By: Barleen Kaur

I walked and walked, too afraid to make a sound

I followed my friends here

To a mysterious building that they have found

I never wanted to come here but I didn’t want my friends to think I’m weird

But darkness is the only thing I have always feared

They insist and insist to stay here and explore

But all I was focused on was the door

I yearned to head out the exit, where warm sun was luring me

I was a caged bird, waiting to be let free

The sky was turning to gold I was sure

But I let my thoughts drown and turned to where my friends were

The stench of dead animals filled my nose

And I looked down and saw fresh sticky blood on my toes

Slowly, and unexpectedly I started hearing sounds that were echoing off from everywhere

I faced my friends and saw that they were just giggling and didn’t care

This building has been here for many years

I noticed tattered furniture and massive spiderwebs here

This place is like a trap concealing me in and not letting me out

Suddenly from behind me I heard a shout

One more time I glanced around only able to take in the ugly walls colored gray

Finally, with speed like light, I ran away

“I am happy with my decision,” to myself I said

Because the next day, I found out that all my friends were dead

By: Kendall Powell

Bangs and screams

Everybody is shaking and hiding

Your heart beat at 1000 bpm

Nobody knows who’s okay and who isn’t

Silence surrounds students, teachers and volunteers

Shaking, waiting and looking around

Not knowing when it will be over

You’re as nervous as a mouse in a cat house

Can’t move a muscle

If you do, you might want to hustle

Anxiously waiting to be saved

School shootings are like seeing a shark in the ocean

School shootings need to stop

By:Veronica Burns

A Day At The Beach

I woke up early in the morning

Trying to rub the sleep out of my eyes

The sun shone extremely bright,

I walk to the beach with my family

My flip flops echoing through the dunes and the waves reverberating back to me

The sun beating down on me

I long to be in the waves

The sand, plush yet course on my feet

Washing away in the salty, velvety ocean tide

The sunscreen, leaving my body sticky

I submerge under the now, crashing wave

My body tumbling and twirling

The ocean pushing me around like a dog with a toy

Not knowing which way is up, I struggle to break free of the ocean that is holding me hostage

Finally, I meet the salty air

My hair is crusty with sand and salt

My throat is on fire because of the salty water

A strong salty taste lingers on my lips

I run back through the wet, spongy sand

To the bright umbrella to tell my family about what had just occurred

Remember the waves

Just like you they have highs and lows

But they never complain or stop,

Yet they all have a breaking point

Just like you

Remember the tides

As they come and go

So do you

Too and fro

Remember the waves.

For they are just like you.

By: Taylor Humphries

“Goody Goody Two Shoes!”

The phrase they would claim

Little to knowledge

That the grades left him in pain.

Every embrace, every contact, every kiss

Cutting a cut deeper and deeper

Leaving him far from what you’d call ‘bliss’

Turning into a broken wind up doll

No motivation in sight.

Home is where more pieces shatter

The empty so loud with silence

His throat has no signal;

Drowning out in the sobs he cries

Fear nipping at his skin, making it crawl.

You would never have guessed his situation

The stench of failure lingering

Those fake smiles, deceiving his pained doe eyes

He silently begs for someone to help.

“Just once, open up, and accept the praise!” He’d scream to himself,

But no one hears his pleads.

He needed the love, the care, the affection,

The only cure for the toxin poisoning his mind.

“Goody Goody Two Shoes!”

The phrase they’d claim

But they never noticed

How he was gone

Before it was too late.

By Lex Beyer

The lights of the concrete temple glare brightly against the dawn sky
Rows of people lined up outside, stragglers towards the back
Some are lying on the grimy street, restless from being there all night
They were lead there with promises of new TVs, 75 percent off
But like the lottery, not everyone can win
At no later than 5AM, the doors to the temple opened
And everything erupted into chaos
I was pushed in by the mob behind me
As I entered, the smells of hundreds of people penetrated my nostrils
The stampedes of people just kept coming
Knocking over shelves, ripping televisions and discounted microwaves from the walls
I duck into an aisle, to find just what I am looking for
A PS4, 50 percent off, a gift for my brother
But as I make my way to checkout, a woman comes behind
A high heel strikes my face, I am knocked over, with a retched rubber relish in my mouth
She seizes it from my fingers, never to be seen again
And that is the tragedy of Walmart on Black Friday

By: Kira Danford

Just because I’m too tall or too short

Because you don’t like my little retorts

Just because my clothes aren’t like yours

Because my words don’t start wars

Just because my shoes are old

Because I do just what I’m told

Just because I hold my head up high

Because I tell the truth when you ask why

These things make me different but you shouldn’t treat me that way

Someday you’ll understand that we’re all different in some way

By: Khushi Gandhi

People walking down the street
Not seeing eye to eye
Hands glued to a hypnotizer
They don’t even bother to say hi
No more hanging out at the park
Or spending quality time
The little screen is their resort
Enlightened by a single chime
Warm, gleaming sunshine leaks through the window
But it goes unnoticed
As the artificial radiance
Shifts one’s focus
True laughter, art, and music
Has been thoroughly abolished
A phone is a necessity
That does nothing but demolish

By: Sydney Munsell

I stand alone in a vast sea of people

A dark gray cloud haunts me

I hear the distant sound of thunder

But when I look around it’s sunny

The people around me smile and talk

But I can’t seem to escape my own thoughts

I feel one drop, two drops

And then it begins to pour

The water seeps into the dry and dusty ground

My shirt, soaked

My hair fragile and stringy

Lightning flashes before my eyes

In panic, I look for shelter, but I see everyone is dry

Girls shiny hair still in luscious curls

Guys shirts flutter in the wind

Then the rain stops roaring

It slows to the sound of small waves crashing on the shore

I ask why I stand alone in this storm

Then when I look up expecting to see the sun

I see a dark gray cloud that haunts me