Young Forever

Author's Note: I am comparing two people who seem alike from two books i read recently.

Nobody really wants to grow up. Everyone wishes that they would stay young forever and be with their friends for the rest of their lives. In two books that I have read recently, there are two characters who have to grow up at an early age. They seem to be a lot like each other, yet completely different. I am talking about Tim from the story My Brother Sam is Dead and Ponyboy from the story The Outsiders. Some of the problems that they face are like each others, but they vary slightly in an interesting way.

In the book My Brother Sam is Dead, Tim lost many people that were close to him when he was young. He lost his brother who was executed in front of him. He lost his father who was kidnapped by the continental army and eventually died of a disease. He also lost his friend who was captured and died of disease on a prison boat with Tim's father. In the book The Outsiders, Ponyboy lost a lot of people close to him, too. He lost his father and mother who both died when he was young. He also lost his best friend Johnny who died in a hospital bed from horrible burns and his spine being crushed by a falling beam.

Even though both of these characters have lost people that are close to them and have grown up the same way, their lives are completely different. Tim comes from a war time where at any moment, a giant battle could take place right in his town. Ponyboy comes from a time where gangs rule the streets and there are gang wars. For Tim, he has to quit school to work at the family tavern because his father is gone. Ponyboy has to go to school and get a good education so that he can get a good job and earn money. Tim can't do that because the only other person who can run the tavern is his mother who can't run it by her self, so he gives up his child hood to help his mother with the work around the tavern.

There might be some differences between these two people, but they both have something big in common. They both had to grow up too fast at a young age. Tim had to so the family could keep the tavern. Ponyboy had to grow up so he and Johnny could survive on their own in the church for the time that they were hiding. They both had to endure a lot of people close to them dying which hardened them and made them tough too fast. Each one of them had to give up their childhood so that they could keep moving on. That is one of the worst possible things to happen to a kid, forcing them to grow up before their time.

Both Tim and Ponyboy lost their childhood when they were too young. Maybe if they grew up at the same time, they would have had more in common, but since they came from such different times their problems and life were so much different. They both seem so alike, yet so different. It's possible that they could have been best friends, or worst enemies. I guess I'll never know.

My Brother Sam is Dead cause and effect

When Sam ran off to go and join the war, he couldn't turn back. When he signed up, there was no turning back. If he would leave the army, they would execute or hang him. If he would keep fighting in the war, he would most likely die, and to fight he needed a gun. So he stole the family's gun and left them defenseless and with no way to hunt in the winter. Also, because he left, his Dad had to go on a trip with Tim instead of Sam. Since there were cattle thieves, Tim's dead had to ride ahead and watch out for the thieves, which led to his father getting captured and killed. Just because Sam ran away and took the gun, all this happened and changed the whole book.

Traitor Among Us

It was one of the greatest games ever. The Packers were undefeated and had a good chance of winning the Super Bowl the second time in a row, and they were playing the Vikings at Lambeau Field. Jerry was having a birthday party and took his friends to go see the game. He took four other people, John, Steve, Erik, and Jack. The only problem was, Jack is a die-hard Vikings fan. Everyone though it would be okay because the Packers are amazing but they were pretty mad once it got to half time and the Vikings were up 28-7. The whole stadium seemed like it was about to start crying, everyone except for Jack. He was having the time of his life and laughing at every person in green and gold that he could find. It really was getting on everyone's nerves when the third quarter ended and the score was 35-14, and the Vikings were still winning. Once the fourth quarter started, we really got tired of Jack, so everybody dragged him up to the top of the Stadium and we threw him down the concrete stairs. He tumbled all the way down and stopped at the bottom, not moving at all. We felt sort of bad, but then the Packers scored and we all forgot about it while we cheered. Then they did an on-side kick, got it and ran it back for another touchdown. Making the extra point and having 1 minute left meant we had one minute to get a touchdown and make the field goal for the win. We kicked a normal kick off but the Vikings receiver fumbled the ball and we scored for the win. The whole stadium erupted in a cheer. Once we got home, we realized we left Jack there, but were too tired to care so we all went to bed.

My Brother Sam is Dead Point of View

Author's Note: I wrote about two different big points of view in the story that the MC has to choose between.

In my story My Brother Sam is Dead, there is a character named Sam who left his English family to go fight in the revolutionary war on the American side. From the regular point of view from his little brother Tim, his brother and father are both stubborn and have different beliefs. Each thinks he is right. Tim thinks that one of the reasons Sam might be so in to fighting the British is because his girlfriend Bessy believes in fighting them. But from Sam's side, he thinks that it’s the right thing to do even though his decision is most likely swayed by Bessy. The Tim's father believes that they should stay faithful to the crown and that they shouldn't try to fight an army so big. Each side makes it sound like they are right and the other is wrong, and both have very good reasons. So it is very confusing for Tim who is kind of forced by a lot of people to choose one

Stalker

Authors Note: For this I just wanted to do something absolutely random and unpredictable. Tell me how you think it was.

It was a normal night, and I was sound asleep in my bed. When suddenly I woke up to a sound downstairs. A crash, like that of a window breaking, had woke me with a start. I could hear footsteps coming from downstairs. I was stuck in my bed, frozen with fear. I could hear the footsteps getting louder as the thing came up the wooden stairs. Then... they stopped. I just sat there, hiding under my blankets and looking at the door. Slowly, the door knob began to turn. The door opened to reveal, FLUFFY THE PARTY PENGUIN!!! Fluffy yelled out, "Ya, we hear footsteps, and if you are lucky you might hear tap dancing footsteps" he said with a grin. Then Fluffy started to fly around in circles around my room with glitter coming out of his flippers, and out of no where a disco ball fell down from the ceiling. And then, I woke up. I was wondering if the dream I had was real as I swept up the glitter and disconnected the disco ball and sold it for a cucumber. But then the cucumber bit me, grew legs, and ran off to go and join the circus. I chased after him on my snowboard, but I lost him because it was the middle of July. I fell on the ground, exhausted from going one inch and hour on my snowboard, when a cute little turtle crawled on top of me. I started to pet him when two more crawled on my belly. They all together said, "Ima Firin Ma Laza! BLAAAAAAAAAH!" and with that, they shot me with their lasers. Luckily a flaming unicorn was nearby because it picked up the turtles and punted them 5,000 yards. Then he picked me up on his back and took me to Mt. Everest. There we partied with a Yeti and the talking snowman from that Christmas story. Then I got tired so the flaming unicorn gave me a ride back home, right before school started. And that, Mrs. Reagles, is why I didn't do my homework last night.

Outsiders Character Analisys

Johnny was always a good person, even though he always had a rough life. He was a great friend to Ponyboy and to everybody else in the gang. The reason he seems scared at times is because a bunch of Socs nearly killed him and ditched the body in the lot. Ever since that happened, he has always been jumpy and scared of everything. After he got jumped he always carried a switch blade too, leading to the death of Bob. Then Johnny ran away because he didn’t have a good home to go back to because his parents were abusive. His dad would beat him and his mom didn’t care about him. In the book he even said, “Sometimes I like it better when the old man is hitting me, because then he knows I’m there.” That shows that Johnny doesn’t like his home, and that’s why he sometimes sleeps in the lot.

Johnny proved that he was a good person multiple times. One of them was how he had Ponyboy's back when they got jumped, but the biggest one was when Johnny ran with Ponyboy to save those kids inside the church when it was burning down. All the way he had his back and because of that Johnny got crushed by that beam of wood that crippled him and marked him for dead.

There isn't really anyone who I can compare with Johnny that comes to mind, because it's hard to find good friends like that. It's really rare to find someone who would take the risk of dieing for his friend and some random little kids that he doesn't even know. Johnny was a good friend and a great person and always had his friends backs, even with his rough life.

Apocalypse

Author's Note: I made this as a short story about my animal that I created in science last year, and just slowly built up on it, making it better and longer. It is more of a creative story then an essay and has a few funny parts so... ya, enjoy!=) And could you please tell me if the ending is too short because I think it moved a little quick in the end.

During the summer in the year 1969, the Johnson family was taking their yearly vacation, and this year it was to the Grand Canyon. There was a path for tourists to follow, but instead they walked away from the path to a spot that looked over the entire canyon that their son, Aaron pointed out. As they strayed away from the designated path, little did they know the danger lurking right beneath their feet.

Later in the day when everyone else in the canyon had left, the family's father, Steve Johnson, decided it was time to head back to the hotel as well. As Aaron turned, he tripped on a broken tree branch and fell down a tiny 5 foot cliff. He landed face first into what seemed like a snake hole, but when he opened his eyes, another pair, these glowing red, stared right back at him. As Aaron let out a scream of pure terror, the sun disappeared behind the moon in a horrifying total eclipse.

Aaron screamed and rolled as fast as he could away from the blood red dots that stared right through him. He stood up, and tried to run back to his family, when all of a sudden, a little ball of fur blindsided Aaron in the neck. Then another, and another until his entire neck was covered in the black fur. The poor, helpless boy let out his last scream until his body fell and hit the ground with a loud thud. And just as fast as the fur balls came, they disappeared into the haunting night. The other three family members ran to the fallen brother and son. All over his body were puncture holes and his body was drained of all color. The father checked for a pulse, but felt nothing. There wasn't a single drop of blood left in Aaron's body. That was their last sight as the mother sobbed, their son's carcass, just as the furry clumps turned around for another attack and claimed the lives of the three humans. A short scream echoed across the canyon walls. Then there was a deadly silence...

That was the first encounter. Whatever they are, they seem to have been awakened by the eclipse. The sun hasn’t moved from behind the moon at all. Even earth itself seems to have died. We are just sitting here in space, floating. The world fell into chaos as those freaks took innocent lives. There was no mercy. Everywhere, cities are destroyed, carcasses of all kinds are strewn throughout cities, some use to belong to children. They all met the same fate. No one survived but us. Even now I am slowly dying. This is how it all began. This is the story of the apocalypse. It all began about ten years ago, when I was eleven…


It was just an ordinary day for me. It was the same old home, same old routine, same old everything. I was heading off towards school, said bye to my parents, and went out the door. If only I had known that that would be the last time I saw them alive. The day just seemed to fly by like normal, until my last class. As my teacher was giving us a lecture on proper school behavior, the windows to her right shattered. A tiny ball of fur appeared on the side of her neck. She screamed, and the class laughed at her. She was running around in circles and everybody thought it was a joke. But then she dropped to the floor as stiff as a board, and hit the ground with a horrible hallow sound. The ball of fur jumped to one of my classmate’s neck and the same happened. By then, all the kids had figured out that what was happening wasn’t a joke.

We all ran for the door at once, as more fur balls flew through the glass windows. One by one, kids dropped to the ground. I was lucky to be the first one out of the class. When I stepped out of the room, I did something horrible. I locked the door behind me, trapping all of my helpless classmates and hopefully hold the fur balls back as ran away. I just turned and ran for my life and I didn’t look back. Running out of the school, I heard screams from all over. It all just didn’t seem real. My friends just likely have been killed by some flying fur balls. All I did was run home with tears in my eyes. I never looked back once.

I had finally reached my street to find bodies all over the ground, and they too were completely pale. I ran inside. I looked all over and no one was home. I thought that maybe they had gotten away and they would be ok, but that thought disappeared faster than light as I saw a hand on the ground sticking out from a corner in my parent’s bedroom. I slowly went in and saw what I had hoped wasn’t true. Both my parents were laying there. Dead.
I tried shaking them, pushing them, and everything else that I could think of. The truth could never be avoided, and I knew that neither of them would wake from their sleep , hold my hand, and tell me everything’s going to be okay. It was a warming thought, but I knew the truth. I just didn’t want to accept it.


That was years ago. Now I travel across the country, going city to city and each one is the same. Bodies in the streets, no life anywhere to be seen. I was heading towards California, where the rest of my family lived before we moved to NY. We left everybody behind, and right now the idea of them being alive is the only reason I keep on going. The only things that I had was an old M14, an M1911 semi-auto pistol, and the clothes on my back. Oh, and did I forget to mention I have a Hummer with a mini-gun on the top and enough ammo for it to shoot five days straight? Well I don’t. If I did, that would be sooooo awesome. But now back to the story. I drove nonstop to California, and I came to a small city with giant barricades around it, and the rattle of gunfire in the background. I jumped over the piles of rubble to find that there were actual people alive here. I was so happy, until a dark cloud filled through the streets. People screamed and dropped to the ground, clawing at their necks. I almost jumped down to try and help them, but I realized there was nothing I could do.

Once the deadly fur balls went to another area, I decided it was okay to come out of hiding. Walking through the street void of life, I thought that there was absolutely no hope for humanity. Eventually, these scum would overtake humanity and all other life. We would all meet the same horrific fate. Pushing the thought down and blocking it from my mind, I knew that they wouldn’t kill me without a fight. So I pulled out my M14 and went in.


Looking closely at the twisted and mangled corpses in front of me, I recognized them to be my uncle and his family. I searched throughout the town, and couldn’t find anyone else still alive. It seemed the last of them were my uncle and his family. I ran into one last person, right as they were being drained off all blood. He reached out to me and mouthed the words “help me” right before he dropped dead. I took out my pistol and shot each one of those merciless fur balls all the way back to hell. I grabbed the nearest car I could find and drove away from the city, knowing now there was no other living human being on the face of the earth.

As I was driving past what must have been a nuclear missile launch facility in Nevada, I came up with an idea to give those evil creatures the death they disserve. I went into the facility, and rummaged around a little bit. After a few hours, I found what I was looking for. A prototype of a Star Killer, an experimental bomb I had heard about as a kid right before the outbreak. I drove non-stop all the way to Canada, and then to the Grand Canyon, the breeding grounds of the vampire hamsters. When I reached the Grand canyon, I positioned myself right in the middle of the breeding grounds holding my little surprise. I shot a few rounds in the air and waited. The sky grew dark. I started to think they wouldn’t come, and I looked at my watch. It was only noon. Looking more closely at the sky, I saw that it wasn’t the normal kind of darkness that follows with the night, it was the darkness that had attempted to erase humanity off the face of the earth.

The fluttering from the millions of wings went from a small hum to an enormous earthquake. I picked up my little surprise, and set it for 00:30 seconds. As it counted down, the creatures all flew down at me all at once. Pulling out both my guns, I fired at them, and a few hit the ground lifeless, but there were just too many of them. Then one struck me right on the neck. I tore it off taking a chunk of my flesh with it, threw it to the ground, and pumped one straight through its head. Then another struck me in the back of my calf, then another in the arm. One by one, they latched onto my skin as I tried the hopelessly impossible job of ripping them off. As I became enveloped in fur, I watched the timer. 00:03…00:02…00:01…00:00. There was a bright flash. Then, nothing…