Ripples Magazine 22 Dec 2

Welcome

TO RIPPLES LITERARY MAGAZINE

Hi, I'm the student editor of this edition and i just wanted to say that it was so fun being able to read and edit these stories by my fellow students and I hope you have just as much fun reading these yourself!

Enjoy!

What's

INSIDE

04. The World of Tomorrow
written by MW

08. The Story of the Carnival
written by KV

10. The Homecoming Date
written by GI

14. Devil Dogs
written by JD

16. Idaho Has Good Potatoes
written by DM

20. It's My Life
written by IZ

24. Juliette
written by DR

It comes every year. All too soon. The first day of school. August 24, 2022, my first day of freshman year. I couldn't believe that summer was already over. It had gone by too fast and it didn't seem fair. I wasn't looking forward to this year at all. I hadn’t hung out with anyone all summer. Mostly because I had dropped all of my friends. It was for the best, but now I stand in the crowded high school hall and wish that I was someone else. Someone who wasn’t so pretentious.

I didn't know exactly where I was going or what I was doing, but I thought I could figure it out on my own. I walked around trying to find my first class, math. I hated math, it made me feel stupid, and illiterate. I was almost positive that I would never use the math that I was learning when I grew up. What does math have to do with art? Why would I ever have to use math in art? It was a waste of time.

I was able to find my math class, right on time. I walked in, moving through crowds of students and found a seat. There was a girl to the left of me and a boy to the right. The boy looked the same age as me, but the girl was probably older by a year or so. After a few minutes everyone took their seats and stared up at the teacher. She talked a lot. She talked about what we would be learning in the next few months and about the schedule and I wasn’t really listening, but when the idea of ‘icebreakers’ was brought up, she had all of my attention. Icebreakers. I hated icebreakers, that was the thing about the beginning of the year, the number one thing on all the teachers' agendas was an icebreaker activity. “We are going to talk about our summer,” the teacher said. “You're going to say your name first and then what you did over the summer.” Yup. Got it. What we did over the summer. She looked around the room for someone to start, and her eyes landed on me. Great. She nodded towards me. I pointed at myself in question and mouthed the word, “Me?” She nodded again.

“My name is-”

“Stand up please.” Ok, good start. I stood up.

“My name is Donna, and I went to the beach.”

“What beach?”

“...um, Miramar.”

“Halfmoon Bay or Florida?”

Lots of questions. “Halfmoon Bay,” I said.

“How long did you go for?”

Why does she keep asking questions? “I went a few times,” I sat down after that.

After two classes, it was break time. I packed up all my stuff and walked out into the courtyard. It was a beautiful school, vines had started to grow up the walls. I liked that. There were highschoolers everywhere. They were all with their friends, laughing and having a good time. I was alone. I didn't have the guts to get up and go talk to people, so that's how it stayed. I did see some of my old friends. I looked up at them as they walked by, I wasn't expecting any friendly hellos but I got what I thought I deserved. They all shot me dirty looks as they walked by. I did what I wanted to and flipped them the bird. I spent that break people watching.

By the time fourth period rolled around, I was exhausted. Good thing fourth period was art class. I walked in and took a seat. There weren't a whole lot of people so it was pretty quiet. I waited before more people showed up. I was so distracted looking out the window that I almost didn’t notice the girl who sat in the seat next to me. I turned towards her. She had shoulder length dark brown hair and olive green eyes. We smiled at each other before looking back at our art teacher as she began to talk. She had a kind voice and sounded like she loved her job.

“We’ll be learning different types of art styles and I’ll teach all the basics even though I know some of you don’t need it.” She had such a kind smile. We all immediately fell in love with her.

About half way through our class we were asked to sketch something with our partners. Good thing I had a good one. We talked, her name was Caroline and she was a freshman as well. She had moved from Maine over the summer, and she loved art almost as much as I did.

After class was lunch. I loved and hated lunch. I loved it because it was lunch, but I hated knowing that I would have to sit alone. It makes you stick out like a sore thumb. Most of the time I don't mind being alone but being alone in high school is basically asking to get picked on. I walked into the cafeteria. It was noisy, and crowded, and it gave me anxiety.

Author Information Here

Title

I took a seat in the middle of the room to try and blend in, hoping that people would just start showing up around me but my table stayed empty. I felt awkward, when a lunch tray slammed itself on the table next to me. I looked up at the face that had come to save me, and I saw the dark brown hair, the green eyes, and the freckled cheeks. It was her, Caroline. She smiled.

"Can I sit here?" she asked.

"Actually no, sorry, this table is taken," I joked.

She smiled, "Yeah?"

I smiled back, "Yup."

"That's too bad, I was looking forward to accompanying a sad and lonely looking individual."

"Do I look sad and lonely?"

"Are you not?"

"I mean, not anymore."

We talked all through lunch, about ourselves, about each other. It was nice having someone to socialize with, someone to talk to. Caroline was much nicer than my old friends, and she seemed real, like a real person. All my other friends liked to keep their emotions inside of them, and they never listened to what I had to say, it was all about them. But with Caroline this wasn't the case.

After lunch I went through the rest of my classes, boring, basic, it was all the same. and by the time I finished, I was exhausted. I walked out of the last classroom when the bell rang. Everyone was making their way through the halls, crowding together, getting in each other's way. My social battery was drained and I needed to get away from everyone. I finally got out eight minutes later, and leaned against a wall outside, waiting for my mom to pick me up. I waited, and waited and waited for 15 minutes when I heard a voice call my name from behind. It sounded out of breath like they had been running. I turned around to meet the eyes of the voice who was calling my name. Caroline. I smiled, she smiled.

“You're still here?” I asked.

"Yeah. I wanted to try to catch you before you left.¨

"What is it?¨ I asked, smiling still.

"I wanted to say goodbye.¨

And then she hugged me, really hugged me. And I hugged her back.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.

“Yeah, see you tomorrow,” I answered as my mom pulled up. Then Caroline waved before turning to walk away.

Maybe this year won't be so bad after all. ◾

The Story of the Carnival
written by KV

One day when Emma was at home and she was bored, she thought of going to a carnival. When she asked her parents, Mom and Dad said, “Sure why not?” Then the next day, Emma's parents said, “We are going to the carnival tomorrow, so get ready!”

Then everyone had to get up at around 8 or 9 in the morning. While Emma and her brother were getting up, they were fighting, because her brother was too lazy and didn't want to get ready. The family wanted to get there early so they wouldn't have to wait in the line to enter. When they got there, there was a long line for people to enter the carnival.

Once they were in the carnival, Emma and her family went to a little henhouse. They all went to look at some animals that were in the little henhouse. They got to see some snakes. When they were done looking through the little house, they went out to get tickets for some rides. They also got some snacks.

After they went on some rides, they went to explore around to see if they could see what else was in the carnival. After going around for a few minutes, they went to get food. After they finished eating, they stayed a little to see some dancers that were performing in front of all the people that were eating at the benches.

When the performers were done, they went to a bigger farmhouse to see some animals, such as a pig, cow, goat, sheep, bunny, birds, horses, and baby animals. After they were done looking at the animals, they went to look and see if there was going to be any singer that was going to perform because people were building a stadium. After that they went on big rides that were very close to where people would stand to see the performers.

At some rides, there were some games where you couldn't bring dogs, so Emma left her dog at a pole and it wasn't tied well. After some time when the ride ended, Emma saw that the dog was gone and thought to herself, there were fences so their dog could be in the carnival and couldn't go out to the streets. So she went to tell her parents that her dog got lost. Then after that her whole family went out to look for Bruno, the dog. When they were looking at the little kids' rides there was a man with a dog that looked like Emma´s dog. When they asked if the dog was his, the man said, “No,” and then said, “I found this dog next to the fences of the entrance.”

Emma nodded her head and said, “Ok”. After the man looked at the dog's collar, he said that he would call the number (Emma's number) that was on the dog's collar because the man didn't believe that it was their dog. When they were done with that, they went back to their car. A lesson they learned was to never leave a dog on a pole without tying the leash tight. Other than checking the leash, never take a dog with you to rides because you never know when the dog could escape.

Emma said to her dog, “Good boy!” with a smile. Bruno licked Emma's face. ◾