Salma Hadi St. John, 11 Oak Park, IL Loneliness Salma Hadi-St. John, 11 My friends are all gone My life has disappeared Into a new world of loneliness It is just my family and I Loneliness is like a tree in the desert The only cat in town A star stuck in space A speck of dust in the air Loneliness is when you are the only one At your birthday party When you sit on the steps of your porch On a dark rainy day It feels like I am trapped inside Waiting for people to come Watching the clock on the wall Scratching the door like a dog But sometimes you just have to fight Loneliness You can’t be alone everyday When I wake up today It is the start of a new day We can be a force together We just need to reach out for each other Feeling happiness again
COVID-19
Defeating Covid-19 Together, a story by Emily Gu, 9
Emily Gu, 9 Defeating Covid-19 Together Emily Gu, 9 Purell had always wanted to get this much attention. Before he became the most popular kid in school, he was an unused loner sitting on the counter. Even worse, sometimes he was desperately waiting to be rescued from the dark locker where the big “bully” tossed him away. Even though he was over 99.99% awesome at wiping out germs and disease, the students ignored him. They excluded him because they thought they were tougher than the germs. Therefore, they washed their hands so casually that they only rinsed it a bit. The teacher always tried to make Purell’s classmates give attention to him, but they just wouldn’t listen and kept teasing him about how he was a poor substitute for Washing Hands. Just because Washing Hands had warm water and bubbly soap didn’t mean Purell was useless; he just wasn’t appreciated. Suddenly, thanks to our enemy, Covid-19, Purell became a quick and easy star! Now Purell’s classmates are always fighting for him. On the other hand, Washing Hands couldn’t believe this was happening. He couldn’t ever had imagined being traded for the “used to be,” stupid Purell. But there he was sitting in the smelly bathroom waiting for someone to use him. Washing Hands had dropped down to the last person on the list. Now, whenever Purell’s classmates saw him, they would grab a hold of him and take him away to a secret place as if they were stealing him so they could use Purell for themselves. At the end of the day when the school bell rings, the custodian finds Purell either in the cabinet, in the bathroom, or even in the janitor’s closet! As the days went on Purell got more and more popular. One day, a classmate brought him to the bathroom. He was sitting on the floor when he looked up and saw Washing Hands. Uh oh, he thought.Washing Hands was sitting near the sink offering soap looking very lonely and sad. Purell realized that there was no harm intended this time. Washing Hands was really sad, so Purell walked up to him and said, “Hello Washing Hands. Is everything ok?” Washing Hands didn’t reply; he just shuffled away to a corner as his stomach grumbled. Purell sat down beside him and took out his lunchbox. “Want some of my sandwich? You look quite hungry,” he asked as he offered him half of his sandwich. Washing Hands took it. “Yes, thank you” he said shyly. “You are very welcome!” Purell replied with a smile. Before starting to eat, they traded anti-germ strategies. They each took a bite. Then another and another until their mouths were full of peanut butter and jelly. They grinned from ear to ear with messy hands and became best friends ever since. Now, whenever classmates came to clean their hands, they used both Purell and Washing Hands working together to keep their classmates from getting Covid, and the evil virus was finally defeated.
Zoom Sagas, creative nonfiction by Stella, 11
Stella, 11 Zoom sagas Stella, 11 “I ain’t never used this alien program!” —Darlene I The only thing my sister could see of her second grade teacher for the whole first week of school was Mrs. Watson’s eyebrows. She couldn’t hear much either. Probably because Mrs. Watson had all twenty-nine kids’ microphones unmuted. So you could hear everything from Aliza’s dad talking about how everyone in the government was spies to Niklish’s mom cooking masala in the background. On the first day of my sister’s first week of second grade, Hana showed up in Mrs. Landis’s fourth grade classroom. Turns out, Mrs. Watson gave her the wrong Zoom link. By the second day, my sister was so bored that instead of listening to Mrs. Watson talk about subtraction, Hana had learned to take screenshots of her friend Lily’s face and edit them. II “Welcome to the Rancho Simi Park and Recreation District board meeting. . .” [ Black screen] “Frank! Frank! Frank, darling! Can they hear me? I can’t see myself! What in Lord’s name is going on! Frank!” “First, I would like to thank everyone for attending. . .” [Black screen] “Frank!” “But could everyone please. . .” “Hi, My name’s Darlene, and this is my first time using this Zoom thing. I’ve never used this futuristic alien program before! It feels like being in outer space!” “Mute their mics. . .” [ Black screen] shhhhhsjkdiskshktisksssssssk weneedskkkkkktosssssavekkkkkkktheshkshAsh treehkdiskhhhhin the park! [Screens freeze] III Mrs. Rozenberg was explaining decimals to the class. Just like she did yesterday. And the day before that. And the day before that. Because learning about how a decimal point represents a whole number and a fraction of the whole number needs to be taught everyday, for two and a half months straight. And about how a decimal point is a point that we use to separate the whole part of a number from the fraction part of the number. We’ve already heard that twelve times. No one can bear to look at the teacher anymore, and two of the students have taken to playing charades in the chat. Then, out of nowhere, Noah’s little brother wanders into the room in nothing but his brightly colored superman boxers. Clueless, unsure of what to do, he shrugs, waves hello, and scurries away from the utterly horrified thirty-eight pairs of eyes staring at him. IV “And to move the aperture. . .” [Freeze] “. . .you need to. . .” [Freeze] “. . .also make sure your elbows. . .” [Freeze] “. . .so your camera doesn’t. . .” [Freeze] “Everyone got that?” [Freeze] “Okay, moving on.” You have lost internet connection.
