Jacob Jernigan

It was a normal day. We were doing the errands that we would usually start on that day. But the fate of this day was very different from the others, leaving the event imprinted in my head, for a long time to come. It began when we had left the house to go get something to eat, and then hopefully go shopping. The problem was we had to stop by a bank near our house, by what is now a Krispy Kreme Donut shop. We got the money to go eat somewhere, but as we were pulling out of the bank, I glanced over to the stoplight where cars were, A lane was open, and a couple of seconds later, a white utility van sped past that light toward us, and then BAM!

The wreck was very short, although it felt longer than it should have. When we were hit, tires screeched like fingernails going down a chalkboard, and it sounded like a glass cup shattering. The visual of the wreck was like a bottle spinning on a table, all I could see was a mix of white, black, green, and red as cars were surrounding our crinkled mess of a vehicle.

Eventually we spun to a halt and were able to figure out the perpetrator of the accident, a woman with pre-torn clothes, incomplete make-up, and an unfinished braid, giving her a very “Poor” look. My mother got out to talk to the woman, but when my mother opened the door the woman sped of in the direction she was going in the first place, and disappears behind another vehicle,  my Father proceeds to call the police and my mother decides to chase the woman by going in that direction. We eventually came to a light right next to the woman and my father rolled down the window and asked  her why she did not stop, She screamed, “I am late for a meeting at my job.” Then she quickly sped off, again, towards Salem, but this time we did not follow her, because police were already in the area.

If she had stopped and exchanged her insurances correctly, she would not gotten a felony charge for Hit and Run, and charges for failure to yield, evading police, and two counts of child endangerment. She would have been sentenced with 5-10 years in jail. If I were her at that moment, I would have stopped and attended to the situation as correctly as possible.

Chris Palmer

When I lived in Blackstone it was a nice place because I lived in a house in the woods near an army base. Almost every night I would hear loud bangs, so I ask my dad “where the loud sounds where coming from?” and Dad said “At the army base near us they are practicing for battle or something like that”.

 Then one night it was very stormy outside, the next day I looked outside and there wore trees everywhere in the front yard from the storm my mom and dad said “there was a tornado but it did not hit our house.”

 The next day was the first day of school for me so when I got to school I had no idea what to do until one of the teachers helped me. My first class was English and in that class I made a friend, his name was Bobby but he wanted me to call him Bob because that was his nickname Bob he was a nice person to me, his dad also owned a monster truck he would drive it on the highway. After school I got on the bus and went home and when I got home there was 2 or 3 snakes in the front yard I stayed back as far as possible until my dad came out and killed them. A few years later I had gotten older and I was 9 years old and we were moving to Roanoke VA because the old school I went to had very mean teachers, bad food, less education, and the house we lived in was really run down and I had the same nightmare every night, so I called the house Horror House. The nightmare I had I was running out of my room and then something came out of the bathroom that did not work and parts of the floor missing, the thing that came out of it at me had no eyes with black stuff coming out of it where its eyes should be, but after it got me I woke up immediately. That’s why I call it the Horror House. So that’s wat it was like living in Blackstone.

Emma Oertle

As soon as I stepped out of our car and looked up at the big house, I knew it was going to be a good day. We rung the bell and all I could hear was the loud sound of ‘Ding-Dong.’ About thirty seconds later I could hear the sound of footsteps on hardwood. The door opened and a man appeared and said, “Welcome.”

My father, Andrew and I drove all the way to Utah to see my father’s grandparents. We saw them and went to a cook out at another relative’s house. The man was very tall and skinny with some gray hair and a nice little jacket that had a plaid pattern on it.  When I stepped inside I saw a huge living room, with a small fish tank on a table next to some stairs.  On the carpet, in the middle of living room, I saw some toy trains, probably for some of my littler cousins. The man told my brother, Andrew, and me that there were about three stories to this house. I thought to myself, “I wonder if their basement was old and creepy, with dirt floors and small rooms.” I knew it wouldn’t be like that, since it was a very nice house, from the look of it. He didn’t tell us about the basement, he just lead us to it. As we walked to the basement door and looked around in excitement, everything looked so new and nice.

A few seconds later we arrived at the basement door, before he even opened it, I could hear excited voices and footsteps clicking on the floor. After the door was open, I looked on into the vast darkness that seemed to swallow the stairs. The man went first, then my father, then me, and lastly my brother.  As I held onto the rail, my eyes were adjusting to the darkness that seemed to never end. When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I stepped onto some more soft and fluffy carpet, the voices and footsteps were coming from some smaller kids playing arcade games. The room was bigger than it appeared, At the farthest corner was a window about five feet high, light crawled into the dark room. Next to the window was a jar, and it was full of candy! I rushed over to it and got a handful. I ate some and said, “Skittles, I love Skittles!” The man next to my father said, “Don’t eat too much now, we are cooking up dinner.” I nodded and told him that I would only have my handful. He said all right, and then he left, so did my father. I was so ecstatic, that as soon as I heard the basement door close, I started to run around. I ran so frantically I dropped some of my Skittles.

 After I had played a few games and eaten my Skittles. I started up the stairs, and when I opened it, light hit my face. My eyes were so adjusted to the darkness in the basement, that when I came up from the void, my eyes started to burn. I climbed the last step and looked around, rubbing my eyes. The first thing I noticed was a big kitchen, and next to it, a screen door. I walked up to the door, and heard more voices, but this time they weren’t as excited as the ones in the basement. I opened the door and stepped outside on to the porch. The wood was a light brown and there were many people. I looked out into the yard and saw a pool. I love to swim so I was very excited. I walked down the stairs, and looked beyond the pool. I saw a trampoline, but it looked different, I didn’t see the steel legs that usually held a trampoline up, all I saw was the bouncy part. I ran up to it and saw that it was on a big hole. “It’s in a hole?” I exclaimed excitedly. I jumped on it and lost my balance. I fell backwards and landed softly. The sun warmed me as I lay there. I got up and ran to a big lump, of dirt and grass, and stood on it and looked on to the house full of people. I rolled down the hill and ran back to the house. I put my feet into the pool water and watched people cook dinner for all my family. Looking back on this experience that no person is alike, you don’t need to be young to have fun, but you don’t have to be rich to be cool or remembered.

Troy Smith

  

          Every year my trustee would give a trip, money, etc. if I meet the requirements by summer. This year was probably like a celebrity’s vacation. I got to go to Florida, and I stayed with my mom’s sister for one week. I got to go to Orlando and visit three Disney World parks for the other week. On the first week I went to the beach, a water park named Rapids, and the Kennedy Space Station. Finally, on the last week I got to go to Epcot, Magic Kingdom, & Animal Kingdom.

            So one of the first things I did was go to a waterpark and I would say it was one of the best ones I’ve ever been to. It was pretty massive. For one thing, it probably had more than 20 big water slides, a lazy river, a wave pool, & much more. Also, even though the park was fun, I had to wait for a while just because a storm rolled in. But we got to continue on the rides because there was no lightning. Then, the bad thing about being the first to climb 30 or more feet of stairs is that feeling you’re about to throw up on the second most intense ride in the park! But I didn’t because water slides are not scary or tough. They’re easy. After the fun day at the waterpark we went back to the house for our next big day at probably the most famous space center ever, the Kennedy Space Station.

            That morning we woke up early so we could get there on time because my mom got me the upgraded pass. After all, I love learning about space and I do wish to be an astronaut myself. First we went to explore the visitor center, where they had rocket gardens, shuttles you can go in, and the world’s biggest space gift shop. Then, we went on a bus ride to the real space station and got to go inside and see the launch room and other things. Also, another thing was we got to see was the first ever launch pad. After that we got to go in a museum of spaceships where I think I saw the real Saturn V. It was taller than the Empire State Building. Finally! After that long day we were in for a long trip back to the house that took maybe an hour or more. I was tired. I even slept for most of the ride back and boy, when I got home I slept like a rock.

            After traveling for a day, it was finally time to go to the first Disney Park, Epcot. We woke up, got on a shuttle, & arrived where we got our fast passes and cards then we went exploring. My mom had to stop and figure out how to work the fast pass, which took a while because the internet was slower than snail who drank chamomile tea. Then when everything was completed we set out and rode lots of rides that especially appealed to my interest in space, such as the Space Shuttle Simulator, Soarin, & the Test Track where the tracks were humming. Then we went to the reflection lake with all the different country related buildings. But the bad thing was it started to rain so we rushed over to a Japanese restaurant and ate. Later, we had to keep going to the next building because of the storm. We wanted to go to this Chinese part, but then I saw a huge lightning bolt. So we went to the next building and then we had to leave because the shuttle was going to pick us up.

            The next day we went to Magic Kingdom, and my mom’s sister came with us. We rode a monorail and a boat to finally get there. After that we rode all the rides like the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, Splash Mountain, Space Mountain, & the new Mine Train that had a 140 minute wait. Later I heard this one guy say, “I have a job here and I had to wait in line for it.” Also, we went on the small funny ones like Winney the Pooh, which broke down and we waited maybe 30 minutes just because the managers supposedly couldn’t find the keys. But hey, we got extra fast passes. We also saw shows and plays like a creepy one about country bears and one said, “There was blood on the ground and there was blood on the sand and there was a big puddle of blood on the ground.” Finally, it was time to go back to the hotel where we went to go rest up for the last trip.

            The last and final park was Animal Kingdom, which I’d say was the most intense park there. At first, I thought it would be about nature and not its fury. That was until I saw the Everest ride! It was huge and once I rode it I couldn’t even speak because of the speed. Also the rides weren’t the only scary thing. We saw this show there and once it ended and we exited there was a storm. Florida’s lightning is scary because I heard this one that sounded probably like a nuclear explosion. So, after the storm rolled out we were waiting for the next ride called The Rapids. We had to wait for technical problems and the storm. But hey, we got on later. Finally, our day was done and we went to pack up for the next trip.

            After all that fun and running it was sadly time to leave. But I wasn’t going home, I was going to Mississippi, my home state, for a whole month. Before that, we went to Dave & Busters to talk with my aunt for the last time. It was fantastic, with games endlessly everywhere and the food was like heaven. After we said goodbye to my aunt, we set out on the road to Alabama, & met my nana where she was. After we arrived, I said goodbye to my mom and my nana took me to Mississippi.

 In conclusion, I would say that my summer trip was probably the best one I have ever had. When I called my mom, she said, “Guess what? I lost around 20 pounds of weight after all that walking around!”

Nick Martins

                                                                        Harder Paths

I was around the age of eleven or twelve in this period of time. I lived in a two bedroom house with my mother, father, and my dog “Peanut”. We had gotten kicked out of our old apartment residence due to the rent amount gradually increasing past $1,000 each month. “Ha! You guys must be poor,” said my neighbor. People assumed we were just too poor to afford certain things, believe it or not. Life was so much better back then. A lot of people say that things were easier for them as a kid, but I personally think I have it different than most of the other kids at school. Back when I was younger, my parents made a great amount of money each month. Enough to pay for food, rent, bills, taxes, and still have plenty of money to spend on things I wanted, places I wanted to go, or things I wanted to do. Money wasn’t even considered a problem for us back then, until around 2009. My mother, Jane, doesn’t have legal papers, a green card, or a driver’s license, or able to even get one. My father was successfully able to obtain all his legal papers, certifications, and documents. He is able to legally work for a corporation, keep his driver’s license, and do anything else a natural-born American could do.  Our family originated from Brazil, which is where most of our ancestry was born. My mother and father both lived in Brazil before moving to America. They both moved here for the same reason; to start fresh. Things in Brazil were bad for the time being. My mother thought things could be way better in America, but it turns out she took the wrong path.

Imagine waking up one day, feeling a cool breeze and a refreshing scent of pine. You close your eyes to take in a breath thinking to yourself, “I have everything I could ever want.” Suddenly, you hear abrasive noises. You open your eyes and suddenly your whole setting has turned around completely. Stress overflows your body, everything you’ve seen vanishes away from you. Life turns upside down and you struggle on a budget for the rest of your life. This is basically what had happened to my family.

“I’m going to buy a moped,” my mother said. This is what started the downslide of our financial life. She decided to get a moped since she could legally get a bike license but not a car license, but a few weeks after she got it she broke her Tibia. The moped landed on her leg and caused irreversible damage to it, and she had to stay 3-4 months in the hospital. And to top it off, she couldn’t work for a year straight. To this day she still limps slightly on that leg and will continue to do so for the rest of her life. The bills came in like a snowstorm during the winter. Rapidly piling onto the table, in through our mailboxes, and back where they were sent from. To this day, she still continues to pay for minor things involving her accident, plus three recent stays for a diagnosis of “Blood Pallet Release,” which basically means she would cough up blood cells from her organs. All of that piled up together, and combined with a son to take care of, our debt swooshed down the drain. We haven’t had much money since.

My mother’s personality and feelings changed after the incident. She began to grow stubborn, overprotective, and bipolar. All of her friends had helped chip money in to pay for all the hospital bills running us down our knots. She ended up talking trash behind every single one, and as each and every friend found out, each and every friend left. My mother to this day only has two American “best friends” to this day. A year after all of the commotion, my parents divorced. I stay with my mother, and visit my father every other weekend. That’s how it’s been since that day and it still continues to flow that way. I was shocked when this was happening at first. I didn’t know how to react to it. It all just happened way too fast for me. I now tend to have a better relationship with my father than my mother. My mother has an irreversible personality that I can’t stand anymore. She acts bipolar a lot as well. She acts like the sweetest angel on earth when she’s around her friends or my friends, but when it’s just her and me in the house, I’m like her punching bag. She will find any reason to scream at me and stay angry at everything I do or say. She also stays on top of me whenever I do something. “Privacy is a right, not a privilege,” I think to myself quite a lot. She is always asking me questions about something I’m doing, always barging in on me when I keep my door closed (my door stays closed all the time), and never bothers to let me keep my own stuff protected. Say I’m playing a video game and there is a female character in a cut scene. She walks in to see the female character on my TV. She instantly starts asking things such as, “What are you watching?” “Are you watching something pornographic?” “Give me that controller!” “I’m grounding you for this.” She instantly takes her own path in her mind, assuming things that aren’t true or even in play, and she really goes deep down into her mind when that happens. The thing with her is that she thinks everything she does, says or feels is right, almost as if she were a Goddess. If you’re willing to help her once, you’re going to have to help her again and again and again because she’s going to stay dependent on you for things she can’t or won’t do. If you do decide to help her, you’d have to stop anything you’re doing whether it’s from being at the hospital as your wife is giving birth, or if your child has died in a car crash, you have to leave it all just to attend to her. She basically uses people to stay alive.  My father agrees that her personality is too much for people to handle, and I think that she’ll die unhappy, which is pretty sad. You can’t satisfy her at all no matter what. You could buy her a Lamborghini, and then tell her you don’t want to teach her how to make a cake and she’d instantly forget everything you’ve ever done for her, as if you were a devil according to her. I’ve had to take small part time jobs just to help pay for her hospital bills, yet she doesn’t even consider me her son, hence a human being. My father, on the other hand, is the only person I can really look up to and thank. He raised me the proper way with proper learning. He actually understands what I like, what I do, and what I’m saying.  He supports me in every decision I make, no matter what it would be. I can talk to my dad about any problems I’m having in life, any heat I need to get off my mind, anything I need to get off my chest. Most of my hobbies, interests, and passions come from my father as well. We can both easily bond knowing that we love the same things and disagree on the same things. I love my mother, I thank her for partially raising me, but as harsh as it sounds, I still have a faint feeling of hate for her.

Growing up this way may seem like a horrible living experience, but I’ve actually gained a lot more knowledge, courage, respect, responsibility, and interests. Sometimes a harder experience has better outcomes. I’m considered more mature than a quarter of my freshman grade. I’ve learned so many things I probably wouldn’t have ever learned taking this route. I’m honestly glad life is like this for me. I’ve gained maturity, I’m able to do things on my own, and I’ve learned to adapt to my surroundings and environment. After going through most of the hard things in my life, I can take it a bit easier. After I leave school, I go home, and the first thing I do is my homework or study. I play video games or do whatever I like afterwards until I feel sleepy. Everything feels much easier for me than it was before If you ever have a choice to take an easier way, or a harder way in life, always go for it. Because remember, as hard as it is in the beginning, you will always get something others don’t at the end. Be strong!

Midajah Davis

Blessing Smith is my cousin. She is my grandma’s sister’s daughter. Blessing is 19 years old. I don’t get to see her often, but we text several times a week. By the way, she not allowed back in my house because my mom doesn’t trust her.  Blessing is tall and chunky. Her hair is str’curly. That means straight at the root and then big poofy curls. Blessing is light-skinned, and but she has a very big head like a Bratz doll. Her makeup is ratchet. She wears too much foundation, and too much blush, like a clown. Blessing is the type of girl who is twofaced. Blessing is respectful to older people but not to my mom. She lies to my mom for no reason. She can’t be trusted. , When my mom asked “Why do you have food in the room?” Blessing said,” I don’t.” My mom said,” then why do I see candy wrapper on your bed?

One day, my mom was at work and Blessing saw the matches on the couch and she picked them up. She was 8 and I was 4 years old. She lit the match and she stood on the porch. I walked in and I said” What are you doing” and she said “idk”, so when my mom came home I told her.  I was really scared because I thought she was going to kill her and me. So, Blessing was on the porch with the matches and she was thinking to burn down the porch.

 My mom got the matches and was going to show her how matches do. My mom lite the match and put it near her. My mom said, “Was this what you want to do to my daughter? And Blessing said “No.” Blessing reaction was terrifies and she crying really hard because she thought my mom was really going to kill her but my mom wasn’t. I could smell the fire when she lit it. I couldn’t hear it. The matches look brown and black.

Lyric Harris

Scare mare is one of the most terrifying things I ever did in my life. When you walk in you sand in line for like a thousand hours. When your waiting in line there is these bunnies and clowns that walk around touching you. The bunny that was that was following Mason, Mallory, Ryan and I had crystal eyes and the fur was coated with the reddest blood I have ever seen. The clown was white a snow and had the reddest hair. He was carrying a bloody chainsaw with blood all over his face.  After like a hour of torment we finally get in there. When we walk in you walk in to a checkered room and everyone in the room match the wall to the point. After you walk out of there you go to this tunnel and all you can here is the echoed sounds of people screaming and you couldn’t even see your hand in front of your face and it smelled musty kind of like a really cheap men’s colane.