"Who Inspires Me"

Kiranie  Age 10, Pleasant Valley

Hi my name is Kiranie I’m 10 and I’m going to compare me and my dad. My dad and I are the same because he likes tea and I like tea. We are also the same because he likes pizza and I like pizza, he likes chicken and I like chicken. My dad and I are different because he’s adult and I’m a kid. He goes to work and I go to school. He drinks coffee and I don’t. He eats chicken curry and I pizza, I don’t like curry. My dad inspires me because he teaches me how to laundry. He also teaches me how to change oil in the car. These are ways how me and my dad are the same and different. He inspires me how to be a good person. I want to be like my dad when I grow up.

Trip to Mars

Landon, Age 9 West Sand Lake Elementary

"That's not gonna happen, " Daniel said. Laughing harder than mankind has seen before. "Yes it will." I said. "No it won't, NASA will be sending that rocket to Mars in a day. Unless all the atoms in the universe are perfectly aligned or Sir Isaac Newton was wrong and their is no such thing as gravity. Then no, it's not going to happen." "Why couldn't  I have been born in 1998?" "ok, so listen, my name is Jacques Evans and I want to be the first person to go on Mars. But y' know I'm 14 and that's just not gonna happen. Mae and my brother Daniel live in the suburbs of Topeka, Kansas. 189 Oath Lane to be exact. I entered my house to see my dad Cuho. I'm named after watching Topeka News 103. The governor was on their talking about what not and then there was breaking news. "Did the corner store up the street get robbed again for the 1,000,000th time?" My dad said, " The news guy said 'we have breaking news that NASA was delayed their rocket to Mars due to a technical difficulty." Right then a light bulb clicked. I ran upstairs to where my brother now was and said, "we're building a rocket." "Excuse me? Come again?" "I said, we're building a rocket to Mars." "You need to stop, even if he could it would take years to get there. NASA's takes a month. And they aren't leaking the blueprints so Space X can't copy them." "Then we'll break in NASA headquarters wherever in God's name that is." Daniel gave me a look. "Where's NASA headquarters?" I said. " I dunno look it up," Daniel said. My mother walked in the room. "Watcha guys want for dinner? We're going to that burger place in the city." "Lettuce, cheese, beef, and ketchup." We said at the same time. "Maria! come on!" my dad said. "Bye guys."I looked up on my phone where they were launching the rocket. "Houston," I said," Y'know who lives there, Sianna, Jorge, and Uncle Louis." "I'll pay for the plane tickets, oh sorry. I meant ticket." "How?" I asked. We went to his bedroom and he showed me his secret stash of cash. He had at least a half a million. "Where did you get this?" "You don't wanna know." "Bu wait, you said ticket. You're not coming? I can't do this without you." He gave one very long sigh and said, "...Fine." "Thanks dude!" "Okay, Okay, our next step is to find a flight." We went to our computer to do some research. "$105 round trip per person, it should take an estimated 2 hours." I said. "Okay, but which airline?" "I dunno. We've only flown American and Delta, not United and Southwest." "Let's just do Southwest." We bought seat 32 A and 32B. Our flight was at 9:00 PM at Topeka International Airport the next day.

Later that night we asked our parents if we could see Jorge and Sianna, just the two of us. "I don't know," my mom said. "It's okay Mom. We called Uncle Louis. He said he'll meet us there," Daniel said. "Well...I guess."

The next morning we packed our things and my mom dropped us off. We went through security with ease and grabbed dinner at McDonald's. Our plane got delayed for 30 minutes but we still got on. They had T.V. on screens, so I just watched the Incredibles 3 till we arrived. "Here we are. Good ol' Texas. Let's go call an Uber?" I said. A blue 2021 Chevy pick-up truck pulled up. "33 Aral Lane." my brother said. "That's really funny..." "The Uber driver said, "Why?" "Because I live there!" The Uber driver turned around and it was Uncle Lou's. "Hey how are my nephews doing?" "We're doing good." "What brings you here?" coming to see Jorge and Sienna. He drove us to his house and let us sleep in his guest room. I ended up waking up at 3:00 in the morning. I decided to just get breakfast and watch T.V. for 5 hours. After watching the same T.v. show for an eternity everybody cracked up. "What are you guys doing here?" Sianna said. While we're here I should mention Sianna and Jorge are fraternal twins around the age of 10. Sianna was born without an arm, so she has a prosthetic. "Nothing much, just, er...staying...for a bit." I said. "Wait, how'd you?" "Sianna, your breakfasts been here for 2 minutes. Eat it!" Uncle Lou said. We sat down and ate breakfast. After breakfast me and Daniel planned our break-in. "I find a key card, Use our map to find the rocket. Draw vivid image of said rocket, and hightail it out of there." Daniel said. "It's a fifteen minute walk...I think we're ready," I said. We told Uncle Lou is we were going out and left. After we left we arrived at the base. We jumped the fence conveniently found a key card. We entered the building and we both realized we were committing a crime. Using our map we found our way to the rocket. "Dang it. The doors need a k" Immediately Daniel picked the lock before I could finish my sentence. We entered the room and were immediately noticed. "Shout." We forgot the plan even existed. She ran up some stairs and grabbed the blueprints. Some guards were chasing us. We tried to run to the nearest exit, but we were cornered."Hands in the air." The guard said. I grabbed Daniel's arm and jumped down. We lost the map so were just running through the building.

Eventually, we found an exit and ran faster than Usain Bolt. We bolted inside the house and ran to the bathroom. The good news, I didn't throw up. The bad news, Daniel did. We hung out on the couch and relaxed and thought about what just happened. "So how was it?"Uncle Louis said. " Er...okay I guess,"I said. Uncle Louis mouthed something that looked like "teenagers." We ordered out for dinner and went to bed. The next morning we cruised round the neighborhood looking for a junkyard. Eventually, we found one and took all the parts needed for a rocket and two space suits. We went to the grocerystore and bought a bunch of food.

Finally, we were ready. We spent 5 days building that rocket, There was a lot of screaming. More than when I held the flashlight while my dad fixed his car. WE spent the next 2 hours testing this thing and eventually, "Okay its pretty for wait its not stopping, uhhh!" Dave said, "We're going up."  When we left the atmosphere the yelling stopped. We saw Texas, Mexico, America and whole yards. We spent weeks in the rocket surviving off of junk food. One day, we saw a big red planet. There it was. Once we landed on Mars we grabbed our space suits and went out. We took a photo and jumped around, like Neil Armstrong on the moon. We were so happy we spent another day on Mars before quickly leaving after realizing NASA would come soon. The trip home was amazing. But finally, we landed in a park in Houston...to multiple police officers. "Get on the ground," "I think we should have seen this coming."

The Tale of the Lost Kitten

Michelina , Age 9, Our Savior’s Lutheran School

Long ago in the land of Macaroni, King Noodle Head said to his servant Rotini, “Rotini, please go to the faraway land of Fruits and give a message to King Blueberry Face saying, ‘Please come to the land of Macaroni for a very important meeting. It is very urgent.’” “Right away, sire,” Rotini said. So Rotini set off to the land of Fruits to give the urgent message to King Blueberry Face. He took a royal carriage to the land of fruits. When he got there, he rushed into the throne room and bowed down. “Your majesty, King Blueberry Face.” “Yes?” “King Noodle Head wants you to please come to the land of Macaroni for a very important meeting. It is very urgent.” “Oh! Well here I come!” the King exclaimed. “Carriage!” Rotini called, “Take us back to the land of Macaroni!”   On the way back, the King asked Rotini, “Do you know what this meeting is about at all?” “No, I just know that King Noodle Head wants you right away.” “Hmmm...” the King said. When they got there, King Noodle Head met them at the front entrance. “Hello! Blueberry Face, please come with me. Rotini, go to the royal meeting room and prepare the table.” As Rotini set the royal meeting table, he wondered what the meeting was about. I’ll just have to wait until they come in and start, he thought. Suddenly the two Kings walked in the room. Well, that was quick! He thought. “Okay,” began the King as they sat down, “I overheard the enemy Kings, King Seaweed Hair and King Chicken Foot talking to each other that they would join together and try to attack us!” “Oh no,” said King Blueberry Face. “Normally I would say that is no big deal because we could just mess up their plans. The only problem is we don’t know their plans!” “Hmmm,” thought King Blueberry Face aloud, “We would have o send someone to sneak up on them and find out their secret plans.” They both looked at Rotini. “I can’t do that! It’s much too dangerous,” Rotini exclaimed. “Of course you can do it Rotini! You can also have a partner with you so you will be together.” “In fact, I know jus the perfect partner for you,” added Blueberry Face, “My servant, Mango!” “Okay,” said Rotini. “I’ll do it!” The next day, Rotini and Mango set off, two brave spies who were helping their Kingdoms. “So what’s the plan?” asked Mango as they were setting off. “I don’t really know. I think you should create a distraction, and then I will sneak in when they're not looking and when they come back in and say, what was that all about? Eh, who cares let’s get back to our evil plans,” we’ll listen and write down what they say.” “Only one problem with that,” Mango said, “What happens if we get caught?” “Well, I have an idea. We can pretend that we actually want to help them and we can say, ‘We are here to help you. Tell us your evil plans, and we’ll help you to carry them out,’” said Rotini. “Good idea!” exclaimed Mango. The two friends high-fived each other. As they neared the land of Meats where the two villain Kings we to meet, Mango said to Rotini, “Okay, here’s the notebooks to write the plans in, and here’s the stick to make the distraction.” “Alright, come on Mango let’s go.” The two friends made their way to the castle. They could hear the two Kings cackling away. Mango threw the stick through the open window. Then they heard Chicken Foot saying, “What in the name of St. Sausage Nose?” “Come on!” whispered Rotini. They slipped through the open window while the Kings were looking the other way. They quietly hid their selves behind a table. Creak! Apparently not quiet enough. “Who’s there?” Seaweed Hair yelled. Mango and Rotini stepped out from behind the table. “You little rascals!” Chicken Foot screamed. “Whoa whoa whoa wait. We are here to help you. Tell us your evil plans, and we’ll help you carry them out,” Rotini said. The Kings liked this idea. “Alright,” said Chicken Foot in his raspy voice, “We were thinking of sneaking in there at night and dropping a sleep bomb on the Kingdom. It will burst and the whole Kingdom will sleep forever!”

“Okay, we can do that for you,” said the spies. The Kings agreed. They gave Rotini and Mango the bomb and they left. “Well, that was a success!” said Rotini once they were outside again. “Yeah,” said Mango, “Now all we have to do is tell Blueberry Face and Noodle Head their plan and we can drop the sleep bomb on the villain Kings instead!” When they were finally back at the castle where the good Kings were waiting, they told them all about the plan. They they snuck up on the enemy Kings and dropped the sleep on their Kingdom. And that is how the two brave spies conquered the evil!