Intro written the month after March…

So I may just really love writing!

Hi! I'm Rain, welcome to my SWC writing.
And…other random writing dumps because I write way too much.
What's SWC?
SWC stands for Scratch Writing Camp. It's an online camp that focuses on writing and helps encourage you to write more while along the way meet scratchers as well! (It's practically a writing community SUPER FUN! )
It lasts for one month, and occurs during March, July, and November.
I'm going to split this all into sections with dailies and weeklies.

(I made this back in April sometime.)

RULES:

1. You can critique with constructive or positive feedback, I welcome both!
   2. Be respectful and please follow the community guidelines.
   

Proud creator of:
Mia and Charlie
The Knives
When the Bluebird Sings
Eclipsed Time

Snip long posts!

Also, @ any of you who think I'm lying about my insane 40k word count. I'm not. That's how much I wrote!! I have proof if you really, really don't believe me.

Anyway, this is my second session of SWC and I am so happy to be here again!
This is the place where I'm going to provide proof of all my dailies, weeklies, etc.
(I may also put them in a project or I think there's Nano I have an account on there…)


That's it, have fun reading!!! <3

I hope you had fun writing your story.

I’m feeling really happy, because it’s July 1st, and you know what that means-SWC!!!
I have so many writing ideas already, they’ve been stewing around my brain from the pre-SWC months, and I am ready to get started!
I’m really excited, as well, because writing makes me happy! Another reason I’m excited is because this is the summer before high school, (well, that should be a reason I’m nervous.) I’m feeling a lot of feelings right now…
Last session, I was also in poetry, and we got 7th place. I’m hoping we can do great again this time! Writing, in general, just makes me really happy, and so I’m super ecstatic and thrilled that it’s already starting, and can't wait for the rest of the session.

This is my second session, like I said before, and I can’t wait to see what else comes from this session!

So, like I said before, aside from SWC stuff, I’m also going into high school, which ALSO makes me excited, and nervous, which is why I’ve been really excited/nervous the past few days, because I know it’s going to take up a lot of time, but also help me, my personal growth, with my writing, which I love!

Aside from that, I’m just happy in general, because I also have a new baby cousin, he’s 2 months old, and that makes me really happy sometimes, just to see him.

I don’t know what else to say, I’m really happy right now, and life is great!
Aside from poetry, like I said in the main cabin, I also write fantasy (I write a lot of fantasy.)
I know you don't have to write in the genre of your cabin, but I do like writing poetry, so…
One time, I even wrote a 1000+ word poem!
Anyways, really excited and thrilled for this session, and I absolutely can’t wait to see what happens, what else will happen, and what comes in store for us this session!
So excited!!!

7/2 daily




Four siblings. One story. One that could possibly change the whole world, forever!
I couldn’t believe the day was finally here. We were about to embark on a perilous, but slightly dangerous-quest. (We were all girls, as well.)

A snake slithered up to me. “But not anymore…” he whispered softly, and then bit my younger sister on the ankle. “Owww!” she let out a piercing shriek. We all started to panic. “Um, let me get some ointment for that,” Abby, the second oldest, started to rush. “And I’ll stay here.” Isabel crouched next to her.

I didn’t know what to do. I had to help my sisters, or something else truly terrifying would eventually happen. Something that none of us would like-or even care much for. I walked around the center of the square, while waiting for Abby to get the ointment. It was a cobblestone town, not much fancy about it other than the fact that it was a classic town. It was a modern town set to look like an old-timey town. I loved my sisters, and we were very close. We were best friends (I didn’t always get along with Rena, but we compromised.)
I knew I had to do my duty, though, as the oldest, so I took a deep breath and turned back to my siblings, and plastered (more like forced) a smile on my face. “Alright, how’s everything going?”

We had run away from home a few months ago. No adults allowed. Some people say that kids are so rambunctious, so reckless nowadays, but I disagree. We are independent, we can survive on our own. And that’s what we’re here to prove. I rolled up my sleeves and tried to fix the snake bite. I winced at what I saw, though. It was a gaping wound, and Abby handed me the ointment along with a bandaid from the store. That had been almost all of our emergency money. I sighed and grabbed some of my water. “This is going to hurt,” I warned Rena. I started to pour the cold water on her foot, and of course as soon as I did, it stung her. I rubbed it, a little, and then put the bandaid on it. “Don’t put too much weight on it, and I think that it will leave a permanent scar.”

We wandered, the next couple of days, scrambling for random food, wherever we could possibly find it. It was hard for us to find shelter, but we ended up sleeping in other places-under the bridge a lot of nights, and many times we had to confiscate and steal food from others, just because we didn’t have much money. It was sad, but also the true fact of life. “Okay, now we just have to go,” I whispered to my sisters one night. The headlights were blinking. “We can cross the path, just make sure nobody sees us. Nobody.” Isabel nodded seriously. I looked both ways, double-checking for cars. Nobody was here, and the sounds had all vanished from thin air, so I thought it was safe to go. I crossed the road slowly, and we all walked ever so slowly into the forest. Rena, of course, was limping because of the excoriating snake bite.

The next morning, I woke up to sunshine, and the weirdest thing happened. I saw HORSES! Horses in the meadow. I couldn’t believe my eyes, but really they were real live horses. Their manes were dancing in the wind, and they were galloping as if their life depended on it. My grin stretched wide. I could live this moment forever. “Come on,” I told my sisters eagerly.

The Undefined Start

In-cabin weekly
+653 words, not a lot, but it's still really good.

The Undefined Start





Years went by, and I was victimized, trapped, isolated..

My name wasn’t undefined. It just undefined…me. I always thought my name was unusual, and I always knew it was. But I thought that that was a special quality, one that I should be proud of. But not until today. When I was younger, I thought everything was great, and I got along with everybody just fine. I thought the world was perfect, and that there were no mistakes at all, that there were no problems in the world. Turns out I was wrong. There are bad things in the world. Terrible people. And some people, they make fun of your name. I tried not to let it get under my skin, but it was hard. “You’re so- (the s word, followed by the d word)”
Sometimes I cried myself to sleep at night, just because. What if I was really different from the other kids? It’s just a name, I consoled myself. It doesn’t mean that you’re any different from anybody else. And plus, didn’t I always want to stand out from everybody else? That’s all I wanted, ever since I was young, right? I didn’t get why that was different now that I was older. Things didn’t have to change.

I slammed the locker shut, it was the first day of school. I wanted to get a good start at 7th grade, and I wanted people to know me, maybe make some friends. But of course, that didn’t happen.
My name was the core of me! But I told myself, maybe it wasn’t. It was just a name, after all. It wasn’t me. It wasn’t who I was, it just was my name. I wasn’t defined by my name, I realized as I sat on the dirty toilet seat. I wasn’t going to be defined by bullies or name-calling anymore.

“Hey, you!” one of the bullies laughed at me the next afternoon. I smiled and slung my backpack over my shoulder. “You got a problem?” I asked. “Because I clearly don’t.” They started to look a little afraid. Afraid of me. I continued. “Please stop bullying me and my name. It’s not nice, and it’s not okay to criticize other people based on their names.”
Then I smiled a serene smile and walked away. They looked absolutely shell-shocked by the whole ordeal, if that was even possible!

I had defeated the bullies. And my name was back to being me. I felt me! I felt truly, surprisingly, me. And I was bursting with excitement for what was to come, the future, and everything that I was going to become!
Yes, I thought inside my head.
I am really, Dewdrop.
I smiled as I got off of the bus with the loud and rowdy kids, I smiled as I got home and ate snack, and I smiled as I went to sleep that night.

It was never, ever easy being unique, that was for sure. But now I knew, that my name didn’t define me, that I was a person aside from my name, and that my opinion mattered. And that’s what counted, after all!

I knew my name wasn’t typical. It wasn’t what normal people assumed, and it wasn’t your average name. But sometimes, who you are goes beyond skin deep, and that’s what I had learned, that’s what I had seen, from standing up to the bullies, from starting school, from just life in general. My name didn’t define the whole of me.
I was proud of having a unique name, still, and I think I will be forever, but maybe that didn’t matter. I’d have to live with the name forever, of course. There would be more trials. There would be more fears and setbacks. But in the end, what mattered the most was that I truly knew how to be myself, under all the circumstances.

In cabin daily 7/2


You don’t have to make it rhyme in order to make it a poem. That’s my rule, always. A lot of people have stereotypes of what they think poems and poetry form should look like, and usually it’s rhymes. But you don’t have to make your poems rhyme.

Another thing that’s absolutely RULE of thumb for me is that you have to make sure, absolutely positively sure, that you make sure the words, that you think carefully before you write. Writing carelessly is never good, and you want to make sure that it sounds as beautiful as you want it to be. Say you were writing a haiku. You want it to sound pretty, right? So you would pick really nice words, like this.

droplets of water
falling freefalling down down down
go splash in the water.

See? I didn’t make it sound awkward (well, some of my haikus sometimes sound awkward, but let’s not get into that right now. That one I wrote was good.)

Be repetitive. ^Like the example above, the repetition in poetry always gives a good feeling, and it works, too, not just in short haikus, but also in longer, lengthier poems. I always like to do that with my poems, repeating.

I’m going to repeat myself again on the “you don’t have to rhyme”.
You don’t have to rhyme, necessarily, I rhyme with my poems sometimes, and sometimes I don’t, and that’s okay.

Tip three: always keep a lookout for danglers. In poetry, there is going to be weird danglers, just like in short stories. You can also correct grammar in poetry, but I always feel like it’s slightly different than writing short stories (Yes, I write both.)
Because nothing is worse than finding a misplaced modifier somewhere in your poem, or a mistyped or incorrect typo somewhere, when it really should be something else. It makes you look less professional and not a true poet.

I’m going on too long with my lecture, I’m sorry, but those are just my rules on what makes a “true” poem.

Beautiful story. That was amazing!

LuckyDuckyLife wrote:

Beautiful story. That was amazing!

Thank you!

(deleted.)
for more info, go to this comment chain. https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/30014050/comments/#comments-155498824
or also this one.
https://scratch.mit.edu/studios/29774854/comments/#comments-155486590

I'm redoing it all over again, I'll use the prompts.

Day in the life of an Exclamation Mark


“It was amazing!” I exclaimed. “We went around the block and sold six cups of lemonade!” “How was it priced?” my dad asked curiously.
“Not even that much! It was only around three dollars, yet there was a huge line wrapping around the block!” “Wow!” my dad looked vaguely impressed at my ingenuity. “Great job, kiddo!”
“Yeah, I did all of the art myself, and we put up signs.”
“Wow!!!”
I was so excited and jubilated that I couldn’t bother to do more. I raced around the room, dancing with happiness.
I couldn’t believe so many people were coming!
They wanted two, three cups of lemonade! And they even left tips!
I basked in the hot summer sun.
This was the best thing I could have ever imagined possible! Plus, I got to spend time with my friends-double awesome!


Because it was so GREAT!!!
Exclamation points like me are awesome!
You can exclaim your happiness and joy to the world!
A smile stretched across my face.
“Superiority over exclamation marks! The commas, apostrophes, and semicolons don’t ever stand a chance.”
“Well, why not?” My sister, the drama queen of periods, asked.
I huffed, annoyed. She didn’t understand. “They make people happy!”
“What about me, the period?”
“It states facts. That doesn’t do anything much.”
“I’m so happy I could scream though!” I told her.
My dad, the apostrophe, asked, “Just a quick question. You’re the exclamation point? And she’s the period if I’m getting this straight?”
I nodded my head ecstatically. “YES!!! Yes!!!!”
“Incorrect grammar and misused comma splices are never okay.” my sister stated.
“Of course not!” I huffed. “Why would they be!”
My dad looked at the two of us arguing, and sipped his lemonade (that I had kindly brought in.)
“It’s kind of easy to correct your grammar,” he told me.
“Really?!” I exclaimed.
“Yes.” my sister told me matter-of-factly.





I texted my sister the next day.

Me: The lemonade stand was a smashing success!!! <3
Her: I’m renaming you to “exclamation point person.”
Me: It was! It was!
Her: Haha.
Me: We made over 200 dollars, though!! Isn’t that crazy?!
Her: What are you going to use all that money for?
Me: We’re giving it to charity!!! The kids need our help, after all!!
Her: (impressed) all of it?
Me: YES!!!
Her: Wow, great job!
End of conversation.

Exclamation points!!! I was so excited after the lemonade stand I raced around the block and came back in about five minutes. And then came back inside absolutely panting with red cheeks!

Weekly attempt #2


Please don't make me do this again. This was painstaking. /srs

The Three sisters
By @softlysinging



Jennica (13)
very shy
Main character
kind
oldest
takes responsibility for other people’s actions.
likes to read, and do cooking/baking for her siblings.
Favorite color: Purple
Plant: passionflower
Passionflowers are open to other people, so Jennica might be kind and caring, open to other people and their surroundings. Jennica takes good care of her siblings, as well as help other people and their thoughts/actions. Not ambitious.
Fear: Iththyphobia.

Abby (10)

likes to play with her sister
Happy most of the time
Likes to make friends
Ambiverted
Favorite color: Blue
Plant: African violet
Violets naturally bloom extraordinarily. This is a stunning effect, because they change color depending on the season/where it’s been. Ambitious.
Fear: Chromophobia


Olivia (7)
side character
likes: rainbows and unicorns, playing with her siblings, stuffed animals, and toys.
Extroverted
Plant: Rosemary
Rosemary smells really good. It is a herb, smells delicious, and is beautiful on the inside and out!
It smells like a herb, and tastes like one as well. This says a lot about Olivia’s personality: Who she is, and what she likes to do. She’s usually a very happy, bubbly person, doesn’t worry much about the future, and lives in the present. She’s not futuristic.
Fear: Aquaphobia


Setting: Thai Milk Boba Tea, Jasmine Green Milk Cap Tea, (Asia)


Hi, my name is Jennica! I am the oldest of three sisters. Many people think that we are a trio to behold. After me is Abby, who’s 10, and then Olivia, who’s 9. We’re all really close, and we love each other. We have a mother and father, but unfortunately they passed away two years ago. It was hard on all of us, but especially Olivia, because she’s the youngest and doesn’t really know much about our life before. Before this happened. Before Mama died of typhoid. We were sad, of course, and depressed beyond belief.
I decided to go. Go with my sisters, to the mountain. We hiked up mountains, rivers, and valleys. There were many people around, and many people were rushing around. I looked around at the street vendors. They had straw hats on, and they were selling food, of some sort or another. It looked a little bit like rice and beans. I walked up to the vendors. “What are you selling?” I asked curiously.

“Oh, we’re selling rice, beans, and soup!” the vendor told me cheerily. “Only ten cents a piece, wanna buy it?” she stirred it in a hot pan. The steam rose up, and I coughed. I was going to burn myself. I smiled faintly and handed her ten cents. “Here you go,” I told her. She rang me up, and I tried to blend into the crowd with my sisters. “Come on,” I told them, and pulled them along with me. “But Mama!” my sister whined. I took a deep breath. “I know you miss Mama. We all do. But right now, we have to go,” I told her urgently. I pulled her by the sleeve and out of the village.
“You, too,” I ordered my younger sister Abby. (Abby was usually the boss of me, but we were on a quest. This was different.
She stood out from the crowd because she was different from other people. She was unique, and that’s what mattered.
I tugged at my sister’s sleeve. We threaded through crowds of people, past busy tourists, and regular villagers.
“Okay, here we are,” I ushered my sisters back inside the room. There were cots, and the room seemed absolutely barren with nothing in it. It was a tiring room, lone and sad. Dust bunnies were everywhere, and I coughed looking at it.
It’s a good thing none of us got claustrophobic. (although, Olivia didn’t like water, so..that might be a different topic altogether.)
I got businesslike. “Time to sweep,” I swept with a broom. Olivia started to cry again, pitifully. I got concerned about her, and my expression softened. “Honey, it’s okay. We’re here now, and even though Mama isn’t here anymore, we still have each other, right?”
She hiccuped a little. “I guess.” I smiled and hugged her. Her eyes filled and watered with tears, but she managed to smile back.
“Abby?” I asked. “Could you turn on the water for me? And maybe go to the well?” I hesitantly smiled. I only wanted to be a good sister. After all, we had each other. And that’s all that mattered.

Hi, I’m Abby! I haven’t talked much in this story (or at all, really.) But I’m the younger sister of Jennica! Of course, we all miss Mama. But that’s not the point. The point is that I had to get the water for Jennica. So I was walking outside the house. It was sunny outside, and there was no clouds outside! Astonishing fact, how there were no clouds outside, for once. But then I squinted and looked at the sun. Oh no. It was so bright! And I happened to not like bright colors. Especially blue and yellow. I had to hurry up with the water. I ducked my head and rushed to the well. I turned the wheel and dropped the bucket deep into the well. I pulled it up, and I heard it drip. “drip..drip..” the drops were light and fell to the ground like crystal. I rushed back inside. The light was blinding. I couldn’t help it. I shut the door, breathing heavily. “What is it?” Jennica asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost!”
“Well-” I started. “Well, IT was so bright outside!”
My sister knows me so well, and immediately understood. “Oh. Okay. I cooked something for you!” she pulled me along. It was a salad with a side of sandwiches! I smiled at her. “You’re such a great older sister. I’m so lucky to have you, and I wouldn’t trade you for the world.” She smiled at the compliment.
We ate dinner together after that, and Olivia had to be such a nuisance (okay, I love her, but she’s so young.) She was slurping her noodles and crunching salad loudly.
I coughed, extremely annoyed. “Can you please be quiet?”
“What do you mean?” she asked innocently. “Quiet, like everyone else at this table is being?” I explained. She simply shrugged and went along with her business. “THE AMAZING LIFE AND AND-” she shrieked. I thought for sure she was going to hop right on the table right then and there. I tried to finish eating as fast as possible so I could get away from the…nine year-old hysterical mess.

Jennica again! The next day, we woke up bright and early. Six am to be exact about it. We were going to a picnic!
It wasn’t ideal to be going to a picnic, to be honest, considering that we were recovering from my mother’s death and all. I took a look around. People were rushing around, and buying goods, buying breakfast.
“I guess it’s time for us to go…”
Abby sighed. “Jennica, you really are so dull sometimes. Here, Olivia, I’ll tie your shoes,” she offered. A fire roared in the background. I put it out with a splash of water, and it was extinguished in a matter of seconds. “Alright, ready to go now?” Abby asked impatiently, tapping her foot. I looked at her. She had grown up so much from the little girl she used to be. Now, she looked like a beautiful young woman, pretty, wavy brown hair, and a tunic on, complete with sandals. I shook my head off from the thought. “Yeah.” I stated quietly. Olivia’s shoes were now on, and she skipped happily. “Today’s going to be such a great day, I can already feel it!” she gushed giddily. “Hi!” she told a passerby. They grinned at her, probably thinking she was cute. “Come along,” Abby urged.
We passed by many people on the way to the picnic. We went through the market, and there were hundreds of people. Olivia tugged on my sleeve. “Why are there so many people? Why is this taking so long? Are we almost there?”
I waited for a second before answering her. “Well, we’re almost there, honey. Just a couple of more miles.”
I hailed a bus, and I paid the driver, smiling. “Have a nice day,” I told him. “You too,” he told me. I was being courteous, but maybe he actually liked it?

All three of us sisters got into the bus, and we rode through the busy streets of Asia.
Many people were talking loudly, and one woman was cupping her phone to her ear. I wasn’t trying to eavesdrop on their conversation, but she was being loud. “So we have to go over to our relatives tomorrow..yes, yes, remember to bring the necessary required things..”

I cast a sidelong glance at Abby, and we stifled a laugh. I would certainly never do that with my sister, and never in public like that!

The stuffy bus screeched to a halt. We had arrived at our destination.


All three of us clamored out, rushing to get to our place. “Hold on,” I tried to get my siblings to calm down. “We have to be calm.”
“Why?” asked Olivia. “It’s already the afternoon! We should hurry!”
“Yes, but rushing won’t help us. Walk.”
We walked, slower this time.

But when we reached our perceived destination, it wasn’t the one anyone was hoping for. Or dreamed about.
It was the beach! The tide was turning, and the waves were lapping slowly, in and out. Olivia let out a cry. Her chin quivered, and her lip trembled. “I don’t want to go in the water! I hate water- And you guys eat yourself! I miss Mama!” she turned, and left, kicking sand behind her.
Abby shrugged. “There goes that. I’ll eat with you.”
We ate together, under the blazing sun.

5 hours later…
“Time to go,” I announced. It was getting pretty dark, and we had to go home. I gathered up the blankets and supplies from home.
“Abby, come on.”
Abby had successfully found Olivia, throughout the whole mess, and we managed to ride in a taxi cab back home. All of us were thoroughly exhausted from the day’s exciting adventures, but it’s not something I’d ever want to repeat again. I laid down in bed that night, tired but also thrilled at what the future might hold. “Good night, Olivia,” I whispered as I tucked her in bed that night. “Good night, Jennica.” she told me back. We were sisters. We would do it together…no matter what difficulties we had to face, whatever challenges we had to overcome, we would do it together.
Mama may be dead. But we had to press on for the sake of it all.
Life is short, but it’s what you make of it that counts.


The end

Daily 7/8

I based this off of family relationships, don't judge.

+430 words, I was lazy (sorry…)


Elisa rushed across the room, sprinting. She had twenty minutes til dinner time.
“Mom!” she yelled. “I think you forgot-”
“Honey?” her mom asked, very concerned.
“We have to go,” she told her anxiously. “Well, what’s wrong?”
She threw up in the toilet. “I don’t feel so great,” she moaned.
Sweat was brewing on her forehead. “Do you want food? Crackers, anything to tide you over?” I sat on the bathtub. “No, I’m fine,” I croaked miserably. To be honest, I didn’t want any of those.
And I couldn’t even have dinner today! Today was supposed to be a special dinner, one that was our girl’s night out. Looks like that was going to waste. I smiled faintly at my mom. “I’ll be better. I promise. I would ask for a hug, but you’re not a hugger.”
She laughed. “I am most certainly not.” “Alright then, I’ll just hug myself.” I hugged myself in the bathroom, and then unsteadily walked out into the hallway.

Elisa and I did not look the same. Elisa had black hair and blue eyes, whereas I had brown hair. Many people got that wrong about our family-that we had to be exactly the same. We weren’t. Elisa was more of a touchy-freely person, and I was more of an acts of service person. People aren’t exactly the same, and sometimes families are different. I adopted her when she was only two years old, and she doesn’t remember much about it. It’s basically a hazy memory for her. But I remember picking her up, and I remember her expression as we drove away. Her biological parents loved her. They really do, and still do to this day!
When she gets a little bit older, I’ll tell her about them.
I don’t think she reacted much to the adoption process. I think she took it all in stride. She was that type of person. Calm.
And I remember buckling her seatbelt in, the cute, adorable toddler she was. Now, she’s growing up.

I stared out the window as I ate, crunching on my crackers. It seemed dull to be doing this when I could be doing something else, but I knew I had just thrown up a few hours ago, and moms are known for being overprotective. So I assumed she knew what was best for me, and my future. I ate a few more crackers slowly, and wondered what the future might possibly hold.

My mom stood in the doorway and hesitated. “I have to tell you something.”
“What?”
“The truth is…you’re adopted.”

The end.

Daily 7/9
+868 words


We were twins, and we looked exactly the same. Born from the same mom, and we both had blond hair and blue eyes. The only two decipherable differences between the two of us were that I, Talia, had drop earrings, whereas she didn’t. I was also three inches taller than her. We were born 10 minutes apart from each other, and while I loved her just as she was, sometimes we fought, as siblings always seem to do.


I twirled my fork around, and ate spaghetti. “Mama mia, mama mia!!!” I sang loudly. “Mash panama, mash panama!” I pretended to be holding a microphone.
Talia grinned at me, sitting back in her seat. She looked like she was having fun watching all of this ruckus ensue.

Talia had always been different than me, though. We were nothing alike. For one, she liked science and reading, whereas I loved performing arts and dancing.

Although we weren’t identical twins, some people begged to differ, because we were born around the same time. But our looks said otherwise, and so we were fraternal twins. Legend has it that twins can also read each other's minds. I can never read Talia’s mind, and that’s not because we’re fraternal twins. It’s because it’s not something that’s real.

(I, the author, happen to know that they were supposed to have a third sibling (older) but the sibling’s mom was gone, left him to fend for himself, on the streets. Now what kind of mom would do that? And so he couldn’t find them. He ended up causing a lot of trouble on the streets and got sentenced to jail. Also, the fact that their mom got killed in a car crash is scary. But let’s not tell them that, shall we? Now on with the story.)

Talia and I giggled as we stayed up late past our bedtime. It was New Year’s Eve, and my goal was always to stay up until 12 am. I never made it there. I only made it til 10 pm, but I figured that this year, I would finally make it! Now would finally be the time! We clinked glasses together. “To the new year!” I declared, and sipped my sparkling water. “To the new year…” Talia whispered, and the cap hissed as she drank the fizzy drink.
It was 10 pm, and I could already hear the fireworks going off in our neighborhood. They were like explosions, echoing everywhere. It was really time for us to go to sleep now-it was past our bedtime. I went up the stairs, (there was always that one rickety stair, I wasn’t sure why.) “Let’s go, Talia,” I told her, and we climbed up and snuggled together.

The next day, Talia and I woke up, and it was bright, but it was still cold outside. We both shivered. It was frosty. I climbed slowly out of bed, my teeth chattering.
Dressing myself slightly, I got into the correct attire, pajamas, and walked down the hallway.

It was time to make breakfast! We always made New Year’s breakfast. It was a tradition in our family to make chocolate chip cookies and waffles.
They had to be just right though. I had heard rumors of fire alarms going off, dogs wailing in the distance and hiding from their owners…not good.
I set the timer to 40 minutes and got the pan out. Time to make the most outstanding breakfast ever!
40 minutes later..I checked the clock. Okay, we should be good on time! I opened up the waffle pan. They were golden brown and toasted perfectly!
Okay, so the edges may have been burnt just a little, but who cared, really? It was just a waffle. I served it up with some fresh fruit (strawberries and blueberries,) and the cookies. They were sort of soft, because they had been in the oven, but I was proud overall. It was my first baking attempt, and I think I had done a great job. I scarfed down the meal, along with Talia. Pouring maple syrup all over my waffles, and the melted chocolate chip cookies, I mumbled in between bites, “HAPPY NEW YEAR’s EVE!!’ I hugged her.
“You, too,” she told me softly.
We ventured slowly up the stairs. There was that rickety step again, and I happened to know something about that step. For one, my great-grandmother had hidden a lost artifact in there. It was her treasures. Talia kept going up, but I stopped at the step and unhinged it.
It was a picture of all three of us-wait- three of us? We were supposed to have a sibling? I gasped, looking at the faded black-and-white photo.
The mystery wasn’t cracked just yet, though. It was a boy, a teenage boy, it looked like. I wondered who he was, and where he was at the moment. Then I saw somebody else. My mom. I started crying for real when I saw her in the picture.
A letter was attached. “I love you my sweets.”

I showed it to Talia, and her eyes grew gigantic.

Maybe the mystery would remain unsolved, unknown, but my family would remain dear to my heart. Always.

7/11

+746

Hi, my name is Addy! I am one of the world’s greatest (scratch that, attempting to be the world’s greatest baker in NYC.) It’s hard, because there are millions of people here, and a lot of them have high expectations for their life, just like me. They come to New York, looking for opportunity, and looking only for hope.

We came to New York five years ago, not because we immigrated, but because we couldn’t afford to pay the rent on the house anymore. So we moved, and the bank for eclosed the mortgage, telling us that we had to move somewhere else.
We picked New York, of all the states to live in!
I remember the day we moved. It was bright and sunny, and we drove across Brooklyn Bridge. It was the largest bridge in New York, and I stared out the car windows, clutching my suitcase to my chest and wondering when we would arrive at our destination.

The taxi came to pick us up at around 8:35 am, and it was bright yellow. I tried to remember why taxis were that color, and I flashback to when I was in fifth grade and read about it. “They’re yellow so they can easily be spotted in the crowded streets.”
The cab driver tipped his hat to us, and I paid him ten dollars. “Thank you, young lady,” he told me politely, and I got into the cab. The air was fresh inside the cab, and it didn’t stink. Maybe it was only Australian taxi cabs. HONK!!
Other taxis were honking at them. Red light. Green light. I was going to be nauseous.

Finally, we arrived! To the apartment. “And here is your…” he set down the suitcase, and he set down all of our required items/necessities. I unlocked the door, and looked him straight in the eye. I hesitated, and then spoke. “Thank you…for everything.”

Five years later. It was kind of hectic, with kids around. They were jumping everywhere, and to be honest, watching three kids…was kind of overwhelming. They were my cousins, and my relatives, which meant that I had to watch them..but on the other hand, kids were kind of a handful.
Hannah looked at me. “Where are we going?” she asked. She must have noticed I was putting on my jacket. “The Statue of Liberty,” I replied. I got on my coat, and collected all of my things. “Come on,” I urged her and her brother, Casper. The wind rushed past us, blowing through our hair, as the salty sea air flew.
Then I saw her. Miss America, her torch held high.
The kids looked at me, in awe. Hannah, only seven years old, (she loved to dance) gasped. “This must be the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life!”
She looked on, in complete astonishment and awe. “Thank you for taking me here,” she squealed, and then danced around and played with her brother. “You’re welcome,” I whispered, and thought only of opportunity and hope.

We went back home, and the first thing I did was take off my coat, and my high shoes. I flopped down, exhausted. “How did you like the trip?” I asked hoarsely. “It was really good!” they exclaimed.
I thought it would be nice to take them there. I started to get out cooking supplies, and made my favorite recipe, ever…the legendary chicken!
I’m not the best at making chicken, but I supposed if you boiled it…then it would all work out at the end. I started crying as I chopped onions. It wasn’t my fault entirely that I had brought them here. A single tear was shed down my face. I couldn’t help it, I couldn't. I missed my family, and even though I didn’t want to sell the house, it was our only choice. And New York was providing us greater opportunity than we could have ever hoped or dreamed of. I took a deep breath and continued chopping the onions, biting back tears.

Later that night, I consoled myself. Everything would be okay. Plus, we were already living in a stable apartment!

Everything would be okay. I looked out at the New York skyline, the Brooklyn Bridge that we had crossed five years ago, and surprisingly, it now seemed like a second home. The nostalgia flooded me, and I sighed.

“Your success and failure depends on how you use the opportunities.”

Weekly #2:
+2581 words!





I stared at the penetrating glance of the hedgehog. She was staring back. It wasn't a glare, exactly; it was more of a stare. My name is Alyssa, and I’m 13 and ½ years old exactly! I was so excited to be that today. Alright, some things I like… I like to read, and I also love to play catch with my siblings. I like to swim as well! I swim freestyle, which basically means I swim not in any particular order. I love doing butterfly style-swimming as well. Oh, one other fun fact about me. Sorry I’m tossing so many fun facts at you..I like to surf, too! Not many girls my age love to surf, and I think that’s part of what makes me unique, that I play so many sports (okay, they’re mostly water sports, but still!)


“ALYSSA!” my mom yelled. I tossed my hair back. “What?” I exclaimed. “Time to eat!” I panicked immediately. Oh no. It was time for me to eat. I had to go..back home.
I ran back inside, slammed the screen door, and came in breathless. “Alright,” I panted. “Ten seconds and counting from the beach to here. Not bad.”
I garbled down a bunch of other words that I didn’t want to say, and my mom stared at me disapprovingly. “Please don’t do that, young lady. It’s rude. And chew with your mouth closed, please!”
I sighed, and then ate my sandwich and other toppings as fast as humanly possible (with my mouth closed).

I screeched my chair back. “Done!” I proclaimed. No crumbs were left on my plate, so my mom sighed. “Fine, you can go.”
I put on flip-flops and raced out the front door. “See ya!” I yelled over my shoulder.

Running with flip-flops is supposed to be dangerous. You could possibly trip and fall. But not me! I have experience doing the hardest of tasks. So when I got to the beach, I saw the waves lapping.
Time to go surfing, I thought, with a determined look on my face. I got my surfboard, which was white with plumeria flowers on it. I had got it for my 10th birthday, a couple of years ago. My father gave it to me. The memory was sweet. I smiled. He still came to visit every couple of weeks, even though he had to work two-part time jobs.
I sat on the board and watched for a wave to come in. “Shshshsh” was the sound of the ocean.

Some people said that being out here, in the water, was just pure joy because you got to experience fresh air, the ocean breeze, and who you were all in one! I believe that too, and that’s why I’m doing what I’m doing.

I eyed the water. Two minutes left until the next wave. I stared at the horizon, past the glinting sun. There was a wave out there, and it should make it’s wave to me in…5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
I rode the wave, the huge, gigantic one. It was hard, at the beginning, to ride inside of the waves. I would wipeout a lot. But now I was doing it less and less.
“Yes!” I beamed, with a huge smile on my face.


I collapsed on the sand, feeling every particle on it. Mina the hedgehog curled up next to me. I patted her. “Oh, you liked that too, right?” I asked. “Were you watching me?” “Yes you were…”
I rubbed her behind her ears. “You’re the cutest little cutie pie, you know that?” I told her, and we watched the sun set. We sat there, me and her, on the beach together. The waves were lapping on the shore, and we sat back relaxing. I sat back and sighed. Time to go to sleep. I ran back to the house, kicking up dust, and ran, with my flip-flops on this time, back to the house. I tried super hard not to avoid the many stares of passerby's, and entered the house. “I’m home!” I exclaimed, and then sat down to play the guitar. I had played it ever since I was nine years old, and I was getting used to all the sharps, flats, and minor keys. I felt the vibrations tickle throughout my hands, and throughout my body, as the music fell through me, and swirled.

The Unlucky Session of SWC

The cabins had always fought in the past. They had brutal rivalries, and competitive spirits. For example, Myth always fought with Poetry, and Dystopian rivaled Mystery.
It was just going to be a fact of life. They were evil siblings, and they fought with each other, especially during cabin wars. That’s when things got really heated. They would drop intense wars. Although it’s really fun, many people would also argue during cabin wars. This time was bad, though. It was the thirteenth session of SWC, which meant it was cursed to be unlucky. Rain promised to herself that this session wouldn’t turn out to be unlucky. It would be the best one she would ever have yet.
Then she saw this in the description the next day.
“Cabin wars! All of you must write 650 words in the next 8 hours, or you lose 400 points. Good luck!”

It was cabin wars day.
I knew that I had to write a lot, and breathed in and out. I had to do this. For my cabin. All of the sudden, I saw a comment in our cabin from Ayelle. By the end of the day, we had gotten warred five times!
I was exhausted.

POETRY FTW! This was also the first session that it was called poetry. Last session, it was called poem sky castle, and there was an ongoing joke about poemgranates.

Word wars were going on, and I pressed on, determined to win. Right now, poetry was in around 12th place, which wasn’t great-well, considering that we got 7th last time. The highest we had ever placed was 7th (pretty sad…but still.)

Also, this happened to be the first session that they had the theme of fires. Before, it was all clouds, and other poem stuff.

Word wars came and Rain smiled. She loved word wars, they were her favorite part of SWC, to be exact. She read the comments to see if there was anyone worthy of her 60 words per minute. “Anyone want to do a word war? I’m from poetry and my wpm is around 60. 4-5 minutes?”
A couple of seconds later…(swc people are always online.)
Somebody from dystopian agreed to word war her, and then they went! “I’m starting the timer!” I commented, and then I wrote as fast as humanly possible. During word wars, it was important to write as fast as possible. (Of course, you could write slow and have your cabin lose points, but I doubt anybody wanted that.)


A new cabin was upon them this session-fan fiction! Some people called it fan-fi, or just regular fan fiction. It resembled how we could work together, to complete SWC.
Last session, there was classics, but they took it out, so now there was still 15 cabins exactly!

Horror in their face, they wrote about blood being shed and knives. They wrote about the terrible defeat, the honest blood that was shed amongst everybody. “The dark person, comes beyond the shadows…hunting.”

That was pretty creepy already, but it could get worse.

Fantasy laughed. “We obviously have the better cabin, and we’re going to win this time around!” The kings, queens, and royal princesses of their cabin all bowed down.
“This is nothing like March, though.”

Everybody had to agree.
This was nothing like March.

Thriller came in. “Look down,” they screamed.
I looked and was plummeted straight down from the cliff to the waterfall. Ahhh!!!!
My heart freefell to my toes. Things I’m scared of: whitewater rafting.

Contemp:
The stage lights grew dim, and the audience went for a hush. People were walking onto the stage, and there was only one spotlight.

Fairy tales:
The fairies sat in a garden, in a little ring. One was named Cherry, the other named Miracle. She fluttered her wings delicately. “I love the smell of these flowers,” she gushed.
“Yes, the primroses never did smell as sweet as this.”

Dystopian:
You walk into a valley, and see only one person. He’s silhouetted amongst the shadows, and the mist rises. EEK! The eagle screeches from above, and all falls silent. Only one person can survive this truly terrifying world.
Hi-fi:
Many people have debated the topic of Japanese culture, but today, there would be one story that would change it all. I sat, lonely, in the temple, my fingers crossed as I sat in a meditative pose. Tokyo was behind me, and I knew the chaos behind it, but for now, I had to submit myself totally and completely to the ancestors

Non-fi:
It’s true that corona virus (COVID-19) is still going on, although many people are considering opening up. They have approved vaccines, and as the school year starts again, they are looking for different ways on how to do it. .


SWC-the fanfiction

The cabins had always fought. They did every session, of course! This one was no exception.
When all of the sudden…
The ST announced a new update.
Birdi:
“I’m the host now, everyone. Listen up. There’s a studio update, as we all know, which means we can’t do cabin destruction.”

Reaction of everybody in SWC:
WHAT?!

Yeah, so apparently the cabin destruction wasn’t going to happen.

Mech: WHAT DID YOU DO TO SCRATCH ST?!!! Why?! Why?!

Polar: Ima tired, from adding words, I’m going to get offline now…
Rain: haha it’s cause I add too many words. But seriously thank you for adding all the words. We appreciate it.

In my own head…(well, now I’ve experienced the whole of Scratch 2.0 and 3.0, so not much to say there. At least I didn’t experience Scratch 1.0!)

There were three leaders in the poetry cabin: Polar, Mech, and Serrie.
All three of them were very nice, and there were around 40-50 campers to manage! That was a lot of people.

“Alright, people, only a couple of hours to submit your weekly!” it seemed pretty intense. In my head, I imagined if this was real life, and we were doing this writing camp in person. The room would be full of tweens and teens, arguing furiously on who would place first and second in the writing competitions, and who would win word wars.

“Fire, always fire.”
The theme for poetry cabin this session was fire, and that meant that they were talking about fire very often-or at least all the time.

Polar clapped his hands. “Cabin wars are done, great job everyone!”
He was more of a laid-back leader. This was my second session in SWC, and I could tell that each cabin leader had a different vibe about them. For example. I would be more quiet if I was chosen as a leader (never going to happen, but just an example.)
Some people were cheery, and some people were determined to win. That was just how the world worked.

“Let’s word war,” I told Mini.
“Hold on.” she told me, because she was doing a gazillion things.
5 days later and we still hadn’t word warred each other.
“Are we going to word war or what?”
I asked, sort of impatiently.
“Well…I have other things to do,” she muttered impatiently. “Sorry.”

It’s not like I meant to get my hopes up, but this was supposed to be a really great session of SWC. I waited so many months for it to start, and it only happens three times a year! That’s not a lot of times, and it’s only ¼ of the entire year.


I sighed. I guess it was time to do the daily?
I had missed a few.
It wasn’t really my fault, especially because some other stuff happened in real life
(I will tell you in a second.) My grandfather died. So we have to go to the funeral in a couple of days. It had been pretty hectic around here lately.


DO THE DAILY!!!!

There were many memes, and aesthetics made about the daily, and more about July SWC.

Poetryftw!!


Many people objected to that though, like our evil cousin Sci-fi.

This session, they were prioritizing mental health, because many people spend way too much time online. And obviously, sleep > SWC, irl > SWC, school > SWC. So there were dailies about walking around, eating healthier, and exercising!


I wasn’t the greatest at exercising, I was more of a reader/writer/singer but I would definitely try.

Polar: I’m going to count all the words from here down.
Serrie: Here’s our theme song! You can try to make it rhyme. It can be up to 200 words.

I didn’t know how to do a poetry theme song, but since our theme was fire, after all, then we could write a poetry fire song. Preferably one about campfires?

Embers rise
Deep within
Sparks fly
The fire burns.


So…”What cabin are you in?” I asked Skye. She was in Thriller, who happened to ALSO be our enemy. Skye used to be Starri, @stariimxxnliqht, but she deleted her account.

Then I asked the other Skye, (@-angelwings) what cabin she was in (she’s in Thriller too.)
She used to be @julybaby789, but then moved.

It was funny at the beginning of the session, when all the activity was,
@ user became a curator of the SWC studio.



Rain: I’m buying a guess now. I think it’s “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost.
The scavenger hunt was part of the whole cabin (it was run by Mech).

“Time for the second weekly!”
That was the new announcement in the discussion forums, by @-ChocoLoco-.
“You must write a total of 2,300 words. 500 from the Scratch library, (use three sprites and a backdrop), 800 from how SWC the vibe is, and then to finish it out, 1,000 words. Ready?! Go!”

(By the way, I’m almost done with this now, so the 2,300 is almost conquered, yes! The hill is passed.)

Okay, so another fun thing that happened this session. People are commenting in the workshop studio 100th, and now they’re on 263rd? I think.
It’s all because Bakie started it back at the beginning of July, and then other people commented “second,” “third,” and then it just kept going.

SWC
Hectic
Writing
Intense,
Strong feelings

Polar: We’re in 10th place now. (matter of fact.)
Rain: Yes!!
This is the point in the month when people start to drop out, not because it’s their fault, but because the middle is so…perilous. You never want to walk there because it’s hard.

BACKUPS ARE IN!!
Backups are sort of like waitlisted campers. They arrive a little bit later than normal campers, but they get to experience half of the SWC, which is nice! And they also get to participate in things that normal campers do, like word wars, cabin wars, etc.




Rain: Now that you’ve seen the whole of SWC, now I guess it is time…
Polar: to pay a fine
Creamie: The lights grow dim.
Flora: We seek adventure and look for the highest heights.
Serrie: and let the fire never stop burning
Alba: and the words never stop flowing.
Rain: The end.

“Welcome… to your greatest nightmare.”
I stood in absolute shock.
What I thought was there wasn’t there anymore. I touched it, hesitantly, and then it immediately vanished. “Hello?” I asked. “Is anybody there?”

“There-there-there-there” my voice reverberated around the cavern.
It echoed splendidly, and I could hear my voice.

“Hello?”
I stepped into the cavern, and I could see the stalagmites and stalactites dripping slowly down the cave walls. Bats hooted and turned upside down on the cave walls.
“Hoot, hoot!”
They called, showing all their teeth.

Then..something amazing happened.
Somebody appeared behind me. I shrieked and dropped my weapons, a little bit fearful.
“So you aren’t my greatest nightmare, then?” I asked, in a strangled voice.
“No, but I am, however, your enemy.”
This was strange.
The anonymous voice sat down and talked to me for an hour. I didn’t know who this was, or what their intent was, what they planned on getting from me, or their background! I may have just ran.
Maybe it was all a ploy, or a trick.

No. It couldn’t be.

“What do you want?” I asked the kidnapper.
“I want you.”
“You better not be kidnapping me,” I warned, slightly infuriated, but also mad and frustrated at the same time. “I could call the cops on you, you know.”
“And I could tie you up,” he responded right back. “Which one do you think is better, huh?”
And then he smirked. “More important, which one do you value more? Your family, or just being stuck here, all alone?” Poor Elizabeth. Stuck in a cave. Died there, all alone, with her captor as her last correspondent.


“Well…” I was officially out of words to say. I didn’t really know.

“Alright, then, missy, looks like we’ve made our decision.” We didn’t have time for this.
We had to go. He sliced the blade through the air, the cutting-edge shining.
I whispered into the receiver as he was taking me into the car, “911. We have an urgent emergency.”


“Why would you do something like this?” I demanded at him, as soon as we hit the ground. My chin was scraped up from the hard impact.
Even my leg was blistered. I landed on the grass hard, but nothing else seemed bad.

“Innocent people…hurt people hurt people.”
Now my feelings were just hurt. Did that mean he was a hurt person? I started to get emotional just then. Maybe he was just trying to protect his family. Maybe he was just trying to help!
He took off his mask and softened his voice, showing his true face.
“I wasn’t always like this. But society makes people who they are.”
He fled the scene in a blur, leaving me utterly devastated…and also very confused.


I was sitting near the pile of rubbish, wondering what to do and where to go, and
What in the world my life would become now. The mysterious man had fled. But maybe he would still be keeping tabs on me.
I took a deep, shuddery breath, and tried not to think about that.
I started to sing.

“Today will be a new day
We all start to say
There’s different seasons of life
We all take in strife…”

I made my way down the hill, singing my heart out, and I could never, ever be so full of joy then I was right now.

7/14 daily
Thank you to @superrockycat for the words: secret, family, uncovered, and river!


My family didn’t know I was in hiding. They thought I was gone. I darted quickly around, and tried to find somebody. Someplace.
This is dangerous.
It was indeed-a dangerous, perilous mission that nobody would ever want to embark on. Nobody except me and my sister. Or so she said.

Later that night, she spilled tears down her face. Apparently, she held a deep, dark secret from me. I sat close to her. “What’s wrong?” I asked, my brow creased in concern.

“It’s-it’s-”
“We're not really adopted,” she confessed. “We’re actually foster children.” I took a moment for this to sink in. The news shocked me to the core, of course, but I wasn’t entirely surprised. I had heard of these children before. They were taken from their parents at a young age, and lived with other families as they grew older.

“So you’re telling me that we’re not really true siblings?” I asked Ana, my sister.
“Yeah.” she wiped the tears from her face. “It was kept a secret. To keep you safe. And more importantly, to keep me safe. Come on. I want to show you something.”

The moonlight was streaming through the window sill, and both of us walked out the door. “See that?” she whispered. “That’s the enchanted river. Rumor has it that it’s the most powerful river in the whole city, and it renews your strength. The moon was reflecting upon the river, and I could see both of our reflections in the river. We looked like twins…almost. I disliked the fact that my parents had lied to us all these years, but I smile anyway. “The river cleanses you of all your past mistakes. One dip and you are cleansed.” I nodded slowly. Then I tried it. I dipped a corner of my hair into the water…slowly but surely.

The tip of it dripped, and I felt myself becoming clean. I wiped myself off, and dried with a towel. Rinse. Repeat. That was the way life went.
I stepped slowly out of the river, and watched as the waves lapped. Ana turned to me. “Uncovered another secret,” she told me. “Our parents didn’t really die the way that they’re telling us.”
“What?” my mind spun, with the information she was telling me. “They said that they died in a car crash!”
She nodded knowingly. “Yeah, but that’s stereotypical information. The real story is that one of them works for the government and is behind enemy lines right now.”

I spluttered. “How long was this all a secret? And how did you find all of this out?”
“Well. There is a crypt in the back of our backyard…It didn’t take long to dig up, to be honest.”

She smiled sympathetically. “Look, I’m sorry, and I apologize for my wrongdoings. But I really can’t be your sister. I’m not the one that you would know, and we’re not twins. The world isn’t perfect.”
she fled the scene in a blur of fast light, and I was confused. Why?
Why couldn’t we be sisters, enjoy life together, even though it was sometimes extremely toxic and dangerous? I guess it wasn’t safe for us to be together. I wished it could be different, the world wasn’t divided, people didn’t betray one another the way that they do. But unfortunately, the world is broken. It wasn’t safe for us to be seen together at all. Which meant that she had to leave. Facts were facts, and the sooner I accepted that, the easier it would be on her. I hung my head in dismay.
“Alright.”

I glanced out at the river, the water sparkling in the distance.
The moon was shining down upon the water, the water rippling. “Shshshshsh” the water rippled. This wouldn’t be the first time that I saw the waves, but it wouldn’t be the last, either.
I closed my eyes carefully and counted. “one, two, three…”
And missed my sister, who turned out not to be my sister. Hopefully, she would love me anyway, despite our differences, despite our circumstances. We could still love each other, because family is all that matters, no matter how near or far you are. You’re still family.

The end.

Daily 7/16 + encouragement for the rest of SWC.


+371 words
(I used the words “was” and “is” way too much.)

Amazingly, the headlights shone brightly as we drove into the forest and up the mountaintops. Past windy roads, and bumpy caverns. “I’m going to puke.” I muttered slightly. “This isn’t ideal,” I hissed to my mom and dad. It could be astonishing that I am not hurling in the backseat already. My mom patted my hand. “It’ll be okay, honey.”
We drove past more side roads and more streets, the signs proclaiming announcements such as “road closures,” and “temporarily down for maintenance.”
The lights were blinking slowly in the distance, and the the car screeched to a halt.
The glowing screen read, 10 minutes to your destination. And that is without traffic.
The headlights blinked and then went out. My parents took the keys out of the steering wheel, and then slowly, we got out of the car. I shut the door, feeling anxious and my heart beating wildly. The forest-utterly silent, and I hoped there weren’t animals here to feast on me.
My dad must have noticed the look crossing my face, because he told me soothingly, “It’s okay. There’s no animals, this place, routinely checked for animals, plus,” he chuckled a little bit. “Storage!” There laid a storage bin for our food.
I gave a trembly smile. That’s good that there are no forest animals, watching in the distance, but somehow I felt like we were being watched. I tried to shake the feeling off, tried to ease my thoughts, but I still feel sort of unnerved.
The forest might as well be out to get me. The leaves rustled in the breeze, and I rushed to get our supplies from the car. “Here,” I handed them to my mom and dad, and we set up camp. Hopefully we weren’t disturbing the wildlife. We set up the poles of the tent, and all four of them were set up in 10 minutes. I timed it perfectly on my watch.

Late at night, as the fire burned and the embers blazed into the night sky, my parents were talking around the campfire. I’m laying down in the tent, trying to go to sleep. Hopefully tomorrow would be a better day, and hopefully there would be no more tragedies.

The end.







In-cabin daily 7/16


+223 words
Sometimes, all you need is a reminder, to press on…and keep hoping.

Some things I enjoyed so far was meeting new people. This session is definitely different than last session (because all my friends from last session, we were all split up.) But making new friends, it’s been a good thing for me, because even though it’s all new people, mostly, I can make the best of it, and learn from my past experiences in SWC and teach them about it! *it was only one session, but still.*

This is the middle of SWC, the point where people drop out and lose confidence, and I know some people are getting tired of writing, tired of everything. But we have to remember how excited we were when we came here! Weren’t we all so excited to start writing at the beginning? It only happens three times a year, after all.
The studio update, where only creators can edit the description, may have changed a lot of how everything works, and it may have let our spirits down. It let mine down, too. I was shocked and a little sad, and I was even thinking about quitting. But we can’t let those things stop us. We have to press on, all the way to the end, to finish the amazing goal…and what we started!

Uh, kind of corny really corny, sorry…not my best writing.

7/18 daily
Based off of Rewrite the Stars from the Greatest Showman

Original lyrics
Original song:
Rewrite the Stars from the Greatest Showman

You know I want you
It's not a secret I try to hide
I know you want me
So don't keep sayin' our hands are tied
You claim it's not in the cards
And fate is pullin' you miles away
And out of reach from me
But you're here in my heart
So who can stop me if I decide
That you're my destiny?
What if we rewrite the stars?
Say you were made to be mine
Nothing could keep us apart
You'd be the one I was meant to find
It's up to you, and it's up to me
No one can say what we get to be
So why don't we rewrite the stars?
Maybe the world could be ours
Tonight
You think it's easy
You think I don't wanna run to you
But there are mountains
And there are doors that we can't walk through
I know you're wondering why because we're able to be
Just you and me within these walls
But when we go outside, you're gonna wake up and see
That it was hopeless after all
No one can rewrite the stars
How can you say you'll be mine?
Everything keeps us apart
And I'm not the one you were meant to find
It's not up to you
It's not up to me
When everyone tells us what we can be
How can we rewrite the stars?
Say that the world can be ours
Tonight
All I want is to fly with you
All I want is to fall with you
So just give me all of you
It feels impossible
It's not impossible
Is it impossible?
Say that it's possible
How do we rewrite the stars?
Say you were made to be mine?
Nothing can keep us apart
'Cause you are the one I was meant to find
It's up to you
And it's up to me
No one can say what we get to be
And why don't we rewrite the stars?
Changing the world to be ours
You know I want you
It's not a secret I try to hide
But I can't have you
We're bound to break and my hands are tied


Translated lyrics (in different languages)
(yes, I translated part of it myself, and the other part I used Google Translate.)
You know I want you
it’s not a secret I consider
I can’t have you
I am my…you want
I’m not saying we are together
The memories, the times we shared
So who can determine (or decide)
You are my destiny

I can rewrite the stars
Who can say you’ll be mine
Nothing separates us
You are the one (destiny) I could find
It’s not depending on me
It’s not up to you
Everyone tells us what we can be
We can rewrite the stars
changing the world
tonight,

You think it's easy
You think i don't want to run by your side
But there are mountains
There are some doors that we can't go through
I know you want to know why because we can

How can I rewrite the stars?
Say the world can be ours
tonight
What i want is to fly with you
I want you
It's not impossible
Is it impossible?
Say it is possible
How do we rewrite from stars?
Say you're made of me?
Nothing can keep us apart
Because you're the one I was meant to find
It's up to you
It's up to me
No one can say what we become
And why do we not rewrite the stars?
The world is changing to be ours

I can’t have you
It’s not a secret
We’re bound to break
Our destiny our hands are tied


I never thought that he would propose to me. It was just me and him. We had been dating for about five months, maybe. And then, all of the sudden, he walked up to me. It was a quiet day on the riverside, and I could hear the waves lapping. He had a hand on my back and whispered softly, “I have something for you.” Arnold was such a good man. My hands flew to my cheek when I saw what it was. It was a golden ring, set in a red ruby. I started to cry and cry, and I sobbed and flew into his arms. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes.”
Later that day, we got engaged. Many people were so happy and thrilled when we got married, and 25 days later, we tied the knot officially.

Love isn’t something to look on, and I realize, now that I looked out at the swans circling the lake, that it was something to treasure forever. After all, it was part of life.

We kissed and the pastor cleared his throat. “Would you like to…start?” he asked.
“First, do you promise to forever be faithful to her, in good times and in bad?”
“I do.”
It went on for awhile. Weddings take long, (hours) to finish.

“You may now kiss the bride,” he announced proudly.
We then walked down the aisle, and people threw flowers as the reception passed. There was music and the procession and wedding party came after us.

“Alright, alright!” The wedding organizer clapped her hands together and said, “Everybody move to the left.” “And you guys, you can sign the wedding registry.” She motioned to the registry. All of the guests stepped forwards and signed the form.

Five days later..
“The world is changing…” he told me quietly.
“Yes. Yes, it is.” I told him back.

“We can..” I whispered, leaning into his arms. “Change the world.”

Many days later, we sorted through all of the wedding gifts. A lot of them were items to start a home, like household items, and money.
As we drove away, I saw the stars twinkling in the night sky, and the water was rippling in the distance. I sighed and listened to the water, and we put our hands around each other. I never wanted this moment to end. Ever.
“The stars, twinkling bright in the sky, they never grow dimmer… You can change the world tonight.”

I don't know how to give proof because the whole story is 19,000 words, but I edited The Unforgettable Quarantine, which I wrote last year, added about 200 words, here's an excerpt I edited. I also took out all of the “so's” in the story, and comma splices, added more words, etc. Before edits:
19,200 ish words
after edits
19,400 words



March 17, 2020.
That was the day we officially became quarantined. I’ll never forget THAT! They called it shelter in place, quarantine, same thing, really. The thoughts flew through my head. Oh my gosh, are we going to die, I hope I’m not going to die! All through March, people started to stockpile stuff like toilet paper and water, not like they really needed it. It was total madness. (Just like March Madness, only this time, it was real! It was almost like Y2K that I had learned about in history. You know, in the year 1999 they were afraid the computers wouldn’t reset and they started stockpiling stuff. It reminded me so much of that!! It was almost a repeat of history. For example, the Spanish Flu was sort of the same as this. It lasted two years. 1919 to 1921. The coronavirus was also predicted to last two years, 2020-2022. And another thing, the stock market was going down, which was sort of a repeat of the stock market crash of the 1930s. (This was all in ONE month.) I was still in shock. I couldn’t see my friends. I would miss the end-of-the school year testing. We heard that same week that Disneyland was going to close and that our governor was letting the Princess Cruiseline enter the harbor. I closed my eyes and wished for this nightmare, whatever weird nightmare we were in, to end.

April 2020
PERSONALITY TESTS! They are making us crazy. I’m a Campaigner (ENFP) I closed my eyes on my bed and wished with all my heart, for this to end. Just then, my mom came into the room, with a grim face. “What is it?” I asked, my heart pounding loudly in my chest. “It’s your grandpa.”

The days after were filled with lots of tears and heartache. Grandpa had been old, yes, so vulnerable to getting the virus. He hadn’t been out that much, but the coronavirus was more prone to older people and therefore he was more likely to get it.

The days dragged by, monotone and seemingly without end. It had been officially one month since the government had announced the first “shelter-in-place” order, mandated by the state of California.
Did I mention they made everybody wear face masks? The general public now has to wear face masks, and social distance 6 feet apart from each other. It was hard the first few days, staying home when my body was used to going outside, seeing people. It’s crazy. Zoom is getting a lot of publicity from all of this, which is good and bad. I feel like this is a good year and a bad year! Of course, I have never experienced a pandemic before, so this was all new!

My dance classes couldn’t meet in person anymore, and we couldn’t have any actual performances. That meant no more competitions…but as long as we were quarantined, in isolation, I had to keep training. I didn’t want to forget everything I had learned, of course!

I stretched in bed, changed my clothes into my dance outfit, and turned on some music. Energetic pop music filled the room, and I danced and swung my arms and legs around, getting into the groove of the beat.

5 days later…

I really miss my family and friends. It’s lonely being in quarantine. You don’t get to SEE anybody, and it makes you tired sometimes because you don’t get regular Vitamin D. I miss people and I miss seeing everybody. Some parts of society I really miss, like hugging my grandpa when he walks through the door, but I don’t miss the annoying kids on the bus who throw gum everywhere. That just drives me insane.

I have been doing a lot more reading and writing, and I have found a new hobby: baking! (along with my dancing and track, however.)
My favorite thing to bake right now is chocolate chip muffins, and I have made some for my pet bunny. She’s so cute. She’s a little dwarf bunny, 8 weeks old, and I love to rub her fur.

I have got to go practice swimming now because we’re doing an online swim class over Zoom. Goodbye!

3 days later:

It is so incredibly hard to think about how we are quarantined and how this is affecting not just one person, but many people. Many people are affected, and many people are dying. This makes me very sad, and I hurt inside thinking about this. Good thing I always dance nowadays, because this takes my mind off of this sad predicament. I have been going outside into my backyard a lot too and going on the trampoline and the pool. Of course, my parents also bought some gymnastics equipment for me when I was younger, and I still use it! I pet little Kindra on the head, and she goes to sleep in her little kennel. I walk outside, and it is hot, so I turn the sprinkler to run through it. The grass also needs a bit more watering, because it looks a tad dry.
It sprays all over the place, and Kindra is awakened by the noise of the sprinkler. She runs through the sprinkler and gets her fur wet. I laugh, and she shakes off the water. “Oh, you little Kindra, you!” I exclaim. “Ruff,” is all I get in response. “Let’s go upstairs, now. We’ve got to get you clean!”

After a nice long shower, Kindra is dry and we read together by the moonlight. I think about all the things that have happened in my life. I got a bunny. I learned to bake. I dance. I swim. I do all of these things…but I’m still quarantined.

Middle of the story:

Jasmine was trying to contact me again. I could feel it. Plus, now I had my powers back! I got up from puking in the bush and I smiled at Milak. “Sorry, but you’re not getting any of my powers.” He fumed. “And why is that, little princess?” “Actually, Jasmine’s the princess-” I began, but didn’t have time to finish because Milak cupped his hand around me and started running the IV tube again. I glared at him. Great! Another obstacle I had to face. Just when I thought I was going to get my sister!

“FELICITY!!” my voice echoed through the portal, sort of like a cavernous voice. The sound waves bounced back at me. I sighed, for the fiftheeenth millionth time. This was getting depressing. My sister wasn’t here. My parents weren’t here. Cassie was probably out to get me. I stroked Kindra. “But at least I have you.”

Holograms started appearing in the portal. Visions of my life. Me and Felicity playing together. Us arguing the other day-I bit my lip at that. Us looking up at shooting stars. And even me opening my card on my 12 ½ birthday.





And of course, my gym meet.



I touched the holograms gently, and they faded away.

I cried.

I stood up. Where was the broken bracelet (it had broken earlier.) I thought Rowan had it, but I could be wrong.
I faced Milak. “I’m not going with you.” he snorted irritably. “You are just a young girl and probably do not know any better!”
I jumped forward into the bushes and tripped him. “Haha! Now who’s the brainiac with no smarts, huh?” I paused, then continued. “And I’m leaving now, because I have to go get my sister.”

I left rather hastily and in a rush.

Milak just stood there standing openmouthed and in constant awe at me.