Junior / Stories – Page 5 – Philadelphia Stories

Click to Start

One simple game. Just a silly computer game. Harmless. No, it actually isn’t. Ever since people have started to download the game, it’s gone all wrong. It’s because everyone’s missing.

About three years ago is when it started. Moji Enterprises had released their newest game. Moji is popular for the addictive games you really can’t put down. I have to admit, most of my devices have been filled up with their apps. Demons Demise, Red Fox, you name it. I have a brother, Gregory, and a mom. My dad is never usually around, business reasons and all. Of course, they have some Moji games, too. But Moji did something different; they released a computer game. They typically only make mobile games, but this one was for the computer.

Yeah, what’s the big deal? It’s great. I can play my games on the computer, too. That’s what I should have been thinking, but I was skeptical. The game was called “Hall Pass.” The goal was to go to different classrooms and collect items. But there are obstacles in the hallway, and the hallway looks like a maze. By day two it had 2,983,297 downloads. I didn’t download it because I didn’t have enough space on my computer. After a month or two, my skepticism subsided, and I decided to clear some space and download it.

Five minutes after beginning the download, an icon that looked like an open book appeared on the desktop. I double-clicked and it opened. It loaded for a while. The graphics looked really funny, pixelated. Funny, Moji’s games are always in HD quality. Something didn’t feel right. What was I so worried about?

My mother’s voice called from downstairs. She set the table and made dinner. Gregory inhaled his meal, and ran upstairs. He was silent the entire meal.
“This new game is really addicting. My own child won’t say a word, too busy thinking about that game,” said my mom with a laugh. My mom hates electronics, or anything that has to do with them. “Aren’t you hungry, or has the gaming virus invaded your head?” she asked.

“No, no. I’m just tired.” I replied. “Can I go to bed?”

“Fine. Only saying okay, because I’m worried you haven’t been getting sleep,” she said. I ran upstairs to my computer. A button graphic had appeared:

CLICK TO START

I clicked the button, expecting instructions, or the game. Instead another “Click to start” button appeared. Then another appeared, and I clicked it again. They kept appearing, as I kept clicking them. The screen glitched up, turned green with lines, and lines of code. I was frustrated. I absolutely HATED viruses. The screen slowly turned white. There was a flash and my picture showed with my brother’s and my mother’s. My address turned up, and then the computer shut down.

I screamed out of fear. I ran downstairs, looking for my mother, but couldn’t find her. I returned to my room, and hid in the covers.

About 30 minutes later, I heard the front door open, thinking it was my mother. I quietly went down the stairs to look. I was wrong.

A man in a gray suit and white hair stood in the doorway, then started up the stairs after me. Two more men came in with guns and went with him. I ran to Gregory’s room, and locked the two of us inside. The three men knocked it over, and shot us both.
It was a huge blur from there.

I woke up in a white gown in a small, gray room. I tried to scream but nothing came out. A door opened and the same man in the suit comes in. He has my brother by the feet. Gregory’s eyes are wide with fear. He was thrown in with me, and the door was locked. I could talk.

“Don’t worry, momma’s coming.” I said to my brother. We peered out the room’s only window to see thousands, maybe millions of people in a line. They looked drowsy, and wore plain clothes. And at the end of that never-ending line, was my mother. I thought I was hallucinating. I blinked, and she was gone.

I realized this a sweatshop run by Moji. Anyone who is out of line gets killed, along with his or her family. I stay silent, never saying anything, in fear my brother and I would get killed. My name is no longer the one I had. It is now 6383H. I kept telling myself, “Don’t worry, momma’s coming”, but I very well know that isn’t true.

My job is to put in the batteries of phones. The two women next to me are 4026W and 1952D, but since we’re now friends, I call them Alyson and Kate. About 15 families are killed each week, usually by one individual gone mad. My brother works at the other end of the station with the screens.

Two years have passed. I realize now that most gaming companies have collaborated with Moji, and they’re using this virus. If you ever come across a game that has the exact words, “Click to start”, delete it. Delete it right that very moment. Just do it. It’s not a game. Just please, don’t you dare click that button.

The One-Dot Mushroom

Once upon a time there lived, a queen and a king. They had two children named
Alec and Molly. Alec was a newborn and Molly was 5 years old. One day, a witch came to their palace.

She put a spell on Molly’s mom and dad, and turned them into one-dot mushrooms. You see, the witch wanted to be the new queen so she could make everyone in the kingdom her slave. She uses her magic powers to turn people and pigs into lesser beings like mushrooms, bushes, and toads. The things that she changes stay alive, but are controlled by her power. She does this to punish the people and pigs of Free
Kingdom for crossing her forest and collecting trees and bushes for ingredients to make their suppers.

So, she put a spell on the king and queen, and they became colored mushrooms with one black dot on them. After casting her spell, she also took Alec while he was sleeping. Molly did not know she had a brother because no one told her. Molly was spending time with her friend, Prince Tommy, when this happened.

In the Free Kingdom, there are two different palaces. Princess Molly lives in her palace most of the time, and Tommy, prince and messenger to the King and Queen, lives in a different palace. They are best friends. Every time the princess is sad, she talks to her best friend Tommy, the pig. He is very intelligent. Pigs can solve mysteries fast. The pig lives in Pig palace with his pig fellows. He enjoys wearing rich fabrics all in blue and red. He wears boots, and his favorite boots are colored brown. The pig doesn’t like to eat a lot, so for a pig he is quite skinny.

Princess Molly is blonde with blue eyes. She has freckles on her face near her nose.
She likes to wear dresses that are blue. She is brave and can run fast. The princess and the pig are both nice. They are not mean to others and are reliable. Other pigs and people trust them. They are nice to their kingdom’s subjects and they protect their kingdom from other people who might steal, like the witch. As was said, the witch sometimes curses the pigs and people to become her servants and other things.

The witch is wicked. She is tall and fat and ugly. She has wrinkled skin and wears ripped clothes. This witch lives under a stone near the forest. Pigs and people are scared of her, except for Prince Tommy and Princess Molly. They always take journeys to the forest.

The witch waits years for the right time to appear in front of Tommy and Molly. The witch wants Alec to marry Molly so that the witch can be the new queen.

Prince Alec has now grown, and has blonde hair, too, just like Molly. Alec knows that his stepmother wants him to marry Molly but feels uncomfortable marrying the princess because he senses a connection between himself and Molly. He doesn’t know what it is, but he feels he just cannot marry her.

One day, Molly and Tommy were walking through the forest.

“ Molly, I need to talk to you.” Tommy said.

“What is it, Tommy?” asks Molly.

“Yesterday, I was delivering a message in the forest when I overheard the witch talking to her trustworthy servant about turning your parents into one-dot mushrooms, and stealing your brother, Alec.”

“So, you’re saying I have a brother named Alec?” asked the princess confused.

“ Yes, you do, you need to believe me,” says Tommy.

“ Look Tommy! There are some mushrooms. Let’s take some,” said the princess.

“ These mushrooms are beautiful, some are striped and some are dotted,” Tommy cried. “ Do you smell that, Molly?“ asked Tommy.

“Smell what? “ The Princess said.

“You don’t smell that perfume? ”

“ That smell is awful! ” exclaimed the princess.

“The colors are my favorite,” he hesitates. “But maybe they are poison.”

Suddenly, they found themselves in front of a huge flying stone, which was actually the roof of the witch’s invisible house. Near the stone is a large bunch of mushrooms, marking where the front door to the witch’s house lies.

The witch appeared and said, “What are you doing with my precious mushrooms?”

“We….. were just taking some for our kingdom’s people,” said the princess quivering.

The witch said, “What are you doing in my forest? And who are you?”

“I am Molly and this is………” the witch stopped her.

“Let the pig speak for himself,” the witch scolded angrily.

“I beg your pardon, my name is Tommy and we were just walking to find ingredients.” Tommy whispered quickly.

Behind the bush, Alec appears. “Mom, who is this girl and this pig?”

The witch said, “This is Molly and Tommy.”

“So, this is the Molly you want me to marry so you can be the queen?”

“How did you know about this?” Croaked the witch.

“Well, I overheard you talking with your servants,” replied Alec.

”Stop with the nonsense, young boy. Go to your room. I’m dealing with a more serious problem.” Alec goes back into the house as he was told. Then Molly whispered in Tommy’s ear.

“Is that Alec the brother that was taken from my parents when they got turned into mushrooms?”

“Yes, indeed!” Tommy said.

“Get away now while you can or I’ll turn you into a mushroom like I did to the others,” yelled the witch.

Tommy and Molly said, “No! We won’t leave until you return my parents, the king and queen to us.”

“I have a mystery for you to solve,” the witch said, not knowing that Tommy is an expert solver of mysteries.

“You have three chances to identify which mushrooms are your mom and dad. If you fail, I will be the new queen and then you will be turned into roosters,” the witch said, confident that her plan would succeed.

Tommy picked first. Tommy picked one-dot mushrooms that were colored blue. They were not the king and queen, but it was the chef from the palace.

The second chance was harder, because the witch used her powers to mix all the mushrooms up. Molly picked a mushroom that was striped black and white. That was also not the king or queen, but instead, an old lady. Their last chance had come.

Molly said, “Let’s choose the red one.” Tommy doesn’t agree and argues for the blue one. They compromise, and agree to choose a purple, one-dot mushroom, because blue and red make purple.

Poof!

Molly’s dad (the king) appears! Sadly, that was their last chance and they did not find the queen.

“Ha! Ha! You could not find your mother, the queen.” The witch laughed and went inside to get her wand while the king, Molly, and Tommy hid behind a bush. They were scared that they would be turned into roosters. The witch was smart enough to know that they would try to escape, so she put a spell on the invisible fences around her invisible house.

When the witch found them, she began turning them into roosters, but Tommy already being a pig, could not be another animal.

The next morning, the king, Molly and Tommy figured out by communicating in animal talk that Molly’s mom, the queen, was hidden in the witch’s room. Meanwhile, the witch went out for a walk, but forgot to make the house invisible. She was so happy that her plan was succeeding that she got careless.

The group rescued the queen and made it out before the witch returned from her walk. They ran through the forest quickly, but the witch discovered them on her way home. As the witch began to pursue them, she tripped and her wand fell to the ground.

Alec picked up the wand and turned the evil witch into a stone. Then, he turned the king and Molly back into people. They went back to the witch’s house.

“There are a lot of people and pigs turned into mushrooms, stones and other things here,” the queen said. “Let’s turn them back to normal.”

So Alec, who still had the wand, turned everyone else back to the way they used to be. The pigs and the people gathered together in Free Kingdom and had a celebration and they all lived happily ever after.

Marciella is 11 years old and in the sixth grade at Mastery Charter Thomas Elementary (MCTE) in Philadelphia. She likes to write stories, poems, do math, and art. This summer, she participated in a cool engineering program called Science Engineering Experience for Kids (SEEK). She is also a student at Mighty Writers South. She has an awesome mentor named Sandee Mandel.

The Guinea Pig Races

In my elementary school, pets were a big thing. Class pets like rabbits or chickens were owned by a few lucky classrooms, and pets like goldfish and frogs were owned by the less fortunate. Our classroom ended up with guinea pigs.

At first, I was excited. Who could turn down furry, pig-like, hamsterish-mouse things? But then, I found out the truth: guinea pigs were smelly, sniffly rats that waited until you decided to hold them to pee. Could this really be the classroom pet?

“Come on, eat it,” Ryan whined at the guinea pigs. Ryan, Matthew, and I were standing in the loft in our third grade classroom. The loft was where the bookshelf, blocks, and pillows were. Unlike the second and first grade classrooms, the loft actually had wooden stairs leading up to it. The only downside to this amazing loft was the smell, the smell of guinea pig poop mixed with squashed stinkbugs.

“Eat it you fat rats!” Ryan was getting impatient. So far they hadn’t liked the fries, or the grapes we had tried to feed them. And, there wasn’t much else you could do with these “pets” besides feed them. They weren’t very hard to catch, but if you held them for more than a few seconds, you were in danger of being peed on.

“Why don’t we build a guinea pig race?” Matthew blurted out suddenly. We all agreed it was an excellent idea.

So, we got out the blocks and built a twisty maze with two openings, and put them at the entrance. Matthew held “Caramel” a few inches above the ground. Ryan did the same with “Coco.”

“On your mark,” I shouted in my loudest indoor voice, “get set, go!”

Matthew and Ryan put the guinea pigs down. Coco waddled in the opposite direction, and then sat down. Caramel ran in circles a few times and sped off toward the stairs. We ran after him, me holding Coco. He got about halfway down the stairs before we caught him.

We put them back in their cages, right before recess ended.

* * *

About two weeks later, Matthew had another idea (Two ideas in one month! He was on fire!). We would hold a Guinea Pig Tournament.

By this time we had learned the guinea pigs’ favorite foods. Matthew was Caramel’s trainer, so he brought in spinach in every morning, and Ryan was Coco’s trainer so he brought in lettuce. I was the race builder, so I would construct the races while they were getting ready. We had figured out how to coax the guinea pigs through the maze holding their favorite treats right in front of them. I decided to “up” my game, and made a race so confusing that the trainers could get lost in it.

Then began the guinea pig races. Everyday at recess we would hold races. But, fate was on Caramel’s side the day of the tournament because Ryan had run out of lettuce. He came in with a shameful substitute, kale. Coco would never give his all for kale. That day went down in guinea pig history.

I set up the race. Matthew ran around the room with Caramel going faster than they had ever gone before. Meanwhile, Coco and Ryan were having more trouble. Coco would stumble a few feet and then decide it wasn’t worth the effort. Then stumble a few more feet. We all felt sorry for Coco, and even more so for Ryan, by the time the race started.

“On your mark. Get set. Go!” I said for the last time during the tournament.

Matthew put Caramel down, as did Ryan with Coco. I closed the guinea pigs in the maze as Ryan and Matthew wielded the vegetables. Ryan scrambled around the maze so as to not knock it over while Coco followed. Coco was putting no more effort into the race than he did during practice.

However, back at the start of the maze, Matthew was trying to coax a sitting Caramel to run. Nothing he did would work. He touched her nose with the spinach, but she just sat on the brown-green carpet, uninterested.

Matthew was getting desperate; Ryan was almost at the end. Just then there was a clang as Ryan knocked over a block.

The rules stated he had to pick up the knocked over blocks before he continued again. Coco, not understanding that he needed to stop, started to turn after Ryan turned around to pick up the block. Before he was all the way lost, Ryan was facing him with the kale.

And then, Caramel moved.

Everything stopped. I could almost hear the crickets chirping. Right where Caramel was there was a giant guinea pig pee stain. It had turned the carpet from green-brown, to brown-black. I quickly rushed down to get paper towels just as the bell rang. In a few minutes, 22 kids were going to come up here to read aloud.

When I came back up, the blocks were put away and the guinea pigs back in their cages. But no matter how many paper towels we used, you could still see the GGPPS (giant guinea pig pee stain.)

We quickly threw away the paper towels and sat as far away from the GGPPS as possible. Kids started coming in, positioning themselves far from the questionable stain. We hoped someone would sit on it so that the teachers didn’t see. A couple of times, less observant kids almost sat on it, but friends would hurry them away. In the end all of us were crammed around the edges and not a single person was sitting within a half a foot of the GGPPS.

At the time, I thought maybe the teachers didn’t notice the GGPPS. But the next day, the stain was washed out. If you look hard enough, you can still see the outline in the faded carpet. After that, though, whenever someone sat on the GGPPS, we would laugh, remembering the guinea pig races.

Lydia Cunitz is an eighth grader at the Friends Select School. She lives in Mt. Airy with her mom, dad, sister, and dog, Lucy. Her favorite writing style is poetry.

The Misadventures of my Magic Finger

So, I was at home watching television, and I was using my Magic Finger to get some pretzels — lots and lots of pretzels — and then my dad came into the room.

Wait for it! Wait for it! HE was a pretzel! I was about to eat him when I locked myself in the closet. I heard a creak, and I fell through the floor into a portal. I closed my eyes.

When I opened them, I was in my neighbors’ car and they were turning into pretzels, so I jumped out the window and found myself surrounded by pretzels. Everyone was a pretzel!

The buildings were pretzels, and even the trees were pretzels with pretzel leaves. I ran into the pretzel forest. While I was running, I saw Hunter, my friend. I said, “Hi, Hunter. Why are you running?”

“Why else?” he said. “The pretzels!!!”

Then we heard a snap. Hunter yelled, “Jump!” as we dodge a falling half-pretzel, half-tree thing. And then we heard a call that sounded kind of “pretzelly.” It also sounded kind of “sistery.” (That is just our point-of-view. Hey, don’t judge us — judge our sisters.)

Just then we saw flying salt, and I say, “Well, hello to you!”

Our sisters appeared, but they were pretzels. Hunter and I both swung our fists and sliced them in half. I jumped in to eat them, but missed. Hunter had pulled my arm and swung me into the dirt as the trees shot salt at us.

It was a mad forest! Hunter and I ran for our lives, just as things were about to get salty! We were blinded by salt, which quickly covered us completely. We tried to navigate through it for help, but it was too late. We were trapped!

That is, until our friends Josh, Elliott and Lev arrived and dug us up. We were all in for a wild ride! We ran through the forest, jumping quickly so we wouldn’t sink. Lev told us a pretzel weakness — it’s another pretzel. He also told us the secret so pretzels can’t detect you — you have to hold a pretzel up to them. Good to know!

We went to my house and sneaked into the kitchen and got one pretzel each. Just as Lev was about to get his, a pretzel jumped through the window! My dog, Henry, barked once, but before he could bark a second time Hunter sliced the pretzel in half.

“Good one!” I said.

But we were surrounded, so I yelled, “Jump!” as a pretzel went flying under us and knocked down a wall of pretzels.

“YYYeeeessssss!!!!” I yelled. “Come on!” I yelled again.

We all ran out the door. I tripped over a rock. “Mmff,” I said.

I kicked the rock, and it bounced off the wall and hit me in the head. I yell, “Arg, you deadly rock!” But Josh told me it was a form-crystal.

“A form tile?” I asked.

“No, silly,” he says. “A form-crystal. It can turn one thing into another.

“Sorta like me and my finger?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Hey! Maybe it can change everyone back!”

“Yeah!” Elliott yelled. “Now you can find out!”

I point the crystal at a rampaging pretzel and say, “Photosynthesis!”

The pretzel turned back.

“Yes!” I said. “This thing works!”

“How did you know to say that?” Lev asks.

“It told me to,” I said.

“What told you to?”

“The crystal, you mindless person!” I said.

“Come on!” Josh says. “We’ve got some humans to fix!”

Jason Kraus is a Grade 2 student at Myers Elementary School in Elkins Park, PA. He loves to play with Legos and to write creative stories. He also loves to draw and play the drums.