VIctoria
Victoria grew up a normal little girl, she was the youngest of 2 brothers and daughter to Nicole and Roger Williams. You see, Pulandians were not like any other aliens, they were born only in March every year, their collective purpose was to grow in swag and harvest yams. Yams brought Pulandians peace, kindness, and swagger. Swagger and yams were 2 of the most valued things amongst Pulandians. When Victoria was 8, the Decepticons from Megatron land came to Pulandia to mess things up for Pulandians. Their only agenda was to cause suffering and destruction for Pulandians because of their swagger. Victoria's family perished in the chaos and she was left alone to fend for herself and survive. Victoria, almost dying from hunger, finds a bright red apple in the middle of a burned forest. She finds it strange but decides to eat it anyway because she just couldn't stand the hunger. Little did she know that was no regular apple, it was planted by the Decepticons meant to poison hungry stragglers. A friendly frog nearby found her nearly dead, fortunately for Victoria, he was not your typical friendly frog. He was a frog sent from the deep underworld of oceans. One kiss from the frog and there you rise, like brand new, except it, comes with a permanent price. As Victoria rose from the kiss she noticed herself feeling groggy but unusually powerful. “I thought you were dead there,” says the frog. Confused but grateful, Victoria replies “what did you do to me”. The frog smiles and continues to tell her about all the new abilities she was just blessed with. “Don't worry child, I'll keep you safe just listen to me and you will be alright” says the frog.
We fast forward years later to where the story takes place on a dark stormy night in the streets of Pulandia where Victoria comes out to her nightly shift of tricking strangers into giving her money. You see Victoria came back different after that kiss, she came with the ability to manipulate and make people hallucinate. She could control your desires in just a blink of an eye. Victoria and the frog go on their nightly stroll across Pulandia strip where rich kings and queens go to spend their free time. Victoria and the frog usually spend their night luring royalty into their residence where they convince them to give them everything, they strip them of all the riches and leave them out to experience the life of the poor. It seemed like the right thing to do, show people what a different life was like for the rest of the world, except soon they found themselves dealing with different kinds of people. One night Victoria was doing her usual stroll across the streets of Pulandia looking to see who had the most swagger. Suddenly a man wearing bright red shoes with black soles walks straight past her from a dark alley. Caught off guard, Victoria struggles with her usual manipulating ritual, she starts the blinking but can't seem to find herself to get in his mind. He turns around and smiles and suddenly Victoria finds herself craving a deep sleep.
Victoria wakes up, confused and scared in a dark wet dungeon the sly man brought her down to. He emerges from the darkness with that same smile he gave her before he worked his magic. “You thought you were the only one didn't you?” says the man. “What are you talking about?” says Victoria with a confused stare. Suddenly it clicks to her, the frog. Where had he been the whole time? Why didn’t he do anything? Where is he? She thinks to herself. The frog jumps out from behind scaring Victoria into a soft scream. “Hello, my young one,” the frog says. “You thought you were special? That I was going to look after you your whole life? No no no my dear you got me messed up, respectfully. I just needed you to get me money until I could make enough of you to make my empire.” The nameless man makes a puzzled look as he hears the frog talk about his elaborate plan. “You're horrible, I thought we had something,” Victoria says with tears running down her face. “Well I had you fooled, and now you're going to die here alone just like your family.” says the frog. The nameless man stands back surprised with this new side of the frog, you see he had the impression they were going to replace victoria with himself, take her power, and leave her be. What is he going to do to me eventually? If he has hundreds of me, he doesn't care for me, He thinks to himself. He looks at Victoria, scared and in tears, and back up at the frog, smiling and laughing at her pain. The nameless man suddenly grabs the frog and traps him in a dizzy spell for a bit. “That should keep him at bay for a little bit, I'm so sorry I had no idea of his entire plan, he's crazy,” says the man as he uncuffs Victoria. “It's okay but we should go FAST and NOW before he wakes up,” says Victoria. They come up with a plan for the next steps and here is the story of an ending but also a new beginning. “What is your name?” “Juan,” the man says. And so, they run away, teaching each other new forms of magic and spells. They bonded over lessons the frog would give them. Apparently, they have a lot in common, the frog rescued them both when they were kids from the Decepticons, and stole for the frog. We leave this story with a message of humanity, sometimes some people have similar stories in places of power that will help. Spooky story of hope.
By; Paola Ayala
I will ALWAYS hug you back to back!!!
Jessica and Cecilia are friends. They go to the same high school, live in the boarding school, and sleep on the bunk bed. Jessica rests on the top one, and Cecilia stays on the bottom. One day, Cecilia died of suicide. Jessica is sorrowful. She misses her best friend a lot. Every night Jessica will look through the pictures with Cecilia.
One night, Jessica is checking her phone as usual. Suddenly, there is a message pop up from the screen. Jessica is really in shock because Cecilia writes the message. She opens the news, and it says:” I will always hug you back to back:).” Jessica does not understand the message. She thinks it may be someone sending the wrong message to her. She shut down her phone and went back to sleep.
The next night, everything was expected, but Jessica received the same message from Cecilia’s phone again! ” I will always hug you back to back:).” Jessica ignored that again. The same things happened for the whole week…
After the 5th day of receiving the message, Jessica decides to figure it out by opening Cecilia’s phone. When she is climbing down the bunk bed and going to Cecilia’s bed, she realizes Cecilia’s phone is on, and she sees the messages are all sent by Cecilia’s phone. Jessica is still confused about who is doing this for Cecilia. She lay down on the bed. Immediately, she saw Cecilia on the top of her bedboard, saying, “I will always hug you back to back!”
By: Chuying Huang
THE SCOOP 43