Writing+Festival

This year, members of the 345 community were invited to attend the Oregon Writer's Festival on May 1, 2010. Students spent their Saturday attending writing workshops and participating in sharing groups with other student authors from across the state. Please enjoy a selection of their submissions here:

The Underworld by Dani K.

Confusion was all I felt; puzzlement asking me questions I could never answer. Where am I? How did I get here? Why am I here? I couldn’t think of anything to answer back. I jumped up then fell right back down, I got up too fast. I slowly got up this time. I took a deep breath in and choked on it “What the-” I coughed out in shock. There was a door labeled “Jacob”. “My -my name” I stuttered. //Do I dare go in?// I asked myself, but I was already walking towards it. Stupid compulsiveness. I grabbed the door handle and started turning it, it seemed like it was pulling the opposite way that I was. I yanked it open and stepped inside. “So, you’ve sealed your fate.” A voice said. The voice sounded like the typical bad guy in movies or TV shows. “Go suck a chickeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee” I screamed as I plummeted down dark hole. I smacked the ground and a sickening crack echoed through the dark room. “En.” I whimpered to finish the come back. I sat up and realized that I wasn’t hurt at all. I looked down and cursed loudly. I had landed on a bearded skeleton. The skeleton wriggled his fingers in a sign of greeting. “Heeelo.” He greeted “Eep!” “Oh don’t be scared.” “Uh…” “What are you doing here?” “Wha?” “Do you pay attention at school?” “No.” “It shows.” “…hey!” We just kind of looked at each other for a while until I broke the silence by asking “So…where are we?” “541-890-3396... oh wait, that’s my girl friends cell phone number never mind.” “You have a girl friend?” I laughed “Just because I’m ugly I have no skin and a really scraggly beard doesn’t mean I can’t have a girlfriend!” “Excuse me!” I said sarcastically. “Well, you’re in hell and I can see why.”

Chapter 2 “I’m in hell?!” I gasped “That’s what I just said.” The skeleton answered This place was a nightmare but it was much more of a nightmare than I expected. The place was crawling with creatures that I had never seen before like a flk- uh… ghtr um… flglu I don’t know it’s impossible to pronounce! Any ways, one of those things crept up on me and George the skeleton and scared the living bejebers out of us. It apparently is a half human half devil who has a soul but can’t stop killing people so that they are forever tortured with guilt. The only way to get them to not kill you is to look the straight in the eye so that they would feel so bad they couldn’t kill you, but they have to kill someone so they kill themselves. It made me feel bad but it was either me or him so…. Well anyways, George and I were still wandering around the Underworld because both of us had never seen it before. I asked him why he was a skeleton since he was in hell and you can’t rot in hell so logically he would still have skin. “Yeah… I was held up because I couldn’t figure out how to open the door … he he….” “Wow! Epic fail!” I taunted, I kept laughing for the rest the day, or night I wasn’t quite sure, you can never really tell in the Underworld. We became tired and went to sleep, it seemed like when we shut our eyes the underworld exploded with an unexpected silence; the screaming stopped, the constant sound of violent waves stopped, and the creaky footsteps that all ways followed you, quieted as if they stopped whenever you did. We woke to a sinister laugh that sounded much like the voice I had heard when I opened the door. We got up and looked around. I jumped 15 feet in the air; the devil was standing 5 feet away from us. “Ha commoners.” The devil laughed slapping his thigh. “Commoners?” I protested “What was that you said __commoner__?” “Nothing- never mind!” George cut in covering my mouth, I bit his hand and a finger came off. “Welcome to the biggest underground jail, buddy.” the devil said sarcastically. “Oh joy.” I said sarcastically. “Time for punishment!” Chapter 3 The Devil lead us to a plain room; much brighter than anything else in the underworld (although, every thing in the room was kind of making the good feeling disappear.) He lead us to “The chat room” and gestured us to go inside. It didn’t seem like such a bad punishment you just sit and talk with other people, or so I thought. You actually sit in a room and listen to one loud person go on and on about their life. This I think it was punishment for distracting other people by talking to them at school and George had the punishment because he blabbers on about nothing! It went on for hours and hours you couldn’t even lie down and go to sleep or else the loud person would yell at you about how you’re being rude and you have to get up and listen again. I conducted an exparament for seeing how long it would take for the person to notice me flipping them off, the longest time was 1.2 seconds. It was a failed experiment, but it was so fun! Everyone was bored out of their mind when a voice startled the hell out of me ha ha hell… get it cause … oh whatever just, any ways a voice startled us when we were listening to the loud person who was talking. “TIME’S UP NITWITS!” the devil shouted as he shook the room. “I love my job!” We all got up; most people cursed at the person who was talking (I did too.)

I pulled George along with me towards a bright light under a door. I open the door and light burst out into the torture room. I stepped in it and the devil said, “Dang it I told you to stop bothering me in my room, oh it’s you… and the bearded skeleton .” I couldn’t help but laugh when he said that “Listen,” he said “Commoners aren’t aloud in the throne room of yours truly.” I had not realized that this might have been the throne room until he had said “Throne room” It hadn’t even crossed my mind that it might be a throne room even though it was nicely furnished with great architecture. The room was white and gold with big chandeliers whose limbs were swooping down reaching in longing for the rich red earth. I looked up and asked. “What did I do?”

To Be Continued...

__Gavriella Troper-Hochstein__ April 30, 2010

I. __Waka on Spring__ Like blossoms blooming in Spring new life comes to the world.

II. __Upon reading “The Singing Tree” by Kate Seredy__ The apple tree is showing white, time to thin the seedlings. The coming of letters mark the passing of days. The chicks growing feathers tell of weeks gone by. The puppies now grown big remind us of last year. Time passes by like a sigh on a breeze. She does not tell us of her plans. Only gives them to us when she wants.

III. __The Rain__ Rushing, running, falling. Pushing for a place in the sky. Never knowing when you’ll hit the ground. Always thinking your next moment will be in a puddle. Never knowing what it shall be like. Never knowing but always, rushing, running, falling.

IV. __Hope__ Hope, shining like a light in the darkness. Sometimes growing smaller, Sometimes growing larger, But never fading. There to guide us Through hard times.

V. __Waka on Fall__ Leaves falling into a pond, Making ripples all around. Sunshine shining down, Making light all around.

__Inside of a Criminal Mind__ by Parker Swensen

An extremely bright light turns on. You can't really tell where you are but you know you're in a cement room. All you know is that your plane might of crashed, your partner might have died, but they will never find the body, so bring it on, you're ready. A bulky man steps into the room. You can't see his face but you know who he is. His silhouette sits down. "Hello general," you say slyly giving of a big grin. He doesn't reply. You feel like daggers are piercing you, looking for some kind of weakness, but you're not giving any sign of an opening. "Where's the body?" the General says in a gruff voice. "Why do you ask?" you reply. "DON'T PLAY GAMES WITH ME! " the general screams. "I don't think you and your team could find it even if I showed you," you say calmly. "Then why don't you show me?" the General said through gritted teeth. You stand up and reach in your pocket. You pull out the remains of the body. The general turns a slight shade of green. You look down at the bloody ear in your hand. Then you smile and pop it into your mouth. You begin to chew. It tastes like copper. Then you smile again, teeth red with blood. The General turns as pail as stone. His head tips forward and you know he's passed out. You walk over pull out his key-card and unlock the door. You walk down the hall way towards the emergency exit, push the medal door open and walk out into the fresh air. You take a deep breath and walk down the fire escape and into the light of the moon, free at last.

//__The Magic Embroidery__// by Amulet Reynolds

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Once upon a time in a cottage next to a beautiful meadow lived a girl named Paulinemene. Some think she was rich. Some think she was an orphan. But neither were right for she was a girl with parents, but they were very poor. One day while her parents were out, she walked down to town with some of her embroidery that she had made a few days before. She had been planning to sell it at the great town market where everybody came, even the royal family! When she got there, she found a stand that said her name on it and the words “Embroidery Table.” She was very shocked to find someone had set it up for her (because she had never had a maid). She was so grateful she decided to ask the king who did the wonderful thing, and to make an embroidery just for them, and that’s exactly what she did. When the market was almost empty, she went looking for the king. When she found him, she told him how grateful she was, and showed him her embroidery. He saw it and fainted from shock. Paulinemene saw this and she screamed thinking that he was dead. The king woke up and said three words, “It’s… so… beautiful…”before falling to the ground once more. Paulinemene heard these words and she suddenly remembered why she was there and started to get up when she realized that her embroidery was gone…======

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The next day when Paulinemene woke up, she heard her mother speaking (she knew that she wasn’t speaking to her father because her mother used the word doctor). Paulinemene decided to get up and see who her mother was talking to, but when she got into the kitchen the person that her mom called doctor had apparently left. After a few minutes of silence, her mother noticed that Paulinemene was standing there and told her to go pick berries in the beautiful meadow they lived by. Paulinemene did as she was told (naturally) and went to the meadow. On the way there she began to sing a song that her mother had sung whenever Paulinemene and her mother went to the meadow to pick berries. When she got to the meadow she sat down her berry basket, spread out a cloth that she had brought with her, and laid down on her back. She closed her eyes for a minute. When she opened them, she saw a sparkle fly across the meadow. She sat up with a start. A sparkle in the meadow? Was she seeing things? In fact, not only one sparkle, about a hundred sparkles surrounded the meadow! Paulinemene closed her eyes and shook her head. When she opened her eyes (she was hoping to find out that she was seeing things), but she had to face the truth that she was not seeing things, for the sparkles were real. Paulinemene felt like she was going to faint, for she was definitely seeing things. The meadow was starting to look like her embroidery she had lost the day before. And were the sparkles fairies? At first Paulinemene thought this was all crazy, but then she thought of all the stories her mother had told her of fairies. Could this be real? She thought no…maybe…YES! The beautiful embroidery had been stolen by fairies. She just had to go home and tell her mom. She went home immediately.======

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When she got home, she asked her mom if they could talk in privacy, Her mom came out with her while wiping her hands on her apron as they walked. They walked into the master bedroom and sat down on the bed. Once Paulinemene had checked that they were out of earshot, she got up, closed the door, and told her mom about the fairies, the song, and the stolen embroidery. Once she had finished, her mom just laughed and walked out of the door, leaving Paulinemene gaping at the spot where her mom had just stood .======

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She was in the middle of thinking up a way to get the fairies to come when she heard a sound coming from the trees. She got up to look and see what it was. The sound got louder… It sounded like… music! There on the ground below her was a little fairy sitting on a rock, playing to her singing, on what looked like a blue bell, but sounded like a trumpet. The fairy noticed that the singing had stopped, and that Paulinemene was there. The fairy jumped and let out a small yelp! Paulinemene tried to calm it down ( she wasn't sure what gender it was) but it just hid behind the rock, squealing the whole time. Then Paulinemene heard another sound. It sounded more like chanting this time. The sound was becoming louder every second, when suddenly a entire pack of fairies came out of the trees. There were at least a dozen of them, all yelling at Paulinemene over and over again. Suddenly, the chief fairy stopped. As suddenly as the chief had stopped, every single fairy that was behind him stopped, too. They all were yelling the same thing:======

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Paulinemene replied by yelling that she could help if only they would tell her what kind of despair they were in?! At this comment, the fairies grew silent and the one who had been hiding behind the rock slowly got up and said,“We thought you knew!” Knew what? What's going on?! It was all getting mixed up!! "We will tell you once at the palace, come."======