Category Archives: Harris Burdick

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Mr. Linden's Library, Narrative, Writing

Mr. Linen’s Library By Abigail

Mr.Linden’s Library

By: Abigail

This story begins in London, England 1835 the day I was seen all over the WORLD. Rosalina was 8 years old. She had brown curly hair that went down to her ¼ of her back, she loved to sing especially with her friends, and Rosalina was wearing her (her favorite color is blue). She was playing out in the fields near her house at Woodberry, Grove London, England. The house is made of limestone. Her and her friends that were all 8 years were playing tag.

 

One of her friends name is Darwin. He is the son of mr. Lionel Linden. He has a buzz-cut. He LOVES the color orange. Nyima (Darwin’s sister) has REALLY dark brown hair that goes down to ½ of her back. Paola was a homeless girl that was let in by Rosalina and her family, she loved having a sister. Luigi was a shy young boy. He has a cap that he painted green. Luigi’s younger sister is Jasmine. She loved to hurt the people that she hated, but Luigi didn’t allow it. Mr. Lionel Linden was the father of Darwin and Nyima. Lionel’s wife Helena died when the kids were only 6 years old.

 

11 years later all the friends were 19. Rosalina, Darwin, Paola, Luigi, Jasmine, and Nyima had a big test to study, so they went to mr. Linden’s library. They got tickets to go on the bus. 29 min later they got to the library. Darwin and Nyima’s dad was working that day. 5 out of the 6 kids found books to study. Rosalina couldn’t find any books that pleased her until she found a book (My name)called “The Book of Horrors” in the mixed section. “PLEASE DO NOT OPEN THAT BOOK!” yelled mr. Linden.

 

“But why? I need something to read?” Asked Rosalina.

 

“That book is dangerous!”

 

“What? Why?”

 

“I can’t tell you. I’m sorry Rosalina.”

 

“ok.”

 

Rosalina thought that maybe she could steal me. She never knew what power I have! When her friends started to leave Rosalina grabbed me and left.

 

It was late that night, Rosalina and her friends went home after partying. She got me out of the bag and went straight to her room. She opened me up and saw the secrets inside of me. I was full of stories of the places I ruled. She saw spells and other mishtuvis things inside of me too! Rosalina finally slept after  3 hours of reading me. I started to make a spell. She got tangled up in poison ivy and I got her life sole! She died in the process of… well you know already.

 

In the morning the next day Paola woke-up Rosalina, but she didn’t know I killed her. Paola came in and said “ROSALINA WAKE-UP IT’S SATURDAY!”

 

“……”Rosalina didn’t respond.

 

“Rosalina… are you okay?” Paola worried.

 

Paola found that Rosalina’s rist was aqua blue and she knew that it wasn’t like that last night because she snuck in. “I should call Jasmine see what she can do, since her mom is a doctor.” Paola started to call Jasmine and she told her about the aqua blue rist.

“I will be in a sec!”

 

Jasmine got to the house. Paola opened the door. Jasmine came in and both girls went to Rosalina´s room. Jasmine checked Rosalina´s blue rist. ¨I´ve never seen this before Paola.¨ worried Jasmine.

 

“Mr. Lineden. He warned her about the book. Now it was too late. The book must have done it!” Paola whispered.

 

“Hey! What’s this” has Jasmine pointed at me.

 

Paola picked me up and they read me. The same thing happened to Paola and Jasmine. They saw the secrets inside of me. I was full of stories of the places I ruled. Paola and Jasmine saw spells and other mishtuvis things inside of me too! The girls tried to find something to give back life to Rosalina, but they never found anything. They stopped reading me to have lunch. When they got back I did a different spell this one was 2 Anacondas. Paola and Jasmine were devoured by the Anacondas.

 

Darwin and Luigi were curious about the girls, so they called Paola and Rosalina’s mom to see if they could come over. She said yes. The next day the boy’s went over to Rosalina and Paola’s house. Darwin and Luigi went up to their room and saw that the 3 had died. “What happened here?” Luigi asked.

 

“The book. Dad said NOT to touch that book!” Darwin was furious at the girls for getting me.

 

Settle down Darwin! It must over gotten here on its own.” Luigi comely said to Darwin.

 

“When fish fly” murmured Darwin.

 

Darwin and Luigi did the samething that Paola and Jasmine did look for a antidote inside of me. They saw the secrets inside of me. I was full of stories of the places I ruled. Luigi and Darwin saw spells and other mishtuvis things inside of me too!They didn’t find anything in me. They stopped for a drink, when they came back the door closed by itself and locked. “Hey Luigi… the room is filling up in water.”as Darwin and Luigi gasped for their last breath. Out of nowhere a great white killed both boys.

 

Nyima and Darwin’s father was wondering where his kids were, so he called Rosalina and Paola´s mom. Mr. Linden asked ¨Do you know where Darwin or Nyima are?¨

 

¨Yes, I do know where both of them are. Therein Rosalina and Paola´s room.¨Mrs. Luma answered.

 

¨I will be their in an hour to pick them up¨

 

¨Alright I´ll be here¨

 

An hour in a half later mr. Linden went to pick up Darwin and Nyima. He  went to Rosalina´s room and found me.¨The… the Book of Horrors! How did it get here? Darwin… Nyima what?¨ Mr. Linden wondered.

 

He took me and looked the door behind him.

 

He brought me to the library and did the samething that the other four did. They saw the secrets inside of me. I was full of stories of the places I ruled. mr. Linden saw spells and other mishtuvis things inside of me too! At the end he never found anything. “What can I do to save my kids!” Mr. Linden thought.

 

“Well maybe I can look again.”

 

I had another trick up my sleeve… if you know what I mean. This time I put 2 Atlantic Wolffish in the office. The room slowly filled with water. Mr. Linden accidentally looked in one of the pair of eyes and froze to sudden death. NOW THAT I HAVE DESTROYED LIONEL LINDEN I CAN TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
The final thing that was in my way is gone. I will make the ultimate spell ,so that I can take over London, England! After 2 hours of potion making I have made something to make me ruler. I dragged a meteor and wrecked the whole world! That’s the end of the world!

 

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Narrative, The House on Maple Street, Writing

The House on Maple Street by Eva

A cold winter night of 1940 at 11402 Maple Street Germantown Md, there was a family. Four people lived in the house.  Katherine bluelies was a strange looking girl with green hair and blue eyes she had a hairy foot and a messed up back with messy hair people called her the grinch . The dad was named Bob, their son was named  Billy. And the daughter was named Frankie.  Katherine was a strange looking girl with green hair and blue eyes she had a hairy foot with messy hair.

Before they lived in a small apartment.  The school that frankie went to was bad. It was bad because she got bullied just because she had no friends the school was called Educationlandia.  

After the bluelies family moved into Maple Street they have been having a good life frankie doesn’t get bullied anymore.   A commercial came on about a rocket that only costs  $ 5.00 and billy was awake he saw the commercial Billy started whining.  He was whining because he wanted the rocket and he thought that his mom was gonna say no.

When billy was still watching the commercial on the rocket. The TV paused for a second. Then billy had his ear open and heard that it works. It makes real noises and it will have to be taken care of like a pet.

The man announces his name his name is Richard.  Richard  announced that a warning with the rocket which was don’t leave the rocket near an open flame.  The second warning was don’t expose the rocket to light or you’ll have to deal with the consequences.

The next day billy woke up as soon as he could to tell his mom if they could go to Walmegarus to buy the rocket that they had seen on Tv the day before.  Billy was patiently waiting for a response from his mother.

Katherine paused to think of an answer she came up with an answer which was yes she asked billy to clean his room before she left to go buy the rocket.  Billy cleaned the room as fast as he could he forgot that he cleaned it last night so he walked in his room for a second then he came out in a second and he walked out in a split second his mom walked into his room and it was spotless.

Billy and his mom got into their red 1940 Chevrolet Convertible it was new and spotless.  Katherine got to Walmegarus they got out of their car.  They had gone into the store and a man was just standing on the roof of Walmegarus he looked like a sketchy guy he had a long beard, black jacket, long hair, black pants, and brown flip flops.

Katherine ignored the man and just walked in the store.  Billy walked to the toy section and found millions of rockets.  They came in every color violet, pink, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, aqua marine, teal, and more.  Billy choose one that he really loved he choose the aqua marine rocket. they bought the rocket and it cost $ 2.50 . They gave them a blanket with the rocket so that they keep it away from the sun and light.

Billy brought the rocket home. He looked at it very closely and saw a face carved into it. Billy really didn’t care billy wanted to sleep early so that he can wake up early and play with his rocket for a long temporary of time.

katherine gave billy supper before going to bed. Billy ate homemade cookies with nice and warm milk he ate about 20 cookies because he didn’t want to be hungry during he was sleeping he drank 5 cups of milk. He was very full billy had walked up the stairs.  Billy uncovered his bed and layed down on it the milk got him very sleepy so he fell asleep the second he touched his bed.

Katherine got the rest of her day off she got to sleep more and relax.  Since it was a cold winter day Katherine made hot cocoa. Katherine quickly went to the store to rent a movie that she could watch while Billy  was sleeping.  Bob and frankie were at home the whole time they were watching Home Alone the movie.

Billy woke up for a while and stood looking at the ceiling.  He left his Rocket near the big clear window with sunlight coming in.  He turned his head and stared at the rocket he thought in his head that he was doing something wrong.  Billy stared  into the carved face on the rockets eyes.  The eyes were red and black they had a small glow inside of them.  He stared into the eyes and fell asleep.

Frankie and Bob were in the living room. Just watching Tv they were watching Home Alone with katherine.  Home Alone is Frankie and Bob’s most favorite movie of all time.  Bob loved homemade cookies because Katherine made cookies the size of a big table Bob was upset because Billy ate all the cookies that katherine.  Bob had remembered that frankie had a stash of katherines cookies in her closet.  

Bob had ran up the stairs to the second floor.  Katherine was spying on him across the hall Frankie had forgotten that she had the cookies in her closet for five years already.  Bob might find them with fungus or mold nobody knew what they were going to have if they may also look like cookies but taste bad nobody knew what had happened to the cookies over the years no one will know what they look like until Bob goes up the stairs and see’s them with his own eyes.

Bob got up the stairs and walked into frankies room he looked into the mirror and he was full of sweat as if he was running or worried.  Bob walked over to the old,  black, and big closet it had spiderwebs all over it as if it were from the 1700’s.  Bob had never actually seen the closet but Bob didn’t care he just was scared to open the closet they had been living there for four years and he didn’t know what could be in the closet.

Bob went into the closet and the cookies looked perfectly fine as soon as Bob reached out to get one of the cookies he felt a something go through his body before he could even grab a cookie he felt a large sound go off it sounded like a bomb the noise was BOOM!

Billy was playing with the toy while he was playing with his toy he heard a ruckus going off in his room.  His mom walked into his room to see what was going on.  Katherine walked into Billy’s room and all she saw was fog she couldn’t see anything at all.  After 5 seconds of being in the room scary music came on from a horror story. She was very frightened.  

Katherine went away for a while then she came back she saw that the fog and music was gone.  She found  Billy playing with the rocket the rocket started talking it was telling billy what to do it almost felt like a nightmare.

A few hours later Katherine called Billy down for dinner.  Billy brought his rocket with him he didn’t want to leave his rocket in the cold dark room it was scary at night because when a tornado came Billy would cry at night.
Billy was so scared one day.   Billy woke up from his DREAM.  Billy was so relieved that it was all a dream.  

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Mr. Linden's Library, Narrative, Writing

Mr. Linden’s Library By Daniel

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                            Mr Linden’s Library

One time there was a girl named kate . Kate has blue eyes and blonde hair and was 20 feet and she is 19 years old . Kate lived in a town called frost town . Frost town has lots of snow and has about 30 people living their and 25 houses . Kate has this friend called john . John has brown eyes and black hair and is 20 feet tall also he is 18 years old . John lives 2 houses up from hers .

Kate and john though they should go to the library so they won’t get bored . Kate and john walked to the library . When they arrived they both opened the door and walked in . Kate and john both said ,” Do you have any books about frost town and comics ? “ Mr. linden said ,” Yes the comics are in the graphic novels aisle and the town books are in the information aisle .”

Kate went to the information aisle and john went to the graphic novels aisle . Kate looked down and saw the book she wanted . Kate went to check on john if he found his graphic novel yet . Kate didn’t saw john so she went to the checkout counter . Kate saw john and said ,” John i found you so now let’s checkout our books okay “ Mr. linden said ,” Are you ready .” Kate said ,” Yes we are so here are our books “ Mr linden checked them out and kate and john went back to their houses .

Kate knocked on her door and her grandpa opened it .  Kate said ,” Hi grandpa i just went to the library with john “ Kate’s grandpa couldn’t talk because he broke his mouth bone . Kate went to her room too go too sleep because it was night . The next morning she woke up and took the book and readed it . When it 1 hour passed she closed the book and got out of bed and walked to the kitchen to eat breakfast . After kate was done with breakfast she went back up to her room and readed again .

Kate opened the book and felt a little weird and when she looked at the book a vine came out of the book and squeezed her too sand . Her grandpa came up and saw the sand and heard help me grandpaKate’s grandpa went to magic much too get a magic stick . When her grandpa arrived at magic much he asked the owner ,” Here is my money buy “ . The owner did not care and went back to work . Her grandpa went to kate’s room and said ,” Hocus hocus bring kate back to life “ The magic worked and kate went back to life . Kate said ,” Let’s destroy the book “ Kate went to the backyard and brought a lighter . Kate burned the book and threw it out the window . The book burned and disappeared . Ash was on the ground and kate was glad the book was gone

 

        THE  END     

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Narrative, Writing

Another Place, Another Time. Derek G.

Three miles off of Stuart Highway in Australia there lived a person. He had a wooden house. He was an ordinary person… well kinda, if you don’t count that one time, where he went back in time and was chased by the police.

 

Yeah, it’s a weird story and you don’t want to hear it… right? Well in order to understand it you need to start from a good spot to start. That place is of course in a bank, specifically the ‘Bank of China’. The reason he is in that bank is because he is planning to, uh … ‘Borrow’ all the money. Forever.

 

So how was he supposed to rob a bank? Easy! (No seriously it’s not, don’t rob banks, that’s bad). All you have to do is go really fast when the alarm rings. But our person (by the way his name is Kilmo) didn’t do that, not at all, instead he brought a tranquilizer gun and he did a full on assault and he succeeded. All the people inside the store we’re not very good at security and they couldn’t even decide who should call the cops. So basically Kilmo got of with no harm done to him, and I still can’t figure out if it’s because he got lucky or because the people there that day were stupid (which is still lucky).

 

Anyways back then Kilmo didn’t live so far from civilisation so when people saw him dashing with a sack of money they were a bit intrigued, especially some thugs. So when Kilmo ran down an alleyway he sort of got… beat up…. (Not the best life choices). When Kilmo woke up he quickly realized that all the money disappeared. Also when he walked out the alley way he saw a wanted sign of him (if he got caught and the police question him how is he supposed to tell them where the money is?).  

 

Of course this is in the future and apparently in the future the cops chase you down and if they don’t catch you within 3 days you get forced back in time and then they chase you again, and if they don’t catch you then you go even further back in time and then, rinse and repeat till you get caught or you reach the end of the planet (or the beginning. Could be both. It’s relative. Just like time. Which is how this is possible.)  

 

It’s impossible to hide for long so that definitely got Kilmo worried. The first day was spent hiding, I don’t need to talk about that do I? The second day is more talk worthy. Kilmo woke up inside a box (another reason I didn’t explain the day before). He was hugging his knees. He was headed for brazil. He was there because he wanted answers, and if there was an answer, he’d find it there.  

 

Once he got out the box he saw that he was in the middle of the ocean. He knew he said that he wanted to be shipped but he didn’t mean ON A SHIP! When he got out of the box his whole body was aching. He Dragged himself into the main deck. At least it would be harder for the police to find him here, but his three days would be out by the time he got to Brazil so this seemed to defeat the purpose.  

 

Still I am talking about this so somthing IS gonna happen! Right? Well after some time of just wandering on the deck some security people got suspicious and started trailing.  Kilmo got scared and started walking fast. Then he tripped. His whole body went over the fence but he managed to grab it at the last second. He saved his life but in the process guaranteed himself a trip to the underdeck prison cell.

 

3 hours later the cops got to the ship and started doing their inspection but when they got to the cell it turns out that Kilmo was skinny enough that he was able to squeeze through the top. He was in the vents of the ship but the cops didn’t realize it. Kilmo sneaked his way into the cabin area. There he unlocked a currently unoccupied room. He stole some clothes and pretended to be someone other than him.

 

After sometime the police decided to rent a cabin onboard while looking for Kilmo, so that means that he needed to stay vigilant. Later on Kilmo went inside the food area and tried to eat something. While he was browsing for food one of the chefs came up to him.

 

“Never seen ya here mate.” The chef asked questioningly.

“I’ve been etn’ lunch in ma own cabin” Kilmo said with a fake accent.

“Hmmmm”

 

So the day went on like that he was being questioned but overall it was normal. He barely made it to the time travel deadline. He was literally about to comit suicide by jumping of the ship but the time travel thing kicked in just before he hit the water.

 

………………

 

Remember when I said that when you go through time you only go back a little well you go back about 1000 years. So now Kilmo is in 1999 and the cops now have his tracker I.D. so he can’t hide. Of course Kilmo also doesn’t know anything about the 1999s. Infact if someone asked him about it he would’ve probably said it was when the dinosaurs were around. But ofcourse, the dinosaurs were NOT around in the 1999 and Kilmo definitely saw that.

 

 Indeed Kilmo needed to find a way to get around especially since the cops get most of their mobile futuristic equipment back when they time travel. But Kilmo wouldn’t be able to blend in with society which makes it even more hard to run away. Kilmo decided that the best plan of action would be to hide in the woods because it would give him a chance to fend for himself and because the tracker I.D only shows the general area so he could hide.

 

10 hours later.  It was midnight when Kilmo heard some noise, he stopped breathing. Another hour passed and he saw nothing until he heard a large bang. He jumped up and almost screamed but didn’t, he was to tired. The next day he had to get something to eat. He walked around to find some loose change and he asked for money. He only could afford enough for one chicken nugget.

 

Later that day Kilmo ran into a suspicious person and decided to trail him. All of a sudden the person stopped then took something out his pocket and dropped it. When kilmo picked it up the world went blank. Yep another time trip, this time it only took a day and a half. And this time Kilmo was headed to year 999.

 

This time Kilmo appeared in A place south east of london. The cops right behind him. Kilmo started running faster than he thought he thought he could. While running some lady told him that she could get him away quickly, and that all that Kilmo had to do in return, is find this old dude. Kilmo took her up on her offer so the lady then took out a wand and said some words. Magically some train sail car-thing appeared with some kids on it. The train thing went was headed straight  for a castle.

 

After the long annoying ride Kilmo finally made it to the castle. The lady and the kids all disappeared out of nowhere. Kilmo thought that the only thing he could do now is go into the castle. But this time in year 999 there are knights and kings so the castle was full of that.

 

“What are thee doing her?” The king dude said.

“Uhhhh…”

“Guards, get the chains. I think I’ve found the new victim for the lion.”

 

Later on-after Kilmo got chained and put in an arena- a tiger got released in the the arena. After lets say a minute of running around the tiger finally got to kilmo but kimo was able to grab a piece of ground (I don’t know what it’s made of) and stabbed the lion.

 

“So this dude has some guts. Well guess someone will have to challenge you.” King challenged.

 

Three dudes appeared all with amour on.

 

“Pick a person here to fight.” King explained.

 

“Anyone here right?”

 

“Anyone currently present.”      

 

“Eazy. You.”

 

“Had a feeling you’d do something like that. Well if you beat me i’ll i’ll give you a wish.”

 

“What are you a witch or something.”

“I have my ways.”

So the king entered that arena and took out a sword in one hand and a really old gun. Kilmo knew right away that those old guns only had one bullet before their long reload time. So when kilmo thought that the king pushed the trigger he dropped to the ground. But the king just dropped the gun and ran over to kilmo. Before he got stabbed kilmo flipped and stabbed the kings knee using the sharp piece of wood. The king lessen his power in the stab so he couldn’t impale Kilmo’s skin.

 

“I didn’t want to give in so easy. But I guess I have to.” The king sighed.

“Very well. What is your wish?” The king asked.

 

You can probably guess what he wished for so I don’t even need to explain. But the thing is that if kilmo wished for this whole story to not happened, technically he would never have to wish for the story not to happen so the story WOULD happen so than he’d have to wish for it to not happen, and it would just keep looping.

 

Anyways the reason Kilmo robbed the bank is because he gambled. Yep kids… don’t gamble. Unless you want to.

 

              

A Strange Day in July, Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Narrative, Writing

A Strange Day in July

It was a warm day in 2007 on 11925 MS-404 street, the birds were chirping, sheep were bleating, and the cows were mooing. It was a regular day in July for 12-year old Lucas Whitmore and 10-year old Julianne Whitmore, but Lucas called her Julie for short. Their farm was a wheat farm, and Lucas and Julie had fun working on it. Their mother sometimes came out and worked with them to harvest the wheat, other than that they hardly saw her.

The pair were brothers and sisters, yet they looked nothing alike. He had brown hair with dark brown eyes and cherub freckles, and she had blonde hair with green eyes and dimples too. Lucas sometimes questioned the fact that they were related but he didn’t worry much about it, it didn’t matter because he still loved her. He was the only male role model she had after their father disappeared….

Their father went missing when he went one night with his friends, Lucas was only 4 and Julie was 2. She didn’t even remember that she had a dad, but Lucas remembered every waking moment with him… The thing he didn’t understand was that his friends came back but he didn’t, and the cops only looked for him for one day… Lucas was so infuriated when they heard that they were calling off the search, they only looked for 1 day and they barely even tried. His mother sobbed the whole night, and Julie just sat there and looked confused. Lucas hated her for doing that.

Since then their mother’s life was off balance, she become this person with a cold heart and who didn’t care much for anyone so that’s why Julianne and Lucas were always outside exploring things unknown. Other than that their lives were just like any other kid’s in Mississippi….  

Julie and Lucas collected rocks that they thought were special, like 1-of-a-kind. Julie has collected a few Amethyst Geodes because her favorite color was purple, she loved igneous rocks, and she liked the way they were jagged, but smooth. Lucas has collected mostly several types of igneous rocks because he thought is was interesting that it is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava, and Calcite rocks because he admired the fact that common vein filling mineral in many rock types, but they were looking for something different. Something that they had never seen or heard of before, but they knew that would be almost impossible to do since they knew about every type of rock that is known.

One day after working in the fields for 4 hours Lucas and Julie decided that they wanted to spend some time looking for that special rock that they can never find, but they had hope that someday they would find it…. The one.

As Lucas was searching the ground, looking for anything that could seem unordinary, he spotted something. It appeared to be glowing… Lucas didn’t understand,

“How can a rock be glowing?” He thought in his head.

“Well maybe it’s not a rock, just something that looks like a rock.”

He went closer to examine the glowing object, and when he picked it up he found out that it actually was a rock.

“This is impossible!” He exclaimed.

“I have never heard about this type rock before!”

He decided that he should check his geology book, that maybe he missed rock. He skimmed through the pages as he tried to find a rock that came at least a tiny bit close to matching the description of the glowing rock. He couldn’t.

Then he figured out what happened.

“I discovered a new rock…” He said. “I DISCOVERED A NEW ROCK!” He shouted. “JULIE!!!” “JULIE!!!” He screamed.

“What’s up Lucas?” She asked.

“I FOUND A NEW ROCK!”

“What?”  “Impossible.”  She scoffed.

“No I did really did Julie!”  When he saw that she really didn’t believe him, he got angry. “See for yourself!” He snapped.

Then he showed her the rock that was unknown. She was shocked.

“What is this?” She asked

“I don’t know,” Lucas answered. “But it’s not in my book, it’s completely unknown.”

“Well we can’t ask anyone.” She acknowledged. “They would try to take it from us.”

“Yeah…” He said. “We’re on our own with this.”

They went back in the house and try to examine its features. They thought the rock was glowing because of the sunlight but they were wrong, as soon as they stepped in the house it glowed even brighter. The rock appeared to be to be glowing like it was trying to show them something and had bumps in a way that looked like it was a language, but they didn’t understand it at all.

All of a sudden they heard a loud knock on the door, they hid the rock somewhere they knew no one would find it, and ran to the door. At the door was Julie’s 2 best friends Daniella, (The obnoxious one) and Alexa. (The one that laughs a lot for no reason) Julie was excited to see them, Lucas was not. He knew he could trust Julie, but he couldn’t trust her friends. They’d blab about the rock to the first person they saw, he knew he had to do something to make them go away.

“Hey Daniella and Alexa,” He casually said. “I’m sorry but Julie and I have to uh…”

“You have to do what?” Daniella interrupted.

“We have to take our showers because we were working in the fields.”  he answered.

Daniella and Alexa gave Lucas the evil eye and then happily waved goodbye to Julie. He then sighed a weary sigh.

“What did you do that for?” Julie growled. “I made them go before you would be too vulnerable and tell them the secret!” He countered.

“Oh so you don’t trust me now?” She argued

“I do trust you, I just don’t trust your friends”

“Why don’t you trust them?”

“I can’t trust them because they’ll blab to the whole entire world!” He barked. “And if you do tell them then i’ll hate you forever!”

Julie stopped arguing. She just looked at Lucas with sadness in her eyes. She didn’t say anything, she just walked away with tears in her eyes. Lucas felt terrible, he always wanted to discover a new rock but he never wanted it to destroy his relationship with he and his sister.

“I guess there’s only one thing I can do….” He decided.

He anxiously put on his shoes and ran out the door, he went to the lake that he found the rock by, Lake Regice.  He flung the terrible rock into the lake as far as he could, and did go a far distance, but then it came skipping back.

He turned white as a ghost, he stood there for a minute, picked the rock up, then bolted to the house. He opened up the door to the dark house and slammed it. He sprinted around the house searching for Julie to tell her what he just witnessed.  Lucas was calling for Julie, but Julie wasn’t anywhere to be found.

“JULIE!!! JULIE!! WHERE ARE YOU!!”  screamed Lucas.

Julie came down the steps with dried tears on her face. Lucas looked down at his feet and realized what he had done to his sister, he felt bad for what he did to his sister but he didn’t in another way, because if he Daniella and Alexa had found out, they would spread the word, and Lucas didn’t want the whole town knowing. Lucas knew he had to apologize but he also knew that what he had just witnessed at the lake was more important.

“Julie I need you to get your shoes on and get to the lake with me.” He instructed.

“Why?” She asked. “Is something wrong?”

“JUST DO IT JULIE!”  Lucas bellowed.

She rapidly put on her shoes and rushed out the door, she ran to the lake and Lucas followed behind her. He also brought a marker with him he could explain it more detailed. Lucas then explained what happened to Julie, and when she didn’t believe him he decided he was going to show her.

 

He labeled the rocks each a different number, a regular stone as 1, another regular stone as 2, and the stone that just doesn’t seem to want to leave as 3. He threw the first rock and he skipped across the lake and didn’t come back, he threw the second rock and it still didn’t come back. Then it was down to the last rock, the rock that came back magically, he wanted to show Julie that he wasn’t lying. So he threw with all his might, but the third stone came skipping back.  Lucas picked up the stone and  walked over to Julie, she looked so scared and even though Lucas wanted to do something, he couldn’t. Instead he just took her home and they ate ice cream and watched T.V.  

After they were done eating ice cream and Julie was on the couch taking a nap, Lucas snuck outside and decided that maybe if he buried the rock it wouldn’t come back. So he went outside and dug up 5 feet of dirt, put the stone in it,  and put the dirt back on top of it.

“There we go…” He thought. “There’s no way it can come back now.”

He went back to his house and lied down on his mattress and thought about the rock, he wondered how it came back. He tried to believe it was magical but he

couldn’t, he made up a scientific excuse for it and ignored it.

He needed to get his mind off of the rock before he went and did something stupid. He got up and scuffled to his book shelf as he pulled another one of his geology books and noticed that something was glowing behind it. He pushed the other books out the way and there it was…. The rock that he supposedly buried 5 feet underground.

He tried to scream, but it wouldn’t come out of his mouth. He tried to run but he was frozen in place, he tried to close his eyes but they wouldn’t close. He tried to get away but he couldn’t. He just sat there.

He knew he needed to do something, something that would get rid of this rock once and for all.  He looked over to the hammer he had laying on his desk in case he wanted to crack the rock open to see what’s inside, grabbed it and slammed it on the rock as hard as he could. It cracked open in half, and inside was something that he was sure didn’t belong in a rock. A key and a piece of paper that looked about ten years old. He grabbed it and read what it said,

“If you are reading this that means I, Julian Whitmore haven’t  returned from the tunnels. My buddies and I discovered a few years earlier when we fell through a hole in the ground that is covered by a patch of grass next to the lake. When we first explored the tunnels it was suspenseful, we didn’t know what would happen so we only explored bit by bit. We did this for a few years, we noticed the there were many challenges, some very difficult and some easy. We completed the riddles of the guardian, crossed the treacherous bridge, and completed the maze. We are going into the last challenge today and we read the warning next to the door leading to it. It read all who enter cannot escape, so I decided to write this letter to let whoever know how to find me if I don’t return. Please…. Help me….”

Those rang in Lucas’s mind, how could his father possible? It was 8 years ago that he went missing how could be alive now? He realized that he had to show Julie, he ran downstairs, woke her up, and told all about what happened. Her eyes widened as she was reading the letter, and soon enough her mouth did too.

“This isn’t possible,” She whispered. “How could he possibly survived with no food and water for 8 years?”

“I don’t know….”  Lucas said. “But what I do know is that tomorrow I will find that hole , and I will find dad.”

“And i’m coming with you.”

By dawn they were ready to go, they had enough food and water that should last them about 2 months in case they hit a detour, they packed clothing for all types of weather, a first aid kit, and a few pocket knives. They left a note for their explaining that they were going to sleep over their friend’s house for a while and put next to her pillow. And with that, their journey began.

 

They started out by walking on every square inch of grass there was by the lake. By then 2 hours had passed and they hadn’t even completed half of the grass by the lake. Julie decided she wanted to take a break and she chased a butterfly that was flying around the field. Lucas needed to rest his legs so he sat down and took a tiny sip of water.

He looked over to where Julie was chasing the butterfly and she wasn’t there. Lucas rapidly got up and searched the ground. As he got closer to where she used to be he saw a large hole in the ground that most definitely did not use to be there. He looked down in and there it was, Julie laying the ground bruised and scarred. Lucas jumped down the hole and was a few a inches away from landing on Julie, she was already bruised enough she didn’t need someone to land on her.

He grabbed the first aid kit out of his bag and pulled out the the sterile gauze pads and the adhesive bandages, applied them, helped Julie up, then got started on his journey.

The pair were amazed by the fact that there was a  whole other world down here. They took pictures and kept some artifacts. After about an hour or two of exploring they came to their first challenge The riddles of the guardian.

The guardian was huge, terrifying, and was just about the definition of nightmare. Yet he wasn’t Lucas’s nightmare, he was part of his dream. The guardian stepped in front of the door when Lucas and Julie approached it, and said:

“HALT! THOU SHALL NOT PASS!”

“But we need to get to the other side of the door!” Julie replied.

“IF THOU WANT TO PASS THEN THOU MUST ANSWER 3 RIDDLES.”

“We accept your challenge guardian!”

“RIDDLE #1: I can be flipped and broken but I never move. I can be closed, and opened, and sometimes removed. I am sealed by hands. What am I?”

Lucas let let Julie answer because she was obsessed with riddles, she knew almost every single one.

“You are deal.” Julie answered.

“THAT IS CORRECT!”  He said. “RIDDLE #2:  I can bring tears to your eyes; resurrect the dead, make you smile, and reverse time. I form in an instant but I last a lifetime. What am I?”

“You are a memory.”

“THAT IS CORRECT!” He boomed. “THIS IS THE FINAL QUESTION, IF YOU PASS THIS YOU CAN GO THROUGH THE DOOR. These are the three lives of mine:

So gentle I soothe the skin, So light I caress the sky, So hard I crack rocks. What am I?”

“Lucas I totally know this one, I read it yesterday!” She whispered. “You are water.”

“CORRECT, NOW I SHALL OPEN THE DOORS FOR YOU TO PASS THROUGH!”

The doors opened slowly and loudly, Lucas shed a tear as he was one step closer to achieving his life’s dream.

Behind the door was a long, wooden bridge.  It looked very old and unsafe, he knew that they had to be careful, one slip and they both could be dead. He told Julie the same thing but more firm, he had to be the one in charge. He decided that at the end of the bridge they would stop and have a snack to eat, which made Julie even more eager to cross the bridge.

Lucas let her take the first step, it immediately creaked and she stepped back. Lucas assured her that it was ok and that he would protect her if anything happened. She took her first step again and this time she felt more confident. She took another step more and about fifteen minutes later she was at the other side of the bridge eating trail mix and drinking water.

Lucas was terrified, he was afraid of heights and by the looks of it this bridge didn’t really seem to be close to the ground. He knew he had to face his fears though, he had to do it for his father, for his mother, for his sister, for him.  He took a deep breath, closed his eyes and took his first step. He was imagining that was taking his first steps as a baby, and his father was there at the other side waiting. He must have thought of that for a very long time because next you know Julie was there right in front of him.

“Whoa!” He exclaimed. “I must have really zoned out!”

“Yeah, you did.” Julie replied. “Now hurry up and eat we gotta get going.”

They opened the door to the second to last challenge, which was the maze. It had a map at the beginning telling you how to complete it, and Lucas was confused as to why. He just ignored it and took a picture of it., and moved on into the maze. He followed where the map told him to go and he followed every single turn. He completed it in an hour and a half, he wondered why it took dad and his friends so long to get to the last challenge he did it all in a day.

He saw that Julie was a bit tired so he decided to call it a day and complete the last challenge tomorrow, but he couldn’t stop looking at the sign. What does it mean?  He thought about that question until he fell asleep, and even then he thought about it in his dreams.

They woke up at dawn- or what they thought was dawn to have their morning breakfast and set off to complete their last challenge. He made Julie read the sign and he told to think about what that meant and to not be afraid, be calm, cool, and collected. Now he just had to say the same thing for himself.

They entered the last challenge an animal without a face came up to them almost immediately. It told them that people call them the Face Stealer, if you show any type of emotion then it steals your face. Lucas tried to look around to see if his dad was anywhere, and it took him a while but he saw him in a corner wrapped up in something white.

“I’m here to get my dad” Lucas said firmly.

“Ah ah ah!” Said the Face Stealer. “You’re not showing anger are you?” It snickered.  “I will give you your father back if you can tell me how you are feeling….”

“I am feeling calm, cool, and collected.” Lucas responded. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m feeling quite happy…. But who said I had to show it?”

“I told you how I was feeling now can I get my father back now?”

“You will get him when you friend tells me how she feels as well….”

“I feel calm, cool, and collected.” Julie answered.

“Good, good. You can have him back now….” Said the Face Stealer. “But you have to get through me first!”

The Face Stealer swooped in to attack Lucas but he missed, Lucas got out of the way just in time. He grabbed his pocket knife and tossed one to Julie. They both came at the Face Stealer at the same time, they stabbed it in the stomach. It fell down for a while and was wounded, they knew they had to make their move now. They both grabbed their father, picked him up, slung him over their shoulder, and ran away.  He was really light. He might have been as light as Lucas.

They ran out the door and went into the maze, they figured they would lose him in there considering the fact that it got stabbed twice in the stomach . They ran as fast as they could with their dad over their shoulder, about 30 minutes passed when they could see the end of the maze. That meant they were 1 step closer to getting home with their father, Lucas even forgot for a second that he was running for his life. Well he sure was reminded when the Face Stealer popped out right by the entrance of the maze. Lucas and Julie put their father down got out their pocket knives, this time with two knives in each hand, ready to go. They came at him once again, but this time it was different. Instead Lucas went in front of the Face Stealer by himself. When the Face Stealer was distracted,  Julie snuck behind him and stabbed him off guard in his back. The Face Stealer was wounded once again and it fell. Lucas and Julie grabbed their father and were on the run once again.

They ran on the bridge and with the extra weight with them, the parts of the bridge behind them fell off. They thought that they would be fine because the Face Stealer couldn’t fly, but there was the Face Stealer, flying over the bridge, waiting to strike at the right moment. When Lucas and Julie spotted the Face Stealer about a moment before it swooped in, they bolted. They ran as fast as they could, faster than they did in the maze, faster than the fastest person in the world. They knew that if they kept this running up they would escape the Face Stealer.

With the running that they were doing they crossed the bridge in 3 minutes. The Face Stealer was all the way back there still flying over the bridge,  they were still running fast like they were on the bridge.  They past the door guardian and started running through the tunnels, they were getting tired but they didn’t let that stop them.

Soon enough they started seeing light, they knew that they were close the end and breathed a breath of relief. When Julie turned around and noticed that the Face Stealer when behind them she told Lucas. He turned around to look as well then turned back around, only to see that the Face Stealer was right in front of him.

“If I can’t get out of these tunnels, no one can!” It said.

“Oh yes we are!”  Lucas countered.

He turned around and nodded at Julie, they need what they had to do.  The energy that they had on the bridge pumped back into them, Julie ran to the other side and put her arms out. Lucas used all his strength, threw his dad over to Julie, then grabbed a weapon from his bag. Which this time was a shotgun, told Julie to get out of the tunnels, then was left face to face with the very thing he wasn’t to show any type of emotion.

Lucas held the shotgun with his trembling hands, he had never held one before and being on the verge of death didn’t exactly help. He knew he had to be strong though, he had to do anything he could to save his father and his sister, he had to shoot the Face Stealer.

He loaded the shotgun and aimed at the Face Stealer, the safety was off and this was the only time he could get rid of it forever. He aimed it at the head and pulled the trigger, out came a loud BOOM which made some rocks fall. He grabbed his backpack and climbed out the hole, he knew that he would be safe out there, the Face Stealer couldn’t leave the tunnels.  

He rushed out the tunnels and lied on the grass. He missed the way it felt, the way it smelled. He was finally home, he took his father and Julie home, made sure his father ate well, and waited for his recovery. He himself took a nap and tried to forget what happened over the past few weeks. He closed his eyes and slowly drifted off, waiting for his regular life to come back….

“Soon….” He muttered. “But for now this is my life.”

And he went to sleep.

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Narrative, The Third Floor Bedroom, Writing

The third floor bedroom By Lisset

   There’s is a family that lived in a small house in a big neighborhood in North Carolina. The family is Matthew and Lisa. They are the dad and mom of Jacob and Kate. He is 10 and Kate is 12.

 

Matthew and Lisa have a lot of friends. Over all the years they have been living in the same neighborhood. Jacob haves lot of friends too. But Kate doesn’t have a lot of friends. She has 1 friend and her name is Olivia. Jacob classmates are mostly are his friends from the neighborhood.But Kate’s friend Olivia goes to a differentschool so she doesn’t have no friends in school. One day Kate and Jacob came from school. Mom and Dad said that they were moving to a different house. They need it more space because Kate slept in the living room and her stuff was in the basement.

 

She wasn’t happy that she slept there since her brother was born and he got her room. Than 1 week passed now it’s Sunday. In the morning mom and dad are awake said Kate to Jacob. After a while Jacob want up to brush his teeth but Kate didn’t after she heard that mom said to dad we have to look at the houses.Jacob went back downstairs then Kate told him about what mom was talking  to dad about the house. We are going to move. Then Jacob said that soon we are going to move. Kate said they just looking for a house it doesn’t mean that we are moving soon. Then they both went down to the kitchen and Kate said to them I heard what you were talking about.

 

Then mom and dad said yes we are talking about the house.Tomorrow we will see some house together after you two come back for school next Kate and Jacob said OK. I think they are not very happy we are moving said mom and dad. The next day they went to see house close to where they live.Because they have a lot of stuff to move to the a new house that’s far from here. They saw lot of house but they didn’t like them because some are too small some are to old and some are huge and they just want a house that has space for everybody to have their room.

 

After they are going  to Frederick Maryland because one of Lisa friend that lives in the neighborhood is going to move they and she said that they are big house and their pretty and the people that live in the neighborhood are nice.They went to Frederick they saw a house and liked it so they went in the house it has 3 bedroom said Kate I like it.Lisa and Matthew said I like it to after that they said we should buy it. Next 4 weeks pasted. And one day after Kate and Jacob came for school then came in the house and mom and dad is waiting for us said Jacob I think we are in trouble said Kate. Then they release that they not in trouble is just that we want to talk to you about the house said mom and dad.

 

What about the house said Kate after mom I have good news about the house we are move to the house we saw when we went to Frederick. Next Jacob said when are we move after dad said on August 15 that’s in  in 3 weeks. After 1 week passed and it is Kate birthday she is turning 13 so mom said that it sunny you can invite your friend  Olivia  and i’ll call family members to came and celebrate your birthday.Next they started coming then Kate friend came then Jacob said why I can’t invite my friends. Then mom said because it’s not your birthday so when it your birthday you can invite all your friends. After the party the next day they started to pack up some things.

 

Then 2 weeks past they had everything pack up Jacob and Kate are happy that we are moving. I think that Kate is happy because in her new school she is going to meet new friends but at the same time she is going to miss her friend Olivia said mom.It took them 3 hours to get to Frederick Finley we are here said Kate then they went in the house then Kate and Jacob went to pick their rooms and put the stuff in their rooms. And Kate picked the 3 floor bedroom. In Kate’s room the wall were her bed is has a wallpaper that has white bird on it. In Jacob’s room all the walls are blue and white. After Kate went down to the kitchen and told her mom I like my room.

 

Then she when to see the whole house and also outside then Jacob asked where’s dad then mom said outside in the front bring the rest of the stuff in here. Then the next day they almost put everything where it has to be so like we have put almost all the stuff where it belongs. Can we go look at school so I can go and me to said Jacob because I want to go to school very soon to school.After they saw some school for Kate they saw a school that Kate likes and that mom likes to. Then  they found a school for Jacob to then the next day then want so Kate and Jacob can sign in the school so they sign up. Then the principal said that in 1 week they are going to know if they are in the school.Then 1 week passed then they went outside to check the mail and they saw 2 cards.

One said to Kate and the other said to Jacob in they then they went inside and open the cards. Kate saw that on her card it said yes you are going to the school and on Jacob card said the something like Kate’s card.It also said that on September 25 is when they are staring school Then Jacob said that like in 1 week so mom we need to buy things for school mom said Kate. 4 days passed and Kate said we need to buy the stuff today because school is almost staring and they went to buy the things.After they came back Jacob said I want my room a different color said ask your dad and if he says yes we will change it OK said Jacob. After 1 week past and it October 5 and mom said tomorrow your aunt Sofia is coming to

 

visit us from Virginia  but mom she has Emily that’s 12 and Jake that 8 and where are they going to sleep and mom said Emily is going to sleep in your room. And Jake is sleeping in my brother room and my aunt is sleep in the next’s room where Jacob is yes said mom. Then 1 days past and Kate said today are aunt is coming yes she coming then Kate ask but at what I don’t know but all I know is that it’s going to take her 4 hour to get here.

 

Then it passed 4 hours and finally my aunt came said Kate. After they put all the stuff in the they it became night time then they went to sleep. then it passed 2 weeks and  Sofia, Emily and Jake were going back to Virginia at the night. Kate came back for school she saw the window open and she left it open because it was a hot sunny day. Then it became night and Sofia, Emily and Jake were going back home then they left. After Kate went back to her room then she closed the window the next day it has sunny and like it was Saturday she open the window and went outside.

 

 

Then it was 7 o’clock and her mom called her to come eat. She come in and after she was done eating. She went to her room and she saw that the birds on her wall were peeling off. And she thought that like this house is kind of old that’s why the birds are peeling off she said to herself.And she close the window and went to sleep. After the next day Kate open the window and left ed open. Then her mom and dad said we are going to Rockville MD for 3 day. But why said Kate because we are going to visit your aunt said dad but for what said Jacob but she in the hospital.

 

Plus  she not very good that why she in the hospital said dad. When are we going in the afternoon OK said Kate then mom said go get started on packing up because we are in 5 hours OK said Jacob and Kate.After it was time to go to Rockville Kate didn’t close the window so then they went to Rockville. After 55 minutes they went to a hotel put they stuff in the room and then went to the hospital to see Isabella  Kate and Jacob aunt. 3 days passed and they went back to Frederick then  Kate saw that she forgot to close the window.

 

Birds on the wall peeled of said and then Kate went downstairs to tell her mom and then Lisa said all of them no said Kate some of them did. Then mom I’m going to talk to dad and we will paint the wall so this will not happen again. And then Kate said it all began when Sofia left the window open. After the next day dad was painting the wall and after 2 week it never happen again and everything was normal again.     

 

             

              

  

 

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Narrative, Writing

Gracie Oscar and Alphonse

My sweet little caterpillars. Oscar and Alphonse is their names. I’ve had them since I was 6. But now it is their prime time and they had to go. 13 year old Lucy went went out into the backyard. It’s where she first found them and took care of them. She knew it was time to send them back. The caterpillars softly wiggled in her hand spelling out”goodbye”.

She carefully place them on the tree she first found them on. Her eyes filled with tears she was trying to hold back.”I’m gonna miss you two. You were the greatest things that ever happened to me”she said as she was crying. The two caterpillars went into the small finger sized hole in the tree. ”Oscar, will we ever see her again?”said Alphonse.

“In time she will remember us. She watched us grow up from birth and she let us go at old age. We should bloom now for her future hope.”said Oscar. They crawled out of their hole and back into Lucy’s hand. She looked up and smiled. ”What do you need now?”she asked. Their fuzz changed into an orange color and became hard.
After 7 seconds two green butterflies emerged from the cocoons. They flew up into each ears and softly whispered “We will always love you Lucy. Tak
e care of them for us.” And in each hands were 3 caterpillar eggs.”I will take care. I promise.”she said.

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Mr. Linden's Library, Narrative, Writing

Mr.Linden’s Library By Ruby

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                               Name:Ruby Delgado

 

Please remember to have dialogue, genre characteristics and check spelling and punctuation before turning in.

 

                          Mr.Linden’s library

 

There was a girl named April. She has blue eyes, with blonde hair. April’s mom, Jane has blue eyes, but she use to have blond hair but now she has black hair because she dyed her hair. One day April was getting ready to go to school.

“Mom after school can I go to the library?” said April.

“Ok,” Jane said with a soft sound.

Jane then drove April to school, then Jane went to work.             

        5 hours later

 

Now April is out of school. April then was on her way to the library. April loves to read so she looked at a lot of books, but she found a book that she got because she wondered why the book cover that had the title gone.

“Can I read this book?”asked April

“No you can not take this book,” said Mr.Linden

But april still took the book because she loves to read. April then called her mom.

“Can you come pick me up at the library?” April asked on the call harris book plantwith her mom.

“I am still at work,” said Jane“but I am about to leave work.”             April was waiting for five minutes. Then her mom came and they both went home. Aprils mom started  making dinner .

“Dinner is ready!” Yelled Jane when the food was ready.

April came downstairs to eat. When she was all   done eating she went to her room and took the book out to read and took the book out of her backpack. It was 9:30 p.m. and April was a little sleepy. April started reading the book gone.

The book had 50 pages. April was reading. When she got to page 38, she fell asleep. But she fell asleep with the book open. That was bad, but she did not know that but only Mr.Linden knew.

The next day, April disappeared at 7:00 a.m. Her family always wakes up at 8:00. April’s family looked and looked for her, but never found her. Jane then gets her phone to talk to Mr.Linden.

“Mr.Linden can you come get the book that April got?” Jane said sadly

“Ok,” said Mr.Linden “but why do you not come to the library?”

Jane did not reply and she just hanged up.Mr.Linden then knocked on the door. Mr .Linden then came in to get the book. He had warned her about the book. Now its to late

“Hello Jane,” said Mr.Linden

“Here is the book Mr.Linden,” said Jane

“I know how to bring April back Jane” exclaimed Mr.Linden

“Really” Jane said happily

“Yes” said Mr.Linden

They both went to the library so Mr.Linden can bring her back. So he can bring her back the will need something that was hers. They got one of her braclets and poured some water on in. Jane then left to her house. The next day they find April asleep in her bed.

                        

 

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Narrative, The Third Floor Bedroom, Writing

Bryan’s Harris Burdick- The Third Floor Bedroom

It was the middle of summer in 2025 and the Anderson family had just moved into their new house, it looked very old and was very creaky.  The three brothers ran into the house Steven, Maxwell and Duane looked around the house and they all said “EWWWWW”, right after they said that another child walked in it was a girl and her name was Roxanne.

 

“Why did you guys say eww” Roxanne asked looking around the house.

 

“Look at this place it looks like it was made in 100 B.C.” Maxwell said disgusted.

 

“Your mom and I just thought that we could make the most of it” said the father Alex.

 

“I saw a pool nearby we could go there as soon as we finish unpacking” Alex said trying to lighten up the mood.

 

“Yeah we can go to the pool, YAY” said Sara the mom trying to help Alex.

 

“I’m gonna go chose a room” Then he stomped upstairs and chose a room all the way at the end of the hall.  

 

Once they had all finished unpacking they went to the pool.  When they got there Max got mad because he did not want to go to the pool so he pushed Steven into the pool and tackled Duane into the pool he tried to push Roxanne in but she jumped into the pool by herself then Steven pulled Max into the pool by his foot.

 

Then a kid came in and he went to Max to say hi.

 

“Hi ma name is Liam, I just moved here from Ireland.  What’s your name” He asked.

 

“Shut up” Max said angrily and he gave Liam a uppercut straight to the jaw Liam didn’t even flinch.

 

Then Liam’s face went from happy smile to an evil grin and cracked his knuckles and his neck at that point Max’s face went from an angry face to a pale paper white face then Liam gave Max a few punches to the stomach which knocked the air out of him and gave him an uppercut and he went up a little and fell into the pool.

 

“Not the best idea now that you think about it eh mate?” Liam said with a smirk on his face he wasn’t even breathing he didn’t even break a sweat.

 

All the other kids were looking at Liam with their jaws on the ground, Max was on the ground groaning in pain, Liam was happy that none the parents saw it so he helped Max up.

 

Later that week Liam went to the Anderson’s house to play video games the parents had gone shopping and to eat. Then the kids heard the doorbell ring they all froze except for Liam, Liam got up and went to the door and opened it a boy came in.

 

“Who is that?” Max said.

 

“ This is my friend.” Liam said.

 

“Hi” Carlos said shyly

 

Carlos was saying that Liam invited him to go to their house to play video games, Steven saw that Carlos had a video game controller then he told him that he could hook his controller up to their console so that they could all play then it started to get hot but their A/C did not work so they opened a few windows Max went all the way upstairs to a room with a wallpaper that had a bird design on it.  This place is weird Max said to himself.

He opened the window and went back downstairs, they all were playing video game until they got hungry, Steven went to the kitchen to see what they had and then a few minutes later he came back with chips and salsa.

They were all eating then they started to get cold, Steven went around the house closing all the windows and he told Max to go close the windows he opened.

 

Max went upstairs and saw a room with a whole bunch of video games and grabbed all of them and went downstairs he yelled that he had found a whole bunch new video game none of them cared how he got them they just started playing all of them one by one.  A few hours later they had finished the chips and had finished playing all of the video games and they were all sleeping then it was night.

 

“RRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG”

 

They all jumped up and went to the phone Steven picked it up thinking it was his parents, … BUT IT WASN’T.

 

An old man with a very deep creepy raspy voice said “ Your house is haunted and there is one person that is worthy of being their leader and one of you was a coward.”

 

Steven threw the phone down and said that it was probably just a prank and to not panic and that their parents were gonna be home soon so they just went back to the living room to go to sleep but they were all scared so Steven got everyone to play video games to take their mind off of the call.  Then a few minutes later they heard a big bang and they all got startled but Steven stood up and went upstairs they were all saying “Don’t go up there”, but he went up anyways.

 

Each time Steven took a step the ground would start making noises he walked up to the third floor to a room with a wallpaper with the design of a bird then he saw that there was something on the ground it was a very big rock he saw that the window was open and he closed it and he also saw that on the wall one of the birds was peeling off, he thought it was just the wind so he went back down the stairs and told everyone it was ok, then he went to Max and said “You told me that you close the window but you didn’t”

 

“I got distracted and what made the big bang.” He asked.

 

“It was a rock.” Steven told Max.

 

“But when I was there there wasn’t a rock.” Max said.

 

“What” Steven said with a scared voice.

 

Then Steven went straight to the phone and called his mom’s phone but she didn’t answer he called again but she still didn’t answer. Steven told everyone to go to the living room.

 

Max ran out the house saying “I’m leaving see ya never”

 

The man on the phone was right Max is the coward he told them all to run outside but it was too late the house spun around like a tornado and disappeared into thin air the parents and the kids were never seen again but there was one kid that survived Max he was the only one who lived to tell the tale of what happened on the night of August tenth 2025.

 

And it all began when someone left the window open.

Harris Burdick, Inquiry project, Mr. Linden's Library, Narrative, Writing

Mr.Linden Library By:Daniella

Exactly 15 years ago, this day, a girl named Emily came into Mr. Linden’s  library.  She seemed nice,  with blond hair, blue eyes and freckles with  cheeks you just wanted to squeeze.  I warned her that some books were dangerous and some  were not, but she didn’t listen to me her attitude didn’t  match her face at all…

When I tried to tell her, she replied in such a rude manner.    

“I don’t have to listen to you old man! I know how to choose my own books”

“Ok….”  Mr.Linden said sternly”

“Don’t come to me when something goes wrong…” He said  while walking away.”

Emily was 12 years old, but she looked like she was 15. Back then, before it all happened, she used to be all joyous and cheerful. Then her mother died…. and it was just her and her father. Who rarely comes home anymore other than to sleep or take a shower. You could say not having any love in life can change you forever…. just a little more love can change you from being a horrible, rotten to a sweet and caring person. When Emily got her grades down her father didn’t care, he didn’t even remember her birthday it just was a normal day to her father. She felt Emily had no friends so she ate next to the the trash can when it was lunch time she never listened to the teacher.  Emily’s dad never came to talk to the teacher because well, he  didn’t care about Emily at all he never asked her how was her day or anything they didn’t even talk to each other. She felt so left out…

Emily looked through the back of the library to find a book that she thought would at least even look interesting.  She had read most of the books already and they just weren’t satisfying that hole in her heart, she just wanted to have someone to care about her, But she didn’t let anyone know that. She had a heart made of stone but deep down there was a piece of her heart that was still there, ready for someone to come and save it, waiting for someone to help her.  

She was roaming through the aisles waiting for that interesting book to magically come to her, just like she was waiting for her mom to magically come back to life…. She could only wish.  As she had walked down the same aisle over and over again for what it had seemed to be the 1,000th time, she saw a book that looked out of the ordinary. She was confused, she went down this aisle many times and looked at every single book but she hadn’t seen this one. She grabbed it and read the first page, it seemed to be a diary of a person named Thomas Finley. She searched up his name and nothing came up it was like he never existed.  Emily took the diary but when she checked it out Mr. Linden came out of nowhere and said

“I’m warning you Emily do not take the journal, it’s dangerous.”

Emily thought about it for a minute, then she countered what he said with

“A journal can’t be haunted you old man! Maybe you should stop reading too much scary stories before you go to sleep.” And with that she strutted off.

She took the journal home and started to read it when she noticed the weird things in the jou started to happen to her she read the journal  until she fell asleep  but right before she fell asleep she read this….

“It was the day before the last day of school. I tried to make the vines not really noticeable by wearing long sleeve shirts, it is very hot but I would rather deal with that than deal with people knowing about the vines that are growing on me. I don’t know what I do when I pass out but, i’m sure it’s not good. I’ve been waking up with scars and scratches on my body…. Someone help me please! What’s happening to me?! The vines are growing

It ended there, the next page had been ripped off and she couldn’t read the rest.

“This isn’t true,” She scoffed. “This is just some scary ghost story that’s made up.”

With that happening she decided to call it a night and go to sleep. She had enough of reading this story and she didn’t want to read it anymore. She left the journal beside her and went to sleep . After about 30 minutes the journal opened on a page with mysterious drawings on it, it glowed a dark purple and then it stopped. Then, a vine started growing from the bottom of her nice new pair of shoes to her perfect  blonde hair.

She woke up the next day with bits of vine poking out from underneath her skin when she saw it she screeched and went  straight to Mr.Linden’s library.

“ Help me and undo whatever you did to me now!” She yelled.

“No.” He said firmly.

“What?”

“I said no.”

“Mr.Linden I will not take no for an answer.”

“I told you, don’t come to me when something goes wrong.”

And with that he walked away.

Emily ran home and cried in bed, he knew that what was happening to her wasn’t normal. You aren’t supposed to grow vines in your skin. Eventually she cried herself to sleep, not knowing what was about to happen.

She slept for 3 hours and woke up after she felt a bit itchy. She went to the bathroom and try to see what was wrong and took a look in the mirror. She screamed in terror as all of her legs were covered in vines, and once again she ran to Mr. Linden’s library. People ran away when they saw her, babies cried, and dogs barked like crazy. She cried the whole entire time getting there. When she got to his library she begged him to hear her out.

“Please Mr.Linden, help me.” She cried. “I’ve learned my lesson so just please…. Help me.”

He looked at her with a firm face and replied:

“I’m sorry but no, I will not help you. You haven’t truly learned your lesson. Now please leave my library.”

“FINE!” She yelled. “I don’t need your help anyways!”

She turned around and stomped away. Mr.Linden turned around and thought to himself:

“ he had warned her about the book.  Now it was too late

And he walked away.

She ran home as fast as she could, she knew what she had to do. She set up a camera and went to sleep. She wanted see where the vines were coming from and how it happened.  She went to sleep for the day hoping she could figure out what’s happening tomorrow.

She woke up with her whole entire left arm covered in vines and her right arm halfway covered. She got out of bed and rushed to the camera, and stopped the recording. She played the tape over and watched what happened during the night. She saw that the vines were coming from the journal and the page that it turned to. She quickly grabbed the journal and flipped the pages until she found the page with the drawing on it. There was writing on it but she couldn’t tell what it meant, and she didn’t want to know.

She grabbed the journal and ran to Mr.Linden’s library for what she hoped to be the last time, bust through the door and confronted him.

“Why in the world would you have a book in your library that does this to people?!” She yelled. “This book actually hurts people! But you know what? I’m going to get rid of it, and you can thank me when i’m done.”

She ran, ran as fast as she could, She knew she didn’t have a lot of time left because the vines were already up to her neck, and she could feel the air getting thinner. She went to her house and rushed to the fireplace. Where she then threw this terrible book into. As the book burned she could feel the air getting thicker, and she felt proud. She faced what was happening to her instead of running away. She knew that these past few days were the most important days of her life.

The End