by B Leong (age 10.5)
Writing assignment: Brian and his classmates were asked to pick a random sentence from any book. They then had to write a story using all the sentences chosen. In red were the sentences, and they had to be used as they are, no addition or deletion of words allowed.

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Miss Cackle’s Academy for witches stood on top of a high mountain. It was a perfectly normal day (at least for those familiar with magic)…. until about noon, when the ground started shaking and the walls cracked. Miss Cackle’s Academy for witches fell off the mountain that it was on and crashed to the ground in a pile of rocks and dust.

A voice thundered through the air, “Who has stolen my Dark thunderbolt?” Almost immediately, a giant bolt of lightning blasted the rocks apart. Two students from the academy, Seth and Violet, survived. They climbed out from under the rubble and without looking back, started running away as fast as their legs could take them.

When they couldn’t run any longer, they collapsed, gasping for air. Seth looked up towards what was left of the mountain. Bolts of lightning continued to rain down on the spot. He saw a blackened object being blasted off. “Look up there!” Seth said.

“What is it? A barbeque?” Violet asked.

Seth took the opportunity to insult her and said, “Well, whatever it is, it can’t be dirtier than your face!”

Violet looked at him indignantly. Seth had probably accused her of not washing enough, even though she scrubbed her face every night!

From where they were, they could see the blackened object hurling across towards a cave that children from the academy loved playing in.

Their attention was diverted away from the cave as they heard the rustling of bushes nearby.

Suddenly they saw a figure in front of them. It tried to run away, but Seth was faster and he caught it. It, actually, he, was Barry, the boy who was one year older than them and always kept lots of pets.

Violet caught up with Seth. “Is that Barry?” she asked, “How did he escape?”

Barry stuttered, “It’s…it’s…all, my, my, fault.” And Barry began his story.

“In class we were learning how to make a Memoire with Mr.Tramplebone. A Thunderclap is needed as one of the ingredients.”

Seth interrupted him, “So how is all this related to your Memoire?”

Barry continued, as if he hadn’t heard Seth, “We were all making our Memoires in a special cauldron. Tramplebone made me help him build the model. It was a model cauldron, which would make our Memoires really powerful. You know how important the Memoire project is for our year-end grades.”

“I had worked really hard on it but when Tramplebone said my Memoire was not up to standard, my classmates started worrying. They said if mine did not pass, none of theirs would. They were afraid of failing. Suddenly the entire class seemed to rise up against the headmistress. Oops, the blast must have hit my head, I mean Tramplebone of course, not headmistress.”

“Tramplebone looked at me with his fearsome eyes and I knew he blamed me for the class revolt. I didn’t want to be sent to Principal Love’s office. So I ran out of the classroom.”

“I tried to get to the bottom of the castle, but you know the stairs, they always mess up your sense of direction. So I ended up being at the top of the school instead. That was when the academy crashed. I was at the top, so I didn’t get hurt. I ran away before the thunderbolt struck the school and I’ve been wandering around until you found me.”

Seth was puzzled, “But how is all this your fault?”

Barry cried, “I think the electricity that was created when I used the Thunderclap for my Memoire must have attracted Zeus, which made him blame us for stealing his thunderbolt. And I left everyone there. And now they are all buried in the rubble, all because of me.”

“Hey, it’s not your fault. You didn’t know this was going to happen.” Violet comforted him.

“Why don’t you join us?” Seth suggested.

“Thanks guys.” Barry said, still looking sad.

Seth headed towards the cave to find out what the blackened object was. Violet and Barry followed close behind.

When they reached the cave, Barry was the first to spot the object, “Hey! This might be useful! I’ll keep it.”

“Not everything worth keeping is useful,” warned Seth.

“But this is.” said Barry. “It’s the cauldron that Tramplebone made his Memoire in!”

“What does a Memoire do anyway?” asked Violet.

Barry replied, “It changes into whatever you remember seeing before.”

Violet put her hand inside and drew Tramplebone’s Memoire out of the cauldron. Violet was the first to see the colorful blur. It was a ball with colors swirling around inside it. With Violet clutching the ball tightly in both hands, they ran out of the cave.

Suddenly a man with wings and a helmet flew down in front of them. “Greetings." the man said, “I am Hermes, the Messenger God.”

The children were startled and couldn’t say anything.

“I have come to tell you that I tricked Hades into admitting to me that he was the one who stole the Dark thunderbolt. Zeus will restore your academy and its inhabitants and God of Time Kronos has agreed to stop time in the castle until you get back. On one condition.”

Violet jumped in, “I have a question…about Zeus. You told him Hades stole the bolt? Did he believe you?”

“Yes, I told Zeus and he knows what Hades is capable of,” replied Hermes.

Seth asked, “What condition? What do we have to do for Zeus to restore everything back to what it was?”

Hermes looked sombre, “You will need to trick Hades into giving up the Dark thunderbolt. The rest of the Gods will combine their powers together and warp you to the front of the entrance to the Underworld. Any questions?”

Seth said, “You want us to go to the Underworld? What does the Dark thunderbolt do anyway?”

Hermes said in a hushed tone, “When you get hit by a Dark thunderbolt, you go mad. It is possible to resist it, but only the most strong-willed can resist it.”

“If you manage to resist it, you will gain the power to shoot sparks out of your hands that are as strong as Zeus’ thunderbolts.”

“So far, none have resisted the bolt. The three of you will have to try.”

Seth instantly felt a tingly feeling in his nerves. His vision started to get blurry. He couldn’t hear. In seconds, Seth couldn’t see at all. His senses were completely shut down. In a blinding flash of light, Seth disappeared.

Seth reappeared in front of a stone wall, and flanking him were Barry and Violet. Suddenly they heard a loud grunt. Three gigantic pigs had spotted them and were going to attack them.
“What should we do?” Violet froze.

Seth said, “I don’t know what could possibly distract three pigs enough so that you could get away.”

Barry quickly grabbed the Memoire and threw it on the ground. It became a small, furry white mouse.

“A mouse?” said Seth, who was obviously not impressed. “All the pets that you have and the best you could come up with is a mouse?”

“No, no, let me explain,” said Barry. “When I saw this mouse, I wanted to catch it. But, as soon as I moved, it zipped away at a faster speed than mice should. I chased after it, but it was too fast. The little mouse finally wore me down. I called it Epiphany, which is Atlantean for speedy. So you see, this mouse has super speed powers.”

Barry released Epiphany, but the giant pigs were not enticed. He gestured towards Epiphany, and shouted at the pigs, “Look, food! Run after it!”. And so, with a great deal of hustle and bustle, they did. Before long, Epiphany was back. The pigs had trampled on top of one another as Epiphany ran circles around them. And Epiphany had won.

“That was close. We have to get inside.” said Barry.

“How do we get inside?” As Seth said this, he tapped on the walls. His hands went right through the wall!

The three children walked through the wall and fell down a long tube. At the bottom Seth saw a block of stone. He braced himself for the impact, but he went through that brick floor too.

He landed in a pool of slime. Violet and Barry landed beside him. Seth looked up. The ceilings were so high they were filled with darkness.

Suddenly Hades rose from the ground.

Seth charged at Hades, but he passed right through him and the shock stunned him.

Barry quickly ran to help Seth and Hades immediately shot the Dark thunderbolt at him. Barry became mad, as Hermes had described and babbled like a love-struck girl, “Asleep, my love?” as he turned to Violet and started strangling her while Seth looked on in horror.

Hades cackled evilly, “Farewell, my friends. Adieu, adieu.” raising his hands up in triumph. As Hades walked away, he tripped and dropped the Dark thunderbolt. He had actually tripped over Epiphany.

Without wasting a minute, Barry seized the Dark thunderbolt. He was actually pretending to be mad. He had resisted the powers of the Dark thunderbolt. He began to shoot thunderbolts out from his hands at Hades.

Hades looked terrified and ran for cover.

With the Dark thunderbolt held tightly in his hands, Barry closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he was back at the academy, with Seth and Violet. Hermes was waiting for them, and for the Dark thunderbolt. He removed the Dark thunderbolt from Barry’s grip, and disappeared, nodding in approval.

The children looked around the academy. Everything was as it was before. In fact, they realized that everyone was rushing to get to the Match of the year. The academy’s skyball team was in the finals against their traditional rivals.

Barry was especially quiet. Neither Seth nor Violet said anything to him. It was as if they had not met and that day had not happened. After dinner, Barry’s father didn’t lose any time asking about the game. Barry muttered something about being tired and went back up to bed.

Barry went up to brush his teeth. He thought about all the things he had seen. “Weird dream.” he thought, as he washed his face.

In an old habit of his, he started flicking his hands to dry the water droplets off.

And sparks flew out!

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