Preface

I finally packed the last of my belongings in my suitcase and was ready to go. Today was the day of my flight to LA from Santa Rosa. I was moving to go live with my mom whom I haven’t seen in more than four years and I am a bit excited to see her. Moving is hard enough, but now I have to start a new school and make new friends. I heard quick footsteps come through the hall.

If we don’t hurry, we’ll be late, I heard my father think (I’m a mind reader, but I can only read the thoughts of those I know well or are close by). “Alice, we need to leave in five minutes!” my dad reminded me.

“Okay… I’ll be out there in a sec.” I said.

I grabbed all my things, which took up three luggage bags, and took them out of my room, down the hall and stairs, and out the front door. I was surprised that I could carry that much. From there my dad, Peter, got it and tossed it in the back of the car and then we both got in the black Ford. We then began our drive to SFO Airport.

We finally got to the airport and found a parking spot. About an hour and a half later, I checked in my bags, went through security, and grabbed a bite to eat one last time with my father. It was now time to board. They called on the loud speaker for my plane number to start boarding. I gave my dad a hug and said “Bye dad. I’ll miss you.”

“I’ll miss you too.” He said back while trying not to cry.

I stepped through the gate and onto the plane. I found 17c, my seat, and sat down. Once everyone was on the plane we prepared for take-off. I was kind of scared to be on a plane, since it was my first time in one alone. When we were in the air I tried to ignore everyone’s thoughts by listing to my iPod. It was almost impossible to ignore all of them; most were simply about boredom. The time slowly came but now we were landing. All I could say was “WOW” as I looked out the window to see the beautiful city of LA. I knew it was going to be different moving from a smaller city to a huge one.

The seat-belt sign on the ceiling switched off and everyone stood up simultaneously. People were grabbing their bags, looking for children, and waking up as I walked to the front of the plane with the immense wave of passengers. I got off the plane and out in front of the gate where I recognized a woman standing eagerly in the distance.

I walked towards the slightly familiar brunette woman who was wearing a bright green tank-top and boot-cut jeans. She saw me and started my way.

“Mom”, I said. I hadn’t seen her in so long and it was almost hard for me to see straight.

 You look so much different. I missed you so much. I can’t believe my eyes. My mother thought. “Alice… is that you? It’s been so long and I couldn’t imagine how you have changed over the years.” She gave me a huge hug. We walked together to get my bags and then to her car.

 

We had a lot of catching up to do. We talked and shared favorite stories (some about living with dad and my friends) and the whole way to my new home.

We pulled up in the drive way. The house was painted a sky blue with white trim. The view of the house was breath taking and I couldn’t wait to see what the inside of it looked like. My mom grabbed her key from her designer purse that was an off white. She slowly put the key in the door, turned it clockwise, and revealed the inside of her house.

The house was all hardwood floors, except or the bedrooms and living room, which was painted a light sage green and had a cream colored couch. We went down the hall and turned right. We were in front of a door that was shut tight.

“This room is all yours Alice.” My mom told me.

I slowly turned the door knob and opened the white door. The room was impeccable. It was garlanded with a queen sized bed, a few dressers for clothes, and a huge wooden desk with a laptop sitting atop it. The bedding on the bed was a dark purple. I wondered how my mom knew what my favorite color was, but my thought was cut off by my mother’s.

My mother nervously thought, I do hope Alice loves what I’ve done with this room…

“I love the room, mom,” I assured her. She looked at me with a small smile and I responded with one myself.

I got myself settled in and was all unpacked by 5 o’clock at night. Tomorrow was my first day of school. It was the middle of the year, so I was starting in the second semester. I was sort of nervous that I was starting in a new school, especially since I had no friends here and most of all because I was transferring from a private catholic school to a public school. I was going into the 11^th grade, second semester. I wasn’t sure how the day would happen; would it just unfold like a normal day. I hoped it would. I laid on my bed thinking and once it hit 9:00, I turned off the lights and went to bed. This seemed like the end, but it was merely the beginning.

 

Chapter 1

“Coming!” I yelled to my mother as I ran down the stairs. I walked through the hall and stopped for a moment to look at myself in the mirror. My straightened hair reached the bottom of my shoulders and was a chocolate brown that harmonized my eyes. I verified that my clothes matched (I was wearing a light blue short sleeved shirt and dark blue jeans) and that my make-up looked good before continuing towards the door. I kept walking to the car and on the way out caught a quick glimpse at the clock, 7:47 a.m. I knew we were late so I picked up the speed on my walking.

I finally got to my mom’s car an opened the door. I put my black and white polka dotted Jansport® backpack on the floor under my feet, closed the door, and put my seat belt on as we drove away from the house. I noticed that it was a nice warm and sunny day. There were a few clouds in the distance, but that was all.

The ride to school only took around 5 minutes. My mom had already enrolled me into school and gotten me a schedule and map of the school. I stared at the map for the whole car ride to school finding where all my classes were located. From the looks of the map, the school was massive. Right as I thought about the size, my mom pulled up in front of the school. I was right. It was big.

“You’ll be fine getting to your classes right?” my mother said.

“Yeah, I’ll figure it out. I have this map,” I said holding up the map, “I’ll find my way.”

“Okay. I love you… Have a good day at school. I’ll be here after school to pick you up.”

“Bye, mom,” I said.

I opened the car door and got out slowly, making sure I had everything. I looked around to see at least a thousand kids staring at me. I walked up to the front of the school and entered the main door, which revealed hallways populated with people, doors, and lockers. I walked down a few hall ways and finally found my locker. The lockers were painted black and green (according to school colors), and mine ended up being green. I opened it up put some things in, closed and locked it.

The first bell rang. The school was now flooded with teens. I located my first class on the map… now all I had to do was find it. I went down a hallway, turned right, and then left. I finally found my class. It was Biology 10 with Mr. Smith. I went to the teacher and told him I was new.

“Oh… you must be…,” He looked down at a paper and said, “Alice Callaghan.”

“Yep.” I answered.

He told me to sit at the table that was the fourth on back on the right. There was a blonde girl sitting there with no one next to her. I walked through the classroom towards my new seat. I seemed that everyone was staring at me, and when I looked up, they were. I tried to ignore tried to the fact that I was the center of attention and briskly walked my assigned seat and sat down. I put my bag on the floor and listened to what the teacher had to say. He handed out a worksheet on something that I’ve already learned. I finished my worksheet within ten minutes. I looked around to see that I was the only one finished. I slightly turned to my right and looked at the girl next to me.

    “Hey, my name is Alice.” I said.

    “I’m Anna. So you’re new to this school, right.” She replied.

    “Yeah, I just moved here from Santa Rosa.” I answered.

    “Oh. That’s cool,” she muttered, “How did you finish the worksheet so fast?”

    “I already learned this last semester, so it was easy.”I explained.

We kept on talking to each other, until Mr. Smith told us to be quiet, since some of the people in the class were still working. The time flew by and before I knew it class was over. When the bell rang, I put my stuff back into my backpack.

That was the longest class ever. I didn’t even finish the worksheet. I heard someone think. I was thinking the exact opposite. I turned to go out the door of the class room and saw Anna standing with a group of people. She stopped me in my tracks.

“What class do you have next?” She asked as we slowly walked down the hall.

“Umm…” I said while pulling a neatly folded piece of paper out of my pocket. I slowly unfolded it and located the part that said period 2. “I have PE with Mrs. Locket.” I continued.

“Oh cool… so do I. I’ll walk with you there.”Anna assured.

  

Chapter 2

We walked down the hall and then inside the door. The Locker room and gym were on the second floor. We walked up the stairs to the girl’s locker room, while simultaneously chatting. We walked through the locker room door and I instantly looked at my schedule, which also had my locker number. The number “21 a” was printed there. I looked at all of the lockers and after going through the second row found mine. I changed for PE and walked out into the gym where I found my teacher standing and waiting for the rest of the class. I went to the bleachers where all the rest of the people were sitting and sat down next to Anna.

“Do you know what we are doing today?” I questioned.

“No, sorry. We are supposed to do some sport we haven’t done yet.”

I looked behind me to see Mrs. Locket calling the class over so that she could take attendance. She picked up her green clipboard that held several papers and read the names. She called my name and then realized she did not recognize it.

She looked up at me and said, “Alice… you are new to this school aren’t you. Did you have trouble finding the gym?”

“No, I didn’t have any trouble.”

  “Good.” She replied, “Welcome to BHS!” She looked down at her clipboard and resumed calling names. About 35 names and “Here’s” later, the class was standing in the gym waiting silently for her to speak. “The new unit we will be doing is volleyball. Everyone get a partner, grab a ball, and start practicing bumping back and forth.” She said while rolling out a basket of volleyballs. I walked to Anna and asked her if she wanted to be my partner and she accepted. I was happy that I got to play a sport that I liked and loved. I walked over to the basket, grabbed a volley ball and went back to where Anna was standing. We stood about 6ft apart and I tossed the ball to her and she hit it back. We kept on hitting back and forth until the teacher said to stop since class was over.

“Wow, Alice your hella good at volleyball. Did you play at your old school?”

“Actually I did. Our team was undefeated. What about you, you were pretty good too?”

“I was on the team just this year and once in middle school, but I’m not that good.”

We walked back to the locker room and changed into our normal clothes. We walked outside the gym and sat on a nearby bench. I pulled the schedule paper from my pocket and located 3^rd period. I had Algebra 2 with Mr. Jones.

“Hey what class do you have next?” I asked Anna.

“I have History with Mrs. Franklin.”

“Oh. I have Algebra with Mr. Jones. Do you know where that classroom is?”

“Yeah. You go down the path that way, “she said wile pointing and then to the right and walk down past three or four classrooms and it should be right there.”

“Thanks. I’m sure I’ll find it…”

I assured as the bell began to ring. In solitude, I followed Anna’s directions and sure enough, I was staring at the door when I passed three other classrooms. I opened the door and slowly paced inside where I saw Mr. Jones sitting at this desk. I walked straight to the desk and told him I was new to the class.

“Just sit over there, in the 2^nd to last row, fifth seat from the left.”

“Okay I said shyly.”

I turned around to see a bunch of desks in rows and half of them were occupied with students. I walked to my seat, sat down, and waited for class to start. Mr. Jones walked down the row, holding a bright green textbook. He dropped it on my desk and it made a smack on the desk.

“Open your books to page 297 and start with review C.”

I opened my book to the right page, and pulled out a pencil and a sheet of graph paper. I looked at the page it was review on factoring binomials with exponents. Good thing I was practically an expert on the subject. I got to number twenty before I started having trouble. There were only 30 problems, but, for some reason, the last 10 gave me trouble. I worked through them slowly and ended up having six left at the end of the period. He announced to the class that any unfinished work was homework. Great, I thought, it’s the first day of school and I already have homework. I looked at my schedule and discovered I had Spanish 2 with Mr. Cortez. I remembered looking at the school map at its location, but I didn’t know how to get there from here. I started walking in a random way, when I herd a group of boys and girls talking about going to Mr. Cortez’s class. I decided to follow them and sure enough I ended up in his class. Right as I walked in with the group of kids, Mr. Cortez told us to pick new seats and that he would be handing out new books. I sat down in a desk near the front and watched the others sit down. A girl with brown hair sat down next to me. Just as she said hello me, I got a weird feeling.

 

                Chapter 3

This must be Alice. She seems different from what I imagined. She thought. How did she know my name? And how did she know what I looked like? I’ve never seen her before. All throughout class I wondered who the girl next to me was. When class was over I stood up, put my backpack on, and when I looked forward, she was standing in front me.

“Hi,” she said happily, “My name is Meghan. You must be new here.”

“Umm…yeah, I just transferred here over winter break. I’m Alice by the way.”

“Nice to meet you Alice! Do you have history after lunch?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Hold on a sec.” I said while pulling out the paper. I found sixth period on the list and looked at the subject.

“Yes, actually I do. How did you know that?” I suspiciously asked.

“Lucky guess?” she said back. I knew she was lying, I could feel it. There was something more about Meghan that she was hiding, and she was good at it. I told her I had to go, because I was going to meet her at the tables. She said bye and I walked out the door of the class. I found my way through the crowded campus and eventually in the distance saw the tables. I saw Anna in the distance sitting with a group of people. Some of them looked familiar from my previous classes, but the others were complete strangers. I walked up to her and immediately said “hey.”

“Hey, what’s up? How were your 3rd and 4th period classes?” She inquired.

“Well 3^rd was easy. 4^th was okay, but I met this girl named Meghan and she seemed nice, but a little weird.” I said.

“Was it Meghan with the brown hair and hazel eyes?”

I nodded and Anna said, “Well then you just met the most popular sophomore in the school. She is a snobby, spoiled girl that will do anything to make her even more popular. My advice: don’t hang out with her.”

“What was weird was that she knew my name and what my 6^th period class is.” I said in confusion.

“It’s not surprising… she knows about everything that goes around here,” Anna explained,” She has her sources.”

 

 

Listen

Conscience Essay

            One of the most important things a person has is their conscience. It is “a person’s inner sense of what is right or what is wrong morally”. Having a conscience and listening to it is necessary and never should be avoided. Not listening to your conscience is probably on of the last things one would want to do. It could lead to countless dangers and feelings of remorse when going against what your inner voice says.

            Consciences generally speak correct ideas.  Ignoring that small voice in your head could lead to unwanted consequences that some people might not realize. For example, cheating in school is a major issue across the US. About 75% of high school students have cheated on several tests in the past year. Students cheat because of the want to success in good grades. Those specific students are most likely taking no notice of their conscience even though it says not to cheat. In this situation, not listening to your conscience could lead to the teachers and/or their parents finding out and possibly even expulsion from school. 

            Not only does your conscience assist you with “moral” issues, it also can guide you in other life situations such as safety. For instance, have you ever been waiting for an elevator and when the doors finally open there is a somewhat disagreeable looking person going your way?  At that moment your conscience may warn you and say “is it a good idea to get in a sound proof elevator with an eerie-looking stranger?”  There are many times that your conscience may throw you a red flag letting you know that this may not be the best decisions to go forward with. 

            This internal voice is a great benefit to all of us and should be used or at least always considered when making decisions. Paying attention to you conscience is an idea that everyone should follow. 

 

Patriot’s Pen Contest (Essay) 

            On June 5, 1943, WWII veteran, Fred Hergesheimer, was shot down over New Guinea.  Her survived this attack and returned to the country in the 1960’s.  This is just one of the thousands of men and women we honor every year on Veteran’s Day, which started November 11, 1954.  Veterans should always be honored because of the courage and bravery they held during war to protect their beloved county.

            Veterans have sacrificed themselves for the U.S.A.  They left their family and friends, knowing they could be gone for several years or not come back at all.  They could possibly miss their children growing up and friends change.  These men and women put their lives sat risk to protect their country.  They could have been killed at any moment and some veterans even had their lives changed forever.  Most get nightmares about war and might even be paranoid commonly called post traumatic stress.  Some veterans even come home with a permanent or serious injury, such as a missing limb.  Veterans were incredibly brave and courageous to accept these sacrifices.

            Veterans that served for our country fought not just because they love their country.  They were fighting for themselves and what they believe.  Sometimes, these veterans fought for other countries that did not have the resources to protect themselves.  Fighting was for freedom and peace.  But, the main reason for fighting … is to protect others and our country.

            Loyalty is probably the best thing a person whom is serving for our country, like the veterans once had.  Whether they disagreed or not, they did whatever they were told to do and gave their best effort.  They knew what they were doing when they were willing to put their life on the line for this country.  The most outrageous thing that the veterans did was never give up.  These men and women stayed and fought for years and years if that is how long it took to win.  No matter what happened, they kept going.

            Veterans who have served for our country have proven to be both brave and courageous.  Whether they volunteered or were drafted these men and women fought to keep our country safe for all citizens.  For all these things the veterans do for our country we could at the least honor them for what they did during their term of service.

 

Love and Sacrifice Essay

            In a way, love can mean sacrifice.  Love sacrifices for others in several forms, such as dying in place of another, serving for a beloved country or putting one’s interests above your own.  In my opinion, dying through sacrificing love is the way I would leave life, if I had the choice.  The ultimate sacrifice is through the powerful emotion of love.

            The most common way love is a sacrifice is by dying in the place of a loved one, such as a friend or family member.  “I’ve never took much thought to how I would die, but dying in the place of someone I love seems like a good way to go”.    In this quote from Twilight, spoken by Bella Swan, Bella is told that her mother was to be killed, and she agrees to die instead of her mother.  This is an example of this form of sacrifice. I agree with the quote that is above.  Dying in the place of another sounds like the best way to die, because you’re sacrificing love for another by putting your life down for another through love and sacrifice.

            Another  way that love is sacrificing is by serving for one’s country.  Serving is dangerous and risky, and the men and women whom serve know that.  During war, it is a possibility to die, and this idea of serving began with the love and passion for their country.  By serving for your country, you are literally putting your life on the line to save thousands and thousands of people, whom populate the nation you love.

            Putting another’s interests above your own is a way of love being sacrificed.  In particular, parents put their children’s interests above their own ever day to protect them.  In order to be sure children are protected a parent must ask the question to themselves in many life decisions “Is this in the best interest of the children” despite of what they want.  Also they put their interests above their own by sacrificing their earned money to feed and give their children what they need.

            In a way love and sacrifice are related.  To love, you need to be willing to sacrifice for the loved and to sacrifice you need to have a reason…..love.  All in all, love is sacrifice no matter what form it takes….Dying for another, serving for a country, or even putting an interest above your own.

 

 

          My dog Petey, a 1 ½ year old Boston terrier, holds memories that I will never forget and every time I see him I think of this, funny moment.

          When I lived in my old house in Benicia, my family had a hot tub and Petey loved to lie on the orange-red hexagonal shape cover.  He would lie there in complete relaxation and sun all day.  One day, my stepbrother, Seth, and I were sitting and talking in the hot tub.  I saw Petey slowly stroll out of the open glass sliding door and into the backyard. He lay down on his soft cream colored bed. As I watched him an idea popped in my mind. “Petey! Petey! Come here!”I encouraged.  He stared at me for a couple of seconds then came sprinting toward hot tub, thinking that the hot tub cover was on. He sprang up from the cold concrete ground.  SPLASH!!  He landed right in the center of the hot tub.

          Petey, being extremely terrified of water, instantly went crazy.  He was dog- paddling in random directions, trying to find the quickest way out.  He finally got to the nearest corner and struggled as he quickly attempted to climb out of the 100 degree water. After another attempt, he swiftly jumped out. Standing there, he was in shock, shaking as if we were in Antarctica. We, on the other hand, were laughing the entire time this was happening. I got out of the hot tub; picked him up, picked out a towel just the right size for him and swiftly dried him off, while saying, “its o.k. Petey. Calm down.” For the next two weeks He was petrified of the hot tub. I would have never guessed that Petey could hold such an unforgettable memory.

Forgetting my 13^th birthday would be nearly impossible, especially after receiving a valuable gift from my Mother.  Shinning with gold and emerald, she gave me a beautiful ring.   I was sitting on the small blue couch in my living room.  She told me that it was hers and her mother’s and so on.  My mother had also received it when she turned 13.

          Because the small ring did not fit my finger,  I was disappointed.  Since it didn’t fit, I spent the rest of the long day impatiently waiting for the next.  The next day we went to the Unique Jewelry, a nearby store, to get it fitted.  It took a few days for it to be ready, but finally the next weekend my mom and I went back to the shop.  We got into the jewelry filled store;  I picked up my ring, and slid it on.  It fit perfectly.

          Once it was in my possession, I would wear it everywhere.  And when I was sleeping I would carefully take it off and set it in a drawer, but not jus any drawer.   The drawer in my square pink and white jewelry box, which was given to me by my grandmother.

          To this day I wear my ring whenever I remember to put it on in the morning.  I hope I can give this ring to my children and they could give it to theirs.  This ring shinning with gold and emerald will always hold the memory of turning 13.

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