Pencils are a strange thing - a short story

I wrote this story at age 10.

Pencils Are a Strange Thing

“Gulp!” We lost it. The precious family heirloom. The pencil. Yep, you heard that right. Our family heirloom is a pencil. There are MANY rumors about it, but here is the one that I think is true. It supposedly gives us great grades. I'm a straight A student. My brother is a B+ student. He isn't the sharpest knife in the cupboard. My father is a head doctor and my mom is a lawyer. We spend most of our time with our nanny, Lori Mason. The pencil is our favorite heirloom. So, you can imagine the worry when it went missing. Wait, you didn't hear that the pencil went missing?! Do you live under a rock?! Well, I suppose I'll have to tell you all about it, so let's get started. I have a story to tell.

I had a math test that day. It was the 21^st of March. We wrapped up and headed outside. As we left, Lori shouted “You won't pass this test, because you didn't study!” If only I had known she was right. At the bus stop, my friend Lucy asked to quiz each other. I said okay. But, I got nearly everything wrong! I didn't even get the square root of 25 is 5! “ Lilac, did you study?” she accused. “You know I never do,” I pointed out. For the rest of the bus ride, we studied. I was slowly getting better until I knew I would at least get a B. I did. But, I am an A student. My teacher called me up and said, “ What's wrong? You only got a B!” All that I could say was, “ Honestly, I don't know.”

2 days later, after my brother Landon bombed his science quiz, we went to check on the pencil. But, it wasn't in it's podium! Gulp! Uh, oh! Our entire family was sad. We had to find the pencil. But how?

Well, we figured out how. A detective named Lark Lupine came to our house. He seemed okay. He asked me a lot of questions and wrote a lot in his notepad. Then, after an hour he showed me the things he had written. “Do you know anyone that looks like this?” he asked. His description was a lot like Lucy. And the sketch he had made looked like her too! Of course, the parts he had filled in looked like that. I nodded. “That looks like my friend Lucy Pines.” He nodded and then asked me loads of questions about Lucy. Unfortunately, I was starting to think about Lucy. It wasn’t in a good way.

That night, I couldn't help but wonder whether the thief was my BFFL Lucy Pines. After dinner, I went to the room with the Pencil Podium. I looked around. Lark hadn't let us look around before, so I needed clues. I saw 2 strands of curly, black hair. It looked just like Lucy's. I didn't want to believe it, but I had no choice. Lucy Pines, my ex- BFFL, criminal, and my oldest friend. Former friend.

It was the next day, and at school, Lucy said unhappily, “ I don't think I trust that Lupines guy. Do you?” I gave her a look. Unfortunately, Lucy Pines cannot take a hint at all. She kept rambling on, but, after a while, I starting to believe that Lark Lupines might have stolen the pencil. I needed time to think and we were almost at the classroom. I thought fast. “ Hey, Lucy, could you tell Ms. Owler that I went to the bathroom?” I ran off before she could answer. “This is too confusing,” I thought to myself. “This is really confusing.”

In the bathroom, I hid and thought things over. How could it be the detective? He didn't have black curly hair. But, he could have planted the hair anytime that he was in the house. But, what about the drawing. Wait, hadn't he seen Lucy leave because we were studying and she had to go?! But, why would he be the detective if he stole it? Then, everything fit together. He did it to lead us off track like little red riding hood! I was fuming and the day seemed to go by like a turtle. When, I got home, Lark was there. I was so mad, but, I needed a plan. Luckily, I had one.

I grabbed my pencil and made sure it was the right length. I pulled out my phone, and set it on the table, in voice recording mode. Then, I ran up to Lark and exclaimed, “Lark,we found the pencil!” He instantly turned ghostly white. “B – b – but it can't be! The pencil wouldn't be in plain sight! I wouldn't – the criminal wouldn't hide it in plain sight! They would hide it in a warehouse or an abandoned building! I smiled and hit STOP an my phone. “ Thanks for the information.....criminal!” I snapped the pencil in ½ and ran before he knew what was happening.

I am proud to say that I got Lark Lupines, criminal mastermind, into jail. We got the pencil from the old warehouse down the street and our grades instantly went up. But even with the pencil, I always study. Lucy and I agreed to never doubt each other again and after lots of searching, we found that there was a weak spot in the wall that Lupine crawled through. Well, that was my story. Gulp! Uh, oh!

Two minds - a poem

Two Minds

You always knew what to say,

You were there everyday.

It was like you were me,

If only others could see.

It was like you were always there,

It was like you were everywhere.

You never seemed like any other,

when we were around each other.

Maddie Mermaid - A mermaid story

Maddie Mermaid

And the jeweled discovery

Maddie was having a great day. Her best friend Trisha was coming over and they were gonna unlock the secrets of Mermaidians 4. Trisha and Maddie loved secrets. When Trisha came, they played in the underwater field. Maddie was swimming when she saw something shining in the seaweed. Maddie was attracted to shiny things. She went and grabbed it. She stopped to look at it. It was in the shape of a beetle. “Could it be a fossilized beetle?”

she thought. But it was blue.

*******

Maddie stood behind Trisha in the Mermaid Museum. Trisha looked around. Trisha knew the Mermaid Museum by heart. Trisha led her to the west wing. There she took her to a small stand. Carved in it were small holes. The holes were shaped like a deer,a turtle,a rabbit,and a beetle. Next to the stand was a merman wearing a helmet. Maddie stopped to read the statement.

Scientists believe that this

merman tried to open some

kind of portal to a similar world.

Not even our best,bravest mermaids

have gone to this world

“Trisha,” Maddie called “I don't think that this is a good idea.” But it was too late. Trisha had already put in the beetle.

To be continued....

Waterfall - Pastel Art work

I drew this looking at a waterfall picture on the internet at Mrs.Amanda Layre's art class. Completed it on 4/20/2013.

Abstract art - George O'Keefe

Even though this didn't come out as spectacular as I had wished, I still like this one. Sorry about the reflection of hardwood floor. Can't get enough light to take a nice picture on the wall where it is hung. Drew this in the month of March, 2013.

Landscape 1

Drew this in art class. In the month of October, 2012.

Ghostlingham The Great

January 20

Hi! I am Ghostlingham.  Let me tell you a story. Now let's see. Well I will tell you about the time I had my first adventure. My mom was driving me to Granny Grums house. When we got there, I called "Granny". just then we heard a scream. It was coming from the kitchen. I dashed towards the kitchen. "Whats the matter" I panted. I can't find my secret recipe for chunky chocolate nut raisin ice-cream cupcakes Granny answered. Granny had a recipe for everything and this was the 5th time in the past month I had helped her to find a recipe. "Oh Granny", I whined. "You are always losing everything." Alright, alright, I am always losing everything. Granny said rolling her eyes "Now will you stop blabbering and help me?". Sometimes Granny can be kind of stern. "OK"  I groaned.

                           *********

"Granny" I groaned for the seventeenth time. "Can't we take a break?  I mean we have been searching for six hours. My mom is coming in two hours." I am beginning to think that Granny loves this recipe. "Granny, let's atleast try some clues." Granny nodded. Now, this was the kind of thing that I was good at. I've been solving mysteries since I was three. I pulled out my notepad. "Have you found it yet?" asked Granny.

"No."

I started pulling out my detective supplies. First, I took out my magnifying glasses to look for the finger prints. There were couple of finger prints here and there. I took out my notepad again. I drew a picture of the finger print. Then I turned to Granny. "Who knows the code to your safe?" I asked. "Just your uncle Orange." She answered. That solved it. He knew something about this. "Can we go to uncle Orange's House?" I asked. Granny nodded. We got into her car.

                         **********

When we got to uncle Orange's house, I knocked on the door. My cousin Sam answered the door. He held the door open silently. His face was pale. I marched straight up to the top  floor and stormed into the office. "Uncle Orange," I called. "Yes.." answered a deep voice. I went to the desk. I pulled out my notepad and wrote 'What Uncle Orange knows-'. "Do you know anything about Granny's missing recipes or at least about these" I pulled out the contents of things I had found lying around in Granny's house. There was  a pair of yellow gloves, a strip of newspaper, a purple note book with initials S R O on it and a super man lunch bag containing an apple, orange and a banana. "Well," he said seeing the contents. "S.R.O are Sam's initials. That's all I know". "Well, that solves it. Sam is the culprit" I said. I went downstairs and saw Sam reading a long list. "Sam," I said sternly. "Did you take Granny Grum's recipe for chunky chocolate nut raisin ice-cream cupcakes?" I asked him. Sam looked up and handed me the list. He nodded. I smiled. Sam had been honest and caused no trouble. Now, that was a lesson learned.

                        ***********

I got to Granny's house. And the moment I stepped in, I heard a lot of noise that sounded like people are partying. I looked around and saw a DJ, dance floor and best of all, cupcakes!!. Then, I saw something that made me laugh. Sam was there eating two cupcakes at once. Then, I noticed something. The wrappers had "G" on them. Then the worst thing happened. Granny came and kissed me right on my forehead.

            THE END