the Man in the Mirror

 As I peer out into the field of black, I see a hooded man in the glass. I am paralyzed by the sound of a muddy footstep on my wooden floor behind me I scream as I realize I'm looking in a mirror.

Sweet sound of Ignorance

 Sweet Sound of Ignorance

There is a whole world of happiness in my head

A place of peace I find myself running into

It smells like ocean breeze

And tastes like strawberries

Water made of honey

And clouds the color of a rainbow

I sit there in silence thinking of my future

Ignoring my sadness and stress

I find peace in the sound of Ignorance

I walk around admiring the view

Truly hoping that one day

My happy place will come to life

By: Essie

My two sides turn into a whole

 The sun shines bright through my window and kisses my forehead. I play some country music while I take a burning hot shower. I put on a cute outfit with a hint of sparkle in my look. Captain (my dog) comes downstairs to cuddle with me while I eat breakfast. I spend most of the nice weather days outside. I love the beach. It is my home away from home. The sand in between my toes is just so satisfying. I don’t take a lot of risks. I like to stay safe, and cautious. I also like to think things all the way through before doing something too extreme. My best friend is the opposite. The sun shines bright but doesn’t get into her room through the curtains. She stays in bed until her mom tells her to get up. She plays pop music while taking a hot bath. She goes to find the comfiest clothes and her beloved Converse. She throws her hair up in a ponytail. When her dog comes downstairs she just throws his bone for him. She likes to do nothing all day unless her friend takes her out to do something. She loves the mountains. The cold air just feels so nice. She likes seeing the snow sparkle from the sun hitting it. She tends to take risks. She will do things without thinking it all the way through.

When we hang out, people wonder how we are friends since we are opposites. She is dark while I am bright. I care for others while she cares for herself. We help each other out with the things we are weak in. For example, when I don’t want to do something she is there to tell me not to do it. When she doesn’t want to help an animal I force her to help the animal. We are like fire and ice. One thing we have in common is that we make up one person. Her name is Emma, and she can be sweet but has a hint of spice. She tries to hide her mean side, but it comes in hand when she needs confidence for a speech. Her style even reflects the both of us. Most of the time Emma is a sweetheart, but when she gets angry you better watch out. Emma needs both of us to be who she is, because without both of us then she would be boring.

Evil Twin

 It’s three in the morning, I’m getting up to get ready for the day. I turn on my punk rock music and put on my spunky, edgy clothes. I put a thick layer of black eyeliner on and I was out the door. Hi, I’m Axel Ramone, and I’m seventeen years old, living by myself because my relationship with my family is terrible. When I was sixteen years old, I emancipated myself because I was tired of my family crap. They signed the papers and I packed my stuff and left. I was getting ready to get in my car for work when I saw a wounded sparrow. I stepped on it on purpose and killed it completely. I just didn’t want to see it suffer so it was easier just to kill it completely right then and there. I’m now on my way to work where I meet at a secret building and they give us one-hundred tasks to complete before the week is over. All the tasks revolve around messing with people and or scaring them. I try to do more than one-hundred because it makes me happy when my entire day is packed full so I won’t be bored at all. One of the places my task is located is in a jungle. I love the jungle so I was excited. I love all the tigers and lions when they try to chase me. My task was to fly over the jungle and find any tourists/people and drop things on their heads. Evil, I know. There was really no point to this, we just thought it was fun and funny. After a full day of work, I start to head home. I get home and on my doorstep is a wallet filled with one-thousand dollars. So what did I do? I picked it up, put it in my wallet, and brought it inside with me. I took off my eyeliner, changed my clothes, and then went to bed. The next morning I wake up around three and start getting ready for work. Around four I opened my door to leave and there were police officers standing there waiting for me. They told me they were arresting me and I was going to prison for animal abuse, stolen property, and aggravated assault.

 Flash forward about twenty-five years. It’s been about five years since I was released from prison.  I’m now forty-two years old. I moved out to the country and live in a beautiful, huge cabin with my wife Mary and our four kids. We have the perfect view of the city at night. It’s so quiet and peaceful. In the past twenty years, I have turned into a completely different person. My days are much simpler and nicer. I wake up around eight in the morning and got ready for work as a physical therapist. I absolutely love it. While I’m getting ready I turn on my country music. About twenty minutes later I hear a hurt sparrow at my window. I look outside the window and noticed that it was hurt. I went outside, put it in a shoebox, and brought it to the animal clinic where they nursed it back to health and let it free back into the wild. After I dropped off the bird, I headed to work in the city. I worked until six at night. After work, I go home, make supper, shower, and put on my favorite clothes on which are comfy clothes. During my shower, my wife finishes feeding the kids. After I’m done we clean up the kids and get all four of them a bath. We then get their bottles and lay them in their cribs. It’s now quiet time. I go to get my phone charger from my car when I realize a wallet with money is sitting by my car. I immediately pick it up and call the police so they can come to get it and find whoever it belongs to. My wife and I then get a movie on in our room and make some popcorn. We lay down and watch the movie. Halfway through the movie, we fall asleep. We wake up around seven in the morning to someone knocking on the door. I open it and it’s the guy whose wallet we returned. He wanted to stop by and thank us. He showed he was thankful by inviting us over for dinner. It was so good. Always remember, honesty is the best policy.

-t swifty

The Hole in the Bathroom Floor

  I shot out of bed, wincing as the pain in my side worsened. A wave of panic rushed over me as I looked around my unlit room. As my eyes were adjusting to the darkness I noticed a pair of eyes looking at me with curiosity. The left eye was a pale blue color that was extremely difficult to see in the darkness, but the right eye was the exact opposite, for the golden yellow eye was practically glowing. I continued to stare at the mismatched colored eyes. The eyes look familiar, I’ve seen them before. Was it her? It couldn’t be her. There’s no way. I look at the eyes one last time. Then the realization hit me. It was her. I felt my body tense up as I muttered her name. “Illa..?” She grinned at me, her bony face fully visible now. She scooted closer, putting her face about an inch away from mine. She closed her eyes and giggled. “So you haven’t completely forgotten about me!” she exclaimed, her eyes opened revealing her unalike eyes once again, the golden one slowly fading into a pastel yellow. I looked away. “Why are you here?” I asked, “How are you here?” Illa frowned in annoyance and slowly got off of my bed. She stood up, looming over me. The moonlight from the window glimmered over her. I looked at her. She had gotten so much skinnier since I’d last seen her, it looked like she had no flesh on her body, only bone. Her ribs were extremely visible and looked like they could tear right out of her skin, and her arms and legs were about the size of twigs. Her waist was just as small as her legs and arms. 

You see, Illa isn’t exactly human, well she’s part human I guess.. It’s kind of a long story. If you haven’t noticed already, Illa is Alli backward, this is because she is a part of me. She is basically all my negative thoughts and bad traits formed into a person. It’s really hard to explain what Illa is because I’m the only one who can see and talk to her, even though I’m not supposed to. Illa lives in the hippocampus, which is the part of the brain that regulates emotions and memories. That is where she is supposed to be anyways, but sometimes she is able to escape, which is usually when things in my head aren’t necessarily okay. Illa has been in my head for as long as I can remember, but she started appearing temporarily in real life since I was about 13. Besides the body type, Illa looks almost exactly like me. We’re the same height, have the same hairstyle, and have the same voice. 

But there are differences too, for example, Illa’s hair is always pitch black, even if I dye my hair, Illa’s will always stay the same color. Illa and I also have very different clothing, I normally wear sweatshirts and sweatpants but Illa always wears a plain a-lined dress. The color of the dress does change to whatever color my sweatshirt is though. Another difference is that Illa’s fingernails are vastly different from mine, I wouldn’t even call them fingernails, Illa’s fingernails are basically claws and are extraordinarily sharp. But it’s not like Illa can accidentally scratch herself with them, because unfortunately if Illa tries inflicting pain on herself, it will automatically transfer to me. Sometimes she’ll hurt me by accident, such as accidentally tripping, or sometimes it’ll be on purpose, like the time she looked at me dead in the eyes, smiled, and then slammed her hand in the kitchen drawer. The last difference is our eye colors, I have blue eyes and Illa has a blue and yellow eye. Her left eye is the same shade of blue as mine. Her right eye is normally a mustard yellowish color but it changes based on her mood. The eye turns into a pastel yellow when she is happy or excited, neon yellow when she is startled or nervous, dark yellow when she is angry or sad and her eyes turn pitch black when she becomes unstable. 

“Hey!” I jumped as Illa snapped her scrawny fingers in front of my face.  “Are you going to help me or not?” she asked with an irritated tone in her voice. “Help you with what?” I repeated, not making eye contact. “I kinda zoned out and I didn’t hear you..” She groaned, stomping her foot on the carpeted floor. “You’re such an idiot,” she scoffed, looking at the ground. “Well..” she started, fiddling with the side of her dress, which has been torn. It was obvious that she had scratched it. Ah, so that's what caused the pain in my side. “Dissonance kinda got out again..” she trailed off, still messing with the piece of torn fabric. I flung out of bed. “What?!” I shouted. “Do you know how much danger you’re in!? Do you know how much danger we’re in?!” She balled up her fists, her right eye darkening. “Of course I do!” she snapped. “Why else would I be asking for your help?!” I sighed, trying to calm myself down. “Right,..” I said, looking down at my feet. 

I forgot to mention Dissonance. They live in the amygdala, which is the part of the brain that triggers an emotional response, mostly in fear and anger.  Just like Illa, they are a representation. They represent the bad parts of my family. Dissonance is a monster-like creature, they are around 9 feet tall, have eight arms and legs, three mouths, and an uncountable amount of eyeballs. They also have two sets of wings that look like they once belonged to an angel. Unlike Illa, they don’t have skin or hair and are definitely not human-like, they are made of some sort of a slimy dark blue substance that always has a strong smell of cigarettes. They also only talk in growls and screams, and their voice is all my family member’s voices layered together. It is a very disturbing sight. Like Illa however, they do have an opposite named Harmony. Harmony lives in the part of the brain called the frontal lobe, which controls motor function and memory. Harmony represents the good parts of my family. Like Illa, Harmony looks pretty human-like, despite being 9 feet tall. They have crystal clear hair that falls to their shoulders and they are constantly meditating. But unlike Illa, Harmony is mute and can only talk through sign language. Fortunately, Dissonance and Harmony can never enter the real world, but they can escape their homes and invade other parts of the brain. When this happens it is extremely dangerous. 

“Are you going to help me or not?!” Illa yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts once again. I pause for a second. “How do I know you’re not lying about this?” I ask, looking deep into her unique eyes. This wouldn’t be the first time Illa has lied about something like this. When she escapes from my head she always asks or tries to get me to come into her world. When Ila is in the real world, her world leaves my head and becomes sorta like a different dimension that only Illa and I can enter. It appears as a hole that is located in the bathroom under the rug. I’ve only been in Illa’s world twice, both the times were a result of her lying. I don’t break eye contact with her as I wait for her to respond. Her yellow eye turned dark once again and she looked at me with a hurt expression. “I can’t believe you still don’t trust me,” she sniffles. “After all we’ve been through. I’m not lying Alli, I promise I’m not.” I look away hesitantly, slowly backing away and looking at my dresser. I reach for the translucent orange bottle sitting on top of the wooden dresser. She watches me carefully, and then in less than a second, she starts running towards me. “No! Don’t!” she screams, tears forming in her blue and now neon yellow eyes. She tries reaching for the bottle. “You can’t take those! Please! I don’t wanna disappear again! You don’t know what it’s like!” her voice quivers, and I notice her hands shaking slightly. I look at the bottle of gray pills in my hand and then back at Illa, who looked like she was on the verge of tears, which was a very rare sight. I sigh, slowly placing the bottle back to its original position. She smiles and runs up to me, her thin arms wrapped around me. I feel her claws digging into my back. I awkwardly hug back, very much wanting this interaction to be over. After an almost unbearable amount of seconds, Illa finally let’s go. She grabs my hand leading me out of my bedroom and into the bathroom. 

She lifts the rug, revealing the dark mysterious trench. She puts a hand on my shoulder and gives me a reassuring smile. “We’ll be okay.” I returned the smile and quickly looked down. “I need to get something real quick,” I say and run back into my bedroom. I shove the item in my sweatshirt pocket and return to the bathroom. Illa grabs my hand once again. “Ready?” she asks. I nod, “Ready.” I close my eyes as we jump, the ice-cold air stings my face as we fall. After what seems like hours, we finally reach the ground. Illa lands straight on her feet, while I fall gracefully on my face. Illa grabs the back of my hair and yanks me up. “Ow,” I whine, but she shushes me. I look around, shivering as a gust of wind brushes past me. Illa’s world is a mirrored version of our world. 

Illa’s house is exactly like mine except flipped and there is no such thing as light. The hole we fell out of is in the ceiling of Illa’s bathroom, unlike the one in my house which was located on the floor. Illa starts walking, motioning me to follow her. We walk out of the bathroom, through the hallway, through the kitchen, and into the laundry room. We reached our destination, we both looked at the door in front of us. “Dissonance is in the basement?” I whisper. She doesn't answer and reaches for the doorknob, slowly turning it. The door makes a creaking sound as it opens, revealing the shadowy basement. I hold my breath. Illa begins to walk down the stairs and I follow. Once we reach the bottom of the stairs, everything is quiet. I look around, squinting in the shadowiness. “Are you sure they are here?” I ask. No answer. “Illa?” I asked, frantically looking around. “Illa?!” I start to panic, I start walking trying to find the blacked haired girl. Suddenly something grabs my leg, pulling my down. I scream, trying to kick whatever was holding me captive. “Ow! Stop!” 

I cover my eyes as a bright light appears in front of me. “It’s just me.” I uncover my eyes seeing the familiar skinny face. “I found a flashlight on the ground,” she says, holding it up. I sigh in relief. Illa stands up and holds out her hand. I smile and grab her hand, but as I stand up I feel the item fall out of my pocket. It landed with a small “clink” sound on the cold cement floor. I let go of Illa’s hand, immediately trying to retrieve the item, but Illa gets to it first. She picks it up, shining the flashlight onto it. She stares at the pill bottle in her hands. 

Her face is expressionless at first, but then she begins to laugh. This is the first time I’ve ever heard her laugh like this. It sends shivers down my spine. The laughter stops and she looks coldly at me with her blue and black eyes. She steps closer, shoving the orange container in my face. “You said you trusted me Alli,” she says, her voice trembling. She steps even closer. “Do you not trust me?” She keeps screaming, her voice echoing around the frozen basement. I can’t understand what she’s saying, it sounds like multiple voices are speaking, each one displaying a different emotion.My head throbs and I try to look at her.  Her right eye somehow gets even darker and she stomps her foot right onto my stomach. My ears start ringing and everything becomes blurry. Despite it beginning unbearably freezing, I begin to sweat. I feel myself blacking out as she begins to place her other foot onto my forehead, slowly applying pressure. “I trust you.. I trust you!” I hear myself say, and then suddenly everything stops. Illa looks at me, a wide smile appears on her face. She grabs my arm, helping me stand up. I feel her bony fingers wrap around my wrist. She gets close to my face, her face showing no more emotion. “Never trust what you fear.” Sharp pain plummeted through my wrist as she effortlessly sliced the skin open with her nails. I fell back, grabbing my wrist trying to apply pressure to the wound. I look up and Illa is already halfway up the stairs. With my adrenaline pumping, I forget about the pain and run after her. I make it up the stairs watching her run into the bathroom. I make it to the bathroom, trying to catch my breath. I look around but she’s nowhere in sight. I then remembered the hole. I run to it and freeze. Illa looks at me from inside the ceiling, her face practically glowing with twisted glee. I watch in horror as her face slowly morphs into mine, her black hair lightening into an auburn color and she is now wearing my sweatshirt. I reach for her, the bones in my arm becoming hellishly visible. I feel extremely weak. I reach again, desperately trying to reach the opening. The hole keeps shrinking and shrinking and everything gets foggier and foggier and the cavern suddenly closes, leaving me imprisoned in the darkness. The last thing I see is Illa’s bright yellow eye transforming into my blue ones. I fall on my knees, shoving my bony hands into my now black hair. I feel the dress blow slightly from the wind. I’m trapped. I’ve lost. Illa had won.

-Allitini

Where I'm From

I am from dusty VHS tapes,

From a sweet addiction to Diet Coke and cooking shows.

I am from that tan brick house right outside of town,

Tied together with a beautifully vast green yard.

It sounded like a football stadium one day and a bird sanctuary the next.

I’m from blaring polka music and the sound of Smokey the Bear’s “Yahoo”s.

From the musical legend Ernie Kucera, the master chef Brian Henry,

And famous small-town athletes.

I’m from church every Sunday,

And enormous (and sometimes exotic) family meals.

From constantly yelling “Carter, knock it off!”

And constantly hearing “Nope” in reply.

I’m from the Golden Rule,

“Treat others as you would like to be treated.”

I’m from traditional delicacies,

That invoked dumpling eating contests and fighting over the last cherry Kolace. 

From Czechoslovakia to the Bohemian Alps of Nebraska,

And all the way to Albion.

I’m from ocean blue eyes and dimples from my dad

To long blonde hair from my mom.

From not so 20/20 vision and narrow eyes.

Always sharing my opinion and consistently being the loudest in the room.

(You can take your bets where I get that from.)

I am from those packed photo albums cozied in the basement,

All picturing a loud family full of love, passion, and little rowdiness here and there.

-S. Weenie

A Delivery In the Night

     I am awakened by the notes of a doorbell. I glimpse at my digital alarm clock and wince at the radiant red glow of the time. It showed 12:00 A.M. I stumbled out of bed wondering who would be at my door this late in the night. I swing the door open to reveal a brown cardboard box resting there on my front step. I glance about scanning for the deliver to find no one. Exhausted and irritated I pick up the box to discover it was more cumbersome than I expected. I brought it in and set it down on the table to grab a knife from the kitchen to open it. But when I returned the box was gone but in its place sat a note. this mysterious note read "You left the door open".

-U.N.Owens 

I'm Not Bored

 I’m Not Bored

Oh how I love my summer days

Starting new shows and baking new mysteries 

The cool wind blowing as I walk the starry night

A24 movies making me fall in love with my teenage life

Reminding me that I have “a lifelong worth” of journeys

Snow falling, Music playing

My winter breaks are always full with love

The smell of hot cocoa in the air

While watching some Hallmark Christmas movies

And twilight cuddled in a blanket

Reminding me of how lonely I am

I read some books as I watch the snow fall

But Winter makes me feel nice and warm

My days will always be full 

Because Netflix will always keep me busy

By, Essie

My routine on Sundays

  I am so bored!

I have nothing to do.

Laying on my bed staring at the ceiling,

Wondering what I am doing with my life,

Next I start to think of what I can do,

Oh, No!

 Mom found me,

Poof!

Now I have a long list of chores,

Clean every bathroom in the house,

Vaccum the living rooms,

Dust everything in the house,

Get all the windows shiny.

Finish!

Now I am bored again.

I look for my Adult coloring book,

I find myself lost in the colors.

Then I get bored again.

I start to play music,

Find myself doing a whole performance.

Then I am bored again.

Go to write in my dairy,

After that I go to play with my dog,

Call my friends for awhile,

Then guess what!

I am bored again.

No matter what I do I find myself bored. 

Life is rough.

-E.T

Nothing to do

 I often say I’m bored or have nothing to do

When I was little and said I’m bored we picked out of the bored jar

There are many things I can do for different settings

You are bored during the weekend?

Do your hair

Do your makeup

Even if it's midnight

It’s the weekend have fun & be creative

You’re tired?

Might as well take a little nap

Wake up and bake some treats

It’s the end of the night, so drive around for a little bit 

Look at the stars

In class, with nothing to do/extra time

Check your email

Trust me you need to

Be on your phone

Can't do that?

Play cool math games on your Chromebook

Or even write a story or draw a picture

Summertime! 

My favorite

Still can be boring

Have a family night

Play games and watch moves

Go hang with friends

Even get your nails done

Too tired for that stuff?

Lay in bed and scroll through TikTok

Or check Snapchat

Brurr

It’s winter

My least favorite time of the year

Here's a perfect idea

Even if you hate the snow/cold

Let's build a snowman

Mom inside with hot chocolate waiting

We can go sit by the fire & warm-up

Still cold?

Let’s go inside and make cookies

And even listen to Christmas music

It's a weeknight and you have school tomorrow?

There's plenty of things you can do

I enjoy

Facetiming my mom

Making coffee for the next morning

Laying in bed, watching Yyoutube is always fun

But before all of that, I babysit and do homework

Oh yay, family gathering time

They can be fun but they also get super boring

There's always food though so let's eat

My mom loves when I play with her hair so that's usually what I’m doing

I don't really see my grandma so when I do I like to annoy her

My cousin’s nag and nag so finally I give in and play with them

And my most favorite thing of all to do

OPEN GIFTS

One last scenario

With your friends? But can’t find anything to do

You could sit in your room/car and jam out to music

Painting is always fun

Have money?

Go shopping

Maybe get some hair dye for later

Still bored?

Go hang in the school parking lot

That’s always fun

I hope I gave some ideas of what to do

-T swify

Mosquitoes

 Oh mosquitoes,

 My best and most dearest friends,

 The way you fly around with your long silver narrow wings,

 The way you pierce peoples skin and cause irritation,

 just so you can produce more blood sucking demons you call children,

 And wow, you also carry multiple diseases? 

 Such a shame you only have a seven day lifespan.

-Alli

 

Coronacation

Coronacation 

Day One 

Waking up was a breeze.

Having all the time in the world

to simply lay in bed minding my own business.

As I feel the hours passing,

I drag myself out of my bear-like hibernation.

And after scarfing down a delicious breakfast

back to bed, I go.

The boredom has now set in.

Watching the hours go by

like watching waves crash over and over.

Until the sun falls

and my head rests back on my pillow.

Day Five

Twilight has become my escape.

Watching the beautiful men

dance across my screen

as my eyes get lost in their magnificence.

If only I could be Bella Swan, 

marrying a gorgeous man

might bring me out of the boring life I live.

Day Ten

Nail painting and picture taking.

Along with scary movie marathons and lots of food.

Slowly scrolling through Tik Toks,

maybe even making a few.

Ceasing my boredom is tricky, 

as I continue to repeat my days

not knowing what to do 

to cure this horrible feeling.

Day Fourteen

Food on my front step,

people in my lawn holding signs to make me smile,

and daily Snapchats about how school is going.

My friends try their hardest 

to keep me away for my bore-of-a-life.

I appreciate their work

during this time of my life,

but thank goodness 

this quarantine is almost complete,

Because being locked up not only makes life boring,

but also makes you a bit crazy.

-S. Weenie