“Stay on the path!” My mom yells at us. My brother and I run up the rocky path. My mother is letting us run ahead and see if there is anything cool up the mountain. As we get farther up we look aback at the view. All the houses now tiny, are sitting looking at us as we scale the mountain. As soon as we get out of sight of our mom, we run off the path.

We are hoping there is something cool that was off the path, but there is nothing. As we walk farther we see it. The thing we were waiting for. The one thing off the trail… A cave! I look over at my older brother. “You first.” I say. I watch as my brother walks straight into the cave acting like a brave warrior going into battle. The darkness takes over my brother. I wait a few seconds then call his name. I see a dark figure coming at me from the cave. I take a few steps back. My brother emerges with a smile. “Come on in!”

There’s only blackness. Nothing can be seen. My brother turns on his flashlight from his phone. Right as it turns on I remember every horror movie I watched. Every single one has someone in a dark area with a flashlight. I take a quick glance around for any demons. The cave starts to get lower until we are crawling on our bellies like penguins. The cave reminds me of the bat catchers on TV. The thought of bats makes me take another glance around.

I look back and see no light from where we had come from. I ask my brother to turn around so we don’t end up going farther. We find a little light and head to it. We eventually find world where we came from. This was one of my favorite things to do outside. It was the first cave I’ve been in. Going out in nature can be so much better than sitting on the couch. I learned that today.

The golden light rises over the houses. The leaves falling behind us. The trees wave at us with their leaves as we whiz by. My brother and I crunch the fallen leaves with the wheels of our bikes. We played a game to see who can crunch the most, but I lost count after 6. I look down at the street and see the rocks fly by making it look like I was going faster than I was. I high five the leaves as we go by like I was in a race.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.

I look up to the now bright orange sky. The slightly cloudy sky. The sun barely peeping up from the ground. It is the sight of true happiness. The sky perfectly matches the bright orange leaves falling off the trees. The sight of the perfect sky brings a smile to my face. I look back to the road and see that my brother had stopped. I wonder why until I saw the very same smile looking up at the sky.

Silence

Katniss Everdeen

Silence is green

It tastes like mint leaves on your tongue

It smells like the green land all around you

And feels like the string of a bow ready to fire

It sounds like the slow wind rustling the bushes

And looks like a deer glowing in the sunlight

Silence is the quiet dinner of deer and bread

Kyle

Buffalos are much bigger than I expected. I was on a family vacation at Moose Head Ranch in Wyoming. Every morning we started our day with a horseback ride. It was usually a quiet ride with deer and birds at our side. My favorite part was when we got to run the horses along the trail. One time when we were running the horses, the guide held up his arm signaling us to stop. I looked around to see what was wrong. Right in front of us, blocking the trail, was a huge buffalo. We waited to see if he would move, but he did not go anywhere. We ended up going off the trail, around the buffalo. I had never seen a buffalo in person before. Wow! They are amazing.

One day at my grandparents house my grandpa asked if I wanted to go on a ride in his golf cart. I wasn’t doing anything at the time so I said sure. My grandfather said it was going to be really scary at night, but I remembered him telling me he took his friends so it can’t be that crazy and, grandfathers always say stuff like that.

My head darts to the right, then back to the right. I do this about ten times before asking if we can go back home. A group of trees is coming up. My cousin and I inspect it like we were the ones trying to find something to eat. There it is, a dark figure laying in the trees, watching us as we dart by. I look closer at the figure but see that it is only a stack of leaves. But then a bark of a coyote coming from somewhere towards the mountain.

I’m glad we have a golf cart because the coyotes would have caught me for sure. We race down the hill in the big white golf cart. Even if there was a coyote it wouldn’t have caught us. I look ah aid and see there is a turn coming up. I ask my grandpa to slow down, but then says “don’t worry”. He slows down a little bit but, enough to make the turn. We make it back home with a grin on my grandfathers face and a scared one one mine.

Wasps. I hate them. They are my worst fear. There once was a wasp nest in my mailbox. Every time I reached in my mailbox, one would fly down and land on my hand. I would quickly swing my arm away before it could sting me.
The next day I went over to get the mail, and was surprised no wasp flew out at me. I grabbed the mail and heard a faint buzzing sound. I opened the folded mail and there it was, sitting there, broken. I almost felt sorry for it but then thought of its plan to try to be sneaky and get in my house. I launched the wasp with the mail and walked in side.

I have never been stung by a wasp and hope I never will be.

The long scar running across her neck. Afraid to look anywhere else, i slowly step away.she starts to move after me as I try to walk faster. I turn around so I can see where I am going. I look back to see if she is still following me.

She is gone

I know the monster is not real, just a human under a costume but I still don’t know where she had gone. I’m running now. Away from the creature that haunted me. Away from the flickering lights of the house. Away from the creepy music from inside the house.

Trick or treat

As I stepped off, my stomach dropped and my eyes wouldn’t look anywhere but down. At first I thought I was falling, but I then realized I was flying. The only thing stopping me from falling was the tiny metal rope. When I look back up I see that I am getting close to the end, I start panicking saying to my self, “What do I do!”. I try to calm down and remember what the guide had said. I reach the end with no problem. I survived my first zip line.

Through the forest
Over the rocks
Around the river
Away from the cornucopia
Among the others
Beneath the trees
Within the arena
“BOOM!”

In March 2013, my 6th grade band class performed a Spring concert for our parents at school. I think we did really good for one of our first concerts.