Persuasion: The Art of Getting What You Want.
Think of something rather outrageous that you might want from your parent(s) –something that you don’t actually need. Have you always wanted to paint your room purple with orange polka dots? Would life be better if you had a personal assistant? Is the backyard the perfect place to keep your own pet elephant? Do you feel your life would benefit from owning your own jet pack?

Job 1.  Persuasive Letter
Write a letter to your parent(s) persuading them to do what you want. Use some of the 10 Tips for Becoming a Master Persuader. Organize the reasons why you feel they should do what you want into separate paragraphs, and finish with a strong conclusion. Really try to “sell” them on the fantastic idea you have!

Job 2.  Poster
Create a poster that shows how great this “thing” that you want actually is. You can make one big illustration or draw multiple pictures. You can include captions that explain the benefits of the “thing”. You can write a slogan. You can draw yourself enjoying the “thing”. You can create an advertisement for the “thing”. Show us why what you want is so awesome!

Job 3. Song, Poem, or Video
Compose song lyrics, write a poem, or create a video that describes what life is like now that you have the “thing” that you wanted.

Dear Mom and Dad,

I would like to have a gym in my backyard. I mean a tumble track, beam, bar, bouncy floor, vaulting table, spring board, more mats, and a foam pit. When you think about that, it’s pretty reasonable. I think if all that equipment was SO expensive, why would there be a lot of gyms in the world? If the prices were outrageous, there wouldn’t be so many.

 We really need this if you want me to get better at gymnastics. Because if I get good enough, it could pay for college, and you could save a lot of money! Plus, don’t you want me to be happy? I would like that because I love gymnastics, and it makes me happy!

Why we should get a gym? Because didn’t you always want something to cover that empty big space, now that we took down the pool? What better to do with it, then get a gym! How about instead of getting my room done over like you said I could, how about what I want/need even more?

Now… I already know where you can get all of this, it’s on amazon! Super easy, and we don’t have to go out and buy the stuff, we can just have it come to the front door, from the nice UPS man. The whole total would only be around 10,000 dollars! (Or more) Now think about that, it’s not like it’s 1,000,000 dollars.

Just imagine, me doing the craziest moves ever! I could be the top athlete in the world! Wouldn’t you want that? I know it might seem like a lot, but it’s really not, and, it’s worth it to get REALLY good at gymnastics. Just picture me so happy. I wouldn’t ever say I’m bored again!

Once I get too old for gymnastics, which will only be 11 years, you will never be able to buy me a gym ever! This is your chance, you only have 11 years, unless I get seriously injured, and can’t do gymnastics anymore. Then, you better get it soon. You should get it soon, so I can take advantage of having it now, because the higher level I get, the higher chance of me getting hurt. Be quick, and get it fast!

I will be very nice to you if you can get me these simple, easy to get things. You can return my favor. Haven’t you wanted me to be nice all the time? Well if you get want I want/need, I’ll get you what you want/need. It will be easy.

You’re probably still thinking, “I’m not getting Olivia this!” Well to make it easier, how about you at least get me a tumble track, and a bar. (Even though my first request was pretty reasonable). That would only be, like 3,000 dollars! (Or less).

Do you really want coach Joyce to make me do 25 push-ups if my legs were bent in my back-handspring? Or for me to score lower in competitions because I didn’t have enough practice? I could make my coach very happy, and the judges too. All because you got me what I want/needed.

Sincerely,
Olivia

Dear Mom and Dad,

Christmas is coming soon and I was thinking about what we like. We like being generous and we love awesome stuff. So that made me think that we should get a limousine for Christmas! I know that it might feel odd for us to be driving around a limousine, but at least we will look famous! We could be generous by picking up my hockey teammates so their moms and dads will not have to take them to hockey. After that we could take them back to their house. That would make you feel really good on the inside, right?

Mom, Dad I even know where to go to get one of our own limousines. All you have to do is go to  down the street from the airport in Punta Cana, DR and then go straight through the first two intersections then take your left then right, left, then right again. After that you will see a street called Mangle Street. Go down it and you will see a shop called “Limousines us.” There you can buy the limousine you want. The highest price is only $100,000! The lowest price is $1 (well of course a toy limousine!) All of the limousines are waiting for you to buy one. I already know where to go, see.

Just think what it would be like to have a pure white limousine! Swimming in the pool, relaxing in the hot tub, dancing on the roof, wouldn’t that be nice? This limousine is the size of a house and has everything that a house has and more! You guys should sell our house; maybe get some money off of it if you’re lucky! I mean come on, who wouldn’t want a limousine; it will be the best thing that has ever happened to us! For the most part we could have parties, watch movies, and watch sports. We would be able to do all this because we would have 3 flat screen TVs. All of this leads up to the fact that we should get a limousine!

I have a great idea! Mom, Dad, how about I take you guys out on vacation. We can even go to the Dominican Republic resort. I already got Steve (our neighbor) to take us to the Dominican Republic Resort, it was O.K. with him. There is only one problem with that though. Steve is only going to take us one way, not back. With that big factor on hand, I was wondering if you could get us a limousine. The only reason I think you guys should get us a limousine is for the ride back from the airport. When we get back home from Punta Cana, DR we can have fun with the limo.  For the most part we can go anywhere at any time with a limo.

Guess what Mom and Dad, I finally cleaned my room! It looked like a tornado hit it before, but now you can barely see a speck of dust! I noticed that I have so much junk in my room and I was thinking that a limousine would be a great place to store all of it. I could have my room in it and I would try my best to keep it clean. It will for certain be way more neat because there will be 10 times the space I have now in my room. Then when I go to college we / I won’t have to pay for a dorm, I could just live in the limousine! So, with all the money we can make, and all the money we can save the limousine will pay for itself in no time!

                                                                                                            Sincerely,
Chase

I’m at that age where A LOT of kids want something totally outrageous. Mine isn’t that outrageous.  I think it’s time for you to hire me a hot butler.
 
 I know what’s on your mind right now, “no way am I getting her a hot butler.” Well before you say no, listen to my reasons why I want a hot butler.
   
 
If I had a hot butler I wouldn’t get on your nerves. For example: when you ask me to clean my room, I always say “no.” But, if I had a hot butler you could ask all you want, and he could do it for me, and all the other stuff in the house that I never do. So when you ask me to do anything that involves cleaning I can just tell my butler to do it.
 
If I had a hot butler I could go to school with him. And he could do ALL the work for me. Again I know what you’re thinking “but she wouldn’t learn if her butler did it for her.” I still would learn for your information, I just wouldn’t do the work. I would listen and pay attention, but my butler would do all the work for me. And when get home from a long boring day at school he would do my homework. Then, I could relax and not have to do a single thing my butler would do it all for me.
 
My last reason why I should have a hot butler, when I am very very comfortable and I don’t want to get up and I’m really hungry or thirsty I wouldn’t have to get up and he could get any snack I want or any drink I want so I don’t have to get up.
 
The main reason for this letter is because I am almost a teenager and life gets harder and harder as you get older. And since I’m ten I may not need one now. But I insist you get me one now.
I NEED A HOT BUTLER NOW!


HOT BUTLER SONG
 
 I got my hot butler and he’s not a juggler
Did I mention he is super duper hot?
And when he cooks that food it hits the spot
When I want something to eat
He’ll get it in a heartbeat
He rubs my feet
While I’m sitting in a comfy seat
He’ll do whatever I say
He’s the best butler
Cause he likes to obey
Can I keep him forever?
I guess so
He does all my chores from head to toe
He’s the best butler in the whole state
And he’s never ever once been late

My heart is pumping so hard when we are going up the mountain by car, no side railing to the left or right. As we go up the Mountain we reached 6000 feet. We stop for a little view. We see a big road going in a twirl direction. I say can we go up there to my friend’s parents. They say yes but let’s look the wonderful view.

I’m at 7000 feet. We know this because we see little signs that say how high we are.

  We finally reached the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain it is awesome. When you look at the view it’s like you can see the world.  I see a little shop that’s sells hot coco and coffee. The cool thing is that at that store there was a miniature museum inside that was free. It was gust telling about the mountains and stuff. After that we went back up and enjoyed or hot coco.

 The way down was pretty cool and fun but still scary that was a fun time. At the end I say to my self maybe we can come again sometime.

For our first writing unit we learned how to write a personal narrative --a story about ourselves. Students worked on the following qualities of writing a good personal narrative:

• Is the story a seed story, not a giant watermelon topic?
  
• Does the story flow in a step by step way?

• Is there a lot of detail?
  
• Are the details vivid and clear?
  
• Does the story zoom into the important parts?
  
• Are there a lot of interesting vocabulary words?
  
• Is the intro strong and interesting?
  
• Does the ending leave a lasting impression? 
  
• Are all of the words spelled correctly?
  
• Are capital letters in all the right places?
  
• Are all of my sentences complete and not running on without periods?
  
• Is punctuation used correctly?
  

We hope you enjoy reading our stories! Click on an individual students to read his or hers, or click on the category "Z Personal Narratives" to read everyone's.

     My little cousin Max was having a friend sleeping over. We were playing limbo. There is a big space between my front hall and my living room. My little cousin and his friend were holding a wooden flag pole that’s as tall as me. Then I decided to jump over the pole. I pushed my mom’s chair over. I ran from my dining room jumped over the pole, I landed on my toes. I wasn’t wearing any shoes so it hurt really bad. I fell to the hard wood floor. My arm hit the ground. I laid there helplessly. You know how when you brake or sprain something and you scream. I’m just not type of person. My aunt saw me laying there I was really pale. My aunt said “What’s wrong?” I  stood up holding my left arm. My aunt and I  walked into the kitchen. My aunt said that I broke my arm.      

     My mom got dressed and asked my uncle if he could drive. We got in the car. We4 drove to Winchester Hospital. The nurse was really nice. I took some x-rays. We waited for about 20 minutes. They told us I broke my fore arm in the weakest spot. The weird thing I wasn’t screaming or crying. My mom said I was as pale as a ghost. I was in shock. The nurse and her assistant came in and put me in a temporary cast with a sling. My mom, uncle, and I walk outside, got in the car and drove home.  

The wind blows in my face making my half-wet hair swift up, as I’m clutching gently on a dolphin. It was slimy but smooth and very fun to ride on. “click click” I hear a dolphin coming from under the water. The instructor told us that the dolphins like to impress other dolphins by doing tricks. There jumping in and out of the water like they’re trying  to grab something, but really they’re not. It was a bright, and sunny day. The water was shining like someone smeared lip gloss all over it. I was going to ride a dolphin.

The water passes by me fast.  I was in an area blocked by rocks so the dolphins couldn’t swim away, but they seem very happy, and I don’t think they would. Suddenly, two dolphins come up and push me up and above the water. They push me up so high I feel like I am doing a stunt, and the dolphins are holding me up. It’s startling because I didn’t know it would be this fun. I see the pretty blue sky above me. There’s also a bright yellow sun that’s making the water shiny. It’s as if someone smeared lip gloss all over it. I look down, and get ready to go back into the chilly water. The dolphins act as if they’ve done this a million times, and I bet they have. We come to a stop, and I’m now slowly drifting through the water. It’s as if someone flipped a switch on the dolphin forcing it to slow motion. Now, we were dancing. I glance into the dolphin’s black eyes, they’re glancing back into mine. I take hold of his rubbery and big fins. All we do is just move our arms around. I look at the dolphin. It looks like it’s smiling, so I smile too. The dolphin gives me a kiss on the cheek, and someone takes a picture. Really, the dolphin just places its snout on my cheek. It felt like wet plastic.

I just treaded there, smiling with my lifejacket on, and my half-wet hair. 

I plop down on the cozy chair in the living room. The cozy chair is a light tan color; it is also pretty long but not too long. I feel the excitement rush down my spine like a speeding train. It also feels like a lightning bolt shot right down my back. As I look around the room I see our Christmas tree with at least, ten presents under it. My heart is pounding at 100 miles per hour because there is a lot of excitement overflowing in my body. It feels like someone poured just a little too much crazy juice in my body. As I keep looking around the room I see my mom, dad, and my sister all looking at me. I asked them if I can open my presents first.  They all said “yes”  at the same time. I walk to the Christmas tree and grab one of my small presents. I sit on the chair and rip my small present open. I look at the present and it is a remote control helicopter. I thank my mom and dad and go on to my next present.

 The next present is a huge box. I sit back down and rip the big present open and look at it. It is a plug in keyboard (piano.) my mom says that that is all of the presents that I have. After that my mom and dad open their present. My sister opens her presents last. After she opens her presents my dad says that he has to go to the bathroom really bad. He sprints up the stairs like a speeding bullet. Right when he runs up he runs down instantly. He was holding a box; he said that he “found” a present upstairs for me. When he got down he handed me the present.

 While I was opening my present I thought to myself “Dad wouldn’t buy me a three-hundred dollar laptop.”  I just kept on ripping it though.  Once it is opened my mouth drops like a hammer. I am speechless, even paralyzed. I thank my dad and mom with all of my joy. And open the laptop case. It’s a laptop. I bring it up to my room and grab the plug out of the box and plug the laptop in. after that sadly Christmas is over. I can’t wait for next year.

It was Saturday I my mom decide to bring us to skating .When I was in the car my hand was shaking because I was really excited and happy at the sometime. We walk toward the door and I did a big push on the door it was crowed inside I saw lots of people buying food and renting skate .When I was getting my skate on and my mom tied my skate  it really hard and it really hurt lots . After my mom tied my skate and I put on my helmet and  I walk  toward another door and that door was cold when I opened it .When I got on the to the slippery ice there were lot of people going so fast that I thought the people would run over me . I grabbed the side of the ice rink and I slow got on with my mom and my sister too .I kept falling on the ice and I tried to let go of the side of the rink to balance I try to skate and I did it .I got the hang of it and I go a little go fast then I fall again. I hope that I will go to the ice rink again. 

It was an early school morning.  It had rained the night before so it was muggy and damp outside. I yelled up to my mom “its 8:00,” she didn’t reply. I knew she wasn’t up yet. My dog, Harry was scratching at my back door to go outside and go to the bathroom. I was pacing up and down my kitchen getting my breakfast. I finally opened the back door for Harry. Then I walked to my front porch to get my shoes on. I saw the landscaper truck outside my house; they were here to cut my grass in my backyard. “Oh no I hope they didn’t open the back gate yet!”

I let my dog Harry outside. He ran around in the wet grass.  I have a fenced in backyard because Harry will run away if it’s not fenced in. After I finished I went to my front porch to get my shoes on. I saw the landscaper truck outside my house. I thought to myself I hope they didn’t open the gate to my backyard yet.  

I raced to my backdoor looked out the window, the gate was open. Then I sprinted back to the front                                          door. I didn’t see Harry outside. I quietly but quickly opened the front door and stepped outside. It was muggy and humid outside from the night before. I saw Harry up the street. I knew I couldn’t chase after him because he would run away. The only way I had learned to get him back into the house was to get him in the car. But obviously I couldn’t drive. I was trembling with fear. I saw him up the street about to pee on a bush. I snuck up behind him, grabbed his waist. I wanted to let him finish going to the bathroom but I wanted to get him in the house. So I got ahold of his harness and let him finish going to the bathroom. After he finished I led him back to my house.  “I am not telling mummy about this,” I thought to myself when I got inside with Harry.                  

“Hey!!! Fitzy!!!” my friend Core yelled. “Come sit next to me.”                                                     
 I quickly moved my feet with lightning speed to get to his seat before the bus started moving. I got to his seat and quickly sat down. The bus finally started moving. Core and I were freaking out we were so excited we couldn’t wait.

 “The wheels on the bus go round and round round and round.” We could hear the other kids singing then I got that song stuck in my head of course.
“How long we staying up until tonight,” I whispered to Core.
“Probably like 5:30,” Core said.
 “Ok,” I replied.
“Hey Fitzy and Core is there enough room for three in that seat?” my friend Blake said in a loud voice. Core and I chuckled.
 I said, “Hop in.” My friend Gabe was sitting in the seat next to Core Blake and I.

 ”Wait me you and Core are sleeping together right Fitzy,” Gabe said.
 “Yeah of course,” I said back. All the sudden I look up and see a big building that said The Museum Of Science in big black bold letters. Core Blake and I got so excited. My mind flashed forward and I thought of all the fun things were going to do like staying up late, goofing off, telling jokes like your mamma jokes, and all different things like that.

“I can’t wait to goof around when we get there,” I said.
 “Yeah I know right,” said Blake.
“I’m a goofy goober rock!” said Blake again. This was a fun bus ride.                   

My dad drop me and my mom off in the T.D garden  to go to Disney on ice for my birthday. Me and my mom kind of sat on front it was fun.  Then Minnie and mickey came out first they were skating  I saw aladdin there was a lot of them.  Then I saw finding Nemo I saw them then a big shark came by and they wanted to eat them so they ran away.  Then I saw the princess’s  they were dancing with their princes I saw Cinderella and the other princess’s they were dancing gracefully  I liked how they danced  and I saw mickey mouse and Donald duck and goofy they were driving a thing then the show was over and me and my mom went on the train and went home.  

 On a ride called zero gravity me and my brother overheard a person talking ha said I wouldn’t even put my worst enemy on it. At that moment me and my annoying brother met eye contact and we red each other’s minds. When he walks away we both ran as fast as we could to the ride I made a face to my mom to hurry up. I was surprised when my cry baby cousin ran after us .when thy cot up they were panting. The line was short because no one wanted to go on again. My older brother was to scared to go on at the end but my cozen was determined to go on.  I teased my brother about it he got so mad he tried to punch me.  It didn’t tack long before we were there. By the time it was time to get in the seat my cousin was whimpering. I made her feel we bad because I was teasing her. I laughed at her. All of a sudden the ride jolted and then it jolted again then it started. The ride started to lift me up and it felt like I was 100,000 feet high. It stopped it turned and I was just dangling from the seat. I knew I was going to fall and die but I didn’t. The ride swung me around and all I could see was blurs as I wiped bye the lights on the ride shined in the dark park.  Then it stopped. I was so happy, and then it started again. but this time it was even faster than before I couldn’t even scream it was so fast I thought I would rip through the bands and the seat  and I graded the bars so tight that I lost surqulation in my hand. My hair was blasted back and it was whistling by my ear. The ride started to slow down and came to a stop. I got off the ride and I was so dizzy I tripped twice.

Me and my cozen ran and at the same time we both yelled’’ THIS IS AWESOME!’’ my brother was fuming. I kept on making him mad for not going on the ride. On the end of the day my brother went on the ride to prove he wasn’t scared. We went on the ride with him the whole time he was yelling and complaining about how the ride was horrible. We all knew that he was just mad. Me and my cozen where talking to whole time.

 KABOOM!!! AHH!! Some kids screamed after the bus went over a huge bump. The bus driver was an awful driver, so bad I wouldn’t even call him a bus driver. We were on the bus on the way to the Museum of Science. I was sitting with my friend Marc, and on the other side of the isle were my friends Peter and Joe.

EHH! Everyone screamed after we went over another huge bump. One girl pretty much hit her head on the ceiling. Ouch! That would hurt; it might even ruin her day.  

We were now entering the highway, and some of the windows were open.  …“like the ceiling can’t hold us”… one of my favorite songs was coming on. They got that right I thought, I don’t think the ceiling can hold much longer. Eventually some kid is going to go flying through the bus ceiling after going over a huge bump. Now some kids were starting to sing along.

I was starting to get scared that we were going to crash because the bus kept swerving from side to side. All of a sudden, I felt a huge breeze. Then I noticed that all the windows were open. “Well this sure feels safe,” I said to Marc. Two kids’ heads were out the window.

“If you didn’t say that I would’ve,” he said. “It’s starting to get hard to breathe,” he said in a squeaky voice.

Some guy in a black truck honked at the bus very loudly. It felt like he held the horn for a minute. Then, the bus honked back. It felt like they were honking at each other forever. It was so loud.

We were now entering the Museum of Science parking lot. The guy was still following us. Then, he took a left and we went straight. “I think that guy was following us,” I said to Marc.
“I know,” he said. “It was starting to freak me out.”
“We’re staying up all night right?” I asked.
“All night,” he said.       

It was one of those blazing Fridays where you parents make you wear short pants, short shirt, and then you get a short haircut. Then you still start to sweat. A day where if you fall down on the sand, you burn until you get boiled. This was a Friday on the beach. I tried to pull out a blanket to block the sand I was sitting on. It was like the heat of the sand just broke through the blanket like a ball of fire. I felt like it was the end of the world, I needed to go into the ocean.

I was riding deep into the ocean, in a raft floating in the ocean. I was all relaxed until this massive wave was coming towards me. I felt fear inside my body. The wave was ginormous compared to me. Then it was about to crash right on top of me. I said in my head, “no turning back now.” I closed my eyes right when the wave was about to crash because I thought it would take me under water. Then when I opened my eyes I wasn’t under water, I was in the air. It felt like I can really fly any time I want! Then that small time I was in the air was just about to end. The bad thing was I was landing straight towards my cousin. After that I crashed into him and we both went straight under water. I was afraid if he was hurt but it turns out my cousin was ok. I couldn’t say he was fine because he gets scared when he goes under water. I got cold so I got out of the water.  That small moment of time could just be my best time in the ocean for all these 10 years!

 I was walking to my cottage with my family just thinking of what things hide from tomorrow. You never know.

It was one of those days, when the rain comes down so hard it’s almost like an ocean without all the fish, and all you can hear are giant booms and all you can see are blinding flashes, the perfect day to play Minecraft. After I logged onto Kuledud3’s server, I immediately went straight to my favorite game in Minecraft, The Hunger Games, (basically the hunger games in Minecraft). I was the last player needed to start the round, so after about 20 seconds, I immediately scurried towards the chests hoping to get something good like an ender pearl or a golden sword from it.

 Yet, I was wrong; all it had was a wooden shovel, five bowls, and some roasted chicken. It was nice that I had food, and a weapon, but I knew without armor I was going to get my butt kicked. I thought to myself, how am I supposed to defeat my opponents with a wooden dirt digger? Not to mention the fact that a wood shovel is what a noob who dosen’t know a thing about Minecraft uses to mine diamonds! I saw my opponent running towards a sky scraper that looked like it could topple over at any minute. I saw him long enough to see he was equipped with a chain chest plate and a golden sword that could have been mine.

Since that was my first time playing the hunger games in Minecraft, I decided the best thing to do would be to collect some more food if I want to survive. Sometimes, getting food can’t always be a piece of cake,(ba - dom, crash).  First, you have to find the right type of animal to get food from, only cows and/or pigs. You can’t use sheep because they only give you wool, and you can’t use chickens because the meat is poisonous when its raw. Then it takes a long time to get the meat from the animal, unless you have a sword. After a really long time, I finally got 2 pork and 3 beef.

As I adventured through the abandoned town, I came across a medium sized bridge that looked like the hulk smashed it in half. After doing parkour across the bridge, I found a chest with an iron sword with knock back 2 and an iron chest plate. I thought to myself, NOTHING CAN STOP ME NOW! After the epic win on  stuff, I scouted the sky for lightning, which marks other players. Cquincidentally, the lightning was directly above the starting place. Naturally, I went back the way I came, across the sliced bridge, passed the abandoned sky scraper, through a small forest, and arrived at the center for the final battle.

My opponent swung his axe at my face as I gracefully dodged the menacing blade. I was really frightened as he swung uncontrollably so I had no choice but to fight back. I could see he was extremely determined to win, but I was stronger. With a single swing, he had disappeared  as the chat bar said,”Wolfbone500 defeated asfjerome to win the hunger games in arena 1.” I’ve never felled better, after getting random useless stuff, adventuring off into the forest, finding a sword and chest plate, and defeating the other person, it was time for a rematch.

The car clicked shut as Liam, his family, and I hopped out of the car in front of Dale Orchards. It was a blazing Saturday, almost one hundred degrees! I couldn't wait.  

“Look at those huge ruby-red apples,” Liam commented. Liam and I lunged into the air and crashed down on rotten, squishy apples. The aroma of apples of all kinds hit my nose. We walked down the cobblestone path to the front gate. The pebbles looked like beige marbles. The orchard was in the middle of a valley.

“May I help you?” said the employee at the front gate.
“We’ll have two bags please,” said Paul in his deep voice.
The employee yanked two bags out of a shelf over her head “That’ll be twenty-four dollars please,” said the employee in her crabby, annoyed voice.

As we walked along the lush tees of the orchard we pluck stupendous apples off of the healthy trees. Then we drop them into our bags. Liam and I started to get hungry because we skipped lunch. So we plucked two apples off the branches of the gala trees. As I sunk my teeth into the light red skin of the apple I could see the white flesh of it. It tasted glorious. 

Liam said “These apples must have fallen from heaven” in an amazed voice. I had to agree.

After I finished my apple I shouted to Liam “Come over here!” Then he ran over. I punted my core across the field. It must’ve split into at least fifty pieces. The closest piece landed about seventeen feet away. The farthest piece away from me was one-hundred feet away or more!

As we wandered on Liam and I started to get bored. Then we entered the granny smith section. We wanted to practice our pitching before the baseball season started. So we nabbed ten clean apples each. We got them all off the ground. There was a pile of cement bricks on the ground, about fifty feet in front of us. It was about seven feet high. I decided to try my cutters because they're a bit wild (A cutter is a kind of pitch).

"Strike one," yelled Liam as I threw a perfect cutter. "Strike two," hollered Liam as a two-seam fastball slammed into the hard brick-like pile.

I threw another good cutter that wacked hard into the pile of cement "Strike three," I whispered to myself with glee.    

Have you ever experienced a scalding hot night when it seems to be warmer than the day? It’s kind of like the sun’s heat was transferred to the moon. Because it was so humid; bugs my family had never seen before were whizzing about in the night sky. Good thing we had gotten our malaria shots. I’d like to say the temperature was 1,000,000,000 degrees Fahrenheit; but it was only about 70 degrees. Still, that is hot for nighttime, even in Hawaii where we were.

A cockroach three inches long came darting out from under the coffee table; and under the couch where my uncle and I were sitting. My fourteen-year-old- cousin was so freaked out that he jumped onto the table where the cockroach came from, screaming, “mommy.”(His high pitch voice when he’s scared is priceless) Then a bee bigger than the cockroach flew out from under the table. “BZZZZ. BZZZZ,”  Alex(my cousin) jumped so high he caused an eclipse. Julien (my brother) was so freaked out by the bee that he jumped onto the table also. The two were making such a racket crying and dancing like a slow dance. My other cousin Matthew had earphones on listening to music and had no idea what was going on. Then the bee flew in the direction of the cockroach and they went into the light of the steaming moon, and with the other bugs.