It Just Can't Get Any Worse!

Arjun Rao

9/25/17

Stephan

Narrative Writing

It Just Can’t Get Any Worse!

For me, waking up in the morning is always a pleasure. The birds are chirping, the sun is shining, and … oh. My sister. What a way to ruin such a pleasant view. I stretch lazily and yawn hugely. “To what do I owe the pleasure of your company?” I ask her in my best “I’m better than you” voice. She giggles softly, and says, “Well, y’know how mom is always saying you need a special haircut for picture day?” I nod slowly, never taking my eyes off of her like she’s a wild beast. “Well, I did it for you! Surprise!” she says. She shows me a picture of the back of my head. My jaw drops in horror. She has cut my hair, and I’m looking like a reject to play Medusa in a play. The sides of my head are gelled up like Astro Boy, and I have about a centimeter of hair in the middle! I feel like I’ve just been hit by a tank. Snapping me out of my misery, my sister says excitedly, “I posted the pics on the internet! I can’t wait for the job offers to roll in. By the way, is it okay if I use you as a test subject for my new hairstyles.” Without waiting for my answer, she saunters out of my room with a smug grin plastered on her face, yelling, “Thanks!” Thinking degrading thoughts to myself, I dragged myself over to the shower, hoping that the water would wash away the misery of my day. “Well, John, old boy, at least it can’t get any worse from here,” I say as the water pours on my head.

---

I always brush my teeth in front of the mirror. It’s just one of the things I do. But today, I was in for a special surprise. As I walked over to the sink and started to brush, I had a sudden urge to look in the mirror. And when I did, it wasn’t the haircut that got my attention, but it was what looked like a colony of pimples, zits, and whiteheads covering my face. I screamed in terror, and toothpaste went flying everywhere. My mom came flying bird-like upstairs, with my dad in hot pursuit. “What’s wrong Johnny?” my mom asked, before looking at my face and letting out a small “Oh.” My dad had a similar, more explicit reaction. They started clamoring around me.”Could we give you some anti-acne cream? Maybe a ball cap would help the haircut?” But I could not hear them. I was thinking of how I would be mocked at school, how my face would be ridiculed for years. Nothing could cover up such a quantity of acne. “Well, John, old boy,” I thought to myself “At least your day can’t get any worse than this.”

---

To make matters worse, breakfast that day was oatmeal. Yech. After choking down the soggy, lumpy raisins and oats, I put the dishes away and got a peck on my cheek from my mom. I went outside, and shockingly I saw the bus driving away after I walked five blocks to get to the stop. I picked up the pace and started speed-walking to school. Unfortunately, going fast can attract the attention of dogs. , and soon I had I had three on my tail. I broke into a run, and so did the dogs behind me. They were barking like mad now, so much that I thought they were going to lose their voice. I was just in front of the school now, when I slipped on a banana peel, which was a total Three Stooges moment. ZZWIP! With arms flailing, like a scarecrow in a wind tunnel, I fell face first into a mud puddle. Laughter rings in my ears. My woes were not over yet, though, as the dogs I had been avoiding jumped onto me, and used my jeans as a pinata. After they lost interest and went off to bug someone else, I thought to myself, “Well, John, old boy, at least it can’t get any worse from here.”

---

After getting a tardy pass from the office, I walked back to my class, where we were getting ready for P.E. Kind of stupid if you ask me, having P.E. before picture day, so kids can get all messy before having their picture taken. But I digress. Anyway, as I entered the classroom, an eruption of snickers and giggles greeted me.My legacy had preceded me, except I wasn’t too happy about it. “Settle down, class!” Miss Shroom said while banging a meter stick on the desk, making a hush fall over the room. I handed her my pass, then went to sit with my good friend Golich. Golich gave me a once-over, then said,”You look like a garbage truck dumped its load on you.” Yup, that’s Golich. What a pal. Mrs. Shroom said in a scratchy voice, “Go to P.E. with Mr. Sturgis. If you need me, I’ll be playing Pokemon Go… I mean, monitoring the kids outside!” Hearing those heartwarming words, I suddenly appreciated how much Mrs. Shroom cared for our school. I trudged over to the field, where the coach was waiting. He told us,”Take a lap, and then meet here to choose teams for baseball.” I groaned inwardly. I hated baseball! After jogging around the track once, I came back to the field, where we were picking teams. After a minute, Harry and I were the lasts kids there. “I guess I’ll take John,” said Dylan. “Then I’ll take Harry,” said Jim, aka public enemy no. 1. He had yellow teeth, muscular arms, and a ruthless streak of injuries trailing behind his name. He flashed me an evil grin, then went out to start pitching. We were playing inning-each ball, where each team got an inning to bat, and outs didn’t matter. Pretty self-explanatory. Our team got off to a good start, banging away line drives that ended up in three singles, but then Jim got five strikeouts in a row. As always, I was the ninth and final batter. It looked like the runners were getting ready to take the field already. I came out and Joe pitched me a fastball. I missed. Rinse and repeat. Then, while Jim was pitching, somebody yelled “Swing!” in the outfield. I did just that, and cleared the mini-fence! Sadly, Mr. Sturgis called it foul, but my teammates now had hope. They started cheering, and a flicker of doubt came over Jim’s face. The evil smile returned, though, and a cold shower of dread washed over me. He pitched one straight at my face and BANG! My face now looked like a red waterfall of blood. Mr. Sturgis came running over. “Go over to Mrs. Boxer’s office,” he said, handing me a tissue. Great. A visit to Mrs. Boxer’s office. Just what the doctor ordered. She was one of those people who never forgot a face and always wanted to know exactly what was going on with you. I went down the hall and knocked on her door. Suddenly, wood came out of nowhere, and for the second time that day a BANG! Greeted my ears. “Oh, my goodness!” yelped Mrs. Boxer, “Goodness, I’m so sorry.” Blah Blah Blah. If I wasn’t in so much pain, I would be asleep. After she had calmed down, she tried cracking a joke. “Well, you’re in the right place to get that black eye and nose fixed up! After ten minutes fussing over me, Mrs. Boxer stepped back to admire her handiwork. “Good as new.” is what she called it, but in my humble opinion it was, “Like you fell off a roof into a rose bush.” I actually had an eye patch and a band-aid over my nose. The eye patch looked like a party favor from a five-year-old’s birthday party. “Now, you go to the Multi-Purpose Room for picture day!” she said brightly.”WHAT!?!?!?!?!” I screamed. In all the confusion, I had forgotten that it was picture day today! Walking with my shoulders slumped and my head down, I thought to myself, “Well, John, old boy, at least it can’t get any worse from here.” As it turned out, I was wrong.

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         When I reached the MPR, there was my class, and guess who got to be at the end of the line. Sorry, I don’t mean to sound whiny or anything, but it’s just that I’m really triggered off at my day right now. When I got to the picture booth, my friend Akoden was next to me. I made a dorky face at him, and CLICK! Went the camera. I fell off my chair and the cameraman said “NEXT!” I survived through the rest of the day, but just barely. With ten minutes left, we got our yearbooks. I flipped to our class page, just to see how bad my picture turned out. I saw… that my name was spelled “Dorkius Maximus.” and I had the title of Most Likely to Be a Gangster or Win An Ugly Contest. I came back home with a perpetual frown on my face. When I reached home, my mom asked, “Why so glum?” I told her all my woes and terrors, and kept on moaning about how unlucky I was. My mom said to me, “Instead of saying how you’re day can’t get worse, how about focusing on how your day can get better.” I was hit by a sudden realization. It was just a bad day. I am a very lucky person. I have food, water, clothes, and a roof above my head. I can’t ask for any more. You know what, my mom was right. At least my day, can still get better from here!

Experiences Settler Writing

5 Pieces of Info From an Experienced Settler

By Arjun

Hello everybody, and welcome to the hot new column “5 Pieces of Info From an Experienced Settler”! I’m your host, Arjun, and today I’ll be talking about some basic tips to help your colony thrive!

Firstly, all of your essential buildings should be in the center of your village(the doctor’s and leader’s huts, for example). You should build them in the center so that in the case of a medical emergency or a dispute that gets out of hand, you can quickly go to one of the two huts and settle the case immediately. Also, when I was in a blizzard, none of the main buildings were destroyed

Another thing you should do is spread out your crop fields. This is because in the case of a flood,(which I have encountered) not all of them will get harmed. Another reason to spread out the crop fields is that they need a lot of space.

Thirdly, you should place your livestock in a safe place in the forest so they can feed off roots, grass, shrubs along with the food provided. It is advised you do this because then the food you have to provide them is reduced dramatically so you can put more effort into finding food for yourself. My livestock were not harmed during a flood.

Penultimately, you should keep your vegetable gardens, crop fields, and houses near the water. That is because you need to supply water to them from the river if rain is scarce. It also makes water transport much easier. When I encountered a drought, none of those were harmed.

Finally, you should group your houses together so you will have the butcher, grocer, blacksmith, or other people grouped together so you can access the buildings quickly. Also, you can plan for emergencies and have plans for the whole village. My village was not harmed in a blizzard.
In conclusion, these pieces of advice could be very important to you settlers out there. You guys should take these tips and use them wisely, and if you do, you could build a very successful colony.

Game, Set, Match

Arjun Rao

Rader

Humanities

4/18/17

Game, Set, Match!

I looked over at the scorecard hovering over the net like a fly to fruit. 4-0, 3-1 (USTA 10U Intermediate plays two 4 game sets or one 6 or 8 game set)me, 40-30 in the game. I took a moment before serving to admire how much my Coach Ray had talked up this team, and they turned out to be pushovers. Earlier this morning, my coach had told our team, “These are our best competitors for the spot in the sectionals(A collection of the best teams in Southern California in each division) for 10U Intermediate. We’ve got to win! Got to!”

I had never seen Coach Ray, almost, well, nervous. We were the best team in San Diego last season for the spot in the sectionals and locked up our spot with ease. We had crushed this team, and I kept reminding him, but every time I did, he was like, “ They’re going to be better this season. I just know it!”

I could see why he was feeling a little antsy, too because we had to recruit a new person named Audrey to the team when our No. 5 player Brandon quit, along with our two backups, leaving us with a gaping hole in our No. 2 Doubles. I was expecting him to still be as twitchy and nervous as a squirrel while we did our warm ups, but he seemed much more relaxed, and I was too, after seeing the team play. We were at the La Jolla Cultural Center for Arts and were playing on their tennis courts. The Cultural Center was full of shops, and after seeing some of their mouthwatering treats, and I was ready to dig in after the match. I was having a great time playing with Victor when Coach Valerie put a hand on my shoulder and said, “Arjun, you’re going to be playing No. 1 Singles, like every week.”

Meanwhile, the guy on the other end was getting impatient for me to serve. I think he didn’t want to lose his little streak because in the last game he had won without giving up a single point. This was great for him because before that I was crushing him like a bug to the flyswatter. I stepped up to the line and bounced the ball three times, a kind of ritual for me to help my serve go in. The boiling heat was getting to me because my first serve missed into the net at about 3 miles per hour. I caught my breath and bounced the ball three times again. This time, I took a couple of quick practice swings and then tossed the ball high up in the air, letting it reach its highest point before swinging with force and pounding the ball into the corner. My opponent wasn’t expecting such a ripper of a second serve, so the best he could do was feebly pop it back up to me. I took advantage of this and stepped up to rip a forehand down the line, using up almost all of my remaining energy. He gave me a lob but he didn’t quite get the height on it, so it dropped short and I cut it away with a drop shot. He didn’t even try to run, just put his head down and went over to his bench. I sat down, breathing hard from the final game, and after walking over to the bench for a swig of refreshing water, I called out, “Game, Set, Match!”, relieved for this tiring game to be over.

I was ready for a relaxing spring break. I shook hands with him and left the court. Just as I was about to ask for a smoothie from my mom, my dad yelled from three courts over, “Get in the car. We’re going to a play!” Dang it! My dreams were jinxed again.

The Game

Arjun Rao

Rader

1/5/16

The Game

I looked over at the scoreboard. 14-14 showed brightly in pixelated red. Six minutes left in the season closer, and… 3rd and goal. As we gathered in the huddle, we could see the sweltering heat had gotten to everyone. From crossing, to diverging, to deflecting, our hard-earned 14 points had been a team effort.

Wiping the sweat off my brow, I looked over to Coach Tracy to call the play. As she looked down at us to make the call, we could all see the mischievous glint in her eyes that told us she was cooking something special up for the Packers’ defense.

She began to whisper the complex play to us. “ Hudson, Sutton, Arjun, trips to the right. Stowe, slot left. Sam, QB, and Kennedy, center. Stowe come around on the front of Sam for the reverse. Arjun, go 3 yards behind Sam to take the pitch from Stowe. Sutton, Hudson, run nines. Kennedy, run a 5 to the right.”

I felt like butterflies on a sugar rush were zipping around in my stomach. Could I really pull off the play, I thought to myself. Coach saw the look on my face and pulled me over. She told me encouragingly, “ You can do this. You’ve already pulled off the play once this game, you can do it again.”

I thought about this, and thought about the tying touchdown I had scored earlier in the game. 1st and goal, from the twenty(flag football plays with the first down at midfield and about 25 yards each side). As I jogged back to the huddle after my 10-yard run, Coach Tracy was looking hyped. She clapped me on the back and yelled, “ Let’s go, that’s how we do it!” I was happy to hear the praise from Coach but I had a nervous feeling in my gut as one of my teammates trash talked the Packers corner. As I had feared, the whistle blew, and a flag was thrown. The referee gave us a 10 yard penalty, and we were in a hole now. I was mad. Mad at Parker, mad at the ref, mad at Coach Tracy. As I caught the screen that the play had called for me, I used that frustration in my game, making a precise spin move and then outrunning everybody down the sideline. As I ran past the pylon my anger evaporated, and I gave the ball to the ref and then let out a yell of my own, overjoyed to get the touchdown.

My mind came back into focus, and I yelled, “READY, BREAK!”

When I jogged out to my position for the third and goal, it felt like a giant weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. “Ready, set, hutt, hutt!”

The ball was snapped, and as I sprinted from the wideout towards Sam, I felt a rush of excitement overtake me. I caught the pitch from Stowe, and spun out the corner, making him go head over heels. It felt like everything was going in slow motion as I raced down the sideline, quickly cutting in to juke out the linebacker. Finally, I was one-on-one with the only person who could stop me, the Safety. I bull-rushed him and then nimbly cut out right before impact, striding into the end zone.

A sea of red 49ers jerseys surrounded me as I received a tsunami of backslaps and high-fives. I handed the ball to the ref, and as I jogged back to the huddle for the conversion, I promised myself that this touchdown would end the hard fought game of flag football, which it eventually did. “READY, BREAK!”, I yelled and then jogged to the slot.

Advice from a Tennis Player

Ace your dreams

Defend your court

Set your sights on high goals

Spin life in your favor

Don’t pressure yourself too much

Make sure you always have an advantage

Be a winner

Smash your goals

Every fault means you’re learning

Be outside and on the grass

Always run to the ball

Break records and be happy

Challenge calls you’re not happy about

Always have a partner you can trust

Rally back from defeats

Enjoy the fans!

Ben's Dream Middle

                 Foreword: This is the middle of the story Ben's Dream , by Chris Van Allsburg. The middle of the story just had pictures, and our assignment was to write the middle based on the pictures. You probably don't know what I'm talking about, but if you want to, buy Ben's Dream on Amazon!

                  Ben hears a rumble, and is knocked off his feet. He looks up and says," Where am I?" As he looks out the window, he realizes that he's not in the middle of the storm anymore. The door suddenly creaks open, and Ben sees...water. Water, far as the eye can see. But there's something else, way in the distance. Ben puts on his glasses and strains his eyes, and saw a giant statue, holding a torch! He faintly remembers something about it, but he just can't place it. But, there's a rumble, and Ben finds himself next to a giant clock tower.
                 Ben asks to nobody in particular," What am I doing in the ocean, next to a giant clock tower." He had no answers though, so he tried to remember something about it. " Hmm..., it's probably from a big city because it's so big, other than that, I've got nothing." Just then, there's a rumble, and Ben finds himself under a giant bridge.
                 The bridge is sinking but cars are still going through it."Is this London Bridge?" Ben asks himself. No, but Ben faintly remembers something about this bridge, but he just can't put his finger around it.Then, a car falls off the bridge and makes a beeline for Ben's house. Ben screams and braces for impact, but there's a rumble and Ben finds himself floating next to a giant leaning tower.
                 The tower looked like a giant, multi-level cake, and Ben felt his mouth water. He remembered that this was some sort of monument from Europe, but after that useless fact his mind was a blank.But, Ben sees people in it and is about to shout for help when there's a rumble and Ben sees crumbling, ancient pillars a hundred yards away from him.
                 The pillars he sees look old, old enough to be from Grecian or Roman times. They look to have some sculpted statues on top of them, but there so crumbly Ben can't make head or tail of them. Ben reaches into his mind for a glimpse of a memory, but there's a rumble and Ben sees a giant yellow head.
                 Ben says to himself " It looks light yellow and grainy, and has triangular ears, and has no nose( What was that about?), but other than that, this head has no identifying features. It looks like ancient architecture, but I've got nothing else in my mind about it" To Ben, it looked like nothing more than a tourism magnet. But, just then there's a rumble and Ben finds himself near a castle.
                 It had a bell tower like a cathedral, but the massive size of it made it look like a castle for royalty. It's architecture was rounded, and it had many buildings. Seeing it bobbing around was a funny sight, and Ben thought so too. He silently giggled to himself. Ben reached out from his balcony to touch it, but there's a rumble, and Ben sees a giant marble building.
            Ben quickly saw how big this building was. With three rounded main buildings, it looked like a guaranteed bucket list trip, like lots of the other monuments. Ben told himself," Wow! This thing is massive. Ben found himself taking out his camera to take a photo, but there's a rumble and Ben finds in front of him... a giant wall?!
            Ben had seen many strange things floating in the ocean today, but he was still taken by surprise at this titanic wall. Ben quietly asked himself, " What in the world is a giant wall doing bobbing up and down in the middle of the ocean?" Ben remembered something about this, but before a memory could be triggered, there was a rumble and Ben found himself next to 4 giant faces!
            Ben was astonished to see 4 giant faces floating in the ocean and rubbed his eyes to see if he was hallucinating. He looked at them again and there they were still floating around plain and tall. Ben was about to scream or pinch himself when a voice said," Ben, wake up."

The Sword of Summer

By Rick Riordan

Main Characters:

The main characters in “The Sword of Summer are Magnus Chase, a sarcastic, witty, and quick thinking son of Frey that saves the world using the rope Andskoti and his sword, called Sumarbrander or, as the sword likes to call itself, Jack. There is also Samirah-Al-Abbas, a daughter of Loki and a personal Valkyrie(handmaiden of Odin) for Magnus. She is the one who brought Magnus to Valhalla( Norse heaven for fighters who died an honorable death), and she is a fearful fighter. There is also Blitzen, a dwarf in service of Mimir and a fashion designer. He is a daughter of Freya, which makes him a cousin of Magnus. There is Hearthstone, who is an elf in the service of Mimir. He is dumb(in the no talking way), and is very good at casting runes. He had a very harsh childhood, because his brother died and his brother was perfect to his parents, but since Hearthstone was dumb, they treated him like something they couldn’t wait to get rid of.

Setting:

The setting in the sword of Summer is in the nine worlds of the universe. Magnus and his crew traveled through MIdgard(where humans live), Jotunheim(the world of giants), Valhalla(the world of slain heroes that died bravely in combat), Vanaheim(where the Vanir gods live and where slain heroes that were sons or daughters of the Vanir usually go[Magnus was a special case]), and Nidavellir(dwarf land)

Details:

At the beginning, Magnus was just a homeless teenage guy with no idea about this Norse mythology, and hung out with his homeless buddies, Hearth and Blitz(Hearthstone and Blitzen in disguise sent to protect him by Mimir). Then he dies in combat with the king of fire giants, Surt, and gets taken to Valhalla by Samirah. While in Valhalla, the norns recite a prophecy that completely does not make Magnus’ day. Then, Blitzen and Hearthstone come and take him away from Valhalla. They then meet Samirah, who has been kicked out of the Valkyries.They then start looking for The Sword of Summer(Jack) and eventually find it. They have to save the world from Fenris Wolf( the most powerful being in the nine worlds) so they go to Nidavellir to retrieve the rope Andskoti from the elf Junior. Junior challenges Blitz to a competition of elf blacksmithing, and the loser has to pay for it with its head. Blitz wins, and he makes Junior give him Andskoti. They retrieve Thor’s replacement weapon for him and go to the Isle of Heather where they plan to rebound Fenris and they……………..do something, but I can’t tell you what happens

Theme:

I think the author’s message is to accomplish big things, many challenges will have to be overcome

Connections:

Text To Self:

My connection with Magnus is once my friend told me to say “My corpulence is downright brobdingnagian” and then he laughed and laughed and laughed. I don’t know what those words mean, but I think the general idea of it is I am stupid. This relates to Magnus because he was tricked into saying to an eagle(really a giant in disguise) by my troth I swear to bring you an apple of immortality. That means I will bring you an apple of immortality or I will die and go to Helheim(hell).

Opinion of Plot and Theme:

Overall, I really liked the plot of The Sword of Summer. It was very interesting, and you never knew what was going to happen next. Also, the book was very funny, with the sarcasm of Magnus and the other characters. The Sword of Summer is a book I would recommend to anyone with a reading level appropriate for it. I can't wait for the second book to come out, The Hammer of Thor.