It was taken quite a while ago

At first it seems to be

a hazy photograph:  the water trickling downstream

with the trees swaying in the wind;

then,  as you look in closer,

you see  on the left side, past the trees,

a field of grass waiting to be explored,

and at the bottom,

the reflection of the endlessly cloudy sky.

In the background there is a fallen tree

and some stepping stones being splashed by the water.

(The photograph was taken the day Alan found out about me

I am behind the farthest tree,

hiding from the truth.

Hiding from what may be my last day.

It’s difficult to find me,

that’s where I needed to be.

But if you really look in closely,

there I am.

Hiding from reality.)  

“Sophie? It’s time for us to leave now,” my mother called out. I don’t want to leave, but I know how dangerous it would be to stay. Having six toes isn’t necessarily celebrated in our town. “I’ll be out in a few seconds mother!” I yelled back. I needed to say goodbye to David. He has been such a good friend for the past little while. I know how hard it must have been keeping my secret, but he did a good job. I wouldn’t be leaving if it wasn’t for that stupid kid Allen. To be honest, I’m quite scared to enter the Fringes. I’ve never been there before.

After saying goodbye to David I went outside to my parents. My dad helped me on top of the horse, and we were off. I waved back at David for the longest time until I couldn’t see him anymore and I was hidden by the trees. My life was going to be so different now.

For a few years I barely did anything. My mom would teach me some things every day, to try to keep me up on my school work, but not much other than that. It was very rare that I would go off exploring because my parents didn’t want me to get caught. It was such a boring life. It wasn’t until I turned 15 that my parents let me have more freedom. They actually let me go out at night! It was then, at night, that I met up with all my friends. They were so wild, so free, and so different, like me. I felt like I could do anything with them. They were few years older than me, but they accepted me into their group.

“You should come with us tonight Sophie! We want to get out of this boring place, go somewhere else! Experience the world, Sophie,” Andrew said. “I don’t know guys, I’m only 16. Don’t you want to wait until I’m a bit older? Besides, my parents would freak,” I told them. “Why are you always so boring Sophie? You never want to do anything dangerous!”  Kylie said with a huge sigh. “Fine! You want me to be dangerous? I’ll come with you. I’ll meet you guys tonight by the big rock. Be as quiet as you possibly can. I’ll try to sneak out at around 11,” I whispered. Everyone cheered. I wanted to prove to them I can be out there, but what you my parents think? I know 16 is still really young, but I am almost 17. My parents should be able to trust me by now. I’ve lived here for 7 years now. I know my way back home.

At night I snuck out as quietly as I could. Both my parents were fast asleep and there’s no waking them up when they are. I would miss them. I felt really bad, but I felt like I needed to prove myself to my friends.

When we started to go out into the world, we started hearing noises. All the girls were scared, and I think secretly the boys were too, but they didn’t show it. I couldn’t see anything around me, it was so dark. Suddenly a man popped out of the bushes on a horse. I could barely see him, but I could feel it in my heart that he was the most handsome man I had ever seen. As he started to get closer I could see the outline of his body. He was obviously no ordinary man. His arms and legs were immensely long. He looked as if he was a spider. He was gorgeous. I could tell the rest of my friends were in awe as well, but not in a good way. We stopped dead in our tracks and just stood there. Out of nowhere a gun shot went off. We all dropped down. This is what I was afraid of. I should have never come. More gun shots went off, but out of every direction. Who was there? To this day I still don’t know. The only thing I can remember is once the gun shots were done, we all got up. One more went off. It went straight through the trees into Andrew’s stomach. My friends and I didn’t waste any time after that. We darted home running as fast as I could, as tears swept down my face. My poor friend, left to rot as we ran for our lives. I vowed that day that I could never run away again. That didn’t happen though. I spent every night trying to find that man I saw, for some answers of that night, until one day I did.       

Friendship is as bright as the sun, shining for the whole world to see

It sounds like whispers exchanged with the intimate bond they share

Friendship smells like a bouquet of flowers, each one unique

It tastes like a freshly baked cookie, heating up your body

Friendship looks like the smiles of your closest friends, laughing along with you

Making you feel loved

  Watch thou for the mutant! I find this repentance extremely creepy. In David’s society it means that one must be careful and watch out for anything abnormal. For example, Sophie would be a mutant. Having six toes would be thought of not being a human, therefore a mutant. I see why she would want to cover up her feet and keep it a secret. David’s too young to see that Sophie would be considered a mutant. That’s why Sophie’s mom made sure for David to understand that it must be kept a secret. If he would be to tell her secret, she would most likely be killed.

If I saw ‘Watch Thou for the Mutant’ on my wall every day it wouldn’t have a large impact on my life. I know that everyone is different in their own way, so I wouldn’t know what would be considered a mutant. Personally, when I think of a mutant, I think of a swamp monster. So ‘watch thou for the swamp monster’ wouldn’t be very impactful. My interpretation and the book’s meaning of the word mutant are very different. If our world considered anyone different to be a mutant, then I would stand up for and protect whoever I knew to be ‘different’.

I think ‘watch thou for the mutant’ will come into play in the book from Sophie. I think that David will by accident tell the wrong person about Sophie and her toes. David is one to keep secrets but I think that because of his confusion with her toes and she ‘not being human’ will spark his curiosity. Sophie will be taken away along with David because he can read other people’s minds. They will be taken to a different district and confront one of their leaders. I think Sophie might end up dying because of her toes. It’s a sad thing to think about, but she will die because she’s different.  

My name is Delilah Demeer and I’m 16 years old. I’m quite shy, mainly because I look totally different from everyone else. I have bright red wavy hair and green eyes. On top of that I’m tall and skinny, but people underestimate me. I’m really strong. I don’t get along with my younger sister Reese. We fight all the time. She actually wants to go into the hunger games! She’s crazy! I, on the other hand, want nothing to do with the capitol. I wouldn’t be able to breathe if my sister or my best friend Gemma Jenkins got picked. Gemma‘s the complete opposite to me, but we balance each other out, Every day I’m getting more outgoing but I’m still really shy. With her, I’m loud as loud can be. I find my voice in her. I absolutely love school. Reading is one of my passions. I think that’s why I work at the eBook library, but it’s mainly because my family’s poor. My sister doesn’t have a job yet, and my mom as a tech support and my dad as an engineer at the power plant just doesn’t cut it in my family. We can afford food, but nothing else really. I do the cooking when I come home from work. I like to think I’m a pretty good cook. If I ever get picked in the hunger games I think I might be able to win it. 

SP-Studios

My utopia is called ‘Nezavisan’ which is the Croatian meaning for independent. I chose this because in my utopia everyone is independent to his or her own lives. 

The definition of utopia on Merriam-Webster is: an imaginary and indefinitely remote place.

In my utopia for energy they use sun and wind powered energy sources. All the citizens of Nezavisan grow their own vegetables and fruit. The city is quite a small area that many people go into the marketplace to shop for items. Everything in Nezavisan is made inside the city. All the clothing, food, energy, books, furniture, houses, and everything else are manufactured inside the city limits. In the city there are 4 sections: the houses, the factories, the work buildings, and the countryside. In the countryside there are all the farms and energy sources, which is located a little ways away from the rest of the town. The city is separated like that because then the citizens aren’t disturbed by any of the noise in other sections. Nezavisan is located in the middle of mountains. On the other side of the mountains is the countryside. The people get their water from the snow on top of the mountains that comes out of the lake in the middle of town. No one in the city would need a car because it’s so small, so everyone would ride a bike to get to where they need to be.

    Someone would create a utopia to get away from all the imperfect things that exist in our world. If something went terribly wrong, then having a utopia would be almost like a redo for the world. We could eliminate all the horrible things in our world such as war, poverty, and equality. 

We would need to create Nezavisan because of all the pollution we are sending into our air from unnatural energy sources. Also, because of all the shipping needed to send our food to our houses it’s not as safe to eat as your own grown food. In my utopia the air would be a lot cleaner from all the plants being around and all the food that people would eat would be reliable to eat.

We need my more perfect society because it would make everyone a lot healthier.  Healthy food, cleaner air, and fitter people are what our world needs to take care of our selves.

Nezavisan Rules:

1.    No smoking

2.    Everyone must plant some kind of fruit or vegetable in their garden to sell in the market

3.    You are only allowed to walk or bike to places

4.    No loud noises in the home areas past 9:30 pm

5.    No junk food is to be eaten from 5:00 pm to 10:00 am

6.    No littering

7.    Curfew for children is 9:00 pm and for teens is 11:00

8.    All lights will be turned off from 11:30 pm to 6:30 am  

9.    No killing or stealing

Dear Journal,

I don’t have a lot of friends at school after what happened over the weekend. It was the most terrifying thing that has ever happened to me, and my friends abandoned me. I know I don’t look the same anymore with all the scars all over my body, but I’m still the same person!

I was home alone over the weekend because mom and dad went to Portland on a business trip. They were going to send grandma to come and stay with me but I told them she shouldn’t. I’m 18 now! Saturday night I was feeling really alone because none of my friends were available, so I went onto a chat room. I started talking to this guy my age and he said all these nice things to me. After about 2 hours of chatting, he said,” I’ve heard your beautiful words, but now I want to see your beautiful face!”  So I sent him a picture of me. He said I looked gorgeous. I’m not used to that. I wanted to meet this guy in person, so I sent him my address and to come over tomorrow. A wave of relief washed over me when he said that he’d be there at 4. I really liked that guy. He was sweet.

Half an hour later I heard a hard knock on the door. I got off the computer and opened it. My eyes widened. In front of me stood a tall man with a mask covering his face. He had a gun. Without a word that gun was pointed towards me and I was soon struggling in his arms with a bag over my head. I was pushed into something that seemed like a car trunk. There was a loud bang of a door closing and then it was silent.  A long time had passed before the trunk was opened again. I was taken out and dragged harshly into a building. The man threw me on the ground. I struggled to get up. I couldn’t see anything except the white bag on my head. I don’t remember much what happened after that. All I can remember is getting hit. Over and over again. After that everything went dark. I woke up in my room. I don’t know how I got there. It might have been a dream, but the scars all over my body say differently. My cold body curled up in my corner as I cried myself to sleep.

~Angela

On April 20th 2012 the world was supposed to wake up to millions of posters advertising Kony 2012. In reality, when I woke up there was only 1 tiny poster on the back of a sign. Kony 2012 did not do what they said they were going to do. In the beginning, all my friends told me about Kony 2012 and how they had already donated to get their package to promote Kony. I was ready to donate as well, until they told me that they never received any kind of package from them, no one did. In reality, Kony 2012 was just a way to raise money for Invisible Children and they haven’t done anything to stop Kony. Invisible Children is a great charity to donate to and support, however the way they advertised Kony 2012 and didn’t do anything about Kony made me quite frustrated. They shouldn’t have lunched the video if they weren’t going to commit to it.    

Thesis: Collingwood should not ban civvies days because civvies allow you to show some of your personality, the money that gets collected from the day mostly goes to charity, and it creates a happy environment for the students.

Body: Civvies days are important for the school because the money collected from the civvies day mostly goes to charities. For example, Collingwood held a civvies day for Jeans Day. Each student had to bring in 2 dollars in order to wear jeans. The money that the school raised went to the children’s hospital. Although the charities are important, students showing their individual personality is also an important reason for civvies days.