WRiting Contest #1

Junior Category Winning SUbmissions

The change of the seasons 
By Evan Jin
First Place, Junior Category

In Spring life blooms again, small animals like mice, squirrels and racoons come out of hiding. Slowly, hibernators like bears crawl out of their homes, the snow melts away, and a light green carpet of grass is revealed. Groups of migrating birds fly back squawking at each other and start collecting sticks for new nests, bellowing whales arrive next looking for a delicious meal of pacific krill. As little flower buds bloom, the air gets full of wonderful smells; a cool breeze comes by, and the flowers start dancing. The bare trees are no longer naked, as little green leaves cover them up, they almost seem to be smiling at you. After all, Spring is always the start.

At the high points of life during Summer, the black ants work tirelessly without rest. On these hot summer days birds go searching for food for their hungry younglings.When the sun slowly sets, hell starts because that's when the mosquitoes attack. Big groups of hellish blood thirsty vampires go set out for any animal blood. Trust me, the last thing you want is a group of these things chasing you.  But as the sun slowly comes back up, the crops smile. Blades of grass say hello to each other and rain falls for the first time. Then, as a cold wind blows, realization sets in: Fall has arrived. 

During the wet rainy days of Fall a variety of leaves slowly float down from the tall branches of trees. In fall everyone is busy, children go back to school, Farmers harvest their crops,bears will over eat to get ready for hibernation, birds will get ready for take off, squirrels will collect a bunch of tasty acorns and ants will collect pieces of food. Leaf by leaf the trees start to become barren. Then the first few flakes of snow came down, they were like small pieces of confetti celebrating the coming of the last and most beautiful season of the year: Winter.

It’s surprising how animals can survive the harsh Winter days. During this season the world is almost asleep, bare icicle trees and snow covered bushes don't move(duh). The only greenery you can see are the evergreens shimmering in the distance. No bird is seen anywhere. If the birds didn’t migrate then they died or were sleeping. As snow floated down slowly, little pieces of hail fell as well.  White air and frost covered goggles lie underneath the tree. Then, as the snow starts melting, the cycle repeats.

A Hognose Snake’s Unexpected Life Situations
By Vivyanna Jiang 
Second Place, Junior Category

Savana could see the woman wearing a black and red crown. 

“Hello we meet again, snake. I don’t think we have introduced ourselves huh. Well, I'll start. I'm Scarlet, but call me “the Queen of The Black Depths” or "Your Majesty.”” the Queen said. 

Savana introduced herself instead of complaining because she knew she couldn’t fight all the guards. The Queen alone was enough to snap Savana in half. 

“Well, now that that’s done, GUARDS TAKE THE SNAKE TO THE DUNGEONS”, She yelled. 

The guards obeyed.

Later in the dungeon Savana realized that there was no escaping. The holes between the bars were filled. There were 10 guards guarding the exit. Savana let herself rest her tiny brain, so she could think of something to help her escape this mini built in jail cell for snakes.

When she woke up she saw a frozen mouse (left by the guards) for her. Savana ate it. Then later, discovered a small map hidden in the corner of her cell.

“The Lake of the Wyrm”, Savana read curiously. 

“The Black Depths! That must be where I am!”Savana squealed in excitement. “Think Savana think… THAT'S IT. If the last time they opened my cage door was when I was asleep, I can pretend to be asleep and sneak out!” Savana stated in real excitement. 

“I just hope it works,” Savana whispered. 

After a while Savana decided to pretend to be asleep. After 5 minutes a guard slipped in and as he plopped down the mouse, Savana sped towards the crack and slipped in between another guard's feet. Savana, also snuck the map with her. 

“This map could help me out.” Savana thought. 

She saw a GRAND door that looked like an entrance. But it was locked. Savana tried squeezing through the gap but she was too big to squeeze through the small gap under the door, but maybe an ant could.

“FIND THAT SNAKE” Savana heard a guard say. 

She panicked just then she saw a pair of keys hidden in a gap on the floor. Savana used her mouth to pick it up and slithered up to the lock and stuffed a key in. It didn’t work. She tried the other one and it also didn’t work.  

Savana thought, “Of course these are fake keys”. 

Savana squeezed through the gap at the top just as she heard a guard say “SEIZE HER!”. 

“Yes!” Savana cried in excitement. 

Savana ran (or snake wise slithered) towards the bridge ahead. She crossed it and found herself at a lake. She opened the map. “Im at the Lake of the Wyrm!” Savana flipped the map and saw a description “the Lake of the Wyrm is a lake that will teleport you anywhere you wish IF you give it something valuable.” Savana looked down at her pouch, opened it and looked through it. She eventually found a necklace made out of Stormheart leaves, a type of leaf only found in 1 place. Luckily Savana had a few more made by her mom. So she tossed it into the river.  Savana pictured the big old Jeff Irwin island shaped as a big redwood tree.

Sophie’s Adventure
By Andrea Mao 
Third Place, Junior Category

Once upon a time, in a small, faraway village, called Maple Valley, lived Sophie. Sophie was an obedient child and always listened to her mom and dad. She lived with her parents and her poodle, Ruby. She loved traveling, yet loved her cozy hometown as well.

One rainy Saturday afternoon, she was sent to get more milk, since they were out. Sophie grabbed her polka dot umbrella and went outside. It was really windy outside and her umbrella almost flew away! 

“Woah!” shouted Sophie as her feet lifted. Suddenly her whole body was off the ground and she was flying. 

“Ahh! Help me!!” Sophie screamed as she got blown away. Everybody in town was looking at her trying to help her, but it was too late. Soon, Sophie started to fall asleep since she was in the sky for so long. 

Once she woke up, she realized she was on a cloud. She got up, and looked around, and saw a bookshelf, cabinets and a robot. The robot smiled and said “Good afternoon, I am Dave.” Sophie opened her mouth then closed it. 

“Where.. Where am I?” Sophie asked.

“You're in Cloud Town. You have floated up here, and are unable to get down unless you find a key to the gate. You are completely safe with us, so don’t fret.”

 “But where is the key?” Sophie anxiously asked. 

“Somewhere here. Even we do not know.” Dave sighed. Dave helped Sophie get up, and took her on a walk outside to see the beautiful surroundings of her room.  Dave then told her to go to bed and rest since she seemed very tired.

The next day they woke up earlier at 8, started searching. “You know Dave, I really appreciate you.” Sophie said with a smile on her face. 

“I’m very glad to help you!” Dave replied. “Oh! I just remembered. I have a gift for you.”

Dave pulled out a tulip sticker and put it on Sophie’s polka dot umbrella. 

“I am going to miss you and cloudtown..” Sophie whispered while hugging him.

That afternoon, Dave and Sophie started to gather people to help them so she could go back. 

On the third day, Sophie had spotted something shining in the forest.

”Hey, Dave, do you see that glimmer?” Sophie asked. 

“Yes indeed, do you think it’s the key?” Dave replied. 

“Well it’s a good try!”Sophie said. 

They ran and ran until they found the glimmer. It WAS the key and it was labeled Friendship, with Sophie’s and Dave’s names engraved on it. 

“Dave, can you come with me?” Sophie sniffled. Dave sadly shook his head. Sophie and Dave looked at each other and hugged each other for what felt like forever. They reached out to grab the key, and they teleported to a portal. Sophie couldn’t even say anything before she was pulled into the portal.

She heard a loud beeping and woke up. She groaned and hit her alarm. She got up to see it was once again Saturday, in Maple Valley, except it was a beautiful day. She walked to the foyer and saw her umbrella, but it had a tulip sticker on it…

Change In My Life
By Mizuki Maharjan
Honorable Mention, Junior Category

Over the summer we moved houses. I first found out that we were moving when I got back from school. My sister is in seventh grade and my parents wanted her to go to a particular high school. The first step of the moving process was packing everything into boxes. It took the whole summer! I did not like packing away our things because that meant we did not have them to play with! Which were my toys, video games, crafts, and drawing tools. The first room we started packing away in boxes was our toy room. Then we packed up our desk. We were only allowed to keep some pencils and erasers on them. That desk also had all our crafts and drawing supplies. Everything had to go into boxes. I really did not like the process of moving because it is not easy, and we had to get rid of old clothing and toys that we did not like to play with anymore. We also had to clean up our room. All the stuff in my room and my sisters’ room had to go into boxes. Only the most important things in our room could stay. After countless hours of packing, we finally finished putting most of our stuff into boxes. Then we had to rent a big U-Haul truck to put our stuff into storage. We also rented two storage units. By the end of the first move, the storage units were packed to the brim. The night before moving day we had to sleep on mattresses on the floor because all our bed frames were in storage. But I still got a good sleep because it was late, and we had to wake up early because the movers were coming at 7:00 AM. We woke up at 6:30 AM. That is still really early for me. Once the movers came, they took all the big heavy stuff into the big truck. They moved the couches, the piano and the carpets. After they got it into the truck, we drove to the new house. I was really excited in the car. But it was also sad because I really liked the old house, and I did not know if I would like the new house as much.

Once we got to the new house and we went inside I was starting to like everything about it. Except that now we were in a different catchment for school. I really did not want to move schools because I do not have any friends in the new school. My mom said that change is good because you can always get an experience from it. I was not sure if I liked change too much. But after we started to unbox things and start to unpack a little, I started to like the new change that I was in now. I liked the old house but the change in environment is also nice. I think changing schools will not be as bad as I thought. Now if I change schools I will not be as scared as before. From our move I learned that change is going to happen a lot, but you just need a good mindset about it. To me it is just the way you look at your situation. I am glad that I had this experience and now I am more used to change. Moving this Summer was an unbelievably valuable lesson for me.

THE END

Fashion Maniac
By Victoria Wang 
Honorable Mention, Junior Category 

Once upon a time in a not so far away land. There was a girl named Claire Champion who was the most fashionable girl in the city of Vancouver. She was the first one to own a designer outfit from every single fashion designer in the world. She was the first to wear shoulderless crop tops and she invented jeans that could be ripped and then patched up in the blink of an eye. The only problem was that whenever she wore something new to school everyone else would copy her the very next day. It made her feel very common. Luckily she had an idea to change the situation. She would wear the most outrageous clothes that no one could copy.  The next day at school Claire wore a magenta pink dress, with high platform high heels, and magenta rhinestones covering every inch. Her hair was in 4 separate buns. Each one was decorated with real tiger fur scrunchies. And in her ears were real gold, magenta rhinestone studded 6 inch in diameter hoop earrings. When she got to school everyone went “ohhhhhhhh” and “Ahhhhhhhh” except for Harriet Haight of course because she hated everything pretty. The very next day when Claire went to school she saw everyone wearing the exact same clothes, except Harriet Haight of course. Claire was furious but she knew that everyone would continue to wear the exact same outfit. So Claire took Harriet’s advice and wore something very ugly. She wore an Amazon box around her body. Sandals made from plastic Coca Cola bottles, Amazon tape wrapped around her ankles for socks, a three ring binder clipped onto each ear. Tape roles for bracelets. And a little plastic cup for a hat on her head and a pygmy monkey dancing inside. But this time everyone said, “Ohhhhhh!!” “Ahhhhh!” Including Harriet Haight! 

So Claire went home determined to wear something the next day that no one else would. Knowing everyone would be wearing the Amazon outfit, she decided to go to school looking literally trashy. She wore a black trash bag with a headband made from a black trash bag. And for shoes she used hairnets with cardboard soles. But everyone said, “Ohhhhhhhhh! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

The next day Claire had a plan. Since everyone else was wearing the same clothes as she wore the day after, she decided she wouldn’t wear anything. That’s right! She would go naked. 

The next day she showed up wearing absolutely nothing. “Ewwwwwww!!! What are you doing!!!” said all the students.

Claire replied, “Oh this? This is my new style. It’s called, "Invisible clothes.” 

“We love it!!!” cheered everyone. Claire couldn’t stand it anymore. She yelled out, “What’s wrong with you you people?!!” “Can’t you think for yourselves?” “Must you copy me everyday!!!???” Claire went home that day, hopeful that everyone would finally stop the copying. 

The next day when Claire showed up for school, she saw 648 students completely naked!

She was wearing a hoodie and some shorts. 

No one said a thing.

The Changed Scientist
By William Ma
Honorable Mention, Junior Category

There was once a scientist named Moriarty, who lived completely alone. He had messy white hair that stuck out often. He always wore old white lab coats with lots of stains while his shoes were mismatched and tattered. No one else thought much about him. He was lonely. The scientist wanted to maintain order so he decided to build a robot to take care of him. His plan was to build a 6 foot tall metal contraption! (It was really just a bunch of old parts he had lying around). After about a month, he was finished! Since he was in such a rush he missed parts, so the robot didn’t listen to him all the time. One day Moriarty asked the robot to get the mail thinking that it would actually listen to him. The robot left the house and wandered off instead.  

After the robot left the house, Moriarty realized his mistake. The robot wasn’t returning! Moriarty jumped into his car and drove around town very slowly to make sure he didn't miss anything. He spotted the robot raiding a store collecting planks of wood and terrorizing everyone in sight. Moriarty felt like this was all his fault and knew it was his job to save his city. He charged at the robot knocking it over, then threw him in the trunk of his car. He sped back to his house, but when Moriarty was halfway there, he heard a loud smashing sound behind him. He glanced at the rearview mirror and realized that the robot was sprinting away. The one plan he had left was to get the help of his neighbors and build something new. They said no. He still needed to prove to them that he had changed. He worked day and night to finish his invention with the little parts he had left. This time, he put effort into this invention. It was a tiny drone that would spy on the robot. With the help of his drone, he found the robot building a structure. Moriarty had enough. He took a long metal pole with him and walked over to the robot's structure. By now, everyone in the town knew about this robot and were all standing nearby to watch it. Police officers surrounded the robot but couldn’t do anything about it. Moriarty appeared and walked over to the robot and whacked it with the pole. He jumped on it and smashed it to pieces. People started to realize that Moriarty wasn’t so bad. He was actually brave!

After Moriarty had destroyed the robot, he collected the parts and threw them into his car. Just as he was about to get inside his car, a man turned to him and said “Thank you for saving us”. Moriarty simply went back into his car and he decided that instead of trying to invent things to help him, he would change for the better and be a team player instead.