The ebook is a collection of short stories written in English by the 3E students

Our Stories

After landing, they picked up their luggage and were driven to their future home. Outside the house, the salesman was waiting for them to hand over the keys. While Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were talking to the seller, Max was able to catch a glimpse of a large tiger cat staring at him from the bars of the gate. Sherol leaned over to pet him, picked him up, and he quietly allowed himself to be cuddled. The little girl with the cat in her arms approached her parents and said "I have found a cat, it has been abandoned and he is hungry" "Sherol, we haven't even got home" her mother began. "But mom, can he stay in the backyard ? Please... " "It's a fat, dirty cat" added Allison. "He's alone and abandoned, can't we take him? He'll stay in the yard and I'll take care of him, I promise." "I don't know... What do you think, Max?" "It's not a problem for me, but first we should take him to the vet and then... but you'll take care of him, promise?" "Yes, I'll take care of everything" said Sherol with eyes full of joy. "Alright, but now it's time to go inside" said her father opening the gate.

The Wilson's new home overlooked a long beach facing the sea. The village was quiet, consisting of many small wooden houses of no more than two storeys with a well-kept garden. To get around the village, most of the inhabitants used bicycles or walked, the streets were clean and the only sound you could hear was the waves crashing on the beach. Their house also two storeys, surrounded by a garden bordered by a white fence, built entirely with wood except for the roof painted dark white. At that point Mr. Wilson explained to his family the history of the house. It had been built in 1970 as the summer residence of Dr. Mike Fleischmann and Mrs. Eva Gray; the Fleischmanns were a lonely couple with no children, until Mrs. Gray became pregnant in 1979. Their son, named Jacob, was born on July 23. Jacob was able to change the Fleischmann's solitary way of life. Over time they began to socialize with their neighbors and became so popular and respected people in the small seaside town. Everything was going well until that cursed day in 1986, when their son Jacob drowned while playing in front of the house. The family, devastated by the accident, decided not to return to the summer residence and in the winter of the same year the health of Mr. Fleischmann got worse and worse.

His father, without answering, hugged him and pulled a pocket watch out of his jacket pocket." I made this for you. Happy birthday Max." Max opened the watch, it was made of silver, in the center of it you could read a sentence: "Max's time machine". That night, the night of his birthday, he didn't sleep at all. He spent the hours in silence, lying on his bed with his mind overwhelmed by thoughts, while he observed the clock that his father had made for him. He waited for the sunrise that would change his life forever. The first light of the day dawned, Max jumped out of bed and headed into the living room, where he found his father sitting on an armchair, dressed and holding a book. "What are you reading?" Max asked. "A book about World War II," replied his father, "It's interesting, keep it." Mr Wilson went to wake up the whole family who went down to the kitchen and they all had breakfast together. They were now ready to travel, loaded their luggage into the car, said goodbye to their old house and headed for the airport. They were on the plane for more than five hours, Max was going to finish his book, his father and mother were sleeping and his sisters were watching a movie.

First published in Italy by 3E "IC Pacchiotti - Via Revel" Turin, in June 2021

The Dark Fog . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 An Unusual Year . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 The High School Killer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Detective James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61 Wars of the Planets. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either a product of the authors' imagination or are used fictitiously.

&nbsp;My name is Dodo and 3,000 light years is the distance between Iliak and Neptune. Here in Neptune conditions were worsening, due to the war with Iliak. Military wise they were stronger than us but we out-numbered them in soldiers. "We need to fight!" announced Ranader, the king of Neptune. "Those missiles never return!" said someone in the middle of the crowd. "Why don't we train 16 to 18 year olds?" proposed another person from the crowd. "I have already made it clear! We are not sending some kids in war!" claims Ranader. "Let's vote!" said Bendorf (the only surviver left from the last mission). The only one who voted against was Ranader.&nbsp;The next day the training to fight in Iliak started, they gave me an axe and a dagger, in the following days they taught us how to use these weapons. They taught us how to fight hand to hand combat, climbing and they instructed us what to say to the Iliakeese to mislead them. Six weeks had passed since I'd started training and then we had become very good at fighting and we all knew exactly what to say. But I had thought through a secret plan. I wanted to escape Neptune and I never wanted to come back. I had never forgiven them for executing my family.

"An unusual Year" by Sofia Di Biasi, Benedetta Terlizzi, Cecilia Caforio, Greis Hila

The day after at school Jade wasn’t there and they all pretended as if nothing had happened the night before. Caroline slept at Jason’s that night too, and in the morning the plan started. After school Caroline walked towards the abandoned park, and the others waited for her in the bushes. She did as planned and sat on a bench to read. It was deserted, you could see nothing and no one except for trees and dead grass. Caroline heard something moving at the entrance of the park, but pretended she didn’t, as she knew it was Jade. Suddenly she felt a rope around her neck, blocking her from breathing. - What are you going to do now, little Caroline? – it was Jade. - Stop! – said Madison and they all came out of their hiding spots pointing their guns at Jade, and in Jack’s case, a golf club. Jade immediately let go of Caroline and took a gun out of her jacket. - Do not come closer or I’ll shoot! – she shouted. - You don’t have to do it Jade! This isn’t you; this isn’t the Jade I know! – said Madison with a tear on her cold cheek. -That Jade died along with David! – she answered. - It doesn’t have to be like this! You can make up for it! – said James. - Don’t you see? I can’t! But you could never understand - she yelled.

The next day, at the park in the city centre, Jack was sitting on a bench.&nbsp;He was waiting for James, so he decided to take two ice creams&nbsp;in the ice cream shop.&nbsp;He took the sour cherry flavour for himself, and strawberry for James. After he left the store, he felt someone hugging him from behind.&nbsp;It was&nbsp;James who said: -Hey, what’s up? - Jack turned around and said: -Hey, I got two ice creams, for you the strawberry one- -I’m allergic to strawberry! - replied James. Jack looked up worried, but when they looked at each other, they burst into&nbsp;laughter. Afterwards,&nbsp;they decided to walk around the centre so they could get to know each other well,&nbsp;they went around a lot of shops and had a lot of fun. The evening came quickly, and so after saying goodbye, when Jack was&nbsp;turning the corner, James kissed him.&nbsp;It was a very exciting kiss, but never&nbsp;as the first. They said goodbye, and they both went to their own house, two soul mates.

- Caroline! I was looking for you- said Jason – What happened?&nbsp;&nbsp;You look like you’ve just seen a ghost! – - Jason, - she said petrified -you have to call the others, now! – - What happened, Caroline? – asked Jason worried. - I know who it is – she answered. - Who’s who? You’re worrying me- he said in a scared voice. - Hey guys! – said Madison who had just got there. - I know who the killer is! – shouted Caroline. - What?! – said Madison who couldn’t understand what was going on. - I know who the killer is! The person who killed my sister and David! – she said, but this time with more anger. - What are you talking about? – said Madison still confused. - You know, you drank a lot. Maybe it’s better if you go to sleep- said Jason. - No! Guys, you have to listen to me! Jade, it was Jade! –&nbsp; - Jade?! But it can’t be, she’s our friend… and besides, how do you know? – Madison said scratching her scalp. - She was here five minutes ago, and she tried to kill me! –&nbsp; - It can’t be - said Madison. - Don’t worry, you’re safe with me- Jason comforted her. - I know! All of those times when we couldn’t find any answers or clues, she was the one pointing us in other directions! How did I not see that- said Madison walking back and forth in the room. - It’s not your fault, it’s not anyone’s fault, but now we have to find a way to trap her- said Jason. - I’ve got an idea. Call the others- said Caroline while Madison started calling them. When they arrived, after Caroline had told them what had happened, they were in shock. - I can’t believe it! – - How could she! –

- What now? – - But how? – - With a trap! - - Caroline will be the bait- specified Madison. - Exactly- said Caroline. - Isn’t it a bit risky though? – asked James. - Of course, but we have to do it, for Meredith and Caroline.- said Caroline with a determined voice – this is the plan: I’ll go for a walk ON MY OWN at the abandoned park. - - But it’s always deserted, nobody’s been there in years- said James confused. - That’s the whole point, idiot- said Jason. - Anyway, - continued Caroline - I’ll sit on a bench and read calmly, and I’ll make sure Jade hears me tell you before I go after school, hoping she’ll try and kill me to keep the secret. If it works, she’ll come to the park, thinking I’ll be alone, but you’ll be there hiding and, obviously having something to protect yourselves, will surround her and call the police- she finished satisfied. - What if she has a gun? She could kill us all in less than five seconds- said Jack. - That’s why I’m asking you to get your mother or father’s gun, if they have one- said Madison. - When will it be? – asked James. - Friday. –&nbsp; - Perfect. See you the day after tomorrow then - said James, and he and Jack left, followed shortly by Madison. - Maybe it’s better if you sleep at my house tonight, my father has a gun and we have an alarm if Jade were to come, but I highly doubt it- said Jason once everyone had left. - Thank you, for everything - she answered, and they left.

The party went on until late, and everyone had a great time, even Caroline. This time the only one who wasn’t having fun was Jack. He couldn’t stop thinking about that kiss, it was the best of his life. The feeling was, however, even if Jack did not know it at the time, mutual.The party ended, it began to rain heavily, and everyone ran towards their homes. But Jack took courage and ran after James. He confessed that after that kiss he had fallen in love with him. James said the same, and he asked him out. Jack’s eyes had suddenly brightened, and he obviously accepted.

It was the first day of the last year of high school and as always I was going to give Dylan, my best friend, a lift. We talked a lot and we began to tell each other about our summer. We said to each other the usual things, like where we went on vacation or the new people that we had met, but while we were talking, Dylan got really weird, as if he had to tell me something important. When I realized that, I stopped talking, I looked at him questioningly and at that point he told me something that left me speechless. He told me that when he was on vacation with his parents in the mountains, he saw an acronym, the acronym DTHIJ, he told me that he was the only one who had seen it, neither his father nor his mother had seen anything. I was shocked, I had seen the same thing when I was on the beach! Obviously I told him about that immediately and we were relieved: the situation was very strange but at least we weren’t crazy. We talked about that all the time and once we got to school, we greeted Ilary and Jane. They were in the same place as every year, a corner at the end of the corridor. Once we had passed Ilary and Jane, we saw Harry in the math class, sitting behind the first desk, as usual. He was staring at the blackboard and his eyes were lost and thoughtful, he seemed very worried about something, but we didn’t give him much importance and, looking at him, we said: “Come on Harry, keep calm, the lesson is going to start soon!”.

There was a great atmosphere, everyone was euphoric and going wild, but Caroline just wanted to go back to bed, crying while eating Nutella with her fingers.The party was going well, and at one point Caroline’s best friends said: -Why don’t we play truth or dare? – -Good idea! - they all said in chorus. Caroline only agreed to please her friends. They went into the room, sat in a circle, and when Caroline turned the bottle the cork pointed at Jack. - Truth or dare? - She asked. -Dare- he replied. -Mh ...- Caroline thought, -I have it, you have to kiss James! - Jack blushed, but as it was a dare so he approached James. He put her hands in his hair. Their mouths drew closer, their hearts beat like they had never beaten before, their hands went cold all of a sudden and trembled slightly. They closed their eyes, their lips touched, at that moment they felt as if they were alone in the room. Everything was perfect. Suddenly Jack felt someone shaking him from behind, it was Susy who said laughing: -How long do you think you will continue? – Jack pulled his lips from James’s and Caroline exclaimed: -Great kiss, huh! – Jack blushing with shame said: -Eh, yes! – Throughout the party Jack and James continued to look at each other, but when their eyes met, one of them suddenly lowered them.

The next day at school it was as if nothing happened, but everyone knew about David’s death. -How are you, Jade? – asked James, to be polite, as David was Jade’s boyfriend.&nbsp; -I still can’t believe it- said Caroline. But Jade answered with a dirty look. They’ve never really liked each over, nobody really knew why, but it was probably because Caroline was more popular and beautiful, or maybe because she always had a feeling with David, even before he got together with Jade. The bell rang and the corridors emptied. - I think I’ll go home; I don’t feel like seeing all of these people - said Jade and she left. The others, instead, went to class. When the lessons had finished, Maddison ran to the others with her telephone in her hand. -Look at this video from yesterday! – she shouted. As she held the phone up her hand was shaking. In the video there was a person in a black hoodie that was putting a liquid from a flask in David’s drink.&nbsp; -Don’t tell me it’s what I think it is - said Jason in nearly a whisper. -I think so - answered Madison. -I can’t believe it! He was poisoned! – said Caroline in shock.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; -We have to tell the police - said Jason. -Obviously, I’ll call right away- said Madison as she walked away typing 911. She came back with her jaw falling to the ground. -What happened? – asked Caroline.

- You’re right, we can’t understand, and I don’t think the police will neither – said Jason, showing the phone on which, he had registered everything on. They heard the police’s sirens and Jade started panicking. - You can’t do this to me! I’m your friend! – she screamed.- As you said that Jade died a long time ago - said Caroline standing up and pointing her gun at Jade. They heard the sirens closer and closer every second until the police finally arrived in the park with their guns high, they handcuffed Jade.&nbsp; - I’m sorry – said Madison in a whisper that only Jade heard before they made her get into the car and they took her away.

"Bring something to eat. I will pick you up at nine." Max said goodbye and began to pedal home.&nbsp; "Where have you been Max?" asked Allison. "I've been to the village. I met a guy, Roland. We're going diving tomorrow." "What's Roland like?" "Nice. He lives with his grandfather, the lighthouse keeper. He showed me a lot of things in the village," Max said. "Where did you say you are going diving?" asked Allison. "Near the beach in front of the lighthouse, do you want to come with us? You'll love Roland." Allison nodded. "See you tomorrow, night Allison." "Night Max." The next morning, Max and Allison got ready to join Roland who was waiting for them in the garden. "Hello Roland, this is my sister Allison." "Nice to meet you." "Nice to meet you." They started pedaling and reached the cliff. When they reached the beach, they jumped into the water. After a few hours they returned to the shore of the beach. "I got hungry!" said Max. "We can go to the lighthouse where my grandfather is, surely he will have something to eat" proposed Roland. They headed towards their grandfather's house. When they arrived, Roland knocked on the door of the house, grandpa opened and greeted them.

"Hi Grandpa, can we eat here?" asked Roland. "Of course Roland! Who are your friends?" "Grandpa, this is Max and this is Allison, they have just moved in." "Nice to meet you, have a seat!" said Grandpa. "Nice to meet you too" replied the two brothers. After about fifteen minutes lunch was served. At the table they began to talk and Grandpa asked the two brothers where they lived and Max explained how his father had taken over the old Fleischmann house. Grandpa was silent for a few seconds, then a memory of July 30, 1976 came into his mind. Then he began to narrate, although with some uncertainty."Ten years before the tragedy of little Jacob, on July 30, 1976, I was out for a bike ride with my best friend, Richard. At a certain point a thick fog descended on the whole city from which a dark shadow came towards us. We started running and, when I turned to see where Richard was, I couldn't find him anymore. Behind me I could only see a thick fog. I wanted to look for him, but too much fog and my fear prevented me from doing so. I ran back to the house and locked myself in until the fog cleared, but it didn't disappear until the next day. As soon as I woke up, I went straight to Richard's house, but I couldn't find anyone there, his parents had already reported his missing.

- Jason, it’s your turn. Truth or dare? - - Dare! – Jason said with hesitation. - Okay, so you have to jump into the swimming pool fully clothed. – Everyone stood up, Jason left the room and stood on the side of the pool, then jumped in. As he threw himself in the pool, he hit something. He screamed. It was a body: David’s body. -Oh my God! – yelled Jack when he arrived at the pool. In the swimming pool David was floating face down. He was dead.&nbsp; They immediately called the police who arrived after the ten longest minutes of their lives, and they took away the body as if it was the usual, but it wasn’t. It was the beginning of a nightmare.&nbsp; -Miss Caroline, could you please tell me what happened? – asked one of the police officers. -I d-don’t know. We were all inside playing truth or dare, one of my friends jumped in the pool, for a dare, and we saw the body- and as soon as she had finished, the tears that she was so desperately trying to keep in her eyes burst out like a waterfall.&nbsp; The police confirmed it was a suicide, as they couldn’t find any clues to confirm otherwise.&nbsp;

IC Pacchiotti-Via Revel, Torino 3E Class

Many months had passed since the death of Caroline’s sister. She was still broken and could not realize it even if everyone tried to help her get through this very bad time. Since Meredith had died, she ate only to survive and didn’t leave her bedroom. So, her friends proposed her to have a party at her house to start having fun again. She hesitated for a moment but then agreed. When the day of the party arrived, everyone was anxious because Caroline hadn’t had a party in a long time.&nbsp; Knock, knock! She heard the door. Caroline went to open it; there were her best friends with two big bags. -Where do we put all this stuff? - they asked in chorus. Caroline, a little confused because she had forgotten about the party, said: -Come, come in and let’s start preparing- -Are you kidding?- said her friend Caty. -What? - Caroline asked. -But did you see in what condition you are in? - Susy replied. In fact, she had her pyjamas on and a mouth full of Nutella, she probably hadn’t washed her hair in months and she had dark circles that marked her eyes. - Yes, but it will be a quick party - she protested. -Nonsense! Now we’ll fix you up, - Caty said. They dragged her to the bathroom and Caroline was sure to be the most beautiful of the party. After a few minutes the first guests arrived, and the party was starting.

&nbsp;The axe had one single blade which burned by blue flames, but I was more astonished by the dragon: I'd never seen one like this and I was rather certain that it was not one of those common dragons you saw once in a while on Neptune. It spread its wings attracting lightning bolts to itself and shot a ray of them which created an explosion pushing away the guards without any problems. The guy with the katana whistled and another Dragon (which was bigger than the "lightning dragon") appeared, who exhaled a wind so powerful it could take out your hair. We got in the saddle but I fell off after a few seconds, so the dragon clasped me with its posterior paw and in the meantime we entered the storm. When we entered the storm I saw the "lightning dragon". The "Planet Eater", this was the name of the dragon I was currently on. It was named the "Planet Eater" because when it died it created black holes which sucked and destroyed planets within its radius- It moved closer to the "Lightning Dragon" and the bloke with the axe surrounded by blue fire pulled me to his side. &nbsp;"Were they prepared???" Asked the guy in front of me. "Rodan, we both know that only until Iliak has that mirror, they will know everything" responded the other guy. I guessed that Rodan was the name of the guy on the "Lightning Dragon"

"Who is bad, who is good and who's coming to kill and so on." "Sorry but who are you?" I asked. "Rodan" said the guy in front of me confirming my theories. "Lurix" said the other one. They said it so relaxed that it didn't seem they had just come out of battle. "Well, what am I doing he...." I didn't have time to finish the sentence as a space ship approximately 20 metres threw a net on us and we started to fall in an inconceivable pace into the darkness.

Leaving the corridor he found himself face to face with Mr. H brandishing a gun, pointing it at James who was paralyzed for about ten seconds, then he took courage and put his finger in the barrel of the gun. Mr H, astonished, fired automatically, but the gunpowder and the bullet, unable to get out by James's finger, exploded in the face. Soon after James called the police station, two officers were sent to rescue him and by that day James became the most famous detective in the world, without a finger, but with a beautiful story to tell.

"Wars of the planets" by Edward Berkley, Luca Fischetti, Davide Forno, Edoardo Onesti

James blanched, in fact he had worked all night and had come up with a list of three suspects, but how did the killer know? Over the next few days he stalked two of the three alleged murders and came to the conclusion that they were innocent. One remained. The last suspect kept running away, in fact James followed Mr. H all over England until he arrived at Yorkshire Castle in Scotland. When James got out of his car, he saw a large castle shrouded in mist in front of him. He whirled around in terror thinking that Mr. H was behind him ready to kill him and instinctively he took his pistol, hidden in his pocket, and, once he pulled out his .47 calibre Colt, he fired out on a limb. Then he approached the shadow he glimpsed in the fog and saw a deer cub now dead from the wound caused by the bullet that James had fired in fear. Shocked by what happened James sat down in front of the puppy, calmed down and, rummaging in the pocket of his vest, he recovered a pack of tranquillizers that had been given to him by the police commissioner. At that point James braced himself and walked towards the castle gate. When he reached the gate, he took the door and knocked on the door. He heard footsteps in the distance and soon opened the door, an authoritarian-looking gentleman of medium height showed up, he was holding a rag that he used to clean the huge windows, always stained due to the frequent rains.

of time and we couldn’t afford it. All of us went back to thinking about the riddle. At first we didn’t understand anything, but then Ilary had an intuition. She looked at the sentence written on that sheet, it seemed that suddenly everything had become clear to her. She looked at us all with a smirk and we looked back at her, confused. She started to explain everything: she had read something on that subject on some old books of her grandmother, it was an old guessing game. She didn’t tell so much about the subject, but she told us how to solve it: we had to change the order of the letters of the guessing game to get an answer. I didn’t remember the exact words of the riddle, but I remember that we passed hours to find a meaningful sentence in that mess of confused letters. I didn’t remember anything about that day, the only thing which impressed me was the fact that while we were writing the last sentence, the light went out suddenly. After not even a minute the lights came back on, the five guys who were with us had gone but there were five other guys around the table trying to solve the same guessing game that we had tried to solve, with the same blinding light that we had seen the previous morning. We&nbsp;knew immediately what had happened, the time we perceived like one minute, was actually fifty years. The history was repeating but this time the guys crammed into the closet were us.

We thought of our parents who gave us for missing, of the teacher who had given us the only information that had brought us to that room and of all our friends who were now over seventy years old, of our brothers and sisters who had found themselves from day to day without sharing the room with anyone.&nbsp; We exchanged anxious glances, we noticed that it was too late now, too late to solve the guessing game, we couldn’t go back in time but we could help the other five guys who were there not to repeat our same mistake.

"The Dark Fog" by Giulia Debernardi, Adele Masoero, Martina Memoli, Carolina Rossi

-Who is it? - Caroline asked. -It’s Jason, I have to talk to you- he said from behind the door. When Jason walked into the house, Jade came into the living room: -Caroline, I'm going to sleep, see you tomorrow- she said. - Ok alright, goodnight- Caroline replied. - What did you have to tell me Jason? – Asked Caroline after a while. -Oh here, I wanted to talk to you about ... - He was interrupted by a sudden noise from Caroline's room. - I'm going Jason, you stay here. - Caroline screamed in fear. She went up the stairs, went to the door of her room, opened it and felt a blow in her leg. She fell, and confused and frightened, she felt as if she had a fresh, sharp blade on her leg. -Jade! Caroline yelled. -Here you are finally- said Jade -David cheated on me with you, and at the funeral you didn't even shed a tear. - -Jade! - -No! Shut up, now I must speak; I loved him, you knew it! But you were still together, you kept cheating on me, you as a friend and him as a boyfriend! And now, that I have you here, under the sharp edge of a knife, I won't waste my chance to avenge myself. She said with a lump in her throat. Suddenly Jade stopped, she heard something. He released Caroline, who walked away from her with a face as pale as a dead man's and ran out of the door. Jason was walking up the stairs, because he was worried about Caroline, who hadn’t come back to him.

"The High School Killer" by Elena Albert, Eugenia Amerio, Sofia Deaconu, Anita Granato, Emily Moglia, Vittoria Riva

In London, in the 1890s, inexplicable facts of murders began to happen, of which it was not possible to find the culprit. In every murder the same elements were found: all the victims were male, all they were in their forties, on the crime scenes there was always a letter saying "see you on the other hand ", the crime was signed ” Mr. H “. The police recruited all the best investigators, even private ones, but none could get on traces of the culprit. One day a young man of about thirty came to the district, he was tall and muscular, he had light brown hair with a bizarre forelock, a light beard, but not too thick, and green eyes. He introduced himself by saying he was James Murray, a private investigator and, without wasting time, he immediately got on to look for the culprit of the murders. The next day, Mr. Murray was urgently called from the district, they told him to go to the number 13 Jackson Street, the scene of a new murder. Arriving at the address he found the door wide open and a streak of blood led him to the living room, where four corpses of men, all beheaded, had been placed in a circle and within it another man, alive and trembling with fear, he held in his hands a letter with a seal bearing the initials F.H. James grabbed the letter and read it avidly: “Dear James, I know who you are and this is just a warning, withdraw or you'll end up like those men."

At last the big day arrived, they let us in a space ship and they sent us to Iliak. While we got further away from Neptune a mischievous grin formed on my face for the last time as I saw the planet getting smaller.&nbsp;The next day the training to fight in Iliak started, they gave me an axe and a dagger, in the following days they taught us how to use these weapons. They taught us how to fight hand to hand combat, climbing and they instructed us what to say to the Iliakeese to mislead them. Six weeks had passed since I'd started training and then we had become very good at fighting and we all knew exactly what to say. But I had thought through a secret plan. I wanted to escape Neptune and I never wanted to come back. I had never forgiven them for executing my family. &nbsp;In a short space of time I fell asleep, when I woke up sirens went off insanely. Everyone went right, left and centre. Iliak was 10 kilometres away from us, and soon we were going to crash! A robotic voice started doing a countdown of the seconds remaining before crash! We were ramming at full speed into the planet, the space ship caught fire and we all exited the ship and fled as far as possible from it. Eventually afterwards the space ship exploded.

When he arrived at the end of the promontory, in front of the lighthouse, he stopped to admire the landscape. After a few minutes he saw in the distance a tall, thin boy, also on a bicycle, who was approaching him. The little boy arrived at the lighthouse, placed his bike next to Max's one and walked towards him. "Hi, are you from the family that have just moved in?" Max nodded and held out his hand " Nice to meet you ." "Nice to meet you too!! Why have you come to the village?" "For family reasons, are you from here?" "Yes, I've always lived here. I guess you haven't seen the village yet." &nbsp;"Good! Grab your bike and let's start the tour." The two started pedaling through the village During the ride Roland, the boy, told Max that near the cliff there was a place for diving. The place was near an old ship that had sunk in 1918 during a terrible storm and all the crew members died by drowning. All but one, his grandfather, the lighthouse keeper, and Roland had lived with him since he was born, because his parents had died in a car accident.&nbsp; "I'm sorry," Max said. "Don't worry about it, I'm fine... Listen Max, almost every morning I go diving to the sunken ship. Do you want to come with me tomorrow?" "Okay. Should I bring anything?"

We absolutely had to find a way to communicate with our friends, or we would be stuck there for other fifty years, or worse, forever. We were afraid that they would never arrive, maybe they were too scared to come.&nbsp;I knew Dylan well, he was my best friend, I knew he would be impulsive enough to follow the instinct to come looking for us. As for Ilary and Harry instead, I didn’t trust them too much. Harry with his plans and his organization would come looking for us after at least a week and Ilary with him, would arrive too late. We saw the boys that were in the closet coming to us and they started talking, they told us how they arrived in that room, their story was very similar to ours, they had traveled the same steps, they said that they had arrived two days earlier, the five of us were confused, we told them that 50 years had passed. They were more confused than us, they glanced at each other as if to confront and try to figure what we were saying. We understood that if we didn’t solve the riddle within a day we would have lost the conception.&nbsp;I heard my phone ringing, it was Dylan. For a moment I hoped that we could still communicate, I looked at the phone, Jane asked me to answer. I did, it wasn’t Dylan. I heard a hoarse voice, it was an old man’s voice. He told me that in order to escape we had to solve the enigma on the table in two days. He said that it couldn’t just be solved by me and Jane. Harry, Dylan and Ilary were also needed, he wished me good luck sarcastically and hung up.

“Our Stories” è una raccolta di racconti, scritti dagli allievi della 3E, frutto di un progetto interdisciplinare condiviso dalle insegnanti di lingua inglese, prof.ssa Silvana Mariella, di lingua italiana, prof.ssa Elisabetta Aloi, e di arte, Simonetta Crescimbene, che ha guidato i ragazzi nella realizzazione delle illustrazioni. L'intero progetto nasce dall'idea di conciliare all'interno della classe i diversi livelli di conoscenza della lingua inglese, capitalizzando al massimo le risorse di due studenti bilingui e uno studente con percorso in lingua inglese nella formazione primaria. Gli allievi hanno lavorato in gruppi durante l'intero corso dell'anno, ideando in autonomia una storia con una sua trama, i suoi personaggi, entro&nbsp;generi narrativi già esplorati con la docente di lettere.&nbsp; In seguito ogni gruppo ha provveduto alla stesura del racconto in lingua inglese, attraverso la riflessione linguistica sul passaggio da un sistema linguistico all'altro.&nbsp;&nbsp; La cornice dell'ebook ha sviluppato inoltre competenze sull'uso di prodotti digitali. Ringrazio tutti i miei allievi per il lavoro paziente ed entusiasta. Silvana Mariella

One year after the death of Mr. Fleischmann, his widow's lawyers put the house up for sale. It remained empty and forgotten for a long time, until Mr. Wilson decided to buy it to live in. The seller accompanied them to the front door, took the set of keys, put the keys in the keyhole and opened the door. When the door opened a smell sneaked through the door like a ghost trapped for years in the walls of that house. The interior was flooded with a light haze of dust and dim light filtered through the lowered blinds. "My God!" Mrs. Wilson complained, as she noticed the amount of dust she had to clean up. Her father's face, on the other hand, was stunned by the beauty and immensity of the house and said, "A marvel! I told you so." The first thing Mom ordered him to do was to raise the blinds and open the windows wide. Once the blinds were up, all the boys went to see the whole house and choose their rooms to put their luggage in. With that done the whole family went to work trying to make the house habitable. Allison made the beds and the rooms, Sharol and Max cleaned up, their father sorted the luggage and their mother went to the local supermarket. Evening came and Mrs. Wilson prepared dinner for everyone. When they finished eating, being very tired because of the busy day, they went straight to sleep. The next day Max was the first to wake up, he went down to the kitchen, had breakfast and decided to take his bike to go for a ride along the seafront.

In front of us "The City of Iliak" emerged from all its greatness. Yes, you've heard me right: it's called "The City of Iliak". The Iliakeese are famous for their victories in the war but are not brilliant regarding naming thing. We entered the city walls and it was like seeing a world that had lived in peace for thousands of years. It was a lot more developed than Neptune. It cared about the welfare of the citizens&nbsp;during a war. There were jacuzzi tubs, Feriss Wheels, Buffets and also a more predictable part of the city. At first sight you could mistake it as a giant fun fair. At the entrance of the town walls some guards were approaching us with spears. Two of my team mates whom I didn't know, without having a second thought, tried to kill the guards. Meanwhile I was distracted by a storm which was advancing rigorously. There was thunder and at one point in time there was also lightning. I also saw a type of figure in the middle of the storm but I didn't have enough time to think about it as someone double my size lifted up an axe and tried to hit me with it. I heard someone pulling me to the side. &nbsp;It was a guy with a katana in his hand and he was a few centimeters taller than me. I suddenly understood that he had much more experience than me in combat. He attacked the madman who wanted to kill me and with a few karate moves he hurled him 5 meters away. There was no time to celebrate, My team mates had been killed and I was the only one left standing. At that moment the figure from the storm came in play. A seven metre long dragon with a bloke with an axe on it.

Once upon a time there was a family, the Wilson family, who lived a happy life in the big city of London. The father, Mr. Wilson, was a lawyer, and one of the best lawyers in London and for this reason he was very busy and spent little time with his family. Mrs. Wilson, on the other hand, was a high school literature teacher and spent a lot of time at work. The Wilsons had four children: Allison , Max, Andrew and Sherol, the youngest. Max and Allison, the twins, were in the fourth year of Science High School in London, one of the best in the city. Andrew was ten years old and he was in the fifth grade. He had blond hair and brown eyes like his older brother. Sherol, the youngest, was four years old, she attended a kindergarten and she also had blond hair. Being a large family, constant quarrels were inevitable. On some occasions, parents got rid of their work commitments and offered their children moments of relax to share some time together. One day they proposed going for a walk in the city center and shopping with all their children. Leaving the house, they went to their favorite ice cream maker's and then went on with their walk in the city center. While walking, Andrew met a friend and he stopped to chat with him.

At the end of the conversation, seeing that he was left behind the family, he decided to run to join them, but he did not pay enough attention and when he was crossing the road, he was involved in a car accident. The family urgently called an ambulance, which quickly took him to the nearest hospital. When he arrived at the hospital, they took him to the emergency ward, while his parents were checking in. Meanwhile, they brought their other children home, under the supervision of Ellison and Max, and, returned to the hospital, where they got bad news. At home the situation was not simple: everyone was much worried. Max paced back and forth in the living room, Allison held Sherol in her arms hoping to calm her, as she was crying and calling her mom since she had left. Max got to the point where he could not stand the crying anymore. “Please try to calm her down!” He told Allison who proposed to take Sherol for a walk. They took the stroller and went to the park near the house to let her play and not to make her think about the temporary absence of her parents. After about thirty or forty minutes they returned home. Allison took the keys and opened the door.

Meanwhile the door closed behind us, the hypnosis disappeared, we felt awake again, I panicked, the door from inside could not be opened: we were trapped.&nbsp;Jane, however, managed to keep calm, looked around and noticed another small door, went to the door and opened it. It was a kind of closet, inside there were five guys who seemed to be about our age. Jane turned around, we exchanged a look, we understood, those were the boys who disappeared 50 years ago. The five boys remained impassive, they were all crammed into that closet, they were sloppy, you could see that fifty years had passed, yet they were alive and above all, they were still boys. They didn’t realize we were there to rescue them. I heard my phone ringing, it was Dylan. For a moment I hoped that we could still communicate, I looked at the phone, Jane asked me to answer. I did, it wasn’t Dylan. I heard a hoarse voice, it was an old man’s voice. He told me that in order to escape we had to solve the enigma on the table in two days. He said that it couldn’t just be solved by me and Jane. Harry, Dylan and Ilary were also needed, he wished me good luck sarcastically and hung up.I trembled, I put the phone back in my pocket and Jane asked me what I had heard. She seemed scared, but unexpectedly she managed to keep calm.

Dylan and I started laughing but Harry remained impassive. At lunchtime we went to the canteen where we saw Ilary and Jane unexpectedly alone. They were sitting at the back of the canteen and we sat at the table next to them. Immediately after finishing our lunch, we went to the lockers room to wear our sport uniforms for the football training.&nbsp; While we were going to the football pitch, we noticed Harry going back home, skipping the afternoon hours, which had never happened. A few days later we saw the announcement of the New Year party on the notice board. Obviously Dylan and I decided to go there, even if we didn't know with whom. We arranged our meeting to get to the party, which was amazing, more than we could imagine. There were big festoons with the name of our school on them and at least three hundred people who were dancing filling the gym where the party took place. As soon as we entered, we went to the banquet hall and we had a drink. At one point, we saw Ilary who was coming towards us, then Dylan decided ask her to dance. A few moments later, I saw Jane who was alone on the stands, so I decided to go to her and do the same thing Dylan had done with Ilary. All four of us started dancing and getting to know each other and we found they were very nice, we had a lot of fun together that evening. It was for about a month that we had seen always Harry with the mind over matter, with the same attitude he had&nbsp;

on the first day and we also found out that he was doing badly at school. It was a day like the others at school and at the canteen we joined Ilary and Jane. They were colder than they had been the other days and they were looking at us worried. Jane started to talk and she told us that the day we sat next to them at the canteen, they heard what we were saying about the acronym and that they had seen the same thing when they were camping.&nbsp;We talked for a while and discovered that they too were much worried. Shortly after we realized that Harry, a bit away from us, was overhearing our conversation, so Ilary went to him and asked him if he knew something about the acronym. Harry walked over from us and he told that he too had seen the same thing and that he had been gathering information all summer. The next day he arrived with a lot of notes about this topic, he put them all on the table and we started reading them together. Harry told us that he had discovered that the same thing had happened fifty years ago, to five other guys who disappeared without leaving a trace. It was said then that these guys had to solve an enigma which, however, they had failed to solve. He also told us that the missing students were from the same school as ours and that their initials were probably DTHIJ, nothing else was known. That was a legend which few believed in and the few&nbsp;who believed had stopped trying to understand anything. We all were very much scared and we didn't know what would happen but we were curious, so we decided to look for anything that could help us understand throughout the school.

We found almost nothing apart from a janitor who had been there for years but who refused to tell us about what really happened. Some teachers knew the missing students and we knew that (we had gone to check all the yearbooks), some of them were even their own students. They told us little or nothing, they were all very vague, they didn't want to talk or they didn't remember. They told us that it was just a legend and that we shouldn't believe things like that. Maybe they thought that we were just kids who wanted to get in trouble, but we weren't. Only one teacher told us something that could have helped us, he said he had heard that the boys had entered a room on the third floor. He also said that on the third floor there were no classrooms, but only a warehouse. We had never been there, nor had we heard of it. We were confused and scared, but we thought that it was our destiny, we absolutely had to go to the third floor to see what was there. We strengthened each&nbsp;other, we got ready for about ten days. Finally we decided to go together, so if anything happened, we'd have each other's backs covered. Harry turned out to be the bravest, he was intelligent and had a perfect organization. According to his plans, two of us would have to go to the third floor the day before, to see if there was actually a room and then, the next day, we would go there. The next Tuesday, Jane and I went to the third floor together, as we were the only ones who had no scheduled classes that afternoon.

We had to go secretly, no one was supposed to see us, or we would get in trouble. We went up the stairs, once we got to the first floor a teacher who had an off-hour was walking in the corridor. A second before he could see us, Jane pushed me behind the wall and we managed not to be seen. Our school was really large and we had to be very careful. We went up the remaining two floors quickly but always carefully. We finally got to the third floor, apparently there was nothing, just a warehouse, just like that teacher had told us. But at the end of the hall we saw a small door,Jane saw it before me. She looked at the door for a few seconds, and I said to myself that we had to go back and tell Ilary, Dylan&nbsp;and Harry everything, I think Jane was thinking the same thing. Despite that, we were unable to hold back. It was as if the door called us. Jane and I kept walking to the door, we couldn’t stop, we were right in front of the doorknob, inside of me I wondered what we were doing, I knew it was a mistake, but by now it was as if we were hypnotized by that door, the hypnosis was stronger than my thought.&nbsp;I felt anxiety and fear, I had the instinct to run away, and yet I couldn't and neither could Jane, she reached out to the handle and opened the door.&nbsp;It was a bare room, all black, there was nothing but a table with a sheet of paper on it with a phrase written in some strange language that we could not decipher.

He was the butler of the house and immediately introduced himself: “Good morning, I am Henry. How can I be useful to you? " "Hi I'm Mr. Murray I would like to speak to the owner "Sure, take a seat," Henry replied. James was still reflecting on what had happened when the light went out ... so he took the candle that was on glass coffee table to the right of the chamois sofa he was sitting on and ran downstairs to where he was. They turned the lights back on. The butler was lying in a circle of platforms, James looked around, he saw nothing strange. Then he moved, but did not trust to get on one of the platforms, so he took an object, resting on a coffee table, and pulled it into the circle. At that point, holes were opened in the walls and 10 poisonous darts went off, which James, taking a step back, managed to dodge. Wandering around the castle he found a library. Intrigued,  he entered it, but as soon as inside he heard a noise behind him and when he turned he saw a wrought iron gate close. He breathed three times trying to stay calm: "Ok James you can do it, think, think" he repeated to himself. After a while an idea came to him: being in a library with only books, there had to be a fake book that opened a passage.

After so many attempts he found a book that made a strange noise, he turned to see if the gate had opened, but nothing was closed yet. Turning around he saw something else open, a long corridor with the floor made of letters and, next to the corridor, there were two signs, one of which read: "If you don't know how to solve the riddle, you will soon die ". In the other there was the riddle:" My life can last a few hours, what I produce devours me, thin I am fast, fat I am slow and the wind scares me a lot. Who am I?" James looked around for any clues that might help him.  Then he  looked at the compartment where he had taken the book: he saw a crack he had not noticed before, he put his hand inside and took out a note reading like this: "the candle you have been able to find, now the corridor you will have to pass. " He stepped on the first tile with the letter B written on it, as soon as it weighed the tile fell and James with it. He just had time to cling to the edge of the floor, looked down and saw a layer of spikes, it was there where he had to go, only on the tiles that formed the word candle.

All the kids from the group were at Caroline’s amazing party, she was the classic popular and friendly girl, they were all drinking and dancing together. - Where’s Caroline? - asked Meredith. - There she is! - cried Madison, Caroline’s best friend. - Meredith, what are you doing here little sis? – said Caroline when she saw her. - I came to embarrass you – said Meredith, laughing, and drinking a sip from the glass she had in her hand. - You can’t drink this stuff, give it to me! – she grabbed the glass from her hand. Meredith left without looking back. - Are you having fun? - asked Caroline. - Of course! – said Jason, a very respected rugby player. - How could I not have fun at my own party? – replied Caroline laughing while taking another drink from the table. - Caroline, don’t drink too much or you could end up killing someone. – shouted Jack jokingly. After a few minutes a boy turned up swaying from side to side with a jolly voice saying: - Hey guys, I think I’ve drunk a bit too much, ha, ha, ha. – it was David, Jade’s boyfriend who was cheating on her with Caroline. Shortly after, everyone went into the living room to eat a slice of cake. - Shall we play truth or dare? – asked Jade. - Sure! Why not? – they said. They sat in a circle and Caroline spun the bottle, which pointed to Jason.

Their parents were there, Mrs. Wilson was crying in despair, her eyes were red from crying and her make up was dripping slowly. Next to her, her father, also with red eyes and bowed head, hugged their mother in the hope of comforting her. "What's going on Mom?" Max asked in fear, turning to Allison. He already knew the answer, his blood ran cold. "Andrew didn't make it," Allison put Sherol down to let her play on the floor. Then she went close to her mother, Max followed her, they were all crying. "After the first check doctors soon realized it was serious and had to attach him to some machines because he was struggling to breathe and had suffered brain damage. But just after 30 minutes Andrew stopped breathing. I'm sorry guys," said their father. Two days later the grief-stricken family went to their son's funeral, where everyone was there, friends, teachers and classmates.&nbsp;After the funeral was over, the Wilson family returned home and the mother called the grandfather to tell him about the tragic event. After a few weeks, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson discussed changing city to revolutionize their lives.

Their mother suggested a large city in North America, far from London, while their father considered a small town on the coast to change their lifestyle. The boys were offered both destinations, but they were not in favor of either, they wanted to stay in London. After a week of hesitation, they were convinced that moving was the best option. The father started to contact agencies to find a house in Florida, but the only company that contacted him was in a small town in Mexico. Without a second thought, he agreed and bought the house, went downstairs and told the rest of the family the news: everyone seemed to be happy, but Max wasn't at all. They finally decided they would leave in a few weeks and until then they would have to say goodbye to all their friends and relatives and pack all their things for the long journey to their new house.&nbsp;The day before Max's departure, he stood motionless, staring at the ceiling. His father noticed him and came up to him and said: "Now it seems like the end of the world, Max. But, I promise, you'll love where we're going, you'll make new friends, and you'll see new things." "Do we really have to go?" Max asked.

I was called to the police station to answer questions, but I said I didn't know anything. I had never told this story to anyone because I was ashamed of being a coward and not looking for Richard." Immediately there was a minute of silence and then Roland exclaimed," I'm sorry Grandpa." "There is one thing I didn't tell you though..." "What Grandpa?" asked Roland. "In exactly five days it will be twenty years since Richard disappeared and ten since Jacob disappeared..." The three boys exchanged an intimidated look, but none dared to breathe a word. It was getting late and Allison and Max had to get home to their family. They took their bikes and started pedaling home, accompanied by Roland. On the way, the three boys thought about what their grandfather had told them."Do you guys believe that or is it just a coincidence?" asked Allison. "I don't know, I think it's all a coincidence" said Max. Roland humored him. When they arrived at the Wilsons' house, the boys said goodbye to each other and made an appointment to meet five days later for a dive and to reassure themselves that the whole thing was just a big coincidence.

When that day arrived, all the boys found themselves at the reef for their dives. Everything seemed to be going well, when the boys noticed that from the horizon of the sea the famous fog was approaching more and more. The boys looked at each other dumbfounded, not knowing what decision to take. Moreover, in the fog, far away a dark silhouette could be seen. They started running towards their grandfather's lighthouse to find shelter. Allison stumbled and fell behind and the dark shape caught up with her. Roland noticed it, went back to get her and managed to grab her arm, Max reached out to help them. Allison managed to free herself from the dark presence thanks to their help, but Roland remained wrapped in it without being able to free himself. Meanwhile, the fog intensified, Max and Allison were ahead and running. When Allison, noticing that Roland was missing, she turned back and they exchanged a desperate look. Nothing and no one could have freed Roland. Allison took a chance and ran to him, took his face in her hands and put her lips to his, then ran away and went back to Max. Roland never came back, nor there was any news of him.

" Detective James" by Gabriele Barisone, Antonio Cesaro, Giovanni Maffei, Francesco Palumbo, Gregorio Poma

The moment of the trial was the hardest of her life.&nbsp; Jade entered the room of the hearing with a slow step and with her head hanging low, she glimpsed her parents' sad gaze, especially her mother pinching her fingers to see if that was a nightmare, because it had to be and she couldn't believe that her daughter, the sweet Jade, was a killer. Probably, because she was not very focused, she didn't answer any of the questions, she was thinking about the fact that maybe what she had done was not right, Meredith and David weren't monsters, she was the monster. After the hearing they took her to a dirty cell with a shabby bed and the mice that ran around on the floor. Tears streaming down her cheeks, leaving her eyes swollen and red with pain, but maybe it didn't have to end like this, maybe it would improve to the point where old Jade came back and out of that prison. In the end, she didn't listen to that little voice in her head, after all it had been that little voice that made her kill two people. She imagined the newspaper article of the following day: "Found dead in the cell, the murderer Jade Morris, a girl that everyone believed was normal, but with obvious psychological problems. She had killed two of her schoolmates for reasons currently unknown”. At that point she took a rope, hung it from the ceiling and hanged herself.

In the evening, Caroline’s parents went out for dinner; after she had studied and had dinner, Caroline decided to run herself a hot bath. While the bath filled up, she went to her room to take her Bluetooth speaker to listen to music.&nbsp; When she arrived in her room, she glimpsed at her sister in her room. They exchanged an evil look because they’d fought, for the simple fact that Caroline didn’t want Meredith do use her clothes without asking her permission. When Caroline went back to the bathroom for her bath, she put the music on as loud as possible to get lost in her thoughts. While Caroline was busy in the bath, Meredith took the chance to sneak in her room to steal some clothes to go to a party. She sneaked in silently, but she felt the presence of someone in the room with her. Suddenly something hit her on the head, and she fell on the ground. Dead. When Caroline finished washing, she went into the room to put her pyjamas on and go to sleep. She saw her sister on the floor with her head in a pool of blood; she immediately called the ambulance, in tears, but it was too late, her sister was dead, and the killer had struck again.

Name

Safari may block some audio or video from playing automatically and ‘read to me’ will skip these. You can configure this in Safari’s preferences.