Clash Of Kings
By Eddy Acevedo
Once upon a time in a high mountain above the clouds sat the glittering and gorgeous Mount Olympus. Atop a golden throne sat Zeus, the king of all the gods, he was watching Poseidon, the god of the sea and earthquakes, with his lighting blue eyes and was yelling at him for not doing his job correctly. Poseidon would always ignore him and would mind his own business but this time Zeus would throw a lightning bolt at him every time he would not pay attention to him.
Poseidon was very angry at Zeus because he was always bossing him around and throwing lightning bolts at him and it was time for him to take his revenge.To do this Poseidon stopped doing his job. Zeus, seeing this, got angrier it was as if his blue eyes were creating mini lightning bolts. Zeus stared at Poseidon’s sea green eyes then he started yelling at him but Poseidon was ready for this and told him that he wanted to become the king of all the gods.
Athena, the goddess of wisdom and war, overheard them and with all her courage went in and proposed a fight between them and whoever won would become the king of the gods. Meanwhile, on Earth, a guy who works at a place called Supercell™ went into a room and found a strange purple glittering door which was spitting out purple teleportation particles and he decided to go in and immediately got transported all the way to Mount Olympus. Seeing the glorious place almost gave the man a heart attack. Hearing loud yelling noises he went to the arena and saw two men getting ready to fight.
Zeus and Poseidon got ready to duel and they started to summon armies to attack each other's towers.
“Take this you filthy god!” yelled Zeus as he threw a fireball.
“Curse you Zeus!” yelled Poseidon as one of his three towers was crashing rapidly to the floor by the fireball. The Supercell guy was so close to Poseidon’s that he could feel the burning of the fireball. Zeus was feeling really happy that he had destroyed one of Poseidon’s towers and was currently winning. Meanwhile on the other hand Poseidon was feeling discouraged and started to lose confidence in himself. The fight was brutal and the Supercell guy watched it all as the struggle to win was really hard. Finally, Poseidon’s king tower got destroyed and after many hours the sky started to smell like burnt stuff because of all the lightning and fireballs.Zeus had at last won.
“See you can never defeat Zeus the king of all gods!” yelled Zeus at Poseidon. Poseidon feeling angry and sad about his defeat saw the mortal and zapped him back to his place back on Earth.
“ Wow what a fight!” said the Supercell guy as he went back to his small, messy office. As he looked out his window the sky looked as dark as Hades’s eyes. Zeus had become king of all gods once again and the Supercell guy made a game based of the battle and named it “Clash Royale” and this is how the famous game we all love and play was made.
The Cube of Rubik
By: Logan
It was on mount Olympus when the troubles began, during the rule of ancient Greece. A gorgeous place where one could get a single glimpse and never want to leave. Those up there on mount Olympus would often wake up to the smell of rich nectar that blew off the sweet nearby flowers and a cool breeze that would sweep lightly across the mountain. Pure white quartz pillars made up strong buildings and large puffy clouds to give off some shade. But on a particular morning, one with a breeze stronger than usual, the messenger god, Hermes, awoke to the sounds of a strong argument. His mouth tasted of honey and he was curious to know what would be the cause of so much frustration between the other gods and goddesses. Hermes crept out of his bed and towards the room of the argument, making sure to stay behind a wall to keep a close ear on what was going on. A likely case would have been argueing over the cause or effect of a war and who started it. But even then, the arguments never got to the point of cursing, screaming, or stomping. Hermes tuned in very closely at what it was about. It sounded like a pack of hungry lions fighting. Poseidon shouted out, “ So if you think we need to stop argueing, what is your solution!”
Hermes knew at once what the cause was: Land. It caused a huge fight when two gods each tried to build a settlement on the same piece of land. Then a debate would often break out for who got it, because after all, only one could have it. But they must have stopped settling it out nicely because it sounded like a brawl was about to break out. It seemed Demeter, Poseidon, Ares, Apollo, Aeolus, and Athena found it high time to divide the land.
Apollo suddenly chimed in, “How about the mortals dividing the land for us, anyone?”
Some whispering went around, and a muffled voice came out saying something that could barely be heard. Sounded like his plan was rejected. Hermes thought it was actually a really good idea, but this wasn’t his argument. Poseidon quickly suggested that maybe every god or goddess should start off with a dedicated piece of land and then should be able to capture others. This time Hermes could clearly hear what was said: It was a flat out no. Out of the blue, a light bulb shot off in Ares head.
He pronounced, “Maybe we should hold a competition between our favorite mortals. Whoever wins gets to divide the land up.”
Hermes slightly smiled to himself. Maybe it was because it was a good idea. Or maybe because it was an idea that wouldn’t involve a massive war. His idea might have been a good solution for once. However, with some voting, it was a quick no. Suddenly, Athena spoke out. Her idea was spectacular. A cube with six colorful sides. Each god or goddess with one color to represent their land grid, then mix it up to randomly to divide the land for all six of them. When it was finally voted on, they called out to Hermes, asking him to find a mortal to scramble the cube while they made it. Hermes did as he was told. He found a mortal known as Rubik and hauled him up to mount Olympus where the cube was newly constructed.They handed it to the man and told him to scramble it. So he twisted it and turned it it for one hour, then another, until finally it was done. Athena however had one more important thing to say:
“Gods and goddesses who were among this argument, let us take a yearly vote on if we want the cube to be scrambled once more in hopes of getting the land we want.” The others all nodded in agreement.
How Hockey was Created
By Jim Ratzenberger
“GOAL, haha in your face Poseidon!” Zeus said antagonizing the other five gods playing Dionysius’s new game he called hockey. Zeus remembered this so well over the previous events of the day.
The day was earth’s one billionth birthday, and all the gods were celebrating a top of their home on Mt. Olympus. The party was bright and high spirited, there were nymphs and other intriguing creatures majestically dancing and singing festive lyrics , and vats of ambrosia and wine. All of the gods were watching the citizens of Ancient Greece go about their daily business, when Dionysius in his drunken and festive state, using an olive branch as a cane slipped, he was a baby giraffe when he fell and he accidentally smacked a golden discus into Poseidon's fishing net. He was ecstatic.
“Hey,”Dionysius yelled, “this is fun!” while clutching his aching back and leg.
Zeus walked over to Dionysius, he was furious and intrigued by Dionysius’s new hobby.
“This?’’ Dionysius answered, “ is what I am going to call hockey.”
“Can I join in?” Zeus asked.
Dionisius accepted Zeus's request and soon the two of them were playing one on one hockey. Meanwhile some of the other gods were watching them have so much fun hitting the discus back and forth and hitting it into Poseidon’s net. Soon enough eight other gods had joined in, that is when the argueing started. Poseidon and Ares were fighting, and Athena and Aphrodite were argueing. Suddenly, Zeus’s voice thundered through the palace. All of the gods stopped fighting and froze.
“STOP!” Zeus thundered, thinking what he had gotten his council into, “we must come up with a set of rules for us and the mortals to play this wonderful game by, Hermes write a list and take it to the king of Sparta tell him it is a list of rules for a new game.”
Later that day, when Herm
es returned he told all of the gods how much of a success their new game was. Soon after the news all of the gods were sitting around a vat of fine wine the taste of happiness and shouts of joy filled the air and the sweet air tickled their skin, they were all happy to see the mortals were having so much fun playing the new game the gods felt better that day. After all they all had received many more gifts and sacrifices!
The Nutcracker
By: Rebecka Borodach
“Oww! I’ve been stabbed!” I yelled as I was sewing my pointe shoes.
“That’s literally your tenth pair this week.” My best friend said as she was being fitted into her Sugar plum Fairy costume in the fitting room. She looked beautiful, tall, slim.
“Hey don’t judge me,” I narked at her while I was getting ready to be fitted into my Clara costume for the Nutcracker. We got the two best characters in the Nutcracker, Clara and the Sugar plum Fairy. I always wanted to be Clara ever since I was six.
Later that night, I asked my friend if we could get chips (french fries) but she told me no, which was weird because she would always say yes. So, I decided to follow her to see what was going in with her. I sneaked around Big Ben where I came across a dark alley, and there I found her standing there shifting her back and forth, I also found these two men dressed in black. I crept up a little further to hear what they were talking about. I heard some mean things about me, and that’s when I heard it, she betrayed me. I started to sprint, tears flooding down my face. Bang! I ran into a metal pole and passed out.
I woke up in a cold sweat, the ground felt soft, then, I got up and found I was laying in moss. I looked around, my vision was blurry and I couldn’t quite think straight. After a few minutes, I could start to think straight and see. I started to walk around and I’m figuring out that I am in the woods, dark, cold, and scary. I found this big Oak tree and found a knife in the owl hole. The knife was rusty, I can’t take the pressure anymore, I’m going to do it, I take the knife and cut an x on my forearm. Then, with trembling hands, I was trying to ram the knife in my heart, but it didn’t work my reflexes rammed the knife into the ground. Panting, heart racing, and my brain is going haywire. I forced myself to get up and try to find a way out this place. For hours walking in circles, I found this map with all the buildings that used to be there in 1918, today is 2017 so it would be 199 years old. I started walking north and found this Freed of London pointe shoe warehouse. At least I can stay here for the night, I thought. So I went into the warehouse and found a whole lot of pointe shoes, I even tried some on just for fun.
A few minutes past and I came across a room that was lit and playing the Nutcracker which I thought it was weird and creepy. Out of nowhere, I was in the room looking around to find the thing that was playing the music, I couldn’t find it but I find this nutcracker with a baby purple box with a note in fancy calligraphy. I went up to the nutcracker with the box and read the note.
Dear Rose,
I have a gift for you, these pointe shoes are special, so be careful. I don’t want you to get hurt.
Signed,
Anonymous
Who was that? How do they know me? I took the nutcracker and the box of pointe shoes and ran out of the warehouse and went back to the map, it was different, glowing. For some reason I found the Royal Ballet. I went southwest and after a few moments I was in studio 4. My ballet teacher was expecting me with the nutcracker and the box of pointe shoes. She told me that she went through the same thing when she was fourteen. She also told me that I had to perform with the nutcracker and the pointe shoes. I opened the box and found a black rose and the pointe shoes. The pointe shoes felt luxurious, perfect. I put on my toe tape, toe spacers, and my toes pads. I was shaking. I took the pointe shoes and flipped them over, I saw they were Grishko. I’ve never wore Grishko before I only use freed of London because that is what the Royal Ballet provide. Then, I remembered, when I was eleven, I had Grishko pointe shoes, they were hard, but easy to break in. I tied the ribbons, and stood up. My teacher told to do an echappé. I did it but I fell on my bottom.
“I think I broke my tailbone,” I said struggling to get up, “I heard it pop.”
She helped me get up and started to feel my bone. She said I cracked it but it wasn’t that bad as the popping. I tried to the echappés again but she told to work on something else, so, I tried to do bourrées across the floor. I started out unstable but after a few moments, I got the hang of it.
In the morning, I heard this talking, I got up and started walking. All my bones in my feet popped when I started walking, it felt good. I went into the bathroom and found the nutcracker talking. I screamed so loud I could break a wine glass. He explained that he needs me to use him in The Nutcracker and the pointe shoes too. I told him or it that I’ve spent 194 minutes to break in the pointe shoes because when I little, it took 194 minutes to break in the pointe shoes.
Later that morning, at 08:30 (8:30) a.m. I rushed to eat my breakfast, I had french toast, strawberries, and tea (coffee). My breakfast tasted like sunshine parting through a gloomy morning. The smell of fresh strawberries from my garden freshened me up into a good mood. I put on my leotard and pulled my hair up in a nice bun and went straight to my pas de deux class with my one of best friends, Oliver. I felt the sweat dripping down his neck, it was cold and wet. The room was and humid and smelled like pumpkin spice because my ballet teacher sprayed air freshener.
Two months passed, and it was time to do the performance, I was nervous because my pointe shoes didn’t break in, forgot basically most of my dances, my costume is crummy, and the nutcracker keeps on blabbering. The overture started and I started shaking, really shaking. I looked at the x I cut on my forearm and saw the blood flowing. I thought it was fine but it started to throb. It was my time to come out and start dancing and forearm felt numb when I did the nutcracker dance. He finally stopped blabbering about him disintegrating and blowing up after the performance, which kinda scared me. I finished the ballet in pain but graceful. I came into the lobby with a WHOLE BUNCH of flowers and everybody was taking pictures of me and it was great except for, my friend, she came out and told me she was sorry and would I forgive her. I grabbed her and hugged her.