Ch. 2
Mia, Gemma, and Scarlett arrive at the store and immediately go to the shoe section. Mia looks around the store with a disappointed look on her face. “I really thought this store was going to be a lot fancier, and prettier looking, but to be honest it isn’t all that great. Well we might as well just look around since we’re here.” The girls all turned their heads at the same time to find a pair of black converse lying on the ground. “I WANT THOSE SHOES!” They all say. “Okay I have to admit those are the coolest shoes I’ve ever seen. Too bad they’re a six, and I wear a seven. I’m pretty sure they’ll be too small for me,” says Martha. “Yeah,” says Scarlett, “I’m an eight, there is no way those are going to fit onto my foot.” Gemma said with lots of encouragement, “Well it never hurts to try. I’m a five but you never know, maybe it’ll fit once I put it on.” Gemma tried the shoes on. “Hey!” Gemma shouted. “They fit! The shoes fit me!” “I’m happy they fit you Gemma, but just because they fit you doesn’t mean Scarlett and I can squeeze our feet into them. But like you said, it never hurts to try.” Because the shoes were so comfortable, Mia didn’t even notice that she had gotten the small converse on! “Hehe,” Mia let out a little giggle. “Oh gosh, it’s my turn.” Scarlett said nervously. “Guys, don’t be too upset if the shoes won’t go on my foot.” Gemma spoke in a reassuring voice, “Don’t worry they’re just a pair of converse. It really doesn’t matter if they fit or not.” Scarlett closed her eyes as she was putting the first shoe on. Then when she opened her eyes, there it was the shoe had fit perfectly onto her foot.
Ch. 3
They realized something very important that day. The converse were special. It was like it was truly meant to be. “You guys know what this means right?” said Mia. “We have to get these shoes. This is a sign that we cannot ignore.” “Well…” says Scarlett with some hesitation. “I guess I’m in.” “Me too!” Gemma’s face lit up with excitement but then slowly faded to a frown. “But wait, we can’t all wear the shoes at the same time. So what are we supposed to do?” The girls thought hardly until Mia came up with a solution. “I’ve got it! We can trade each week. I will keep them this week, Scarlett the next week, and Gemma the week after that.” “Sounds like a plan to me.” said Scarlett. “Oh no. We have another problem. Gemma and I are going out of town for a couple of weeks, so how are we supposed to give them to each other?” “I’m not sure yet,” says Mia, “but I know we will find a way to make it work.” “I say we buy the shoes and tomorrow night we’ll sneak the old dance studio where our sisters used to take ballet. When we get there we can decide what to do.” said Gemma. “That’s a great idea. We just have to be careful, but no one will be there since it’s been closed down for a month now. Plus, it has that ladder we used to play on to get into the second floor.” replied Scarlett. The thought of sneaking in gave Mia a bit of pleasure. “This should be fun.”
Ch. 4
“I’m almost there!” Mia was talking to Gemma on the phone while on her way to the dance studio. “Okay good. You remembered the shoes right?” “Of course I remembered the shoes. How could I forget? Gemma, I have to admit, I’m kind of nervous about this… what if someone sees us and calls the police?” “We’ll be fine.” Gemma was reassuring Mia that everything was going to be okay when all the sudden Scarlett let out a scream. “What was that?” Mia waited for a response but all she heard was the beeping of a disconnected line. “Gemma? Gemma, are you there?” Mia was panicking because she didn’t know what had happened to her friends. As Mia drove onto West Studios Drive she saw her two friends getting into a police car. She pulled up right behind the car and got out to see what was wrong. “Um, hello Sir my name is Mia Santiago and I was just wondering why my friends are in the back of your car?” The cop responded in an angry voice, “Well Mia Santiago, your friends were caught wandering around the dance studio, which has recently become private property. Look, I’m not saying these girls were going to steal anything it’s just that there have been a few robberies in this area, so I’ve been told to watch out for suspicious activity.” “I’m very sorry about this, but I’m sure it’s just a misunderstanding.” said Mia in a clam tone of voice. “That might be, but there are still some items that haven’t been taken out of the store yet, if I see some teenagers loitering outside of the store for a good ten to fifteen minutes, I’m going to ask them some questions and we’ll figure thing out from there. So, unless you have a good explanation I’m going to have to take these two ladies down to the station.” “Actually officer, I do have an explanation. See my friends were uh… on their way home from… um… their tutoring session; they called me to ask me if I could come get them because it was too cold and dark for them to walk home. So, I told them to… wait by the nearest store for me.” “Ms. Santiago, that’s a lovely story, and can you also explain why your friend nearly lost her voice from screaming when she saw me?” “Well, no but I’m sure if you ask her she can tell you. So Scarlett, can you tell the nice man why you scream so loudly?” “Well I-I was, um, uh very shocked to see you because it’s dark and the store is on the corner of the street so when I turned onto West Studios, I was frightened because I didn’t know you were standing right there.” “Yeah,” said Gemma, “We were just waiting and I heard her scream, and I was worried and that’s why I dropped my phone and came running around the corner.” “Okay,” said the officer, “but if I see you girls here again your coming with me. Understand?” They all said thank you to the officer for not arresting Gemma and Scarlett. “Well that was a close one!” said Mia, who was relieved that they had gotten away without any punishment. “You two should really be more careful next time, but don’t worry about it let’s just be glad we got out of there fine.” “That was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me.” said Scarlett, who was still shaking from being scared by the cop. “I think we should just head back to our houses now, said Mia, “do you guys need a ride?” “No, Gemma and I rode my car, which is about two blocks away, so I can just drop Gemma off, and then go to my house.” said Scarlett. “Okay, that sounds good. So I guess I will see you guys tomorrow?” “Yep. Meet at my house okay?” replied Gemma. Mia said goodbye as she walked back to her car. She started her car and thought to herself, what a night.
Chapter 5
Mia called Gemma and Scarlett the next morning. “I’ve been thinking a lot about what to with the shoes, and I came up with an idea. Since you guys are going on trips in a couple of days one of you could take the shoes with you for one week then mail them to the next person. Also on the sides of the shoes you can write something special that happened while wearing the converse. So what do you think?” “Mia, I’ve got to say I love the idea of writing a special moment that happened when wearing the shoes onto the converse,” said Scarlett, “it’s brilliant I can’t believe you thought of that yourself!” “Yeah Mia,” said Gemma, “Scarlett is right, it’s such a good idea.” “Well I’m glad you all liked what I came up with.” Said Mia, who was happy her friends liked her suggestion. “Now I know you girls are leaving tomorrow night but because you, Gemma, are going to Greece, and you, Scarlett, are going to Australia you need to take a few naps and get rest because of the time difference.” “Okay bye,” they both said. They all hung up and Mia went to get brunch while Scarlett and Gemma took Mia’s advice and took a nap.
It was the next day and Mia was at the airport with Gemma and Scarlett. They were a tad quite compared to how talkative they normally are. They said their goodbyes and then Gemma headed onto her plane to visit her family in Greece, and Scarlett walked to her plane to go to Australia where she would be looking for a vacation house with her family.
Ch. 7
Three weeks passed when something terrible happened. Gemma was coming back from lunch with her family. She was having fun. Then she was feeling a little bit hot so she took of the converse and went for a swim off her family’s dock. She was having a nice time and she even met a nice boy, who lived right next her and was
swimming to their small conversation turned into hours of talking, kayaking, and swimming. Gemma finally got out to go to dinner. She ran to the front of her family’s house to get the shoes, but she couldn’t seem to find them! She called Mia and Scarlett right away. “Gemma! How could you just leave them near the street for people to take? Neither Mia nor I would have ever been that careless.” “I’m sorry okay! It was an accident I swear. I didn’t think someone would just take them like that.” “It’s alright Gemma. But I think that Scarlett and I should come to Greece to help you look for the shoes.”
Ch. 8
The next day, around 5:00PM, Scarlett and Mia arrived in Greece, and Gemma went to go pick them up. They discussed what they should do, and then came up with a solution. They decided that they would get Gemma’s family, and Gemma’s boy friend to help them staple posters, about their missing shoes, up near Gemma’s house. Days past and no one received a phone call, email, or text about the shoes. Scarlett, Mia, and Gemma gathered in Gemma’s room to talk about the situation. “Guys,” Mia said, “maybe this is a sign. Maybe, this happened for a reason… to bring us back together.” There was a long pause and then they all started to smile because they knew in their hearts that they were more than just best friends, they were like sisters. The converse that they bought in some ole store turned out to be what was keeping them together. So, if the shoe fits, wear it.
Andrew Tezza
Chapter 1
It was 2:40.There was still five minutes left until the bell rang and school was over. James was zoning out during another one of his science teacher, Professor Leroy’s lectures. “James, do you know the answer?” Professor Leroy asked. James snapped out of his daydream and said “I’m sorry sir. Could you repeat the question?” James could hear the other kids laughing under their breath. “What, James,” said Professor Leroy, “is the photosynthetic equation?” Before James could answer, the bell cut him off. “Study for the test tomorrow.” Professor Leroy reminded them.
James was the new kid at school. He had ADHD, but he took medicine for it. The medicine helped him pay attention, but it didn’t help him sit still. In every class teachers would tell him to sit still, and they would get mad at him when he couldn’t. Most of the kids felt sorry for him because he got in trouble and was bullied so much. Kids would call him names and steal his books and make fun of him behind his back. James had a rough time, but no one ever physically bullied him. They were afraid to, after what happened when one of the kids who bullied him got in a fight with James. James knew karate, and that’s what people were afraid of.`
Chapter 2
James was on the bus, riding to school the next morning. Everything was normal. He was sitting alone in the same seat that he sat in every day. The bus driver pulled up to a group of kids waiting at the bus stop. James saw all the people he normally saw at this stop, but the last person to get on was new. The kid started walking, looking for a seat. Whenever he started to go towards an open seat, someone would put their feet up or move their backpack on the seat. He finally made it to the back of the bus, where James was sitting. Someone sitting across the aisle started to set their backpack on the open seat next to James, but James just pushed it back. He then said, “You can sit here.” The boy smiled and thanked James and said, “Hi, my name’s Kenny.” “I’m James,” said James. “Did you just move here, or did you switch schools?” “I just moved here,” said Kenny, “I’m from Alabama.” James just nodded and looked out the window. When the bus dropped them off, Kenny asked James where the school office was. James gave him the directions and then went to homeroom.
In James’ first period Spanish class, he noticed that Kenny had the same class. James noticed Kenny during his second period enrichment class, too. In fact, Kenny had the same third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and eighth period classes as James. Sixth period was lunch and James didn’t see Kenny. James and Kenny sat together on the bus after school again. “How’d you think did on the science test?” Kenny asked James. “I don’t know.”, said James, “There were a few things I didn’t know.” “Hey, Kenny.” “What?” “You want to come over to my house tomorrow? You know, to study for Religion and Math?” Kenny looked surprised, but he said, “Sure, is five okay?” “Yeah, that’s great!” The bus pulled up to Kenny’s stop. “See you tomorrow, Kenny.” “See you, later.”
When James got home, he told his mom all about what happened that day. For the first time in a while, James didn’t worry about being bullied the next day. He had made a new friend, and nothing else mattered.
Chapter 3
On the bus the next day, James was looking forward to having Kenny over that night. It would be the first time in a while that he had had a friend over. The bus pulled up to Kenny’s stop. Everyone got on, and the bus driver closed the doors. Kenny wasn’t there. James didn’t worry about it. He figured that Kenny would come in late.
Kenny came in towards the end of third period. In the hall, while they were going to their next class, James asked Kenny why he was late. “There was a huge wreck on the highway on the way here.” Kenny told him. “How bad was it?” asked James. “A big semi-trailer flipped over and blocked up all the lanes. Then, like, four or five cars slammed into it because they couldn’t stop fast enough.” That ended the conversation. The rest of the day went on normally. When the final bell rang at 2:45, James and Kenny packed up their books and went home.
James had just finished his homework when the doorbell rang. He checked his watch and saw that it was exactly 5:00. He went and answered the door; it was Kenny standing there with his mom. “Hi, I’m Mrs.Strickler; I’m Kenny’s mom.” Said Mrs.Strickler. James’ mom came down and she and Mrs.Strickler stood outside talking. James invited Kenny inside. They went inside and James helped Kenny with his homework, they studied for math, and they studied for English. They taught each other different ways of doing things and different ways of studying. James realized that things weren’t as bad as he thought they were. That he just needed to lighten up a little bit and everything would be better.
Chapter 4
It was Friday. It was already a good day, but it just kept getting better. James aced the English test. He aced math and got the extra credit right, too. His teachers were surprised. They said that they were proud of his improvement, and that they hoped that he’d keep it up. By lunch, James had no homework. In every class there was either none assigned, or he had finished it. But at the end of seventh period, James heard people talking about a surprise test in science. He heard them say that it was really hard, and that you only had ten minutes to do a hundred questions. Everyone was nervous; especially James. Science wasn’t his strongest subject, and he hadn’t understood the chapter all that well. When he got to class, he knew he wasn’t going to do well.
They had been learning about the muscular system in science. On the test, there were sixty fill in the blank questions about what different muscles did and what they were. The rest of the test was a chart, showing the human body. There were arrows pointing to different muscles, each with a different number on it going from sixty-one to one hundred. Corresponding to each arrow was a blank space. The directions were to label each muscle with its scientific name and to tell whether it was a skeletal, smooth, or cardiac muscle. James raced through and did all the easy questions first. He had just finished those when time was up. He had finished around eighty questions and he was pretty sure that he didn’t get them all right.
He was really nervous on the bus but then Kenny calmed him down and made his day better by saying right before he got out of his seat “Mr. Leroy told me that the test didn’t count for anything.” Then he smiled at James and got off the bus.
Chapter 5
The next day was Saturday. James had his karate and kung fu classes that day. James has been taking karate classes since he was in second grade. It’s been five, almost six years since he started. He’s the highest belt in his karate class. James is a brown belt. He’s only three be
lts away from getting his black belt. He has all of his karate belts displayed on racks in his room in order from lowest to highest. His belts, in order, are white, white with a yellow stripe, yellow, orange, purple, blue, blue with a green stripe, green, green with a brown stripe, and brown. James doesn’t care what other people think about him doing karate; it’s what he likes doing so he does it.
The Saturday karate classes are sparring classes. James likes the sparring classes, but he looks forward to the kung fu class the most. He’s learning a sword form; thirty-two broadsword. He hasn’t even learned the whole form yet, but it’s already his favorite form out of all the forms he knows. James already knows that he wants a broadsword for his birthday on June 11. Throughout the entire class he drills the form over and over and over again. Wants to make sure he remembers the form perfectly because he only has kung fu once a week. When he finishes the class he knows that he’s got it down.