Writers in the Schools (WITS)

 

Kate Carbajal’s Tenth Grade Class

Mayfield High School

WITS MFA Graduate Student:

Ramona Reeves

 

 

Skeleton Men

Adrian Garcia

10th Grade

I moved to Harold, Tennessee because my dad had some job that was supposed to be great for him, but for me I left all my friends and basically my life back in Las Cruces, New Mexico. We moved in this two story house right next to a grave yard. So it was just my dad and I in this huge house.

So my story begins on the first day living there. We pulled up in the drive way and we went to go look inside. “It’s kind of nice,” said my dad even though even though I new he new it was horrible and there was cob webs everywhere. “You could pick whatever room you want,” my dad said with a smile on his face.

I found a room that wasn’t full of cob webs and it had a huge window. So I unpacked my things and went to go look at the big window when suddenly when a creepy old man was staring up at me with a huge grin on his face, I tossed my self on my bed and then I walked back slowly I looked out the window and the old man was gone.

My dad came running in saying, “What happened?”

I said, “Nothing,” knowing he would tell me just some stupid thing like, I was just getting used to the house.

It was midday on probably the hottest day of the summer. I was acting like Grady Sizemore of the Cleveland Indians throwing the ball up in the air bad catching it when abruptly the ball slipped pot of my hands and went straight over the wall into the grave yard. I looked over and saw nobody so I jumped over the wall and when I ran to get my ball the old man came out of no where and picked up my ball. He was a real pale old man.

“Is this your ball,” the old man said.

I just stood there scared and when I was about to say yes he interrupted me saying “Why did you move here,” and then I was about to tell him but he interrupted me again saying, “STOP.” He was looking at the sun with his eyes wide open saying repeatedly “Beware nightfall,” then he ran back to his cottage behind the cemetery.

I ran back to my house so I could tell my dad but when I told him the story he just laughed saying I was crazy.

The sun was completely down when all the lights started flickering on and off when I heard my dad say, “What the…?” and then I heard a loud scream. That’s when I looked out the window and skeleton men where coming out of there graves from the cemetery. When suddenly a boney hand touched my shoulder.

Sky and Open

Samantha Keith

10th Grade

Downtown Salem was bustling with people dolly and walked through the town. It felt awkward. Dolly and I were almost never alone together.

“Where do you wanna go, Dolly?” I asked trying not to make my voice sound strange.

“Whatever . . .” she answered quickly in a low voice.

“What’s your favorite store?” I asked looking at her carefully.

“I . . .” she was quiet for a moment, “don’t know.”

“Dolly, are you hungry?” I asked.

“No.” Her answer was swift. I gritted my teeth feeling a little annoyed.

“Dolly, why don’t we get a something to eat?” I asked again. I was feeling a little hungry.

“I-I guess so,” she answered, her voice meager.

“Let’s go.” I smiled at her. She quickly looked away. And, it got awkward again.

“What should we eat?” I pondered asking myself more than her.

“Hmmm . . .” she sounded like she wanted to say something.

“Yeah?” I looked at her again.

“Is Chinese okay?” she asked very quietly.

“That’d be fine,” I stated, trying my best make Dolly comfortable around me.

“Okay . . .” That was the last thing she said until we reached the Chinese restaurant almost a block down.

Once we stepped in the smell was incredible. I felt my stomach growl as a waiter took us to an empty booth. I could tell Dolly felt uneasy. I started to think she didn’t me very much. If only Vincent was here. It wouldn’t feel so awkward.

“So, what are you going to eat?” I asked while skimming through the menu. I glanced up; Dolly didn’t even pick hers up.

“I’m going to get . . . an egg roll.” She spoke softly.

“Just an egg roll?” I asked, a bit perplexed. Maybe she really didn’t like me at all. Dolly nodded. “Get more than that, Dolly,” I told her. The words came out sounding like a plea. Dolly shook her head. I took another deep breath.

After ordering we waited in a thick silence. I glanced around, trying not to keep my eyes in one place for too long. Dolly gazed down at the table staying completely still.

“Zeke . . . where is Vince?” Dolly asked still looking down.

“He told me that he was doing a project with class partner. So I don’t know exactly where he is.” After Dolly had asked that, I was positive she didn’t like me. I stood up, feeling very bothered. “I’ll take you home.”

“But, we haven’t eaten.”

“It’s okay. I can tell you don’t want to be here.” I gritted my teeth.

Dolly looked up and cocked her head. “Why would you think that?” she asked in a cute innocent voice.

“You’re so distant with me,” I answered.

“You’re just . . .” she shook her head, “Never mind.”

Woodpeckers Attack Stupid People

Ryan Cosper

10th Grade

Recently the government has started a secret project involving a woodpecker. The plan was to mutate the animal and use it for military purposes. For instance the woodpecker, once mutated, would be used to peck its way through enemy tanks and kill the enemies inside.

However while working on project Pecker the scientist made a huge mistake. They had to mix smart genes to make the woodpecker stronger and smarter, but that’s not what they did. The accidentally mixed stupid people genes and the animal went crazy. The out of control woodpecker started to lash out at every stupid person in the laboratory.

Then just a few days ago we got word that this killer has escaped! Every stupid person in the world should run for his or her lives. No one is safe with an I.Q lower than 100, you will probably die. What a death it will be, the woodpecker first pecks out your brains. Then will start to devour your whole body. It’s a terrible thing to watch, so don’t get caught you stupid people or you will suffer a gruesome death.

The government is currently trying to fix the problem, but is having a rough time. It seems that the woodpecker is too strong and can’t be killed unless they nuke the bird. However the government isn’t willing to take the chance of killing innocent smart people. The only advice for you stupid people, is to get smart fast.

We have tested that if you were once stupid and became smart then the woodpecker will leave you alone. So the government has issued mandatory schooling for all people so the woodpecker will stop this massacre. So please try to stay indoors, only if you’re stupid, so you don’t get killed. However if you’re smart you can live your life normally.

The government sends you stupid people the best of luck on surviving, and is terrible sorry about inconvenience; and hopefully they can get control the woodpecker.

That is all from your Government. Good Luck!

Picture Story

(Inspired by a photo of people dancing)

Lauren Bustamante

10th Grade

What was I thinking? Getting myself into this. I can’t dance, especially at my age! Jeez, I’m going to look like a fool. I’m a man for crying out loud. They don’t do the Can Can, right? Oh they do, okay. Calm down. Just breathe in, breathe out! It’s not working! Um let’s see, I wish I would of never lost that bet, only 1 point left to score, but noooo, instead they got out and ended the game.

“Why’d you have to get out?” I yell.

“Get out where, honey?” my wife Jenny asks.

“Oh never mind,” I go back to thinking my comments then saying them out loud. I can still get out of this, yeah I will, but how. I can trip and say I sprained my ankle.

“Let’s go, darlin’. They’re starting the class,” Jenny says.

Darn it. It’s too late.

“Today we’re learning the Can Can. Now everyone stand in a line, lift one leg, then the next, now do it over,” the teacher says.

Wow this isn’t that bad. I can get used to this.

I start to get in the groove and out dance everyone. I’m glad I lost that bet.

Perfect Day

Kevin Cisneros

10th Grade

On a nice windy summer day on June 21, 2003 I woke up to the leaves knocking on my window. I was a bit scared so I woke my little brother up so that I could talk to him about it. Except that at the end we were both scared and couldn’t go back to sleep. Since we couldn’t go to sleep we decided to get ready for the day. 6:00 a.m.

We are all up and read for breakfast.

After a nice warm breakfast with grandma I had a feeling in my stomach like I was in a beautiful, warm, loving place like no other. After eating my brother and I went to the park and played soccer for hours upon hours upon hours.

It was finally dark outside, we decided to go inside and play cops and robbers. We played it for a while until my mom wanted a picture of us with our new shirts and haircuts. She kept saying things like, “Ay mis hijos que guapos estan,” and it was so embarrassing since we had two of our friends over from school.

At the end we did take our picture together and we had the biggest smiles in the world, because we were so glad that our bad morning turned into a great day. A perfect day. To end our perfect day we played “Super Mario’s World” and ate two burritos of frijoles. These burritos melted in our mouths like a volcano’s lava melting anything in its way. Finally with our bellies all full, we went to bed, but this time we slept in the living room in our sleeping bags.

Chimps Arrested for DWI!!

Jerica Apodaca

10th Grade

One day there was a party at the Playboy mansion. It was a New Years Eve party. Everyone was there. It was me, Phil, Frank, Scott, and Jack. Oh yeah did I mention that we’re all chimps? Well most of us are anyway the others here at the party are all humans. And to my surprise they like us! All of these pretty girls that are on the covers of magazines and whatnot. Even though I’ve seen some prettier chimp girls I still try to get with these girls. I mean their on magazine covers! I’m thinking they gotta be famous or something! Just then, my friend Phil looks at me and told me “Here dude, these girls told me to give you this.”

Even though I didn’t know what it was, I took it. I mean everyone at the party had one of these brown bottles with the weird writing on it. So it has to be good right? Yeah, it has to be.

I finally met a girl with a good head on her shoulders. Her name was Holly. She was so smart. Not like the other girls that were gigg1ing uncontrollably I mean, COME ON! Is it really that funny? Anyway, I started drinking some of this weird smelly liquid. I drank one, three, five; I finally lost count at seven. I started to feel all warm and tingly inside. It was something I’ve never felt before. Like my mind was blank and I knew what I was doing but I couldn’t explain what why.

Just then, I realized I was in some sort of spaceship or something. I mean, there were a lot of seats and lights and a weird thing that was playing music on it. And to top it all off, there was a huge circle in front of me. Just sitting there. I mean, come on how much could someone like circles? Os! Let’s all just put a circle in front of us and admire it! Just then, Holly explained to me that this “spaceship” was actually a car. And I was supposed to drive it. What the heck, right? How is a chimp supposed to know how to drive one of these “cars?” I mean, I know we’re like related to humans in some weird way, but how embarrassing! Come on man! Haven’t you people ever heard of fur?

Anyway, I started driving this “car.” It wasn’t that hard. I mean Holly just told me to stay in the lines. Like coloring. So, I did just that. I thought I was doing pretty good. Especially ‘cuz some lights were behind me. red and blue lights. I thought, “Wow, I must be doing pretty good,” then some manly sounding voice come out of nowhere and said, “DRIVER OF THE PINK CAR, PULL THE VEHICLE OVER!”

I thought, “Wow it sucks to be that guy,” but Holly made ME pull over! As if I was doing something wrong! I thought all of the good drivers got followed by red and blue lights. but, apparently not.

I pulled over and the cop told me to walk a straight line. I couldn’t do it! Come on man! Give me a break Chimps are bow-legged. We always waddle! Then he put some cold bracelets on me put me in the back of his car with the lights on it.

I thought, “WOW! Now I get to ride in the special car. I’m doing real good.” We got to a really depressing place. A place where there were bars all around me, and humans 1ooking at me like they just ate a lemon. They had that sour look on their face. Well, the next morning, I was told that I got a DWl. Whatever that means!

All I know is that as soon as this “DWI” thing was over, I was going to back to the zoo where I belong. No more partying with famous girls and definitely NO MORE DRIVING!

Whoever is reading this, I just want you to learn one thing: don’t party with famous people and drive. If you do, you will end up in a depressing place just like me. And trust me even though it looks like you can fit through the bars, you can’t!

Chimp Gets Arrested for Reckless Driving

Heather Pickering

10th Grade

Tonight on Fox news, a chimp gets arrested for reckless driving. Tells us more, Heather. Well Dave, sources say that there were 20 cops on the scene because one was just not enough. Really, Heather? Yes, Dave. Apparently the chimp was drunk according to several people who were watching. That’s interesting. Yes Dave, it really is. And according to source A, it took all 20 cops to arrest the chimp because he was just too wild. Now let’s watch what happened . . . “Long wait.” I’m sorry we are experiencing technical problems. Well ... Ahem. I guess we will tell you more while we wait for them to fix the problem, Dave. Well Heather, I don’t know what’s worse. What’s that, Dave? The chimp getting arrested or it taking 20 cops to arrest the chimp. Oh Dave. Oh now we go live to Bob. Bob. Hey Heather. What’s going on, Bob? Well Heather, I’m on the scene where the arresting of the chimp took place. According to the cops he was driving a blue mustang. That’s a nice car, Bob. Yes it is, Heather. Now Bob, did cops say if there was any damage to the car or chimp? Yes Heather, cops say the chimp is fine but the car is in really bad shape. Oh that’s not good, Bob. No it’s not, Heather. And according to sources the car was stolen. Well Bob, I guess that is just monkey business. And that’s all we have time for. And thanks for watching. I’m Heather and I’m Dave and this is Fox news.

I Found Jesus Under my Wallpaper

Aubrey Brooks

10th Grade

Wilber Sheawork had just moved into his New York apartment. It wasn’t that nice but its the only thing he could afford at the time. There were no rooms, it was all just one whole room. The kitchen was to the left right when you walked in the door. The bathroom that was only private by a dark blue shower curtain hanging from the roof, was on the right, across from the kitchen. The Bed(with no room) dropped out of the wall when you would pull a white string with a big wooden handle on it. The only area left would be the “living room” which would pretty much only be the back wall, with a little itty bitty fire place, and THE ugliest wall paper with flowers and teddy bears on it. Of course this bugged Wilber, but he was too focused on his writing.

Wilber woke up the next morning and took a shower, ate some cereal and walked out the door to launch his destine career. He walked into the "New York Times" building, got an interview and to convince the headquarters that this was the job for him, he had to write an article on anything. Wilber was so confused, didn’t know what to write about, but not to worry the deadline was at the end of the week. So until he thought of something,

Wilber went to the store, got some wallpaper, and decided to cover up those STUPID teddy bears and flowers. He walked into his room, went straight to the wall, and tore all of the wallpaper off. Suddenly, his jaw drops eyes widen, and sits in amazement to see that Jesus was under his wallpaper. There was nothing else but a cut out of Jesus, and the scary part was that it was so life like. He felt like it was actually him, like it was actually Jesus. That’s when it hit him, the most important article that he would ever write, would be about Jesus sitting there on his wall. His article was phenomenal. It was so good that it turned up front page of New York Times and everyone was talking about it.

Japan Breeding Army of Godzillas!

Ashley Sosa

10th Grade

“Now Miss Darlan, please tell me and my friends here exactly what you saw,” an FBI agent was asking me. He was tall and his black suit and sunglasses made him look really intimidating. I really don’t know how I got myself into this. Sitting in a white room with only a table and a camera pointing right at my face didn’t seem normal. I never expected this to happen. Really, exciting stuff doesn’t usually happen to me. Though somehow I got myself into what might be a war with Japan and the United States. It all started a day before my senior trip.

“Madison, do you really think we should be watching Godzilla before we go to Japan?” my best friend Mark asked me. We’ve known each other since first grade. I find it amazing we are still friends. He’s the rock star type that moms wouldn’t want their daughters to be hanging out with. He had black hair that flung in his face every time he would look left or right. I’m the kind of girl that you’d think would get straight A’s. Curly blonde hair with green eyes usually means smarts. But not me, I’m lucky to get a B.

“Of course! You’re not scared of. Godzilla are you?” I teased

“Oh whatever,” he said with a grin. After the movie was over and Mark left I started packing. I had to pretty much get up in six hours. Being at the airport at 4 A.M is something I really didn’t want to do. After packing I dozed off to sleep for what seemed like ten minutes. I woke up to my mom yelling at me to get ready. I put some jeans a shirt and a jacket on, helped my mom put my suitcases in the car and said goodbye to my dad and sister. My mom drove me to the airport with a worried look on her face. I already knew what was wrong with her but I asked anyways.

“Hey mom, what’s wrong?”

“Madison, you’ve never even been out of North Dakota. And they want to take you at of the country?! Are they trying to give us parents a heart attack? What if some ninjas just come out of nowhere take you and try to sell you to some llama farmer?!” she yelled. Sad thing is she was serious.

“Mom. I really doubt that ninjas are going to kidnap me. I’m going to be fine. I promise.” I smiled at her.

“Fine. But I still don’t… Just those Japanese people. I heard they were making monsters in their labs.”

I didn’t pay much attention to her statement. Though I should have. My mom dropped me off at the airport but not until she hugged me about a thousand times. Once I got in I found Mark and we started up the stairs to security.

“Now kids you need to stick together!” Mrs. Camille yelled. She was a great teacher and I was glad to have her as a supervisor. It was way better than Mr. Crandle. He smelled like tuna all the time. Plus when he talked he spit all over the place. I was lucky enough to get a seat by Mark. The sixteen hour plane ride was the worst. But I guess it doesn’t help if you have an unhealthy fear of planes. I was hyperventilating pretty much the whole sixteen. Hours. Finally our planes landed in the country of Japan. Getting out of the airport was tough. There ewer so many people. That must be how sardines feel in their little can. Once we got there we went straight to the hotel and unpacked our thing. The hotel was huge and beautiful. It had a steam in the lobby and huge pool in the back. Definitely not what I was expecting when I first thought of the hotel in my mind. I was lying on the bed watching some weird show when in heard a knock at eh door.

“Madison, it’s Mark,” Naomi told me. I was rooming with her and two other girls. Jessica and Crystal. They were nice girls but I usually never talked to them.

“Mark, what are you doing? I thought we were supposed to stay in our rooms until tomorrow,” I asked him.

“Come on. You really want to wait in your room for like a bazillion hours?” he asked.

“Well... no”

“Then come on! We are gonna go explore the hotel,” he said smiling. He loved to explore hotels for some reason. Strange hobby I guess.

“Fine,” I agreed. We started on the sixth floor since that was our favorite number and we were pretty sure none of the students were up there that would tell on us. An hour went by with us just seeing if there were any rooms unlocked and playing in the elevator. We were about to go back to our rooms when we heard someone coming down the seventh floor.

“Shhh! I think a teacher might be coming,” Mark said as we hid behind a wall where the fire exit was. I carefully peeked from behind the wall and saw it was just two Japanese men. They seemed odd to me because of what they were wearing. White lab coats.

“If you were to see these men again would you be able to recognize them?” The FBI agent asked me.

“Of course. Their faces are tattooed in my mind. That’s how freaky looking they were,” I told him.

He nodded and wrote things in his notebook. “Go on.”

Their faces were somewhat deformed and it looked like scales were coming out of their cheeks. They were just walking and talking in Japanese. Now was the time that I thanked my mom for making me learn Japanese before I came here.

“I think the USA is onto us. I think they sent some spy’s here with that school. We need to be more careful. We should go back to the lab and stay there until the school leaves,” one of the men said. I looked at Mark and he ushered to leave. He had no clue what they were saying.

I nodded no and have him the shush sign.

“That might not be a good idea. We need to feed the babies anyways.”

They pressed the elevator button and disappeared.

“Mark! Those guys think some of us are US spies! I think they are up to something bad.”

“Dude they said that?!” he asked almost panicked. “We need to go check this stuff out! Come on!” He grabbed my hand and we ran down the emergency exit. We caught up to them right as they were leaving the lobby. It was surprising that no one even noticed the scales on their faces. It was like they saw it every day. They went out this backdoor from the lobby and there was a truck in back of the hotel. I wanted to jump out but the truck was moving way to fast already. The only thing to do now was to lie down and hope I didn’t fall out. The truck stopped after what felt like an hour. The two men got out and I waited about five minutes till I popped my head out. I had no idea where I was. There was a tall building in front of me and a door that led inside of it. I crept out of the truck and went over to the door. It was still slightly opened. Lucky for me. I slid inside and saw that all the walls and even the floor were white. I walked down the hallway and a saw a door with a window. I slowly peeked in the window and that’s when I saw it. Thousands of Jars that had what looked like baby Godzillas. I fell to the floor with shock. I picked myself up and took another look. I saw Japanese scientist take one out of the jar and put it onto a table. I thought it was dead until it started walking and making a crying sound. The cry was so loud I had to cover my ears. I backed away from the door and debated whether to keep going down the hall or just leave. My curiosity got the better of me. I found another door with a window. This time the baby Godzillas were bigger. Much bigger. It looked like they were about ten feet tall. All in cages. I heard a door opening and ran into the nearest door I found without a window. It was dark and I felt around until I found something to hide behind. I waited until I heard the footsteps leave when I came out.

“There is no way I’m still in real life ... “ I looked around for a switch because I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back out in the white hallway. When I found one and flipped on the switch I could believe my eyes. There was a huge map of the United States. On each state there was a piece of paper. I slowly walked to the map and took of one of the papers that were on North Dakota. “SPECIES 7439 SET TO DESTROY CAPITAL.” These Godzilla things were going to destroy the capitals! I had to tell someone. Anyone! Anyone American that is. I quickly turned around and dashed out of the room. I ran to the end of the hall and ran out the door. I heard shouting behind me. I kept running even when I was certain they weren’t following me. I found a park and sat down on a bench.

“What am I going to do? I don’t even know where I am,” I said putting my head down. All of a sudden I felt a hand on my shoulder. I was ready to see a Japanese man with a Godzilla thing ready to eat me. Instead I saw a man dressed in all black. And he wasn’t Japanese! He seemed like he was thirty. He had sunglasses on so his face looked stern and serious.

“Come with me,” was all he said as he grabbed my hand. We walked until we got into a van where he pushed me in. Inside was another man. This one was somewhat older looking.

“Hello. My name is Agent Sent. This is my partner. We have some questions for you.”

My heart was pounding out of my chest. “Okay?” I said finally

“What were you doing in that building?” he asked sternly.

“I... I... I was just... I was following these Japanese men that were talking about spies and babies and I followed them and I... I saw ... Godzillas! There were thousands of them! They are planning to attack the United States. We have to tell someone! The president! The military! Anyone!” I said out of breath.

“Breathe, kid. You just did tell someone,” Agent Sent said. “We are from the FBI. We are going to take you back to the states for some more questioning.”

I looked at the FBI agent, he was still writing some things down in his notebook. He finally looked up at me with a smile. The first smile I had seen in a week. They had taken me to Washington where everyone kept stern faces. They didn’t tell me what was going on. They wouldn’t even tell me if they informed my family that I was all right. All they did was take a blood test and ask me questions like if I was manipulated by the Japanese.

“Thank you, Madison. We’ve been trying to find the hiding place of these Godzilla species. You’ve saved probably thousands ... maybe millions of Americans.” And with that he left and a lady walked in. She took me outside where my family was waiting.

“Don’t worry, kid. We’re going to take care of it from here,” she said with a warm smile.

Then she left me with my family. Once we got back to North Dakota everyone already knew about my “adventure” thanks to Mark. Things went back to normal after about a month. I later heard from the news that war had been declared on Japan. Who knows what’s going to happen now?

 

 

 

 

This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endowmentfor the Arts.