Eli started writing this realistic fiction in school a few months ago. The assignment was given by the writing teacher, Mrs. Simms. He had to take several steps in the writing process, before he could actually start writing, which he wasn't too excited about: character development, story mountain, and planning the scenes. After he started writing, he was excited about how many words he had written so far in his story and sounded determined to have the most in his class. He was really enjoying the project, but it seemed to be lasting longer than the other's in the class. Mr. Asis (his teacher) encouraged him to continue, even after everyone else in the class had finished. He knew Eli was determined in his quest and wanted to let him accomplish his goal. As a month and then two passed, I thought he should "wrap up" the story and I assumed his teacher wanted him to do so, still encouraging him to complete his planned work. Anyway, Mr. Asis emailed the project for Eli to complete on his track break. He worked on it for a few hours the first day of track break and finally finished on the second day!!! So, without further ado...... (BTW it printed out to 14 pages at 16pt font, happy reading)
ELI FABRIZIO
Book 1
The new student
“Today we are going to have a new student!” Mr. Collins said as he put his book away. “His name is Chancho”
“Great,” Conner said to Cooper “Now we’re going to have a pig in our class.” Cooper laughed.
“How rude,” Angle scolded. “I’m excited to meet him.”
The doors opened they saw a kid with his mom step in. The boy had black hair, brown eyes and he was a little on the heavy side.
“Are you Mr. Collins?” The lady asked.
“Yes, yes I am,” Mr. Collins said with a grin.
“This is Chancho,” The lady continued.
“Chancho you can sit by Angle,” Mr. Collins said. “Angle, raise your hand. Put your back pack over there Chancho,” he pointed to the cubbies. Chancho went to his desk and Mr. Collins made him a name tag.
“Hey piggy,” Cooper said quietly which made Conner grin. His mom whispered something into Mr. Collins ear and left.
“Chancho can’t speak much English,” Mr. Collins explained. “Chancho come back up here, we always ask new students questions, Angle.”
“What’s your favorite pet?”
“My favorite is a peg,” Chancho said with a look on his face as if asking, `Did I say that right? ` Then he corrected himself, “Umm, pig.” Cooper and Conner tried not to laugh.
“What is your favorite color?” Mr. Collins continued. “My favorite color is Amarillo,” Chancho replied. All of the boys in the class LAUGHED!
“Very rude, you should be ashamed,” Mr. Collins said with a mad look on his face. “Sorry Chancho, the kids are being mean today, that’s enough for now,”
The rest of the morning they worked on Science, D.O.M. (Daily Oral Math) and D.O.L. (Daily Oral Language). When the bell rang, everyone lined up.
“Hey Chancho, do you want to hang out at recess?” Angle asked.
“Sure,” he replied.
Conner and Cooper shared disgusted looks. The class got outside and scrambled. Chancho and Angle went out to the field, Cooper and Conner followed.
“I know what we’re going to do today,” Cooper said with a grin. “We’ll Spy on them.” They went over close to the field and hid behind the trees. They saw Angle and Chancho.
“Gato is cat, pero is dog,” Angle told Chancho.
“Boring,” Copper said so only Conner could hear. “Let’s go play basketball.”
“Okay,” Conner agreed. The rest of recess Angle and Chancho taught each other their Languages and Cooper and Conner played basketball. The bell rang for lunch and everyone lined up, they got called in first.
“I’m not sitting next to you little piggy,” Cooper said and made a snorting noise.
“Remember,” Angle reminded Chancho.
“You boys are mane.” Chancho tried.
“Ha, Ha,” Copper cackled.
“That’s enough, shut up!” Angle said
“Someone’s learned some language,” Copper commented sarcastically.
“Let’s go over there,” Angle pointed to another table. “Humph, real mature Cooper,” she mumbled as they walked away.
A few minutes later Mr. Collins came in and motioned for everyone to line up. They got back to the class and got ready to go home and finally left for P.E.
“Get in here you ladies,” Coach Steve said in his tough voice.
They started stretching, then they ran a lap, then finally started the main activity.
“1st center is the relay race, 2nd center shooting hoops, 3rd center is Tag-The-Flag.” Coach Steve explained.
Cooper, Conner and some other kids were in group 3, Chancho, Angle and other kids were in group 2.
After P.E. they went home. On the bus, Cooper and Conner were talking.
“Meet me Sunday, 1:00 at the old radio tower,” Cooper said.
“Okay, well maybe, I have a baseball game and my brother has a soccer game,”
“Oh, can I come?”
“Sure it’s at Milwaukee Park at 1:30.”
* * *
“Conner,” Mrs. Hawks called from down stairs. “You need to finish your home work.”
“Wait five more minutes,” he replied.
“What would you be doing that’s more important than home work?”
“I’m talking to Cooper on the web-cam”
“About?” She started
“The things going on in College football,” Conner finished.
“When you’re done, come and finish your home work.”
“OK,” he replied. Cooper and Conner started talking again.
“When do you think you’ll be done with home work,” Cooper asked.
“Well math will take five minutes and spelling will take ten to fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll call back in twenty-five?” Copper asked
“Sure,” Conner said. Conner went down stairs and saw Angle’s mom talking to his. Then she looked at him.
“Conner,” Angle’s mom said. “I heard there was a new student today.”
“Yeah, there was,” he said. “His name was Chancho.”
His mom looked at him like she was very disappointed. “Was that his name?” Mrs. Hawks asked Angel’s mom.
“Yes,” she said, they both shared surprised looks.
Mr. Hawks went to Mexico for a business trip so he learned some Spanish. Chancho, in Spanish, meant pig.
“I’m going to go do my home work,” Conner said.
“I’m not finished,” Angle’s mom said. “And, I also heard that you were being mean to him.”
Conner didn’t know what to say, he was dead meat if he didn’t come up with something.
“C-c-c-cooper f-f-f-d-d-d,” that’s all he could think of.
“That’s what I thought,” Angle’s mom said.
“Get your home work and go to your room we’ll talk when your father gets home,” Mrs. Hawks said.
He went to his room; he heard footsteps coming up the stairs.
“Hey squirt,” a familiar voice said. “You’re in trouble.”
Conner’s bed room door opened. His older brother Zach came in.
“What do you want?” Conner asked.
“Just your wallet,” he replied.
“No, why,” Conner asked.
“Certain reasons.”
“Yeah right,” He said.
“Thanks.” He left the room with Conner’s wallet.
Conner sighed, that’s what big brother’s do, he thought.
He couldn’t finish his home work; he couldn’t stop thinking about today. This might be a little like how Chancho felt, Chancho might have felt even worse! He started to think about it, he should be nice to Chancho. After all this thinking he started to fall asleep.
* * *
“Fire at will,” Colonel Collins shouted.
It was a dark muggy day in Iran, the sound of firing cannons all around you. All the army men were screaming at each other, shooting at the Persians trying to stay alive.
“Ahhhhhhh!” one solider screamed. It was a scary site, the Persians we’re very strong.
“Retreat!” Colonel Collins yelled, all the Persians started cheering.
The Americans started running away. They got back to their camp, many of the soldiers limping most panting hard. Some were even held on a stretcher!
“Was it bad?” President O’Connell asked.
“Yes,” Colonel Collins replied.
“What was so bad?” He continued.
“The Persians bombed our cannons with one left,” Colonel Collins explained. “And we were outnumbered. I didn’t want the army to die so, I retreated the them. Is that bad?”
“No, but if we die we die as an army,” he replied, “and we’ll die valiantly. A president’s favorite thing to hear is ‘they fought hard or valiantly.’”
A soldier came in with an envelope in his hand. “Mr. President Sir, a note from the training area,” he handed the envelope to President O’Connell, he read the letter, then he said, “Send him in.”
“Yes Sir,” the army man obeyed. He left and came back in with a small boy. “This is Chang; he is from Boise, Idaho.”
“Ah, the new spy I assume?”
“Yup,” the solider replied.
“Walk him down to Merlin,” the President said to the army man.
They left the room and started down the hall, they heard the president and the colonel discussing the war.
“Who’s Merlin?” Chang asked.
“He’s an old wizard,” the army man replied. “He gives all spies nick names. What’s his story?” He asked then answered his own question. “He came from Camelot or so he says, he lost his family when he faced the greatest wizard in the world, you’ll have to ask him the whole story.”
“Okay.”
They kept walking and finally got to a big door that had a carving, it was a bearded man with a cloak and a pointed hat that had stars, dots and confetti and a wand pointed as if he was trying to turn you into something else.
The army man opened the door then said, “OK, see you later,” he said.
“Wait this is it?” Chang asked.
“Yup, unless I see you accidentally in the hall,” he answered.
“OK, just one last thing, what’s your name?”
“Gavin, Gavin Douglass.”
Chang walked in, he saw an old man putting green liquid into purple. It really did look like a wizard!
Merlin looked back, “Ah, if it isn’t the new spy.” Merlin reminded Chang of Dumbledore on Harry Potter. “What is your name,” Merlin asked with a slight grin on his face.
“Chang Lingo,” he replied.
Merlin paused; he looked like he was thinking. “How about C.L.A.S.S.?” he asked, but he wasn’t asking himself and he wasn’t asking Chang. An owl swooped down from his perch, landed on Merlin’s lap and nodded then shrugged. “It stands for Chang Lingo a Secret Spy.”
The owl made a disgusted look.
“I’m fine with that name,” Chang said. “Is that all you wanted to do?”
“Yes,” he replied. “Do you have any questions?”
Chang thought for a moment then shook his head. He left and started down the hall. He noticed he didn’t know where to go! He looked around, all he saw were doors. One of them read Multi-purpose room. He thought; maybe there would be a schedule in there. He went in, he saw a very muscular man. There was an obstacle course set up, there were some kids doing it. In the middle of the room there was a poster that said:
“I better get out of here,” he said to himself, “before I get in trouble.”
“Hey you,” said a voice, “What are you doing?”
Chang thought fast, “I’m just here to watch them do the course.”
“Get over here Mr.” he said. “Show me what you can do.”
“OK.”
Chang walked over to the muscleman, he stood next to a red line that said: START. He saw the muscleman’s name tag it was Pete MacIver.
Pete blew his whistle, Chang started running, and he ran up the first obstacle, the stairs. When Chang got to the top of the stairs he jumped into a pile of soft blocks. He acted like he was swimming, by using his hands and feet to get through them. Next, he dodged heavy pillows. He then ran to a rope, got on it and started climbing. When he got to the top he jumped to another rope and swung to a platform. Now he didn’t know what to do. He looked around, Chang finally found a pole; he slid down with a thud. The last obstacle was some horizontal poles, one was high the next one was low and the pattern continued. He saw the finish line.
The Physical Education teacher had his mouth wide open.
“We have a record breaker!” he said astonished.
Chang was surprised, he didn’t think he would win, he just thought he was doing it for fun.
“WOW,” all the students awed.
“Anything I can do far you lad?”
“Actually, yes,” said Chang.
“What?”
“Where do I go? I’m a new spy,” he replied.
“Merlin, then at twelve o’clock you have to go lunch.”
“Thanks,” Chang said.
Chang left, he looked at his wristwatch it was eleven twenty-four. What would he do now? He decided he’d take a nap.
Time went by, he felt very refreshed. He looked at his watch, now it was eleven fifty-eight.
He went down to the lunch room. On the way down an older kid pushed him into the wall. Chang looked back at the kid that did that. Chang recognized the boy; he was a kid in the P.E. room.
“What, are you jealous?” Chang asked.
The kid gave Chang a mad look, charged at Chang and threatened to punch him. He ducked when the kid took a swing, barely missing Chang. The kid tried to punch Chang again but instead of hitting Chang in the face Chang blocked the punch with his hand.
“Do you give up yet?” Chang asked the older kid.
“No,” the kid grumbled.
A streak of light went past Chang and it got the boy; he started to shrink.
“What’s going on?” the kid asked very surprised, and sounding like a chipmunk.
Chang looked back; Merlin was glaring at the older kid.
“Terrible,” Merlin said.
Chang and Merlin started walking down the hall to lunch. The bell then rang, “Beep, beep, beep, beep.”
Conner woke up from his alarm, “It was just a dream,” he said very relieved.
Conner didn’t need a dream interpreter to know what it meant. Chancho was Chang and the boy on the way to the lunch room was him and Cooper. In the P.E. room it was showing that Chancho is just as good as Cooper and Conner (and everyone else).
Conner got out of his bed and called Cooper’s phone# 682-3210.
“Hello?” Cooper’s mom said.
“Hi, this is Conner Hawks, can I talk to Cooper?”
“Hey Conner, what’s up?”
“Instead of meeting at the old radio tower this afternoon meet me there at eight,” Conner explained.
“Okay,” Cooper said.
Conner went downstairs; his dad was already eating. Usually, on Sunday, Conner was the first one awake!
“Why are you up so early?” Conner asked his dad.
“I’m playing basketball with my friends from work,” Mr. Hawks said.
Conner went over to the pantry, no cereal.
“Dad where’s my Honey Nut Cheerios?”
“Zach put Buddy’s squeaky toy in the box and Buddy ate all of the cereal just to get his toy.”
“He did that to make me mad,” Conner grumbled.
Conner had to have disgusting oatmeal. When he was done he asked his dad if he could go play with Cooper.
“Sure,” he replied. “Check in at 8:30.”
Conner ran upstairs, got his shoes and left he heard the squeaks of his sneakers as he walked down the sidewalk, he was so nervous. When he finally got to the radio tower, he saw a note that said:
Conner,
Meet me at the top of the tower, I have something to tell/show you.
By the way, why did u want to meet earlier than planned?
You’re Friend,
Cooper Luferk
P.S. take this note off when you’re done reading it.
Conner grabbed the note and started up the metal ladder. When Conner got to the top, he saw Cooper sitting on the floor drawing something in his note book.
Conner looked up and said, “Hey, so what did you want to talk about?”
Conner then explained his dream to Cooper. Conner explained he got in trouble because he was being mean to Chancho.
“So, you’re saying we need to be nice to Chancho?”
“Yeah, I was just thinking, what would I feel like if some kids came up to me and called me a pig,” Conner said very emotionally.
Cooper stood up and said, “Okay, let’s be nice to Chancho.”
Conner stood up and walked to the doorway, stepped out onto the ladder and started down. He started to wonder if Cooper actually was going to be nice to Chancho.
“Conner,” Cooper said, “I’m sorry I was mean to Chancho.”
“So am I Cooper, so am I,” Conner acknowledged.
Cooper started down the ladder too, Conner kept going. When they both got to the bottom they looked at each other very seriously. They started walking home, they totally forgot about the little meeting they had!
“Tomorrow at school let’s fix the problem,” Cooper finally said.
“Yeah,” Conner replied.
When they got to their neighborhood Cooper went left onto his street and Conner went right onto his.
“See you tomorrow Cooper.”
“See you Conner.”
Cooper started jogging down his street then started running he didn’t want to miss any of the UFC fight this morning. He looked at his watch it was 8:48 the fight was at 9:00 good thing he had Tivo so he could record shows he wanted to watch. When he got home it was 9:03 he better hurry or he might not see the introduction! He ran into the living room his sister Jessie was watching TV!
“What are you doing?!” Cooper asked.
“Watching TV, why?” she asked.
Conner stood with his mouth wide open. Tivo doesn’t record shows if you watch another movie.
“I don’t know what channel UFC’s on,” Cooper said.
Jessie turned back to the television. Cooper stomped up to his room he’s been mad at his sister the past few days.
He jumped onto his bed and said to himself, “Who cares about a stupid UFC fight.”
Latter after that he went down stairs and asked his mom if he could go to Conner’s baseball game. She said yes but right after the game he had to come right back.
Cooper ran to the garage, got his bike and started to ride to Milwaukee Park. When he got there, he saw one of the players on Conner’s team he followed him to field three. Today Conner was playing the best team in his league, the Angels.
“Hey everybody its Cooper,” a voice said, “he can play 1st base since Clay isn’t here!”
Cooper looked around, he saw a kid in his class in the dugout it was
Alex the coach’s son.
Cooper smiled and ran to the dugout.
“What’s up guys,” Cooper said. “Where’s Clay?”
Conner walked over to the fence “He’s sick or something.”
“Sure I’ll play but I don’t have a uniform,” Cooper said.
Conner’s dad the assistant coach said, “I’ve got an extra one.”
Cooper ran into the bathroom and changed. He then realized he didn’t have a glove! Maybe Alex has an extra?
Cooper stepped into the dugout and sat down, “Alex,” Cooper said, “do you have an extra mitt?”
“Yeah” he said. “I always do, here you go.”
Coach Maclver stepped in front of the team, “OK you guys,” he said. “Today were playing the best team in single A. We’re the home team so were in the field first and batting last. We are undefeated so far, let’s try to be the BEST OF THE BEST. This team isn’t good the other teams are just easy.” He waved every one to come up. “Tigers dominate on three, bring us out Conner.”
“One two three,” Conner started.
Then every one finished, “TIGERS DOMINATE!”
Everyone ran out to their positions. Conner-short stop, Alex-pitcher, and Cooper-1st base.
“Batter up,” the Umpire said.
The batter stepped into the batters box, Alex threw a fast ball perfectly into the catcher’s glove.
“Strike one,” the Ump said.
The same thing happened the next time, the third time the batter swung at a low pitch.
“Strike three you’re out.”
The next batter stepped in. Alex threw another perfect pitch; the batter hit a pop fly to center field, the center fielder caught it!
Two outs next batter up, he hit a line drive to 1st Cooper picked it up, ran to his base and tagged the runner.
Now, it was their turn to bat. First person up got a single same thing happened with the next two batters. Alex was up now he hit a fast grounder to the out field HE HIT A GRAND SLAM! Cooper was up next he hit the ball hard into the out field but only got to 2nd base. They thought he was going to run one more base and threw it over the third basemen’s head. Cooper kept going all the way to home plate. You can only score 5 points in an inning in that league so that inning was over.
In the bottom of the 9th inning the score was 8-9 Angels winning. There were two outs, bases loaded and Conner was up. He swung at the first and second pitch the third one was a ball/a bad pitch. Conner was shaking now the pitcher threw a good pitch Conner did the trigger motion his dad taught him, CRACK the ball went flying right over the fence ANOTHER GRAND SLAM! The tigers win against the past best team in single A.
“Conner, Conner, Conner,” everyone cheered.
* * *
The next day was Monday May, 25th 2009. Conner woke up early and got ready for school; he felt like walking to school today.
He went into his mom’s room and asked, “Can I walk to school with Cooper today?”
Cooper always walks to school on Monday, Thursday, and Friday.
“Yeah sure,” she said, she sounded really tired.
Conners walked over to the intersection where his and Cooper’s street crisscrossed. Cooper was walking on his street toward Conner, when Cooper saw Conner he started running.
“Hey Coop,” Conner said.
“Why are you walking today,” Cooper asked.
“I just felt like it today.”
On the way, they planned how they were going to apologize to Chancho.
When they got to school they saw Angle and a mean girl in their class named Brittney talking. Angle saw Conner and Cooper, scolded, and walked away with Brittney.
“Let’s go Conner,” Cooper said he handed a walky-talky to Conner. “I’ll signal you if I find them.”
They ran on opposite sides of the school.
Cooper then said from his walky-talky, “Found them.”
Conner ran to the other side of the school and saw Cooper looking at the girls. Conner ran over to him, grabbed Cooper and started dragging him over to the girls.
“Like what are you doing?” Brittney asked disgusted.
“We need to talk to Angle,” Conner said seriously.
“To bad,” Brittney said. “She totally like does not want to talk to you.”
“Humph, women,” Cooper said.
“Excusé mua,” Brittany said.
“What?” Angle said still mad at them.
“We’re really sorry for what we did and said to Chancho,” they said innocently.
Conner explained his dream and how he got in trouble by her mom.
“Tell that to Chancho,” she said. “But I do forgive you.”
“Touchdown,” Conner said smiling.
They all started walking over to their line next to the door of the classroom. The bell rang, everyone started running to the lines next to the other classrooms. When Cooper and Conner got inside, they saw Chancho was sitting at his desk looking very uncomfortable.
“Chancho,” Cooper said, “we’re really sorry for what we said and did to you.”
“Yeah were really, really sorry,” Conner agreed.
“I’m sorry too,” Chancho said. “For calling you guys rude.”
“That’s nothing compared to what we did,” Conner said guessing Chancho forgave them.
“So, you forgive us?” Cooper asked.
“Of course I do,” he said.
The rest of the day Chancho, Cooper, Conner, and Angle all got along.
When Conner got home his mom asked, “Did you get along with Chancho?”
Conner couldn’t hold in a laugh. . .
Oh, how I miss this place and long to go back again next year. There's just something about that crisp mountain air that is so therapeutic. Grandma has had a condo at Snowbird for over 30 years so the nostalgia from childhood years comes back each time I visit. She had the week over the Memorial Day holiday for many years, and sold it a few years ago, then bought the week of Labor Day just this year. The weather was so great, a much better time of year to avoid "snowfall" (which we had often over the Memorial Day stay).
We rode the tram for "free" with Grandma's dining coupons (a perk that always stirs excitement in the benefactor, right?)...So, up about 4000 feet we went. It took Eli some time to gain his composure when he saw how high up the mountain we were. He sat down on the platform where the tram parks and wrote his feelings of fear in his notebook before he could walk around and enjoy the high mountain peak (that has a good, flat, football field size or larger area at the top to look down into the valleys below).
I, being the adventurous outdoorswoman type?!, thought it would be a great adventure to hike down the mountain after our Tram ride to the top. I hadn't ever done it, and how bad would it be to hike 3 miles downhill anyway? So, Aunt Lori, Easton and I said goodbye to Grandma, Eli and Braxton (the smart ones) and started down the mountain.... little did we know. About a quarter of the way down, my knees were starting to hurt, we should have turned back at that point, but I didn't even consider that an option. I just wanted to continue down the mountain. I had my goal in mind and there was no turning back.
