]

Most Prized Possession


This story, of my own creation, tells of a radio technician and a radio show host who fly in the beak of a giant albatross that plagues Europe for a few days. I dramatized the story and recorded my dramatization on my tape recorder. My tape recorder is my most prized possession. It is fun to play with, and my friends enjoy making dramatizations with me on it. Sometimes, we interview each other, pretending to be famous celebrities. Other times, we just kid around together, without any designed plot or aim, going ad-lib and making a story.
This ad-lib skit we did while visiting Refugio beach. It began with a bloodthirsty Princess and her friend Katie who wanted to find gold. Katie began to get annoying to the Princess, and the Princess tossed Katie in the sea. Then another problem arose for the Princess--her slave apparently did not understand English, being Chinese. The Princess ordered her slave to dig in one place. The slave dug in another place. Then, the slave found a stick in the ocean that looked like a crescent and he adored it. The Princess ordered her slave to be thrown in the sea because he was so idiotic as to fall in love with a piece of driftwood. Then, the slave revealed that he was NOT a Chinese person but, in reality, was Elvis Presley. As the Princess loves Elvis Presley, she halts her command to throw him in the sea. The story ends with singing, “You ain’t nothing but a hound dog.” That is, perhaps, my favorite skit, done right on the sand with the ocean crashing nearby at sunset.
Sometimes, I and my friends interview each other, asking obscure questions and getting ridiculous answers. One instance is when my friend Lauren was pretending to be a movie star, and I was a reporter. I asked what Lauren’s favorite color was. She announced shrilly, “PURPLE!” I asked what her favorite animal was. She declared with an even louder shriek, “PURPLE!” I asked what her favorite food was. “PURPLE!” I asked what her favorite kind of house was. “PURPLE!” “PURPLE!” “PURPLE!” was her every answer. We literally fell to the floor with laughter.
The other kind of dramatizations I do with my friends on my tape recorder are skits. We print them off the internet, usually, but sometimes we make them ourselves. One such skit we recorded was, “The Selfish Sea Captain,” written by me. It began with four or five sailors doing their daily duties on a ship. The captain comes along, leaning on an ancient crutch, and notices a turtle swimming in the water. He asks the first mate to try and catch it. When the mate does not move quickly enough, the old captain spanks him on the behind and cries, “PRONTO!” The first mate disappears with a Tarzan yell over the edge of the boat and drowns. Then the captain asks the same of the second mate. The same sequence of events occurs. Then the captain asks all the mates, in turn, to catch the turtle, and each, in due course, goes over the edge. The skit ends when the captain has run out of mates and he follows their lead and dives into the water after them, saying, “If you can’t beat them, join them.” This skit was hilarious if played correctly.
It is not unlike the other preposterous stories me and my friends created and recorded on my most prized possession, my tape recorder. The story of the giant albatross would go under ad-lib performances, even though we outlined my plot before the recording session. Another kind of dramatization I do with my friends is interviewing. A third is skits—predefined and precut. I have a blast playing with my tape recorder with my friends, and because of this, my most prized possession is a thing I can do with my friends.

[Black Sakura]

Person Who Changed My Life

Do you know someone who has changed in many ways over many years? I do. This person who has significantly changed and is significantly close to me is my little brother Teddy. Though his real name is Theodore James, we have all called him Teddy since his birth. Watching as he grew up to become a little four-year-old has been an interesting experience. From the day he was born, I observed him and cherished him along with the rest of my family. Later he learned to feed himself and talk, but never doing the first without throwing food at the rest of us! Soon afterwards, he began to walk, and talk better, and play with me and my other brother, Patrick. Now he goes to preschool every day, and I am proud of him for that achievement. It is hard to recall what he was like before he could communicate well with us. He just grew older so fast!
I remember the day we brought Teddy home. My then-seven-year-old brother Patrick and then-nine-year-old I spent the night at Grandmas house while Mom and Dad were at the hospital. In the morning, Dad came and drove us to the hospital, where Mom was recuperating. Neither of us had ever seen such a small thing as Teddy before! We took him home in Hannah Anderson blue-striped pajamas, in which he looked simply adorable. There was one odd thing about that day; I always thought I wore a red and blue turtleneck shirt to first visit Teddy in the hospital, but, when looking at pictures of that day, I discovered I actually wore a white and pink flowered turtleneck. However, this has no relevance to the story. Our lives changed forever after his birth; we should never go anywhere again and not leave a mark.
Once we went to Forest Home, a family camp located on the way to Big Bear. It was a large camp where everybody ate in the same hall, family style. That trip, my brother's favorite thing to do was throw food across the restaurant. Several times it landed on the plate of somebody else! Many people said he should be a baseball pitcher. However, I doubt today that he will want to achieve that goal. Well, after that, we never took Teddy out to eat. It was simply too dangerous, both for us, for him, and the restaurants! After he learned to run, he never let us sit still anywhere, whether we were at the grocery store, the mall, or a restaurant.
After a year, Teddy learned how to walk. The first time he walked was incidentally the last day I ever saw my great-aunt Magdalena before she passed away. Anyhow, we were celebrating my other Grandma's birthday at her house. Before dinner, practically everyone was in the living room or nearby. Then, Teddy walked across the living room to me. Everyone was happy. After dinner, he made several other attempts which were not nearly as successful. About this time, he began to expand his vocabulary by learning words other than ‘ga.’ For instance, his best baby friend, Joseph, was ‘Joseph’ Dad was ‘daddy.’ Teddy also began to participate in doing schoolwork voluntarily. He adored coloring. That is when we discovered that he was a left-handed person. He was special in this way because no one else in our family was like this. He changed our perspectives of the world.
Teddy has changed a lot over the years. Now he goes to Preschool every day. His vocabulary is big, and includes words like "battleship," "roller coaster," and others. He already has a girlfriend at school—“Lauren”--and he does very well at school. He walks, runs, jumps, dances, plays computer, Game boy, and Nintendo, raids the refrigerator whenever he likes, and operates practically every other appliance in the house except the dishwasher. He has greatly changed over the years, and in turn, he changed mine. Why don't you think about someone who has changed over a period of time should it be long or short, and consider whether or not their changes have changed you?