Author's Note: Just in case anyone was wondering, I didn't murder anyone.  This is fictional.  I got this idea while I was walking down the bread isle in the grocery store.  I have no idea where this idea came from or what it has to do with bread.  Thank you and enjoy.

Does murder mark you?  Is it a scar, visible for all to see?  Does it give off a stench, vile and bitter?  Does the memory of it follow you like a shadow, impossible to get away from?  Or is it like a cloak, a damper on all other less important things?

I've discovered it's more of an embarrassing family member; something you want to get rid of, but can't so you just cover it up instead. So I see everything through a veil, my veil of lies.  It's not quite a mask, just a little curtain that keeps me out of trouble.  I don't let anyone come to close, lest they see through it. 

If you're wondering who I murdered, you needn't worry, it's no one important.  Just a nosy little gnat that got in the way.  I wasn't planning on killing her, but I don't mind that it happened.  I was beginning to wonder what  I was going to do if she found out too much anyway. 

So here I stay, unseen and invisible behind my carefully woven curtain, always keeping something on me just in case someone comes near.  A kitchen knife here, a pocket knife there. For I can't let them see through my veil....  I can't let them see that I'm afraid.

"Rumour Has It" Halloween Paraody "Legend Has It"

Author's Note: The is is about a boy that sneaks out in the middle of the night to go to a house that is haunted by an old ghost and "rumor has it" he ran out of the house screaming for his mom.

She, she ain't real 
She ain't able to eat or taste things like dill
She is a myth
Her murder is history
Or don't you remember?
Sure, she's practically immortal
But, baby, everything can always die 
Bless her soul, it never made it to the clouds
She made a fool out of science
And, boy, she's drifting downtown
She made your heart stand still
When she floated through the floor
Now legend has it she haunts that house forevermore

Legend has it(x 8)  

She, is twice your age,
But I'm guessing that's not the reason you're afraid,
I heard you've been missing mommy,

You've been telling people things you shouldn't be,
Like when you creeped out when no one was around,
Haven't you heard the rumours?
Bless her soul, it never made it to the clouds 
She made a fool out of science
And, boy, she's drifting downtown
You made my heart stand still, said she "drifted through the floor"

But rumour has it mom's the one you're crying for


Legend has it (x 8) 

All of these words whispered in my ear, 
Tell a story that I cannot bare to hear,
Just 'cause you said it, it don't mean that I believe it
People say crazy things,

Just 'cause you said it, it don't mean that I believe it 
Just 'cause I heard it,
 

Legend has it (x 14)
 
But legend has it she's haunting you forevermore

I don't know what to be, where to go, how I got like this.  How am I supposed to know?  Of course I knew in the past....I was a follower, simple, a shadow dweller.  But in this world, I am lost. I might be a leader, some  dumbfoundingly complex being.  How to define something incomplete... Am I just a wanderer, a speck of dust drifting in the air?  Can people see, but know that I am incomplete, like a bodiless arm in the edge of a photograph? Really, what I'm asking is, who am I?

A Partner Piece For My Rant

Alright, so I wrote an essay on the classes that I didn't like.  This is my essay on the classes that I do like.  Some of the classes I like are language arts and lunch.

Personally, I love language arts.  There's no better way to start your morning than by reading a book.  (Except for starting you day with a cappuccino.)  So having L.A. first hour is perfect for me. Language arts ties for my first favorite class.

It ties with lunch.  (This is sort of a side note, but I know that a lot of people don't think that lunch is a class.  I think it is.  I mean, it's on your schedule, it takes up a time slot.  If resource is a class, then so is lunch.)  I love lunch.  Eating and talking with friends is like the highlight of my day.  After we eat, we're allowed five minutes outside.  (Honestly, it kind of makes me feel like a prisoner being let outside for a few minutes just to see the light of day.)  It's great to be out in the fresh air when there's good weather, but it's annoying when it's cold out.  Then the bell rings and we all form a massive glob before funneling through the doors and going to our last class.

This essay is a lot shorter and simpler than my last one. It might not score as much either, but I just wanted to show the positive in my life as well. Thank you for listening.  (or reading, however you want to think of it)

Possible Introduction

Author's note: I have no idea what to do with this.

Have you ever had that feeling where it's like everything is falling away before you?  There isn't a single object that isn't shattered. As if everything is too fragile to withstand the harshness of the world. 

If You Thought The Original Ending Was Bad, Then This Is Even Worse!

Author's Note: In this piece I used an original piece, Memoir, to demonstrate my understanding of Cause/Effect

Memoir is about how I was riding my bike, and then a mosquito bit me.  I then itched the mosquito bite, and fell off of my bike after I hit a bump in the road.  I went inside the house and got cleaned up and it ends with me thinking of how I could have gotten brain damage.

The climax of this story is when I decide to itch my mosquito bite. (I know, interesting story right?  It's actually a pretty good piece.  You should read it after you finish  reading this.)  It isn't me getting bit, because I could still decide not to itch it.

The causes are:

Me not putting on bug spray.
Me getting bit my a mosquito.
The mosquito bit itching.

The effects are:

Me only having one arm to use and therefore not having enough power to steady the bike when it hits the bump in the road.
Me getting hurt.
Me having to put on gauze pads and Neosporen.

However, everything would change if I just hadn't itched the mosquito bite.  When I would hit the bump in the road, I would just tighten my grip and steady the handle bars.  Then I'd finish riding down the hill and I'd be perfectly fine.

What if one little detail changed?  What would have happened if I hadn't worn my helmet?  I would have crashed and split my head open.  I would have just lied there, bleeding until someone came outside.  Then I would have been rushed to the hospital and I would have had to have gotten stitches.  They might have even of had to cut off some of my hair!

Sucky School Schedule

Okay, so I'm sure you've heard the whole "I'm a teenager, my life sucks" thing before, but I'm a teenager and my life sucks.  The thing that has the biggest suck factor is school.  Granted, I have some good classes, but then there are some really, really awful classes.  Some of those bad classes are gym, math, and science.

We should not be graded on how physically fit we are.  I think that that is bull..... cow.  Yeah, that's bull cow!  The school talks about how bullying is bad, but they're kind of bullying the kids that aren't fit by doing this.  Those kids have to go home and explain to their parents that the reason they have a bad grade in gym is because they physically couldn't do the test.  No child should be put in that position.  Speaking of miserable children...

Math is bad enough because it's so difficult and boring, but then you add a nasty teacher?  I'm not going to say who, but I loath one of the teachers in the math learning center.  I never talk to that teacher unless I absolutely have to.  Though even without talking to them, I can still feel them.  It's like they're some vile disease that spreads throughout the room and lurks in the corners.  No matter where you go, they'll still be watching, just waiting for you to take one little step out of place, or make one wrong move.  And then they'll pounce.  It's like they take pleasure in children's misery.  Then there's also the subject itself. I don't care how many times you tell me that math is needed in life, I'm still gonna say that it's pointless.  Fine, I get that we need addition and subtraction and all that basic stuff, but when are we ever going to use the quadratic equation?  What is the point of learning something if you're never going to use it?  That brings me to my next subject...

Science.  No one uses it unless they have a job that has to do with it.  How many students are going to go into a field that deals with science?  Probably less than ten.  So the entire school has to learn the subject just for those specific students?  Science should be a class that we choose to take.  I want to be an author.  What does writing have to do with figuring out if a diet coke or a normal coke floats in water?  Please, someone explain that to me.  I am dying to know when I'm going to need to use science.

Ah, that feels much better.  You always feel so relieved after you've had a good rant.   Anyway, my point is that school is lame.  The only reason I actually try in school is so I  get good grades so I can go to a good college.  At that good college I will take writing classes, classes that have nothing to do with fitness, math, or science.

Pewaukee Lake Journal

I watch as the sky turns orange, then yellow, then pink, like multi-flavored sherbet. I feel the sand ooze from between my toes.  I smell rotting and decomposing twinged with a pinch of poop. I see the skeletons of many dead fish.  I taste the sweetness of my ice cream mixed with the bile that is now coming up my throat. I hear the laughs of children as they swim in the lake. Too bad they don't know about the e coli. 

Patriot's Pen Essay

What would you tell America's founding father's? This being unspecific, I kept my answer vague. I would tell America's founding fathers to treat everyone equally. But I shouldn't even have to write this essay, because time travel isn't possible.

Let me tell you why I think it's stupid. Time travel is something you dream about, it's not reality.  You only read about it in books, like The Time Traveler's Wife, or see it in movies, like Back to the Future. So if it's unrealistic, I don't think we should be required to write an essay about it.  The question is quote on quote "what would I tell America's founding fathers?"  The question implies that time travel is already invented.  A better question would be: what would I tell America's founding fathers if it was possible to time travel?  Even then that would be a stupid question because if time travel was invented, why would you go back to boring old colonial times that are full of plague and starvation? My point is that this essay topic is completely stupid and you might think this essay is completely stupid, but I don't care.  I just needed something to write about so I didn't get an F on this assignment.  So, sorry for bringing time travel into all this, but I needed something to make this essay a little bit more interesting.

Alright, I had my fun.  I'll keep the conclusion serious. Our founding father's did the best that they knew how.  It's not like they had built a whole country  from ground up before.  They did all they could, but if we were given the chance to go back and change things, we would.  That's just the way the cookie crumbles.

Graceling's Resolution

 Author's Note:  This piece uses the book Graceling to demonstrate my understanding of Conflict/Resolution.

Graceling is set in a land that is full of people that have special talents. These talents are called graces.  The king of Monsea is one of these people that have a grace, but no one knows that because he is gifted with a grace that allows him to lie and others to believe his lies.  Two gracelings, Katsa and Po, realize this and go after the king to try to stop him before he uses his power to harm.

However, they arrive too late.  When they reach Monsea, they come upon King Leck killing his wife.  They immediately turn and start the search to find Bitterblue, Leck's daughter.  They find her and start planning the murder of Leck. Po attempts, fails, and comes back injured.  The group separates and Katsa ends up face to face with Leck.  He tries to feed Katsa his lies, but Katsa sees through them and shoots Leck, diminishing the threat.

The main conflict is that King Leck is manipulating people with his lies.  This is a person vs. person conflict. The resolution to the conflict is that Katsa kills King Leck.

In Mockingjay, it's also a person vs. person conflict. The story is a little different however because for the majority of the book Katniss thinks that she wants to kill President Snow, but then at the end of the book she realizes that Coin was the reason that her sister died. So, she finds the person that lied to her, Coin, and she kills her.

Charcoal trees
Ashen faces
Shadowed lies
Mysterious places

Raging fire
Ruthless truth
Stone-hard hearts
Aimless youth

Fear-woven curtains
Transparent lights
Leaving no traces
Picking fights

Fallen stars
Moonless tide
Solar eclipse
Worlds collide