Writers Showcase

WRITER'S SHOWCASE

Welcome to my showcase page. For the few months I've been teaching writer's workshops at various schools. I work with students on various levels. From how to gather ideas, all the way to creating a wonderful story that will appeal to the reader. My workshops are guaranteed to raise test schools. I give to students a new love of writing. In the next few weeks you will see stories posted here from these students. I have no doubt they will amaze you. I travel all around the country going into schools and teaching writing workshops as well as talking about my books. If you would like me to come to your school, I can be contacted at thecryptocapersseries@gmail.com

Thanks everyone for a wonderful time. I met many amazing future writers.

Renee Hand

I was born Feb. 3. Currently, I live with my mom and two dogs, Max and Dewie. I’m in the fifth grade and I enjoy it. An instrument I play is the piano. I’ve started playing in the first grade. Two of my favorite sports are football and basketball. I’m best at basketball. My grades are always very good and my favorite subject is math. I plan to be an architect when I become an adult. These are some of the things going on in my life.

What happened to everyone?

“Wow’’ said Shelia. Shelia and her best friend Kate were talking about Kate’s new phone. Kate implied, “Why don’t we talk about test for your I.D. that you have to pass to renew your detective certification?” “Sure”, added Shelia. Shelia and her little brother Ben were detectives for Blackgate Detectives. Shelia started to talk and heard her little brother’s bell ring. “ Oh shoot” cried Shelia. “ I’m late to pick up Ben from his first day of fourth grade”! “ Mr.Selnak is going to kill me”! Mr.Selnak was Shelia’s neighbor that was irksome and very grumpy. Although , Shelia’s parents thought he was a very nice man, and I mean a very nice man. Shelia and Kate were running and probably after about probably after about a solid ten minutes they got to Ben’s school , Elmwood. When they got there they couldn’t see anybody. No one was present. Kate rang the automatic bell system and they walked into the office and they asked if Ben Gates was there. The secretary , Mrs.Funkler said that he had left with everybody else after dismissal. “ Alright, thanks anyway”, announced Shelia. When Shelia and Kate walked out, Kate said in a soft voice “I wonder where Ben went, I mean he couldn’t have gone that far, anyways we haven’t even checked at home.” That’s when Shelia saw something. Kate turned around and saw Mr.Selnak’s car drive by. “Shelia, Shelia” whispered Kate. “Kate be quiet I’m looking at something.” The next moment Kate saw a door open from a red tint van with the license plate B7210 Arizona. A weird looking man got out of the car and came up to Kate. The bizarre man grabbed Kate by her shoulders, Kate let out an outburst of screaming and shouting. The man ran back into the car. However when the door opened Kate could hear Ben arguing with the man. “ Shelia, Shelia, Shelia.” Kate couldn’t find Shelia. “ Oh no now what am I going to do?” Kate went up to Shelia . Kate announced “ Shelia, Ben’s in the car!” “ Huh,” said Shelia. The next moment the van sped away. Kate panting in a panic, ran up to where she thought Shelia was. Shelia, Shelia, Shelia”, Kate couldn’t find Shelia. “ Oh no now

what am I going to do?” Kate went in deep thought for a second, right away she pulled out her phone and called home to Mr.Selnak. The phone did not pick up. It just kept ringing. After about twenty minutes, Kate flew home. Kate carefully opened the door. She spotted Mr. and Mrs.Gates sitting in the dinning room. “ Where is Shelia?”, asked Mrs.Gates confused. “ Don’t know?” “ Ben and Shelia disappeared just like that.” “ Alright, I’ll see if we can search the neighborhood,” exclaimed Mrs.Gates. “ You better!” .Announced Mr.Gates. “ Let’s go, you too Mr.Gates , told Kate. When they got outside Kate got out her notebook. The posse drove over to Ben’s school. They quickly got out because none of them knew if the suspect could still be there and they didn’t want to be seen. By the main door Kate caught something on the edge of her eye. She could see a piece of paper that read : slenakrm DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHERE BEN IS , WELL THE STREET BOSTON. “ Hey guys, wait, don’t ring the bell yet, I found something.” “ Well what,” said Mr.Gates? Kate passed the paper over to Mr.Gates and he said… “ What do the letters mean in the top-left corner ? Well” stuttered Mr.Gates. “I’m not so sure?” replied Kate. “ Only if we had Shelia here to solve the puzzle,” stated Mr.Gates. Kate told Mr.Gates that there is a street called Boston just a block from where they are now. Mr.Gates went to get his wife so they could go to the street Boston. Mr.Gates and Kate saw Mrs.Gates on the play set scanning something over. Kate ran up to Mrs.Gates. When Kate got there, Mrs.Gates told her “ I saw…. Well I think it was Mr.Kanles, you know Ben’s old teacher from third grade. He looked at Ben probably just about fifteen minutes ago. Then Mr.Kanles hid behind the wall where I couldn’t see him. Next I heard a sudden scream. I think it was from Ben,” spoke Mrs.Gates. “So why are you looking on the play set then?” Kate told her. “Well if Mr.Kanles was over by the wall, that means maybe just maybe he was over here for a little while.” Spoke Mrs.Gates. “ Oh my gosh” , yelled Kate. Kate told everyone that she had found a piece of paper that read: THE COURTYARD . So everyone ran to the courtyard as fast as possible, when they got there they could see Mr.Selnak, Mr.Kanles, Shelia, and Ben. “Woh” stuttered Kate. Shelia ran up to Kate. They both hugged as a sign of relief. “Okay, now we have to find out which one of you kidnapped Ben or what even happened in the first place ,” told Kate. “Wait just a minute. Why are you going to be the detective?” yelled Shelia. “So . Are you the one whole did this whole thing?” exclaimed Kate. “Well, yes.” Exclaimed Shelia. “ I did it because I thought you would like being what I do as a detective. When Ben screamed it was because we wanted to get your attention. We all got together about a week ago because I thought that maybe I could practice for my detective test and be the culprit. That way I could see the point of view of a different way, it would make it easier to take the test and do good. Spoke Shelia. “ Well , thank you buddy,” told Kate with a smile. “But I think I should stay being a detective because you solved that case pretty easily and we even planned it out!” Spoke Shelia. “ I think the same,” stated Kate.

Hi! My name is Sarah and I am 10 years old and in the fifth grade. I wrote the story The Devil’s Eye. I love to read, write and type. My

hobbies are skating, swimming, and basketball. I was inspired to write the Devil’s Eye because my class was doing a mystery genre unit

which we read the The Case of the Missing Sock. It was great because I love mysteries. I love to read them, write them and everything about

them. My favorite ones are when there is a main part then there is a twist and it turns into a whole new problem. That’s why I decided to

write my mystery. I hope you like my mystery story, The Devils’ Eye.

Chapter 1

One morning in an Ohio museum their new exhibit for the devils eye ruby was now open. But when no one was around someone stole the ruby and that’s not all. Their was something or someone was missing too, Lola the five year old little girl was gone! When they found out that both Lola and the ruby were missing the manager called and asked detective Morris and inspector Andy to come and look. The police found nothing so detective Morris announced “the thief and kidnapper probably would have done this before.” Then inspector Andy added “he would have had to wear see through gloves so no one would notice, he also might have bribed the little girl with something so she wouldn’t scream.” “But why my little girl” said Lola’s mother, Charma Jean. “Miss could you tell us what Lola looked like again?” asked Morris. “Oh yes she three foot two and brown hair and in pig tails” Charma Jean started bawling “miss, may I call you Cj?” Asked Morris, as he was thinking in his head heaven help this little girl and her mother. “Oh yes, yes you can. I’m sorry Lola’s my littlest child and well you get it.” also, she was wearing a pink fluffy dress with matching earrings, that’s it.” “Thanks do you have a recent picture of her with you by any chance?” asked Andy “yes, here you go. I don’t like to ask but could you send out an Amber Alert?” “We can only send out Amber Alerts after the first two hours” stated a new voice. It was the head of the Ohio state police Mr. Jacob R. Smith. After that Mr. Smith went outside to look for clues. He came across a scrap of clothing and along with it was a cryptogram and the ruby… THE RUBY!!! But more important the cryptogram it said

MNX H GBWF XIBU H XBMO H MFWFS XBMOFE UIF SVCZ.

“Dang it” shouted Mr. Jacob “what’s wrong” snapped Cj. “It’s a cryptogram” Jacob explained. “What’s wrong with that, I love them.” Well could you solve it?” asked Andy hopefully. “Oh well I don’t actually know how.” “May I see it?” Morris asked. He solved it and it said “now I have what I want. I never wanted the ruby.” “Miss Cj is there anyone who might want to get back at you for something, or anything?” Morris anxiously asked well my ex- husband but he gets them every other week and he’s on his way right now and since I’m a stay at home mom I don’t have a baby sister.” “Okay so you’ve” “WAIT my stepfather! He was mad because I got pregnant with my ex-husband when I was sixteen and also because I never bring my kids over!” Then they called him and Cj’s mom said that he went to that museum and that he wouldn’t be back until late. After they hung up they searched the house and in her parents basement they found a room with things had been Lola’s favorite things. So they told Cj and she started bawling. They told her they found some word scramble that exclaimed “if you’re here you still don’t know who I am or were I am!” They sent the word scramble in, but not the cryptogram. The cryptogram was typed and the word scramble was written. They sent it to the nearest FBI and they figured out what kind of lead then traced it back to a one of the kind pencil but right when Morris was going to read who did it Jacob “tripped and spilled” his coffee then they couldn’t read it. So Andy called head quarters because they had the information too but right when they were going to hear the answer the line cut. They told Cj to go home to be with her kids. When they walked outside the biggest clue was in front of their eyes. Tire tracks! They followed them and it lead them to the nearest coffee shop they walked in and the lady asked “are you the men working on the ruby case?” they answered and she said “ a person came in earlier and gave me this.” It was another cryptogram expect it was in numbers. It read 9 2,18,5,1,11 5,1,19,25 9,6 1 2,15,14,5,19 “what does that mean” then everyone looked at Morris then he declared “I only know how to solve letters.” “It’s easy the numbers are in order.” Replied Andy “ah it says, I break easy if a little kid pulls my bones.” “Bones like dinosaur or dog bones” asked Andy. Right then Cj walked in.

“Doggies are pretty” Jacob said then there was something on the back of Jacob shoe it was a cryptogram it read 4,9,14,15,19,1,21,18 “its dinosaur” explained Andy. “But doggies are pretty” another stupid comment from the place called Jacobs mouth. It was apparently Cj’s last straw because she jumped on his back screaming “WHY WON’T YOU HELP MY DAUGHTER.” After they finally got Cj off, they sent her home with an officer so she couldn’t come back until she was needed, Mr. Jacob got fired from head of the police because he was getting way off track. After that the two officers went to the museum and the dinosaur exbit there was something attached to the triceratops it was an note a NOTE!!!! Not a cryptogram. It said “help this man is scary and he said he lived” that was it. The two officers were eager to know were he lived. But the strange thing was it was written like a five year old would write. Could this had been from Lola’s before she died (which they thought the man had killed her.) They went to the front desk and asked for the security tapes of the last three hours. The tapes the tape’s revealed a man with a ski mask then they figured out there were more letters left from the little girl. One letter was the follow up to the first one it said “west coast of Hawaii.” The final one said I think were going to the airport on Allison road. All their men went to that airport and look for Lola. The cops found a note from the kidnapper “now you won’t find me till tomorrow because I’m going to my house in Hawaii!” Then the manger walked in. “Excuse officer the museum is closing so you’ll have to leave.” “Okay we were just finishing” Andy replied. Next they got a call saying they think they spotted him so they left right away and he was there but they let them board the plane. When they were half way to Hawaii the man got up so they jumped from there seats and got Lola then when he came back they took the ski mask off. They were shocked at what they seen.

Chapter 3

It was Mr. Jacob R Smith. They turned the plane around and took him to court and gave Lola to her mother. In court they had Judge Kelly she asked Jacob the main question why did you take Lola? He stated his answer she was an eye witness. Judge Kelly made her decision “I am Judge Kelly Smith and you Jacob R Smith are not guilty.” Then all the sudden Jacob and Kelly ran out and took Lola. Then Morris and Andy dashed out the cop called the front desk and told them to lock all the doors but it was too late. But then for once Andy got the last clue “didn’t he say he wanted the ruby?” “Yes” “so wouldn’t he have gone back to get it” but before anyone could answer they were dashing out the door. When they got there Jacob and Kelly were trying to get the ruby so they locked the doors behind them so they turned then the cops jumped out grabbed Lola. That made them turn again except this time the cops jumped out and put the handcuffed them! They took out the ruby and put in the basement of the museum until further notice. Since those two were in jail and Lola and the ruby back everything was quiet too quiet.

By: Sarah

After Dark and Gone

By Emily Duncan

Chapter 1

Babysitting

It was 6:00 P.M. and Alex was running after her twin little baby sister and her little baby brother. Alex yelled out, “Maci, Ben, stop now!” It was so dark that Alex could not see anything but she has put a tracking devise in their diaper so she would know where they were at all times. Alex could not mess this up because she was babysitting her baby sister and brother. She was also babysitting her other twin sisters Addison and Nikky. She called her friend, Julia, for help with the younger set of twins. They called Addison and Nikky the “twin twins”. The twins called Julia, “Aunt Ju.”They loved Julia like family. Everyone thought that they were related because Julia and Nikky look very similar and they both loved jelly. Maci, Ben and Alex all looked alike and very much like their dad. Despite the fact that Julia had colored her hair blue. Alex’s mother was pregnant again with her third set of twins. They were going to name them Zoey and Lola. Regardless, Ben was Alex’s favorite and he went everywhere with Alex.

Soon Alex caught up with Ben and Maci.

As she started to speak to them, she received a cell phone message on her iphone. The message was from her friend, Ava. The message said, “there is a missing painting and the name of the painting is the Mona-Lisa”.

Alex ran back to the house as fast as she could. Then she grabbed a blue jet stroller and put Ben into it and then flew out the door. She was glad that Julia had asked for Maci to go with her, Addison and Nikky earlier because it was easy to only have Ben if she was going to help solve the mystery.

Alex and Ben arrived at the museum and they found Jelly on the wall. The owner had said that the painting was stolen at 6:05 P.M.

“Hi, what’s your name,” said Ben

“Hi, my name is Bob Miller”.

“I see that you have a jelly stain on your shirt there Mr. Miller, how did you get that on there?” asked Ben.

“My little girl threw a jelly sandwich at me earlier”, said Mr. Miller

Ben responded, “Ok, hey, do you like jelly Mr. Miller.?”

Mr. Miller said, “No, I hate Jelly”.

Chapter 2

The Big Clue

Alex and Ben looked around for the museum and then decided to leave.

The next day Ben and Alex returned with Ava to the museum. They had to find some more clues.

Before long, they came across the clue, a shoe print with the blue strand of hair in it. This was confusing because they had not seen the print the night before and it had a strand of Alex’s hair

that must have fallen out of her head. As they walked around they saw a lady. The lady reported that her name was Mrs. Miller.

Alex asked Mrs. Miller, “what does Mr. Miller eat for lunch?”

Mrs. Miller answered, “I pack him a jar of jelly and 6 pieces of bread each day for lunch”.

Alex asked surprised, “why do you pack him a whole jar of jelly?”

Mrs. Miller responded, “he eats jelly sandwiches every day, he loves jelly and a lot of it.”

Shortly after, Ben, Alex and Julia decided that they wanted to look around Mr. Miller’s office and the Miller’s home that was attached to the museum. They told Mrs. Miller, “we really want to help solve this crime, could we take a look around the office and house”. Mrs. Miller didn’t see the harm in letting 3 young children look around so she told them “sure you can”. They began in the office and they found an almost empty jar of jelly. After that they went to Mr. and Mrs. Miller’s home and started looking around. When they went into their bedroom they found a wall of buttons. The panel had several buttons, some of the buttons had jelly all over them. They began pressing the buttons with the jelly on them. The wall opened and there sat the stolen Mona-Lisa picture. They took the Mona-Lisa back to the museum and called the cops. The cops arrested Mr. Miller.

Chapter 3

Gone

Two weeks after Mr. Miller had been arrested, Alex’s mother, Cheryl had Zoey and Lola.

Zoey’s mother worked a lot and Alex’s father, Kevin, would come home some nights but he was a business traveler and was not home very often. That left Alex to babysit almost every night and every day. In fact, Maci, Ben, Nikky and Addison would sometimes call Alex, “Mommy”. Ben was so attached to Alex that if he was not by her side he would start crying. Well, since Alex was watching them so much they started calling her “Mommy”. They also started calling Ava, “Aunt Ava”. But, everything was good except when Alex had to take the children places. Alex got mad because she had to put everyone in the stroller to go places. She would call her friend Ava over to help every day.

This day was different though. Today, Mr. Miller broke out of jail. He was out for revenge. He knew that Alex was responsible for him being arrested.

Mr. Miller was on a mission to kidnap Maci, Ben, Nikky, Addison, Lola and Zoey.

He would get back at Alex for finding the Mona-Lisa.

It was late when Alex woke up and she noticed that the house was empty. The children were all gone. She knew that Ben would be screaming louder than any of the others because he didn’t like leaving Alex’s side. Alex was worried that her mother would never come home. So, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Chapter 4

News

Alex packed the stroller in her Hummer and hopped in. She knew that Mr. Miller had escaped from jail but not before he left a note saying that he would get even with the girl who got him locked up. It was on the news.

“This is channel 7 news crew reporting live, a convicted felon who was arrested two weeks ago broke out of jail early this morning. It is believed that he is dangerous and looking for a young girl who led authorities to him after he stole the famous Mona-Lisa”.

Alex knew that he must be the reason why the children were all gone because they would have never left without her. She knew Mr. Miller had them but she didn’t know what she was going to do to get them back.

Chapter 5

On the Look Out

She knew that Mr. Miller’s car had an oil leak so she began looking for oil on the street. She finally came across some oil and screaming was coming from the car. She looked into the back seat and it was just a baby doll crying. The car was not Mr. Miller’s. She went looking again. She found a bunch of exact cars like Mr. Millers in a car lot. None of them had kids in them. She remembered that she had a tracking device in kids diapers so that she could always know where they were at. Alex had forgotten the tracking devices in their diapers. When Alex was driving she saw a neon baby blanket blowing away in the wind. She stopped at fast as she could. She knew that there was only one baby who had that kind of neon blanket.

“Ben,” she shouted. She remembered that it was Ben’s blanket and he would wrap himself in it each night. She knew that she was very close to finding them. She finally had a signaled on Ben and Maci. The tracking devise was going, “bleep, bleep, bleep”. They were headed toward New York City. Alex knew that the kids would need food, clean clothes and diapers so she took a short cut back to the house to pick up the items. Next she drove to the airport as fast as she could. The tracking devise kept bleeping so she knew where they were at.

She bought a one way ticket to New York City. As soon as she got to New York City, Alex got a hotel room and then rushed out to find her sisters and brother. She looked at the tracking devise and seen that Ben and Maci were at the Empire State Building. She ran all the way to the Empire State Building. Maci almost fell off the building but Alex caught her just in time. Then Alex carried Ben and Maci back to the room and got everything they would need. She then placed Ben and Maci into the jet stroller and flew out the door. Next she looked at the tracking device which indicated that Zoey was on the Statue of Liberty. Alex found her safe and gave her a baby bottle and baby blanket and then was off again to find Nikky in a back of a busy New York City taxi. The Tracking devise did not say where Addison and Lola were. Alex was very afraid about their whereabouts.

Chapter 6

Fear

Where are they? where can they be?, is all Alex could think about. Ava called Alex on her iphone.

Ava asked, “where are you?”

“I’m in New York City” replied, Alex nervously.

“New York City?’ yelled Ava.

“Why are you there”?, Ava asked.

“Mr. Milled kidnapped all the kids” shouted. Alex.

Ava screamed, “kidnapped the kids, What?” “I’m on my way to New York to help you look for them”

Ava flew in Two hours later. It was 6 O’clock when Ava got to the hotel room. Ava called Alex again on her iphone to ask if there were any clue to the whereabouts of the kids or Mr. Miller. But Alex said, “no”. Alex began looking around every corner, bus and taxi. She was getting really scared that she would never see Addison and Lola again.

Chapter 7

The Arrest

Just when Alex was about to give up looking for her baby sisters she ran into Mr. Miller. He refused to answer her when she asked, “where are my sisters?” So, Alex called the police and reported him and then he told the police where Addison and Lola where. Mr. Miller stated, “they are at Central Park”.

“Central Park”, Alex yelled.

“What?” the policeman yelled out, “don’t you know that Central Park is a dangerous place at night?”

“I do now”, said Mr. Miller.

“Mr. Policeman, can you help me look for my little sisters”? Alex Asked.

“Yes, I can” said, the policeman.

After that Alex called Ava and told her that they were at Central Park. Ava ran over to Central Park and found the girls before Alex got there. The police grabbed Ava and put hand cuffs on her but soon Alex arrived and told the police that Ava was her friend. The Police handed Addison and Lola to Alex. All the children, Alex and Ava went back to the hotel. By the time they arrived, Ben, Maci, Zoey, Lola, Addison and Nikky were all asleep. They all spent the night in New York City. Alex had to go get plane tickets when they all woke up the next morning. Alex and Ava were packed up and flew back with the kids.

Mr. Miller is in jail! Alex, Ben, Maci, Addison, Lola, Nikky, Zoey, Ava, Julia and Cheryl were all very happy that Mr. Miller was arrested and would be spending a lot of years behind bars not only for stealing the Mona-Lisa but also for escaping from jail and six counts of kidnapping.

Swing, The One I Chose

Little, old, broken swing, lying there on the ground. Oh how many good times I had upon you. How many memories I made swing on you.

So many different play ground toys, but you were the one I chose. With your grass green seat, to your shinny new chains, to the wood up high that you were hanging from.

There were slides that were red and purple monkey bars. There were giant jungle gyms and four squares with color. But I kept coming right back, right back to you.

The swing was my favorite toy and always will be. I just have one question for you. What play ground toy did you chose? Was it the slides or the monkey bars, was it the giant jungle gyms or the four squares? Or maybe it’s the swing like me.

My name is Katelynn Walter. I’m a 14 year old girl who loves to write stories. I started writing when I was in 3rd grade and I’ve just always loved it. My favorite stories to write are children and romance stories. I also love poetry, especially Poe.

The Outcasts

By: Shannon Shaughnessy

Prologue

The speedometer’s screen flashed as the numbers went up: 75 mph…90 mph… 125 mph… and so on. Carlos Witticater stared with shock at the car that was speeding down the vacant street.

“Are they trying to commit suicide,” he muttered as he pressed on his car’s pedal and it roared to life. The papers he was reviewing remained on the passenger seat along with a half eaten donut. The lights on the roof of the police car began flashing as he sped after the speeding car. Carlos flipped off his iPod which had been playing Alan Jackson and he ran a hand through his messed up black hair. The life of a cop, he thought, amused. He was spending his Friday night out in the middle of nowhere, chasing after a car that appeared to be slowing down. When the car stopped Carlos did too, a few feet away. He turned on his headlights to examine the license plate. But, there was none. Carlos remained frozen in his seat. As a new recruit, he was trying to remember the procedure for lack of a license plate. Is he supposed to arrest them? Give them a ticket? Call in for reinforcements? Carlos decided to call in on his radio. He reached his tan hand towards the dashboard and grabbed the radio and began dialing.

“Hello?” A husky voice said on the other line.

“Hey Jackson…um, what was the procedure for lack of a license plate?” Carlos asked.

“You new recruits! Can’t even remember simple procedures! I think we should replace all you 20 year olds with some experienced men!” Jackson ranted. Carlos sighed, imagining his supervisor rubbing his gray beard.

“Jackson, I’m 25,” Carlos mumbled.

“Whatever, just ask them for a driving license and question them about where the license plate is. I’ll be down in a few minutes.” Jackson said and he hung up.

Carlos grabbed his belt and latched it on before stepping out into the cool night. He was on a dirt road in some forest. Everything was silent except for the gravel crunching under his feet. When he approached the dark gray car he could make out two figures which appeared to be a girl and a boy. Carlos marched up and tapped on the window to meet two surprised faces. The girl had her dirty hands clenched around the steering wheel while the boy had one hand on the girl’s shoulder. Their mouths moved and the boy pointed to the window which the girl instantly cranked down.

“Driving license,” Carlos said in a deep voice. The girl looked at the boy who just shrugged and pointed at Carlos.

“Uh.. driving license?” The girl asked in a high honey sweet voice. For a minute, Carlos was stunned by her beauty. She had waist length blonde hair which was styled in ringlets. Her sharp blue eyes were perfectly covered with long black eyelashes. Her face was pure, lacking and make-up. Now Carlos, being a single man, began to flirt.

“Yeah honey,” Carlos said leaning up against the car and flashing a brilliant smile. “I need to know your name and make sure that you’re a legal driver.” Carlos chuckled and stuck out his hand.

“Well, my name’s Rosetta and this is my friend, Edmund.” Rosetta said pointing to the man next to her. Edmund wasn’t as strikingly beautiful as Rosetta, but he was close enough. His shaggy brown hair hung down to his chin and he had big blue eyes. Edmund had a muscular build, with broad shoulders and muscular arms. His hand was still on Rosetta’s shoulder with a scared expression on his face.

“Does that mean that you don’t have a license?” Carlos asked.

“Yeah, we don’t have one.”

“Any sort of I.D. at all?”

“No.”

“Then I’m going to have to ask for you two to get out of this car.” Carlos opened Rosetta’s door and waited for them to exit. Then he reached in and snatched the car keys so they couldn’t escape. That’s when Carlos snuck a peak at their clothes. They were wearing rags; Rosetta in some sack material with 2 arm holes and a head hole while Edmund just had a piece of fabric tied around his waist. How strange Carlos thought examining the bruises around Edmund’s legs. They looked like they spent the last few years in a hole in the forest. Carlos looked closer and saw that they looked no older than 12. Well what were they doing driving an unknown car in rags?

“Uhh…how old are you guys?” Carlos questioned. This time Edmund answered.

“Age… well our parents never told us our true age but around 13…” He mumbled in a small voice.

“Where do you two kids live?” Carlos asked. The tan skinned children gazed into each other’s eyes having some unspoken conversation. They were saved from answering when a black Chevy pulled up next to the police vehicle.

“Stay here,” Carlos said walking to meet Jackson with the children’s car keys in his hand. Jackson stepped out of the Chevy in his uniform with the belt straining over his stomach.

“Jackson, this is a case with 13 year olds, wearing rags, no identification, and their driving an unknown vehicle.” Carlos informed Jackson gesturing in the direction where he believed the kids stood behind him.

“Interesting..best case we’ve had so far.” Jackson mumbled, “but we have one problem, where are the kids?” Carlos flipped around to find the gray car standing empty 2 feet away. How is that possible, I would’ve heard them leave…right? Carlos thought. Turing slowly to meet Jackson’s angry expression he was surprised when Jackson had a look of horror on his face.

“Carlos…the car…” Jackson whispered, slowly raising his hand to point at where the car used to be. Carlos turned to see the reason why Jackson was so freaked out. Even without the car keys somehow…someway the kids had escaped.

Because the car was gone too.

Bio:

Shannon Shaughnessy is a 12 year old girl who is in 7th grade. She has been writing for a few years and has dreams of becoming a published author. Shannon also does competitive swimming and sings in her school choir. When she grows up she wants to be a movie director. The prologue of The Outcasts is only the beginning of her book that she can’t wait to complete.

Rope Trap

By: Kailey Fontan

I’ll never forget the dismal, rainy morning when my principal called Lola, Sasha, and I down to his office. Since it had been top secret, it was meant only for the best spies at the best spy school; Turtle Creek High School; my school.

My principal had informed us that someone had committed what could’ve been one of the most dangerous crimes in at least a decade. It had taken pure skill, instincts, smarts, and bravery to steal money right from the government. Literally, this guy actually snuck into the building and stole it right from a machine. You’d think that this’d be impossible, from all the security they have there, but somehow they managed to turn off all the lasers and stun the security guards so they wouldn’t move.

My stomach was in knots when I found out we had to go there, to Washington D.C. We’d go with a supervisor and take a tour of the U.S. Mint, where we’d make a detailed map of all the security systems.

Our time in Washington D.C. wasn’t a complete failure, but it wasn’t very productive either. We did do some research on the suspects: Jillian Hoosher, Andrew Corz, and Mark McLang. They’re really the only people in the whole world that have the skill to pull this off. Mark is the principal of our school, and Jillian is a teacher, along with Andrew.

During our tour of the Mint, my group left to take a bathroom break, and I stayed behind. It wasn’t long before I spotted a note on the ground, and I bent down to pick it up. It was a list of

targets-or so it looked like. There was also a list of steps to take, and the rest was thoroughly impressive. When I flipped it over, I saw a paragraph or two about his breakup with his girlfriend, signed with the name, “Red Iguana”.

Instantly, I recognized the name. We had learned about him, Red Iguana, at school. He used to go to Turtle Creek a few years ago. He graduated with a 5.0 GPA, and something like a one hundred ninety-eight IQ. He was better than the teachers in some ways, and always wanted to know more than they could teach. He was offered a job at Turtle Creek when he graduated college, but he turned it down because he had already been recruited for the military. Ironically, he disappeared off the face of the earth in the spring of 2005. Nobody knows where he went, and here was a note, written by him, in my hand.

I glanced down at the note again. It was then that all the puzzle pieces fell into place. The bits of information we had gathered about the suspects all made sense. I had figured it out, but for some reason, when my group came back, I didn’t tell them. I simply folded up the note and slipped it in my bag.

On the plane flight home, I still couldn’t gather up the courage to tell Lola and Sasha about what I knew. I don’t know what it was, but something inside myself was telling me that I could not tell anyone about it.

At school on Monday, I couldn’t keep this whole mystery thing out of my mind. I came close to telling Lola about it, knowing that she would keep it secret, but I backed down. After class ended, I walked into the Media Center to turn in my overdue library book. Nobody was there, so I silently slid my book into the return box and looked around. There, on the whiteboard in front of me, was a threat. It read:

“Millicent Boncard,

I know more than you think. I know you know our secret. Don’t make me get out the guns, and don’t tell our secret.”

So I didn’t.

Not until I heard the jets flying over Turtle Creek Wednesday afternoon. They swooped down and landed on the school, scrapping the roof. The building was evacuated, and out of nowhere, more police men and women appeared on the roof of Turtle Creek. A few hours later, we were informed that we had a special visitor: Red Iguana.

It was then that I finally built up the courage to tell Lola and Sasha what I knew. They suggested that we go to Red Iguana himself and ask for help. So, later the next afternoon, we strolled into the hotel room that he was staying at. He agreed to help us with our mystery, and after taking finger prints, DNA tests, and lie-detecting quizzes, he’d figured it out.

For the first time ever, Red Iguana revealed his true identity; Andrew Corz, one of our suspects. He then explained that I was correct. My prediction had stated that Mark, our principal, had stolen the money to try to impress his girlfriend after their harsh breakup. He had used the fake codename, “Red Iguana”, to try and throw detectives off, then hired Jillian to keep it a secret.

I felt so accomplished knowing that I had solved a mystery. I couldn’t have been happier.

Friday night, Andrew, Lola, Sasha, and I marched right down to Mark’s principal office. We confronted him strongly, and when we were about to leave and tell the news reporters, Mark stopped us. We turned around just in time to see Mark pull a rope behind one of his fake walls. The next thing I knew, I was hanging upside down, helpless.

Mark said that he’d never let us go to keep us from telling his secret. We hung there for hours until Mark left the room for just enough time to let Andrew slip a knife out of his jean pocket. He cut the rope, and, well, we pretty much fell to the ground head first.

When we tried to escape, Mark was in the doorway, and that was when I was so glad I had chosen to go to a school for spies. We fought for a long time-thirty minutes to an hour.

He smashed things.

We pushed.

He shot bullets through the ceiling.

We snuck, kicked, and hid.

The fight went back and forth until Andrew finally pinned Mark down and he surrendered.

A week later, the newspapers and T.V.’s were full of the mystery I had help solve, and I couldn’t be more proud of my friends. Both Mark and Jillian went to jail, and were not to return for a long time. But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from this whole thing, it’s that sometimes, mysteries don’t solve themselves. You have to think for yourself, be on your guard at all times, and most importantly, notice everything.

Biography

Kailey Fontan is a twelve year old girl who lives in Flushing, Michigan. She attends Flushing Middle School where she is a straight A student. Kailey has an older sister, a younger brother, and a dog. She has enjoyed writing since she was in the fourth grade. In her spare time, she also enjoys ice skating, and playing the flute and violin. Kailey loves to create, whether it is in her writing, art work, cake decorating, or interior design. Kailey has written many short stories and a novel and is looking forward to the rest of her writing career.

My name is Emily and I am 10 years old. I’m in the 5th grade and I love science, social studies, and reading time. My favorite color is green. I love Halloween and Christmas. I came up with the title Granny’s Missing Glasses because my Grandma wears glasses. So I mixed it up and I wanted her in my story too! I had a fun time writing it and reading it at my school’s Writer’s Spotlight.

The Case of Granny’s Missing Glasses

Ring,Ring!

"Hello?" Granny said.

"Granny, where are you?”

"At home doing laundry, why?"

"I’ll tell you when you get here.”

"Where’s it at?"

"11 mile road on little Mack."

"Be right there." Vroom! Vroom! Errk!

"I’m here, what’s the problem, Diana?"

"I found a cryptogram, it says…'Dear Mrs. Rachel'"

"That’s me," Granny said. "Keep reading."

"Ok, well, you need to figure out this cryptogram cause there’s something important you need to know. Enjoy.” Granny solved it as she bolted down the street.

Jason read it out loud. It said, "Meet me on 16 tomorrow. Granny, you better go.”

"I know! Don’t worry, let's all go home and go to sleep." So Granny and all of the other kids jumped in bed and fell asleep.

Beep! Beep! Beep! The alarm went off. They got up, got dressed. Granny reached over for her glasses. They weren’t there. She looked up, down, around, under her bed, all around the house. She screamed, "Diana! Jason! Come here!"

Stomp, Stomp, Stomp! Diana and Jason bolted up stairs. "My glasses are gone.”

"What?"

"My glasses..."

"No, no, no! Don’t repeat it. I can’t believe this happened. Where gonna fix this and where gonna fix this now." Diana and Jason are detectives so they left right away. “Hop in the car guys, we're going where the guy said.” It took them an hour to get there. They arrived at 7:00pm. As soon as they got out of the car there were stains on the cement that were purple. They looked up and Jimmy was right in front of them.

“What do you want?”

"Wanna play basketball?"

“NO! We're busy."

"Whatever!” Jimmy left. When they appeared at the glasses store they walked in the doors and stopped in their tracks. “Excuse me! Excuse me!” Everybody stopped working and stared at Granny. “Have you seen some purple glasses?”

"Ya... sure...yes! A person just walked out with some glasses. They went to the lake." Granny, Diana, and Jason all ran to the car. They drove to the lake. When they got out of the car they looked around.

“Hey Granny, look, a cryptogram."

"Well, open it up."

It said, “Look over by the bridge.' Good job, Granny.”

“Well, where’s the bridge at?”

Diana said, “Over there!”

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!” It was just a few seconds to walk to the bridge.

“Umm….. Jason, come here.”

“What?”

“Is this fingerprint supposed to be here?”

“No, Granny! Look !”

“Oh my!” Granny said. “So, get a Ziploc bag and the cutups out.” Diana took the cutup and wiped it. Then put it in the bag.

“Nice” Jason said while staring right at the bag. “Well, what else could there be?”

“Look over there!”

“Over where?”

“Over there by the boats.They could of went on one of the boats. Let’s go!” While they where walking they kept seeing purple stains.

Again, Diana said, “Jason!” Sometimes Jason just wonders off like he’s in a magical land “JASON!”

“What?”

“Come here, now. Why are there purple stains? Wait, is that paint?

Diana said, “I got it! They might have been painting the glasses over again to make it look like nothing was scratched off.”

“Great job, Diana!”

“Thank you!” They followed the purple stains and it lead to the boats!

“Ok, we’re here.” Diana looked. What she saw was a shadow that looked completely vicious. She slowly walked to the shadow and turned on the lights. “Excuse me?” Diana said. The chair spun around. “Aunt Angie? Why are you wearing Granny’s glasses?”

“You know I always come to the boat launch and read.”

“Granny!”

“What?”

“Aunt Angie was wearing your glasses.”

“Oh, my word!” Granny said. “Let me see your thumb, Aunt Angie.” She matched it up with the finger print and … boom, it matched. They had a couple of laughs and it was completed. Everybody high- fived saying, “Nice job!” They went home and started getting ready for the next mystery.

BY: Emily

Welcome

Recent Blog Entries