Julia Marcus, 13Culver City, CA My Starduster Friends Julia Marcus, 13 It’s Friday the 13th. Rosie doesn’t believe in superstitions, but she can’t shake the feeling that today’s an unlucky day. In what way, she doesn’t know. She stayed up late last night, scribbling in her beloved journal, and she only woke up around twenty minutes ago when the rain hammering on the roof became particularly annoying. Then she panicked, realizing it was 7:57 and school starts at 8:15. Between bites of toast, she asked her dad to drive her to school–she usually walks, as it’s only ten minutes from her house, but the rain and the time on that dreary day made it kind of impossible. She and many other kids cram inside the hallway before first period, elbowing each other out of their way. If everyone’s supposed to get out of the way, Rosie thinks bitterly, who’s supposed to move? There’s nowhere to go. A tall eighth grade girl with mascara-painted eyelashes becomes the authority in the area as she puts her hands on her hips and shouts, “Listen, guys! There’s waaaay too many of us in here. We’re probably transmitting the virus.” The all-too-familiar word that’s been floating around for the past few weeks puts a general hush on the hectic crowd. A couple people mumble things like, “She’s right,” and slink out of the way. Rosie lurks in a corner, by the door to her class. She sighs. She’s really getting tired of talk about the coronavirus. Back in January, it was only this faraway thing that was unfolding somewhere else in the world. She didn’t care where it was, or how contagious it was, or how many people had gotten it in China. But now, in March, she’s hearing about it every five minutes. The virus isn’t distant anymore. It’s real. It’s here. And later that morning, her math teacher announces that the district has decided to close schools. No one finds the volumes of any cones that day. Rosie can only think of how the word “cone” sounds so similar to the word “corona.” “I guess this is it,” she says to her friend Marla after sixth period, “for a little while.” “Yup,” Marla groans. Normally, they would give each other a friendly hug, but today Rosie just manages a dismal wave from around six feet away. ~ Some number of months later, Rosie hasn’t really been counting ~ “And that,” Rosie announces, “is the end of today’s episode. Thanks, everyone, for supporting the show and see you next week!” She’s not sure which week next week is, or even if she’ll know when seven days have passed. She’ll probably come back to this in a few days, thinking it’s been three months. For now, she turns off her camera and sighs, leaning her head against the side of her bed. She opens Messages on her phone, scrolling through her list of contacts. It’s not very long. She only has her parents, grandparents, older sister, and Marla, along with seven or eight other friends. Rosie doesn’t feel like texting any of them. There’s nothing to say. She’d much rather be in contact with Ivy and Marco and Emmalyn. Not that she knows them. Not that they even exist. At the moment, her three favorite people are superhumans from a book series called The Stardusters. They’re teenagers from three different planets that meet after a disaster shatters their world. Over the course of four lengthy books, Ivy, Marco, and Emmalyn have earned a permanent place in Rosie’s heart. So much of her consciousness is devoted to them that she’s started interviewing them. She films herself asking them questions, then dresses as her fictional guest and gives incredibly detailed answers to her questions. She’s even edited the whole thing and put it on a private YouTube channel. Today, she asked Ivy, “How did you first react when you found out that Marco and Emmalyn visited the Sacred Planet without you?” Ivy said, “I’ve never been more devastated. See, the whole reason I started trusting Marco and his friends from his planet was because they said we’d get to save the Sacred Planet. When I found out that he and Emmalyn were there, I got so mad that I didn’t speak to them for a week. I hadn’t told anyone, but . . . I had a huge crush on Marco back then, and if he was going to the Sacred Planet with Emmalyn and without me, I wasn’t really sure how to go on with life. Then Emmalyn told me that without the detective work I did when they were gone, we would never have found the rebels’ spaceship, and they would have destroyed countless other planets like they ruined the Sacred Planet. We were good after that.” Rosie’s thought process is that Ivy, Marco, and Emmalyn don’t have the virus, so hanging out with them isn’t going to get her sick. Therefore, she spends at least fifteen hours a day talking to them. Especially with her dwindling online schoolwork–she thinks the school year ends on June 12, but she’s not entirely sure how far away that day is. And she’s sick of her computer screen. The Stardusters exist on paper. Being a fairly new and relatively obscure series, there’s no TV adaptation. Rosie wouldn’t watch it if it existed, though. She’s the type of person that abides by the universal rule “THE BOOK IS BETTER.” She has a sign on her door with that motto, in red block letters, her inaccurate sketches of characters from The Stardusters standing around the words. “I suppose it’s hypocritical of me to be filming my own talk show when I wouldn’t even watch a TV Stardusters,” Rosie comments to the second book of the four, which is propped open next to her on her bed. It’s her favorite one, especially because of all the drama that unfolded between the characters after the Sacred Planet incident. In February, when
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Daily Creativity #99: Write Titles for Pieces You Haven’t Yet Written
Write a series of titles for stories or poems you have not yet written.
Norway Travelogue
NORWAY Country: Norway Capital: Oslo Main Language Spoken: Norwegian Currency: Kroner I am at a total loss of of how to pen down my thoughts on Norway, renowned for so many things: the ethereal northern lights, trolls and Vikings, its deep calm fjords, and the glowing midnight sun. Its beauty as if has been honed to perfection and it is just like a world of fantasy. Oslo, the capital of Norway, was founded in the 11th century and is on the south coast of Norway. Akershus Fortress in Oslo has lovely views of the surrounding city and North Sea and the Aker Brygge harbour – a lively, bustling harbour with an abundance of multi cuisine restaurants. Right next to Aker Brygge harbour is the Nobel peace prize centre where the Nobel peace prize is given annually, Malala being the youngest to ever receive it. The building was a complete antithesis to what I expected. I expected a grand edifice whereas this humble structure can actually be quite inconspicuous. Another vibrant street is from Parliament House (Storting) to the Royal Palace, lined with cafes and shops. The city’s main highlight, Vigeland Sculpture park, consists of more than 200 sculptures, all made by Vigeland. There is one main structure in the middle of the park called Monolith that took him 13 years to build it is composed of 121 human figures 36 figures are erected on the elevation bringing with them the “circle of life” message. The sea has a stark change of colour, from turquoise to deep blue, it’s almost as if there was a line and the two sides were painted in different colours. That was so spectacular. Lofoten, an archipelago in the Arctic Circle, is endowed with natural beauty opening up a new scene at every turn; its multiple little islands connected by never ending bridges. To add to that the midnight sun glows up the scenery. That was truly once in a lifetime experience – not seeing any darkness for 24 hours!! The sea has a stark change of colour, from turquoise to deep blue, it’s almost as if there was a line and the two sides were painted in different colours. That was so spectacular. Lofoten has striking red traditional fishermen houses called Rorbuers. They were built in 1120 by king Øystein so that it was easier for the fishermen to fish. This resulted in many more fishermen coming to Lofoten. Now they have been converted into stylish and sought after holiday homes. Lofoten is without doubt the fishing goldmine of Norway because it has perfect conditions for it – perfect spawning sea temperatures, the correct amount of salt in the sea, appropriate depth and has the suitable warm Gulf Stream current flowing in. A thousand year old fish preserving technique is to dry the fishes on wooden racks called hjell locally. Lofoten has perfect climatic conditions for drying fish using this technique. If it is too hot, food flies will stick on it and if it is too cold it will freeze. This technique has been around for about a thousand years while all the other fishing techniques have changed and modernised. Reine, is a stunningly beautiful fishing village, blessed with a dramatic setting off cliffs and sea. It is in my opinion the most beautiful village in Lofoten. Another highlight of Lofoten are its white sandy beaches which are splashed along the whole coast. Though the water temperatures are freezing, it’s lovely to just bask on those beaches on a sunny day. Bergen, the second largest city in Norway, surrounded by 7 fjords and hills is a starting point for many ferries and tours. The old town, Bryggen, a UNESCO world heritage site, has brightly coloured houses lined up by the sea. It has bustling streets with a lively atmosphere. While we were there there was a local and seafood festival taking place. The live counter stalls, which made your mouth water, were selling local foods like smoked salmon (a top notch salmon recipe), reindeer meat and whale meat. People were thronging the stalls. I tried a reindeer sausage. It was so fabulous that a normal pork sausage totally pales in comparison. It was very interesting to see live king crab and lobster being cooked in front of us. In 2015, Bergen was awarded the UNESCO Creative Cities Network for gastronomy which comes as no surprise to me. To get phenomenal views of Bergen you can go up the funicular to Floyen, one of Bergens mountains, it has lovely viewing and play area and you can also have a go at canoeing. Since Norway is famous for its fjords (a long narrow and deep inlet of the sea between cliffs that were created by melting glaciers) and the trip would be incomplete without exploring one. We visited Flåm, which is situated on Sognefjord. The Flåm Railway, a very picturesque year round train ride with a steepest incline of 55% and has 7 stops. Did you know that until 1944 all trains on the Flåm Railway were run by steam engines. Then in 1944 the Kjosfossen hydroelectric plant was commissioned. Since 1947 all trains on the railway started running on electricity from the Kjosfossen plant. The train takes a five minute photo stop at Kjosfossen waterfall . To keep the area folklore going, two ladies in red appear very mysteriously and start dancing and singing whenever the Flåm railway stops there. The legend is that there was once an underground spirit called the Huldra that captivated men and lured them into the mountains. The girls who you see now are from a ballet school in Norway. In Flåm we went on a fjord cruise. The cruise started on Sognefjord which is the broadest fjord in Norway. Tall green cliffs surrounded the fjord and it was very peaceful. Then the ship took the turn into a narrower fjord, Naeroyfjord ( a UNESCO World Heritage Site) which is one of the the
