Life on an Island (7 - 10)

Chapter 1: Faith’s New Shirt
        Diana was sitting in her room. She was sewing with Isabelle. Diana loved sewing. Isabelle and Diana were sewing a new shirt for Faith. "What color thread should we use? I've got red, orange, purple, black, brown, blue, pink, and yellow," Isabelle said, getting a basket full of bags of thread and needles out of the closet. "I don't know. I think we should ask Faith. It is her shirt," Diana replied. Isabelle started thinking about it. "Sure. Where is she anyway? I thought she was in here," Isabelle said. "She left a minute ago. I don't know where she went. Maybe the bathroom," Diana said, curling her hair with her finger.

        Diana got up and looked for Faith. She looked for a few minutes. She wasn't in the bathroom. When she looked in the living room, she saw Faith sitting on the couch watching TV. "How did you-?" "Jack turned it on," Said Faith, cutting off Diana. "Oh. Isabelle and me are making a shirt for you. What color thread do you want?" Faith thought for a second. "Blue," Faith said. Diana went back up to Isabelle and told her and they started sewing.

Chapter 2: Christmas Wishes
        “What should we do for Christmas?” Jack asked Isabelle, Diana, and Faith. Diana jumped up. “We should decorate the tree house,” she said. Jack nodded. “We should give gifts,” Isabelle said. Jack nodded again. “We should make cookies,” Faith said. Jack smiled. “Let’s get to work! Christmas is in 2 days. There’s no time to waste,” he said, jumping off the couch.

        First, they decorated the tree house, like Diana said. “What should we decorate it with?” Diana asked. “We don’t have any lights!” They thought for a minute. “I know!” Isabelle said. “We can use leaves, fruit, and shells.” Diana smiled. “Yay! Let’s go pick some fruit!” she said. Isabelle picked mangoes, Jack picked papaya, Faith picked dragon fruit, and Diana picked bananas. They put the fruit in baskets and went to gather leaves and shells.

        “Let’s count everything,” Diana suggested. Jack went first. “I have 6 papayas, 3 palm leaves, and 3 shells,” he said. Diana went next. “I found 3 bananas, 3 palm leaves, and 2 shells,” she said. “I found 1 dragon fruit, 1 palm leaf, and 1 shell,” Faith said. Isabelle went last. “I took 6 mangoes, 2 palm leaves, and 2 shells.”

        They each decorated 1 side of the tree house, carefully moving from branch to branch. “We should make patterns,” Jack said. Everybody made their own patterns. When they were finished, they climbed out of the tree and admired their work. “It’s beautiful,” Isabelle said, smiling.

　
Chapter 3: Ready for Christmas
        The next morning, after they had mango juice and dry cereal for breakfast, Isabelle, Jack, Diana, and Faith started making a batch of cookies. “What kind of cookies should we have?” Diana asked. “Hmm. . .” Faith said, thinking. “Maybe we should make sugar cookies so we can decorate them,” Isabelle suggested. Jack and Diana nodded. Faith frowned. “No! We should have chocolate chip cookies!” she said angrily. Isabelle sighed. “Okay. We’ll make some chocolate chip cookies for you, Faith,” she said. Faith smiled.

        After they made the cookies, they divided them up. Since there were 12, they each got 3. They put their cookies in little sandwich baggies and put their names on them. Jack smiled. “Now, all we have to do is get everybody presents,” he said.

        After they each got presents and wrapped them with fabric from Isabelle’s sewing box, they decided to go pick a palm tree to put them under. They found a nice little palm tree about as tall as Isabelle, and they put all their presents under the tree.

        When they got back to the boat, Isabelle made lunch. Everyone was happy. “We’re ready for Christmas!” Diana said.

　
Chapter 4: Christmas Morning
        “Good morning, everybody!” Diana called out, skipping down the hall to the kitchen. “Merry Christmas, Diana!” Faith called back. “Isabelle’s making waffles,” Jack said. “Oooh,” Diana said, “I love waffles! Can I pour my own syrup?” Isabelle nodded. “Sure, just not too much,” she said. Diana sat down at the dining room table and ate her waffles with Isabelle, Jack, and Faith.

        After breakfast, they all ran to the palm tree where they put their presents. “Can we start opening them?” Faith asked. Isabelle nodded.

        Faith opened her presents first. She picked up the one from Isabelle and Diana. “I know what this is!” she said, laughing. She untied the fabric and took out her new shirt. It was blue with a red rose on it, and had blue stitching. She smiled. “Thank you!” she said. Next she picked up the one from Jack. She opened it up. There were a dozen shells inside. “Thanks, Jack!” she said.

        Jack opened his presents next. Isabelle gave him a book she wrote, Diana gave him a starfish she painted sky blue, and Faith gave him a rock shaped like a palm tree.

        Diana went next. Isabelle gave her some rocks shaped like flowers, Jack gave her a sculpture of a teddy bear made out of rocks, and Faith gave her some tropical flowers she found on the edge of the forest.

        Isabelle was the last to open her presents. Jack gave her a fan made of palm leaves, Diana gave her a blue and green bracelet, and Faith wasn’t there.

        “Where did Faith go?” Jack asked. Isabelle and Diana looked around. They didn’t see her. “I don’t know,” Isabelle replied. “Maybe she went to get your present,” Diana said. “Maybe she left it on the boat.” They nodded. After a few minutes, Faith ran out of the boat, carrying a tray of ice cubes. “I made you some ice cubes,” she said, “5 of them are made with coconut milk and the other 5 are pineapple.” Isabelle popped one out. “They’re really good! Thanks, Faith,” she said.


Chapter 5 coming soon
　

LSA Adventures (8 - 12)

Chapter 1


SECRET DOCUMENT

Jack, Diana, and Isabelle-
        I am the founder of the UNSA, United National Spy Agency.
We need your help. Please form a spy agency of your own, the LSA, Little Spy Agency. Please help us.
      
-John Norman Rocktem      
       

        It all began with that letter. And contributing to that, those four simple words - we need your help. I can't figure out why we, being me, Jack, and Diana, have been chosen for such an important position. . . are we. . . special? I can't think of a reason for us to have been chosen. . . but we have to do this.


Chapter 2     
      
        "Jack. Jack, wake up," I whispered into Jack's ear. I had to tell him about the letter, but there was one problem - he wouldn't wake up. He was in such a deep sleep, I almost thought he was dead. "Jack!" I yelled. Erg. He was still sleeping. I pulled his blankets off and tickled his feet. EVERYONE has ticklish feet. . . at least I think so. He started laughing and he opened his eyes. "Isabelle? What?" he said. He looked at his alarm clock. It was 6:00 Saturday morning. "Why are you up so early?!" he was almost yelling now. I should've known this was going to happen. "I have to show you something," I said. Jack rolled his eyes. "What could be SO important that you have to wake me up at 6 am?!" Jack said. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Come on," I said, tugging on his arm. "No! No no no!" he yelled like a 2-year-old. I personally don't think he's mature enough to be a spy. "Get up or I'm going to pour water over your head," I said. "Fine!" Jack yelled. And then he finally got out of bed.
        When we got to the basement, I opened the desk drawer and pulled out the envelope. "What's that?" Jack asked curiously. "You'll see," I said. I gave it to Jack so he could open it. He opened the envelope and slowly unfolded the letter. He read it carefully. "Isabelle, I know you wrote this," Jack said. We both sighed. "I didn't write it, Jack. I found it in the mail yesterday," I said. Jack looked at the address on the envelope. "Are you going to show Diana?" he asked. "I'm going to show her after breakfast." I said. Jack folded the letter and put it back in the envelope. He handed it to me and I put it back in the drawer. We walked back upstairs.
          Jack decided that since it was 6:30, we should just watch TV in his room until breakfast. And we did. Kind of. We were mostly just talking about the letter. "So we can't tell anybody about the LSA?" Jack asked. "Yep," I said. We must have lost track of time, because before we knew it, it was 9:30. We'd been talking about the spy agency for hours. We yawned and went downstairs for breakfast. When we got downstairs, Aunt Kristy was setting bowls of apple oatmeal on the table, and Diana was helping her. We sat down at the table and quickly ate our oatmeal. It was time to tell Diana about the LSA.


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        "Diana, we have to show you something," I said as we walked towards the basement. "What?" she asked. "You'll see," Jack said. We opened the door and walked downstairs. I opened the desk drawer and pulled out the letter from the UNSA. "What's this?" Diana asked, studying the envelope carefully and reading the address. "Open it," Jack said. Diana opened the envelope and slid out the letter. She gently unfolded it, read it, and then started cracking up.
       "You want me to believe the UNSA wants US to form a spy agency?! Yeah right!" she said, still laughing."I found the letter in the mailbox yesterday afternoon!" I said angrily. "We're not kidding," Jack said in agreement. "You mean. . . you're serious?" Diana asked quietly. "Yep," I said. Diana frowned. She looked really confused. "How are we going to make our own spy agency. . . I mean. . . isn't. . . won't that be a lot of work?" Diana asked worriedly. She bit her lip and frowned at the same time. "We have to go to school," she said. I frowned, too. Good point. "Oh yeahhh. . . I forgot about that," I said.
       Jack frowned, but then he smiled a little bit. "Well, I guess we could work on our code and stuff during the weekends, and then we do our actual spying after school," Jack suggested. I thought about it. It actually sounded like a pretty good plan. Maybe he IS mature enough after all. "Yeah. That's a good plan. We can do that," I said. We turned to Diana. "Well. . . sure!" Diana said. We all smiled. I guess this could be fun.


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        On Saturday, we all went downstairs after breakfast to plan the LSA. I guess it was our first spy meeting. We all sat at the table by the closet. I brought a few notebooks and pens for all of us to write down our ideas in. "OK. . . now what?" Jack said. "Hmm. . . good question," I replied, sighing. I had no idea what to do. I mean, I knew what things we could talk about, I just didn't know which one to talk about first. "Should we talk about our jobs?" Diana asked. "What jobs?" I said. "You know. . . like. . . one of us does one thing, someone else does another thing. . ." Diana replied. "Oh yeah!" I said, "But first we should come up with the code words for them." Jack and Diana nodded in agreement. "I think we should all have 2 or 3 jobs," Jack suggested. "Good idea," I said.
       We talked and wrote until lunch. By noon, we had all the jobs planned out, and we had code words for them, too. We ran upstairs, ate our macaroni as fast as possible, and ran back downstairs to work on our passwords. We took our seats at the table. "How do our passwords work?" Jack asked. "Well, we could just take a few letters or words and put those together, and then add a few numbers, I guess," I said. Diana wrote that down in her notebook. We'd decided she was in charge of making our passwords (the Codecorrum). "Can I start writing passwords now?" Diana asked. "Yep," I replied. We sat in silence for a few minutes while Diana wrote down our passwords. "I'm done!" she said, holding up her notebook for all of us to see. "Jack is sparklyunicorn74, you're weathergirl29, and I'm DMballet52." I nodded in agreement. Jack started laughing. "I'm a sparkly unicorn!!! Yay!!!" he said, laughing. Oh, Jack. . .


Chapter 3      

        Our first day of actual work was Monday. Jack, Diana, and I set our alarm clocks for 5:00, so that we could get some work done before everyone woke up. Since it was Christmas break, we could work all day, but we wanted to get some things done without having to crawl around everywhere. I grabbed my notebook and pen and we went downstairs.
       "So what's the plan?" Jack asked. "This is the plan," I said, holding up my notebook. "You mean you stayed up late last night and wrote a plan?" Diana asked. "Yep," I said, "After you fell asleep." I opened the basement door and we ran downstairs and sat down at the table. I pushed my hair behind my ears, pulled out my notebook, and read the plan. "Well, I think everyone will be up around 8:00, so that gives us 3 hours to work," I said. Jack and Diana nodded. "We can examine the contents of the desk first, then we can go upstairs and look on the counter, and then we can look under couches and stuff," I said. I looked up from the page to see if they understood. "That's fine with me," Jack said, "Diana? What do you think?" Diana nodded. "I think it's a pretty good plan," she said, smiling.
      
********************************************************************
        Since nobody was awake yet except us, we couldn't do our normal jobs. We all had to be a Fly, a spy that looks for suspicious or interesting objects. It's normally Diana's job, but we didn't have a choice, because we couldn't listen in on any conversations. We didn't find anything interesting on the desk, but I found something REALLY interesting on the counter upstairs. 
        I pushed away a mountain of Christmas cards, and I saw a box. A small black box. "Guys, come here," I said, "I think I found something!" Jack and Diana, who were checking out the other counter, ran over to me. "What's the box?" Jack said. "Should we open it?" Diana asked nervously. I picked up the box and shook it. It sounded like a maraca. I slowly opened the box, and you would have never guessed what was inside. OH MY GOSH. I turned around to show it to Jack and Diana - it was a pearl necklace.


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         “Wow. . .” Jack said. Diana was about to scream, but Jack clamped his hand over her mouth. “Be quiet!” He said. He took away his hand and Diana calmed down. It was strangely quiet. Diana finally said something to break the silence. “I wonder who the pearl necklace is for,” Diana said, puzzled. We nodded. “I think before we figure out who it’s for, we should figure out who it’s from,” Jack said. We nodded again.

        We were looking through the kitchen cabinets when we heard footsteps. We all jumped up and ran around the kitchen putting everything back where it was. We put the necklace back in the box and covered it in Christmas cards, closed the cabinets, and ran to the basement as fast as we could. As soon as we plopped down on the couch, I heard somebody walking past the basement door. “That was REALLY close,” I said. Diana nodded.
        I got up and checked the computer clock. “It’s only 6:15!” I almost yelled. “Maybe somebody is sleepwalking,” Diana suggested. I couldn‘t think of very many other reasons, so I guess it kind of made sense. “I guess we have another mystery to solve,” Jack said. Diana frowned. “I thought detectives solve mysteries,” she said. I nodded. “They do, but I guess spies can, too,” I said. Jack grabbed the remote and we watched TV downstairs until everyone else woke up.


Chapter 4


        After breakfast on Wednesday morning, I decided we had some serious spying to do after not doing any on Tuesday. We finished our pancakes, put our plates on the counter, and ran to the basement. “Can we do some actual SPYING today?” Jack asked. I nodded. We were doing too much detective work. “Doesn’t papa have a pair of walkie talkies?” I asked. “I think so,” Diana replied quietly. “Want me to go ask?” I thought about it for a second. “What if he asks why we want them?” I said. For a minute we just stood there, waiting for Diana to answer. “I’ll tell him we’re playing a game,” she finally said.
        She ran up the stairs and out the door before we had a chance to say anything else. “I have some binoculars in my suitcase,” Jack said. “Why do you have binoculars in your suitcase???” I asked. “For bird watching, duh,” he replied. “I just do.” He ran upstairs, too. I sighed. I grabbed some paper and a pen and got to work on a checklist of things we would need to spy until they came back.

********************************************************************
        When Jack and Diana came back downstairs, I showed them the checklist. It looked kind of like this:

• Binoculars
• Magnifying glass
• Walkie talkies
• Notebooks
• Pens
• Pencils
• This checklist!!!!!

“It looks good,” Diana said. “I don’t think it’s missing anything.” Jack nodded. “Now what?” he asked. I folded up the checklist and stuck it in my pocket. “In a few minutes. . . we get to work,” I replied. “But now. . . we need to make a plan.” We sat down on the couch and I told them what we would need to do. “OK. . . Diana, go get the walkie talkies,” I said. Diana got up and grabbed the walkie talkies off the table. She set them down on the arm of the couch. I got up and got the binoculars. I sat down on the couch and looked through them. “The lenses are all dusty,” I said to myself. I wiped them off on my shirt. “That’s better.” Jack and Diana watched me, waiting. “So. . . now what?” Jack asked. “Good question,” I mumbled.

*******************************************************************

        After a full five minutes, I FINALLY got an idea. “Hey!!!” I said. Jack and Diana looked at me. “I know what we can do!!!” Diana covered her ears. “You don’t have to yell!” she said quietly. I frowned. Then laughed. “Sorry. I just got really excited,” I said. “So anyway, Jack, you can take one of the walkie talkies and hide it under the couch, and you bring the other walkie talkie down here and turn the volume up kind of loud, and we can listen to what everyone is saying.” Jack nodded. Diana smiled. “Sounds like a plan!”

********************************************************************
       
        When Jack came back downstairs, we listened to hear if anything was going on upstairs. We couldn’t hear anything yet. We waited a few minutes, and the walkie talkie started making noise. We could hear footsteps. Diana grabbed the walkie talkie and took it over to the couch. “Be quiet, they can hear us, too,” Jack said. We heard talking. “Where are the kids?” Someone said. “I think that’s nana,” Jack whispered. “They’re in the basement,” papa said. “PLEASE don’t come down here,” Diana whispered. “I should start making lunch,” nana said. We sighed. Well this just got boring. “Sure, sure, you do that,” papa said. “You’ll never guess what I got you for Valentine’s day.” We all gasped. “Well this just got interesting,” Jack said. “I bet papa got the pearl necklace for nana.” I nodded. We listened some more. “Let me guess,” nana said. “The new Harry Potter book.” Papa laughed. “Yep. How’d you know?” We sighed. “Aw, man,” Jack said angrily. He shut off the walkie talkie. “I guess it’s not papa.”

********************************************************************

       “Now what do we do?” Diana asked. I grabbed some legos. “We could make a map of the basement,” I suggested. Jack nodded and grabbed some more legos and a lego tray. We took them over to the table. I made the stairs, desk, bookshelf, and TV. Jack made the couches, toy box, and counter. Diana made the table, pool table, doors, and chairs.
        “Looks pretty good,” Jack said, nodding. After that we took some lego people heads and put them on little legos to be all the LSA members. Jack’s body was blue, mine was yellow, and Diana’s was red. We put the our lego selves in the chairs at the table, where we were. “Cool!” Diana said. “It’s a complete map of the basement. With us too!”

Chapter 5

        On Thursday afternoon, we had our first spy meeting, in the Mickey room, one of the guest bedrooms. After lunch, we told nana we were going to the basement. We walked over to the basement, opened the door, and closed it again. Then we quietly walked upstairs into the Mickey room. We quietly shut the door, so nobody would realize we were in there. “Okay,” I said, sitting on the bed. Jack and Diana looked at me anxiously. I opened up the spy folder I had been working on all night and slid it across the comforter.
        Jack picked it up and flipped through the pages. On the sixth page, he stopped and leaned over to read the small words I had written. “Spy tricks,” he read to himself. His eyes moved across the page. Diana and I patiently waited for him to say something. He put it down. “Awesome,” he said. I nodded. “If we ever need to investigate in a room full of people, we can just use one of those.” Some of the tricks I wrote down were knocking on the door so people would come to answer it, and dropping a heavy book upstairs to make it sound like something fell. Diana smiled. “Brilliant!” she said, in her best English accent.

**********************************************************************
        5 hours after our meeting ended, it was time for dinner. And a 5 hours after dinner, it was 12:30. It was time for Jack to do his job for the first time - nightspy.

        His alarm clock went off and he woke us up to tell us he was going to do his job. “You have to be back at 4:30,” Diana reminded him through a yawn. Jack nodded and pointed to his wrist. “I got my watch,” he said. I nodded and flopped back onto my pillow. He quietly walked out and shut the door.

*********************************************************************

        At 4:30, we woke up when Jack walked in. He looked at us. “Hey guys,” he said. We nodded. “We’re not guys, we’re girls,” Diana reminded him. Jack laughed and rolled his eyes. “Well anyway. . .” he said, “I found something.”

        He took a crumpled up envelope out of his pocket and set it on the foot of Diana’s bed. “It was on the porch.” Diana stared at it. “What is it?” she asked. “Why do you always ask so many questions? Just open it!” Jack replied anxiously. Diana grumbled and wiggled out from under the covers. She crawled over to the mysterious envelope, picked it up, and opened it, all in slow motion to build suspense. There was a small square of paper inside it. Her eyes moved quickly across the note.
        When she reached the end, her eyes widened. “From JOHN NORMAN ROCKTEM?!” she yelled. “Isn’t that the spy-guy from the UNSA?” We nodded. What did he say? She read my mind. “He has a mission for us.”

*********************************************************************
        Diana didn’t tell us everything the note said. We were too tired to listen, so she had to tell us Friday morning after breakfast. We ran to the basement at lightning speed. Diana led us to the couch. We plopped down and grabbed some pillows. “What’d it say?” Jack said impatiently, as Diana slowly unfolded the note. “Hold on! I’m getting it,” Diana mumbled. Diana held up the note and started reading it.

        “Mission, blah blah blah, boy, blah blah blah, mailbox, blah blah blah...” Jack was getting mad. “Can you read it without the blah blah blahs, please?!” Diana gave him an evil look. “There are WAY too many details, and a lot of this probably isn’t important. Duh.” Jack made a puppy dog face and forced tears into his eyes. “PWEASE? PWETTY PWEASE?” Diana sighed and rolled her eyes. She threw the note at Jack. “Read it yourself!”

**********************************************************************
        After Jack read it, it was my turn.


SECRET DOCUMENT

Jack, Diana, and Isabelle-
        I have a mission for you. Recently, there have been mailbox burglaries in your neighborhood. A boy, about 8, has been seen stealing from your mailbox, as well as numerous others on your street, for the past 2 weeks. Watch for him, find out his name, report him to the police, and return the mail he has stolen.

-John Norman Rocktem


Our first official mission.



6 coming soon

Life on a Ship (7 - 10)

Chapter 1- The Crash         
          "It sure is foggy out," said dad. "I can't even read!" said Isabelle. "I hope we don't crash into one of those big rocks!" said Jack. "Don't worry, son. I'm sure I'll never crash," said dad, "Almost." "What did you say, daddy?" asked Diana. "Nothing. Nothing at all," said dad. "Watch out for that rock!!!" all the kids yelled. There was a huge HUGE rock in front of them. Dad didn't hear their screams because at the very same moment they screamed, there was a big rumble- thunder. Cccccrrraaassh! They hit the rock. They screamed. They were alive. God protected them.
          "MOM!!!!!! DAD!!!!!!" yelled Jack. "Come here!!!!!" yelled Diana. "They're dead!!!!!!" Said Isabelle. Diana, Isabelle and Jack started to cry. Now they were left to protect themselves.

Chapter 2-The Wave      
          "Diana! Come here!" said Jack, "Now!" "What! What! What! I'm busy helping Isabelle with the laundry!" Diana yelled. "You forgot to take my toast out of the toaster! Now the toaster's on fire!!!" Jack screamed. "Coming!" said Diana. She hurried as fast as she could to the kitchen. Jack was right. The toaster looked like a bomb exploded in it. If only the toast would pop up! "The only thing we can do is get it soaking wet," Diana yelled.
          Isabelle came hurrying in. "Guys! There's a BIG wave coming!" screamed Isabelle. They hurried as fast as they could to the other side of the giant ship. They got there just in time. "Well that took care of the toaster!" said Jack.

Chapter 3- Storm
          Diana was just looking out her bedroom window when she saw something: it was a big, black storm cloud. She rushed off to tell Jack and Isabelle. "There's a storm coming!" Diana yelled. Jack, Diana and Isabelle hurried to the little storage room in the middle of the ship.
          "Wait!" Jack yelled. He got out of the storage room to get some food. On the way to the kitchen he was struck by lightning. The rain washed away the fire. After the storm, Diana looked for Jack while Isabelle made Dinner. "Oh no! Jack's dead!" Diana cried. She and Isabelle were very, very sad.

Chapter 4- The Island
          Isabelle was so sad. She and Diana were looking out the window. When they left to get snacks they heard a huge crash and they fell down."What was that?" Diana asked. "I don't know. We must have bumped into something," said Isabelle. They both looked out the window to see what they crashed into. "An Island!" Diana yelled. They got out of the ship and looked around.
         The Island was very big. There were lots of palm trees filled with coconuts and bananas. "Mmmm, coconuts," said Isabelle. Diana saw a very big butterfly. "That's so pretty!" said Diana. They buried Jack in the sand. "Here. These pretty flowers will look beautiful on top!" said Isabelle. "Good night," said Diana. "Good night," said Isabelle.

Chapter 5- Magic
          In the morning Isabelle and Diana were very surprised."Good morning, sleepy heads!!!"Jack yelled."Ahhhh!"Isabelle and Diana yelled."I've been trying to wake you up all morning! Finally!"he said,"That flower was magic. That's why I'm still alive." Isabelle and Diana showed Jack around the Island.
          Jack tried a coconut."EW! Yuck!!!"Jack yelled."You're supposed to drink the milk in it!"said Isabelle."How do we open this thing? It's as hard a bowling ball!"said Jack."Try hitting it with a rock,"Diana suggested. Jack tried hitting the coconut with a rock."It worked!"he screamed. They all had some coconut milk."That was delicous!"said Isabelle. They were tired so they decided to rest.

Chapter 6- Baby in a Basket
          Isabelle was teaching Diana how to sew. It was the warmest day of summer so they sat in the cold storage closet in the middle of the ship. "So," said Isabelle, "You have to put your thread through the needle before we do anything." Since getting the thread through the needle was one of the hardest things to do when it comes to sewing, Diana needed Isabelle to help her. "There you go," Isabelle said, gently giving Diana the needle. "OUCH!" Diana yelled. She took the needle by the wrong end and pricked her finger.
          "Guys! Come here!" Jack screamed. "What is it?" Diana yelled. "I'm helping Diana sew," Isabelle yelled, "Can't it wait?" Jack yelled even louder. "It's a she, not an it!" He said. Isabelle and Diana ran there as fast as they could. They jumped Into the living room to find Jack holding a basket. "She's so cute," Diana whispered. The basket held a baby girl.

Chapter 7- Faith
          The little girl wasn't exactly a baby. She was 3 years old."Why would someone get rid of their baby?"Diana asked."I don't know. What should we name her?"Isabelle asked."How about Jessica?"asked Jack."No. How about Crownie?"asked Diana."No. how about.....Lily?" asked Isabelle."Uh-uh. How about-ummmm-April?"asked Jack."No, No, No! We should name her Kaitlyn!"said Diana."Umm-no. Let's name her Holly!"said Isabelle."Don't think so. Amy is perfect!"said Jack."No. Her name should be......Faith!"said Diana."Perfect!"Jack and Isabelle yelled. They named her Faith.

Chapter 8- Treasure
          Isabelle was reading her favorite book(her favorite picture book. Faith wanted to see the pictures.). Diana was looking out her bedroom window. The ship was stuck on the island. They slept and read on the ship, and played and ate on the island. Diana liked to look out her window to look at the beautiful sea. "Isn't it beautiful?" Diana said. "Yeah. It sure is," said Isabelle. The sea sparkled like diamonds at sunrise and glimmered like gold at sunset. "Guys! Come here! Now!" Jack yelled.
         Isabelle, Diana, and Faith tumbled down the steps of the ship. "What is it?" they asked. When Jack showed them what he found, they all screamed. Jack found a real gold coin. "Keep digging, Jack," said faith, in her cute, squeaky little voice. Jack kept digging. And after a while, Jack found something. "I hit something! I hit something!" he yelled. Diana perked up. "Treasure!" Diana squeaked. She was right. Treasure.

Chapter 9- Treehouse
          Jack and Diana were bored. Isabelle stopped reading. "How about we go find something to do on the island?" Isabelle asked. "Sure," said Jack. Faith was sleeping in. She usually woke up at 7:00. It was 7:45. They got out of the boat. The island was always peaceful and it always cheered Diana up. Isabelle walked up to a big palm tree. It had low, steady branches that didn't even move in the wind. Jack had an idea. "How about we make a treehouse?" Jack asked. "Sure!" said Diana.
          They gathered wood and stuffed their arms up with as much as they could carry. They piled all the wood in front of the palm tree. "I think that's enough," said Isabelle. Diana got their dad's old toolbox and they all got to work. Isabelle put the wood in place, Diana put in the screws and nails and Jack hammered. When they were done, they got in their new treehouse. It was wonderful.

Chapter 10- Faith's Surprise

          Jack and Diana loved the treehouse. So did Isabelle. They all went in to go see if Faith was awake. It was 9:00 so they thought she would be awake. To their surprise, Faith was getting her cereal and orange juice! After they all had breakfast, they went outside.

          "We have a surprise for you, Faith," Jack said. "A surprise? Where?" Faith asked. They all ran over to the big tree to show Faith the treehouse. "There it is, Faith," said Diana. Faith looked up. "WOW!" Faith said. They all played in the treehouse until lunch time.

Chapter 11- Talking Parrots

          After lunch, Isabelle, Jack, and Diana went for a walk on the island. They played lots of games on their way around the island. They skipped stones, climbed trees, and even talked to some talking parrots. The talking parrots were very interesting. The parrots told them about the pirates that lived on island and about the treasure they buried.

          "We found some of that treasure, Mr.Parrot," Jack said."Good for you!" the parrot squawked. "We haven't opened it yet," Diana said. "I heard that there was a queen back in the pirate times. The pirates stole her beautiful gold locket. I believe it's in that treasure chest you have," the parrot said. "Wow," Faith said. "REALLY wow," said Isabelle. "Will you be our pet, Mr.parrot?" Diana asked. "Sure," the parrot said, "But I'm a girl." It sure was a beautiful parrot. "Do you like the name Rainbow?" Diana asked. "It's the perfect name for me," the parrot said. They put their new pet on a perch in the treehouse.

Chapter 12- Lares Island

          Jack thought they should name their island. "What do you think we should name our island?" he asked. "Isanu island," Faith said. "Jargu island," Isabelle said. "Unimagic island," Diana said. "Lares island," Jack said. "Perfect!" Everyone said.

Chapter 13- Mangoes

          When Diana went for a walk, she saw something she had never seen before. A tree with pink mangoes. Hmm. Those might be dangerous. I'd better go ask Isabelle, she thought. She asked Isabelle if the Mangoes were dangerous. "They're not dangerous. They are probably dragon fruits or a different kind of mango," Isabelle said. "They're not prickly," Diana said."Then they are a different kind of mango," Jack said. Diana bit into the mango. "Yum!" she said.

Chapter 14- Sunset Pie

          Diana and Isabelle were making dinner. They were having spaghetti. Diana made the sauce and Isabelle cooked the spaghetti and meatballs. Jack LOVED spaghetti and meatballs. After dinner, they all went outside to watch the sunset. "Faith loves sunset," Isabelle said. "I bet she wants it for dessert," Jack joked. Faith stood up and pretended to eat the sunset.

          When she was done, the sun was gone and the moon was shining bright. "It looks like Faith really did eat the sunset!" Diana said. They all fell down in the sand and laughed until they were choking. It was REALLY, REALLY, REALLY funny!!! After they were finished laughing, they started getting ready for bed.

Chapter 15- The End

          Diana was sewing with Isabelle. She had FINALLY taught Diana how to sew. The early morning sun was out. Jack was being lazy. Diana waited for him to wake up. He FINALLY woke up at 9:30. They all went for a short walk and then they had breakfast. They peacefully ate breakfast. They loved their island.


THE END...FOR NOW..........

Little Catling (3 - 6)

        Once there was a little cat who thought it was a duckling. It was raised by a mama duck. The little duckling, or catling, I should say, did everything the mama's little ducklings did. The only thing that was different about the catling was that it meowed. She didn't quack. But she still thought she was a little duckling.
        She ate corn when the little ducklings ate corn, she really did! Even when the ducklings swam she went along with them! She even followed mama duck everywhere she went. But when the catling saw a mouse, she decided to chase it."What is catling doing, mama?"a little duckling asked."She is a cat, not a duck. I forgot to tell you-I thought you would know because we have beaks, not tails."Mama duck said."Can we keep her mama? Pretty, pretty please?"asked another little duckling."Of course, little duckling. She is my own special catling"


The End

The Leaf Ghost (6 - 8)

        Once upon a time, there were young girls, Faith, Gracie, Olivia, and Jill. One day, they went to a meadow. They walked and walked. They found this leaf that kept changing colors. 　
       
        Then they came back the next day. The leaf changed again. It was blue, then pink! Then a two-headed ghost popped out!

        Isabelle and Diana were sitting on the porch. Then they heard a big boom! It was the ghost popping out of the leaf!       

        Back at the meadow, Faith said, “Hide! I will save you!” Then Diana and Isabelle came running through the meadow. They saw Olivia behind a tree with Jill.

        They kept running. They saw Gracie running away from where they heard the boom. Faith was face to face with the two-headed ghost. She was getting scars and cuts. Diana said, “Isabelle, go and get the medicine for Faith.” Isabelle ran back home to get the medicine.

        She ran back. Faith took the medicine. “What should we do with the ghosts?” Isabelle asked. “I have an idea,” Faith said, “We should pull down their pants!”

        Isabelle is a wizard, so she made a potion that made them do whatever we tell them. We told them to pull down their pants. They did! They were so embarrassed that their spirit came out of the leaf! Nobody ever wanted to be friends with them.

        One day, young Jill went back to the meadow. Guess what happened!

              

Ha! Ha! Ha!

Note: This story is not written by me. My cousin Diana wrote it

The Great Ballerina (6 - 8)

Chapter 1

        Diana was nervous. It was her first day at Lulluna Peep Ballet School. The teacher, the one-and-only Lulluna Peep, was only nine! Diana was very

surprised. "There are four years in my school," Lulluna said. "The first-years, like all of you, are called Seeds, the second-years are called Sprouts, the third-years are called Buds, and the fourth-years are called Blooms. Okay?" Everyone said yes.

        Just like all the other Seeds, Diana was six. Not only that, but she thought

Lulluna was rather strict, just like all of the other Seeds. But she was actually very nice. Diana would find out soon enough.

Chapter 2

        "Okay. Now I'm going to show you some voice exercises," Lulluna said.

"First, we'll do the easy ones -" Diana's hand shot up. "What is it?" Lulluna

asked. "Why do we need to do voice exercises? We're ballerinas, not singers,"

Diana replied. "Because you're all going to be in a play next year," Lulluna

said.

        The whole room started buzzing with excitement the very moment she said it. "What's my part?" "Really?" "A play?" "What's it about?" Everyone

started asking questions. Lulluna laughed.  "I can't answer all those questions,

but what I will do is pick names out of a hat to see who gets what part," she

said. "Sit down and I'll get started." Everyone rushed to their seats. "Okay now. Ready?" Lulluna asked. "Yes, miss Lulluna!" Everybody said at the same time. "Now then. . . Diana Tild." Diana smiled. "Yes, miss Lulluna?" Lulluna smiled back. "You're the Ice Princess."

Chapter 3

         Diana was very happy. It was her seventh birthday. The bell rang. She put on her clothes and ate her cereal quickly. She knew she would be late, anyway. Just the later you are, the more trouble you get into. She locked her bedroom door, slipped the key in her pocket, and before she knew it, she was running down the stairs. She knew trouble was waiting for her in class. She scurried quickly to her classroom like a mouse.
         When she got to the door, she whispered to herself, "Why is it soo quiet in there? Is miss Lulluna waiting for me so she can surprise me with
detention?" She quietly opened the door, waiting for Lulluna to shout at her. She was very surprised by the look on Lulluna's face. "Diana. You're late. Extra hour of practice for you." "Oh, great. More work," Diana mumbled. Jessie, one of Diana's classmates, raised her hand. "Miss Lulluna, may I give Diana my present?" she asked. Lulluna nodded. She got up to give the present
to her. It fell in half. It wasn't very tightly wrapped. Jessie laughed. "Sorry. I'm not good at wrapping! Happy birthday," she said, before skipping away.

Chapter 4

         Diana woke up very early. She peered at her clock. It said in great, big, digital numbers 6:32. She usually woke up at seven, but the light was
streaming into the room and landed on Diana's bedside table. I sure woke up early, Diana thought, or maybe it's the other way around. Diana got out of
bed, tiptoed into the hallway, and looked at the huge clock that hung on the
wall. It wasn't anything like the clock on her bedside table. Her bedside clock was small and red, while the hallway clock was big and black. It had a gold rim
and looked very happy.
         What kind of numbers are those? I know miss Lulluna said they were some kind of numbers. She said they all looked like letters and that just one of those could even mean a thousand - that's weird. I wish our numbers were like that. Our math class would be so much easier, Diana thought. She thought and thought about those numbers. Then she finally remembered. "They're Roman numerals!" Diana said. Her voice was quiet, but it sounded like a scream to her.
         This is completely crazy, Diana thought. She was worried and confused
when she saw that the hallway clock now had Arabic numerals and was half the size it always was. "What in the world. . . ?" The clock suddenly changed into a tiny digital clock, like the one by Diana's bed.
         This is not happening, this is not happening, this is not happening, Diana chanted in her head. She pinched herself. "Ow!" Diana whispered as she looked at her nails. "I have to trim my nails. They are so sharp!" she mumbled to herself.
         She was definitely not dreaming. She looked at her nails again. They were
covered in blood. There was no blood where she pinched herself. "What in the
world. . . ?" she said again. She was terrified.
         She looked down the hallway and saw a dead rat covered in blood, and a
cat that had blood all over its paws, getting ready to pounce. Diana screamed.
She had never before seen such a terrifying thing. The cat pounced, gobbled up the rat, and walked away, paws spattered with blood.
         "What's happening?!" Diana screamed again. She turned around to see the cat running down the hallway, claws glinting in the light, aiming for Diana as
its next meal.

Chapter 5

         Diana ran down the hall, screaming in fear, as the cat chased after her. The cat was small, but very fast. It caught up with Diana every step of the way.
Diana could feel her heart pounding as she started to pray. This cat was faster
than any cat Diana had ever seen - not to mention scarier.
         I feel more like I'm being chased by a lion than a small cat, Diana
thought. She was scared, and she couldn't think of anything else but the cat and
herself about to die. These scary thoughts helped her pick up the pace. The cat was still close behind, but she grew faster with every step. I guess I just have to think about how scary this is, she thought. Diana thought about the demon
cat and grew a bit faster. She thought death from the cat eating her and that helped her grow a lot faster.
         The cat must be at least ten feet behind me, she thought. She looked over her shoulder. The cat was gone. It vanished.
         Diana breathed a sigh of relief, smiled, and ran back to her bedroom to get ready to go to class. She got dressed, got herself some cereal, brushed her hair and teeth, and went to class.

Chapter 6

         "Diana. You're late. Again. In fact, there's only half an hour until lunch. Did you know that?" Lulluna questioned Diana. "I'm sorry. I didn't know I was that late, miss Lulluna," Diana replied. Lulluna glared at her. "where have you been all day?!" she said angrily. Diana thought about what she should say. "Long story," she said quietly. Lulluna wouldn't stop until she knew everything. "Go ahead," Lulluna prodded. Diana glanced at the floor. "Um. . . I got lost in the halls. It's like a maze out there," she replied quickly. Lulluna smiled. "Okay then. Please take your seat."

Chapter 7

         Diana was late, but her worries were gone since she outran the cat. She got detention, but she didn't care. She knew that she would soon have another adventure.

The end. . . For now