’

The stories inside this issue are veiled

narratives about their inner thoughts and

beliefs, even though most of their stories

are fantasy or quirky surrealism. They live

in magical kingdoms—places where their

subnormal lives can breathe and be more

than human. Fiction becomes the only place

where they can write happy endings, because

so much has already happened to them.

Most of them have a strong desire to love

and be loved, and for over an hour each

morning, they write and discuss fiction with

enthusiasm. It releases the creative

imagination and calms them. It becomes a

place where anything is possible, a place

where they can be themselves—free of

judgment, a place where they belong, where

they can feel like part of a group, a place

that reminds them that they are alive and

things will get better.

I do not edit the stories or correct them

in any way. They appear as the student

typed them. Enjoy their imaginations!

—Robert Stofel, Editor

2

Why she wajes up feeling lije she don’t worth

anything. She cries everyday hoping to find

that thing that can make her happy again and

sit there in her tears. So she sit and read to

forget hurt pain ,but it don’t worj she still

feels bad . It don’t matter how many people talk

to her to tell her it will be ok and tell her

that she gone maje it. But she can’t see that for

herself so she look at people like what you

taljing about you don’t jnow what it feels lije

to hurt everyday about things you look crazy.

She iust don’t understand why when you give all

your love and love you didn’t have to somebody

that showed you fake loved and told you that

they would never hurt or leave you and never

turn they back on you no matter what made you

like u had nothing to worry about. But soon as

you turn your back there gone like they were

never there so you sit there, thinking why and

know your scared to love anyone because you

think every time you turn your back there gone

, But it takes time and will understand the

hurt I go through.

3

OMG!!

ByChase

Whatsup?

My name is Jed, And

I just lost my face!

You’re probably

wondering how

anyone could

possibly lose their

own face…well ten

minutes ago I was

climbing a

mountain when a

giant mountain goat attacked me and stole my

face. It was so strange that it was painless.

Either way, my face is now nothing but OMG!!…

4

Court By Chase

Hello I’m chase and

im going to tell

you about my

experience at court.

Well see about a

week ago I was

actually in jail

over a domestic

violence charge. I

got into an

argument with my

mom’s husband and

punched a hole in the wall which led me to a

jail cell. My best friend since third grade

came and tried to bond me out after the first

48, but that was revoked for some odd reason.

I made as much phone calls as I could, every

chance I got I would do a 30 second toll free

collect call, which the other inmates called

“chirping out.” I was iust about fed up with

sleeping on a metal rack and eating

corndogs at every meal, when an officer came

in with mycivilian clothes and asked if I

would lije to go for a ride…now at how they

treated me when I was first arrested, I was

5

quite surprised. I mean, come on? Who

actually gets to leave “population” and go

for a joy-ride, ha-ha? So he closed the door

and gave me some privacy so I could get

dressed back into my street clothes. We

started walking down the main hallway; I

was quite excited and he could tell because

he kept asking me why I was grinning so big.

We got to the front and I signed a release

paper to get out of jail. I was shocked, I

thought this man had seen how miserable I

was and actually felt some sympathy towards

me. But when I jumped into the police cruiser

he told me that my charges had been dropped

and that I was scheduled fortreatment. So

this is when my story actually starts. Skip

forward in time about 6 days and I’m a

nervous wrecj. I’m actually having a mild

panic attack while walking out front to meet

the sheriff for court. I was sure he was

going to handcuff me, but he didn’t…So I

asjed, “Sir, aren’t you going to handcuff me?”

He simply smiled and laughed while

replying, “Only if you want to be.” I smiled

and laughed back. He then threw his hand

out, so I shook his hand. It was a long walk

around the building to the emergency

parking area where the sheriff had parked,

6

so had some pretty odd conversations, about

music, art, sports teams, etc. When we finally

made it to the police cruiser he told me to

hop up front, I had never seen this happen

after the many times I had gotten into

trouble with the police in the past, I mean my

record shows charges from drugs and

violence. Anyways we were headed to court

when he started speeding at about 80 and

asked me if I liked to go fast. Then he lit up

a cigarette. I hardly even noticed what he

was doing until the distantly familiar smell

of smoke slowly entered my nose. It made my

nose twitch as I cringed I wanted to hit the

cig, so bad. It had been about a week since I

had had a smoke. So I asked just in case if I

could have a hit. He said he would if I had

been 19, but I enjoyed the smell either way. I

thought to myself how dope this experience

went form having a panic attack to where I

couldn’t stop smiling. We made it downtown to

the courthouse, which looked pretty sketchy

to me because of all the police and lawyers

kicking it outside. A woman about mid 20’s

came running up, “ Yo, you chase?” she

shouted. I was like seriously what is going

on… she said she was my court appointed

attorney. So skip forward about 30 minutes of

7

waiting… I met my mom inside and gave her a

huge hug. As lame as that may sound, I really

missed my mom the two weejs I’d been locjed

away. Now court was starting. I was pretty

shocked how short court was, only 10 minutes.

The judge was quick and to the point. He said,

“Chase, you are to receive treatment at a

halfway for the occurrences over the past

month, you have been sentenced mentally ill

and your civil liberties are gone until

August 10th.”

And that’s all there was to it.

8

HAPPINESS By Essence

What makes my happiness is when I’ve been down

for so long and don’t have nothing to looj

forward to is when you have people in it that

you just meet, that can say something that make

you feel so much better make you think life

through and not down yourself all the time and

I thank god for that and even if I never see

you again I think about you and it puts a

smile on my face and makes me forget about all

pains and troubles that I can get all that out

my face and find my happiness.

I WANT DIFFERENT By Essence

You were there since I was baby you would

do anything for me and I respect that even

if I don’t show it I do .We done had our ups

and downs ...and I haven’t been good and I

jnow I’ve brought pain and shame but it’s

time you let go I know you scared that I

won’t maje it cause I don’t lije to take of

myself, but that ain’t nobody’s fault but

mines my choices got me in this and they

9

will get me out. It’s not that I don’t love you

or hate you I just wanna be somewhere else

see new things..so stop blaming other people

for what I have done I have other good people

in my life that I want to share it with...life’s

gone eat away so just let me be please, like

you always told me you can’t live it for me.

If you blame yourself for everything and put

yourself down it will be to the point you will

become enemies with yourself and ask yourself

what did you do that was so wrong why they stop

caring but it will be ok cause if you just talk

about it and keep on talking about it there will

always be somebody that loves and cares that

will listen.

She sits here wondering about all her ups and

downs and feels lije she doesn’t jnow what to do

so she just sits there in silence all day, every

day, trying to find the answers…but then she

thinks to herself I can’t find what’s bothering me

if I sit in my silence...so she thinks about all

that she can live for in life and just keeps her

head up and makes the best out of it.

10

-

I’m a battleship, my name is

Draco. I was built in 983 ad

By the Norse people or the

Vikings. They built me to

sail the seven seas, or the

two seas that had been

discover on this time

period. The Norse gods gave

me special powers to

destroy enemy ships and warriors when

approached on. My power is to confuse the enemies

by speaking in tongues and then capturing them.

I will then imprison them.

The Dragons Revenge

By Chase

A dragon is behind the little boy’s

door. The little boy is scared of

it…The dragon will bust the door

down. The dragon will then set the

room ablaze. Next he will start wrecking the boys

room. Finally he will fly out the window and

start to destroy the town and set it on fire as

well. The boy will then comeback and defeat the

dragon and stop its revenge.

11

Substance Abuse By Chase

For nearly half my life I

have abusing substances.

See I started smoking at age

12. See the common myth that

tobacco isn’t a gateway drug

is false. I started reguraly

abusing stimulant drugs

when I was in the ninth

grade. The worst part about

these drugs was the comedown. I would always

get angry and blackout, doing things to my

friends and family that I would regret for the

rest of my life; Pushing them away. Substance

abuse has only led to one thing only; defeat.

12

Luna as long as she could remember

had always been depressed. Luna

would always get nervous around

people when they would try and talk

to her and that frustrated her,

making her very upset. Luna was

diagnosed with a communication

disorder when she was very young

Luna couldn’t picj up what people

were saying when they would use their hands and lips to

show expression, she knew it meant something but never

knew what it meant.

Luna moved from a very poor neighborhood in old

house in a very wealthy neighborhood called Barton, when

she was 8 years old. Her Father got a new job and he got a

raise to get more money. Luna had everything most kids

would want, but she didn’t want these material things, she

wanted her family to stop fighting. By the time she was

thirteen, things were different, her family had broken up,

her mother had gotten remarried, and she had turned into

a monster, from so much depression and abuse.. Luna

started going to Rock Ridge School where the kids there

always bullied or teased her for the fact that she

dressed differently than they did, and that she wore her

hair in her eyes to cover up her tears and even because

her only friend, Kenny, was a black dude. You see, when

13

Luna was growing up, it was quite uncommon

for people of different ethnic to hang out

together as even messed up as that seems,

that was how people thought, that it was

not normal. Luna discovered at 15 that she

could stop pain from self-mutilation and

drinking alcohol to numb the pain.

Eventually Luna decided to sew on a fake

smile so people would stop asking her what

was wrong. Because to all of them material

things were all that mattered. Luna just

wanted to have friends that wouldn’t betray

her, and a family that she could come home

to after a long day, and maybe even one day

to meet someone who didn’t thinj she was

hideous so she could fall in love.

14

Tabitha’s Musical Mind By Chase

Tabitha

never had

anything

but music

on her

mind. She

always

would

only

listen to

hip-hop and nothing else. These musical

notes jumped into her mind one day while in

band class, and shes been on a musical

journey with herself ever since that moment.

Oh yeah! Did I forget to mention, Tabitha

can also transmit radio signals into her

brain? This happened one day while in a

surgery. The surgeon was removing Tabitha’s

tonsils and accidentally dropped a radio

into her mind. Tabitha is a lover of various

types of music from pop rock to indie, but

her all time favorite will always be hip-

hop.

15

ONE STEP AT A TIME By Essence I use to wake up feeling really bad dreading

it sick and tired of having these feelings

that I can’t explain and every thought I had

about something good it would turn black...but

now I feel better cause life it will bring you

down that you don’t jnow what hit you...but it’s

time that I face the facts that it is what it

is, that it’s time I let some light in my life

and take one step at a time to get better and

believing in myself, because I jnow if I’ve

done all that I can I know for sure that god

is there

For me.

With great insight and humor, this issue explores our human quest for love and connection, as it reveals the traps that

can befall all of us.

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