Standing My Ground

Author’s Note: This is an essay about the theme “bravery” as shown through Jason in Vampire Beach. These examples demonstrate how bravery can help you , and others.

Charging at the cold blooded beast that almost killed Jason, his emotions were mixed as he ran towards the vampire. Jason knocked the monster off of Zach, saving his life. Running at Luke and knocking him off Zach could be a life or death situation, lucky it worked out. The rouge vampire went for Jason forgetting that Zach was behind him, this small mistake caused Luke’s death.  In the book, Vampire Beach, by Alex Duval, the theme that is woven throughout the book is bravery.

When Jason secretly saved his friend from being killed by the vampire council, I though it took immense bravery. I believe this because, Jason didn’t think about how he was putting himself in harm’s way, all he could think about way saving his best friend. Just like in Cold Kiss, Gabriel didn’t care if he was putting himself in harm, he wanted to help the one he cared for. Wren had troubles with life, she kept it to herself and she needed someone there, yet there was no one. Gabriel came into her life, and helped her through everything. Loyalty and devotion lead to bravery. Bravery leads to self-sacrifice.

Once Jason sent Tyler safely on his way back to Michigan, he had to be the hero and fix Tyler’s mess. This makes me think about how much farther Jason will go to correct a wrong. He helped Tyler get away, and helped the vampire council get the challis back in the correct hands. As brave as Jason is, the vampire council can be very intimidating, but this didn’t hinder Jason from correcting Tyler’s error. Just like in the book They Don’t Know About Us, Niall helped Nicole. Niall had to take a massive step and send Nicole to therapy. Making Nicole go to therapy was the last thing Niall wanted to do, but he had to. This made Niall and Nicole drift apart, but she came around towards the end. Bravery is believing your doing the right thing against all odds, and that nobody can teach you. 

Jason the main character from the novel Vampire Beach built up bravery as the story advanced. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, and just as much to stand up to our friends. I don't think that bravery is about skin. Bravery is about a willingness to show emotional need.

Changing My Ways

Swoosh! The unremarkable feeling and sound of diving in the water hits Jason right away. In a massive hurry, Jason has to finish his breaststroke. With every hit to the water, a rush of amazing excitement flows through his body like the feeling you get when you have the chills. In the book, Vampire Beach, by Alex Duval, the one theme I strongly remember is, bravery.

The rage filled up in  Jason, when he figured out he had to move to DeVere Heights. Nothing can stop him now, his parents have decided, and they are moving. Losing friends, and having to gang new friends is hard. Although he hated the idea of moving, his little sister Dani was worse than him. Dani had been crying for days, not coming out of her room, Jason decided that he had to be a strong older brother and not show that he wanted to cry too.

Once moved, Jason found out quickly that DeVere Heights isn’t too bad. Right away Jason had fallen hopelessly for a girl just by bumping into her. Found friends quickly, and is one of the new popular boys at school. Invited to parties right away. Dani went to the same party as  Jason. The next day, Jason was running in the morning, on the beach. There lies the body of Carrie- a girl in Jason’s grade- eyes open, no heart beat. Dead. There stood Jason, scared out of his mind. Water forming in his eyes, not knowing what to do. Call the police!

Still terrified on what happened to Carrie, Jason has the urge to figure out what happen to Carrie. Having dealt with the situation with Carrie, Jason’s friend Tyler came to visit. Tyler  came  at a very unexpected time, and caused lots of troubles in DeVere Heights. Now acting strange, Jason questions his appearance. Taking Tyler to a party was the last thing that Jason wanted to do, but Jason’s school friends wanted him to. After stealing from the richest kid in the school, Tyler was death bound. Jason taking the key role in saving his life, getting him out of DeVere Heights was the first step to be done. Also getting back the valuables that he stole, was the second. Sticking up for his friends was the right thing to do and he stood strong with Tyler through the thick and the thin.

Whether it is staying strong for your friend, sister, or just staying strong for yourself. Jason showed tremendous bravery. Although not everything went his way, he impacted many people’s lives.  Such as Tyler’s, Dani’s, and most important his own life. 

Feelings?

Sweat dripping down my face as I am calling for the ball. Giving hand gestures to my teammates. HERE! I scream at the top of my lungs. Making my run towards the goal, the defender pushing against my back; rain sprinkling down upon us, the heat of the two players jammed against each other. The very moment my mate realizes that I am open, the pass comes with a hard kick; I am ready to receive. It was a dark day; the sun hadn’t been out, raining non-stop. It was the energy raging inside of me that made me receive the ball, turn and let the hammer swing. Physical heath provides me with enjoyment, challenge, and social interaction.

Gold medals aren't really made of gold. They're made of sweat, determination, and a hard-to-find guts. The enjoyment that my sports bring to me is magnificent. The time I spend at soccer, basketball, and softball practice. It may just be me, but the happiness that learning new things bring to me is huge. Being taught new things make my life, I believe that I am smart but there is always more to learn!

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. The things we fail in we can always learn in, everything happens for a reason. Challenges that I have in all my three sports is: your good, but do you want, do you care to put in more time to make you that much better? My answer is always yes, most days of the week I have some sort of practice, but the days I don’t I always go outside with my soccer ball and practice moves, juggling, and juggle walking. Sometimes I take a softball bat and I practice my swing, locked knee, use hips, and don’t pull your head out.

Although the challenge is quite fun, I think the most interesting thing is the new friends you can make just from a sport. I know this very well because I am on a Merton Fillies softball team, I am the only Pewaukee girl. On my softball team I have girls from Sussex, Merton, and even more! Our team has so much fun together, they are like my sisters, yet only two people go to the same school, the rest of us are different. Also like this my soccer team has three Waukesha girls, and about six Sussex girls, and the rest of us are Pewaukee. Although you would think that I get along better with my soccer team because I know more than half the girls, this is not true. Soccer girls haven’t quite jelled in yet, we don’t act as one team. I am trying to help this happen, to help everyone get along. There isn’t like a hatred between any girls it just that I don’t think that we are completely comfortable with the girls.

Sports to me are a huge deal to me in many ways as you can see. I love the sports I play and I hope that everyone has at least one sporting event that they can completely fall in love with. No one has really asked me this question, and it is a simple answer. I love my sports and I would never trade them in for anything! 

Deep, Dark, Mind Controlling...Hate?

Author’s Note: I wrote a piece on love and now I wanted to do the opposite. Write about hate, this is a very strong word, and its deep and dark. This piece is about how others hurt themselves more than they hurt you when hating.

Life is one big road with lots of signs. So when you are riding through the ruts, don't complicate your mind. Flee from hate, mischief and jealousy. Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality. Wake up and live! This is a feeling that everyone has to feel in life, and it is not a pleasant feeling to have deep in your heart. I say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There's no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.

Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty.  Others may hate you, but those who hate you don't win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself. This is a huge part of living, I am young yet I have figured this out. Set aside the ones who hate and bring forward the ones who really care. Destroying yourself won’t make anything better, believe in the ones who can understand you. Many of my friends don’t understand this yet, and that is what really destroys relationships between friends.

Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated. Even though we are deceived, still believe. Though we are betrayed, still forgive. Love completely even those who hate you. I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.

Although, we have gone over and over what hate can be. Its different for everyone. Hate is the extreme love of anything. As in love, we want to be with the loved one ,we want to think feel the love object. Our ego is merged in the wholeness of being with the person, or the object of love.

That Deep Feeling....Love?

Author’s Note: Below is a piece written about love. Throughout the piece, I tried to put emphasis on the joy that it brings us.

Love is like a friendship caught on fire. In the beginning a flame, very pretty, often hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. As love grows older, our hearts mature and our love becomes as coals, deep-burning and unquenchable. One of the best feels that we all dream of!  A drop, just one simple drop of bravery is all you need, the day you've been waiting for your whole life and its perfect. A moment you will be implanted in your brain for life, the moment you will never let go. Timing perfect, I remember it like it was yesterday.

We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone. Most girls can think of when they feel in love with someone. His eyes, the way he expresses himself, the beautiful features on his head that I dare to call a face because of his perfection. It truly isn't that easy, many fall for the looks and force themselves to love the way they truly are.

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul. It’s the way that you connect. The way you feel around each other, and how much you sincerely and truly deeply crave for each other. One can want, yet at the same time they doubt themselves, you want and if you truly want you will push yourself, make this happen.

We get confused and tied up in love, people will wonder, what is love? Simple but complicated, love is like war: easy to begin but very hard to stop. Love is a force more formidable than any other. It is invisible - it cannot be seen or measured, yet it is powerful enough to transform you in a moment, and offer you more joy than any material possession could. No one can explain the unremarkable love for each other, it is an unknown force. I’d love it to stay that way.

Fillies Family

Author's Note: The reason I wrote this piece, is to show the love for my softball team! Pay attention to the descriptive words at the start of the writing piece. 

Running around the bases, hands stinging from hitting the ball so hard, dirt in my mouth, sliding through home plate, running so fast it feels like I am gonna fly off into the distance, scoring the game winning run, having the joy of being able to play this sport. I love all my sports though, softball is a real joy. My team is so amusing, congratulating you on hitting home runs  even if you did bad, they still cheer for you and lift you up, they make you feel special, that's what it like to have a fillies family. Having a Fillies family is a big joy of mine, because all the girls are very sweet and I love the sport. Before I was a fillies I hated softball, I wanted to play baseball, and I thought softball was a girly-girl sport. Now that I do play softball I am so happy, all the girls are amazing. One of the reasons I love this sport is because of the girls, we have a cheer for each other, also they are all like me, loud, crazy, exciting! At first I thought that I couldn't be myself because they all looked mature, but none of them are! It may be a girly-girl sport but when the fillies come to town it defiantly gets rough!  Hard pitching, far hitting, great fielding, cute little girls. Like my team says "We may be cute, but when the Fillies come to town there's no turning back!"  After being on this team for a year, and waiting for the next year to come, I am so happy with my softball team and I would never change that for any money in the world!

Sally's Story

Author's Note: I wrote this story to have fun writing, and to make Sally have the adventure of her lifetime. This is a descriptive writing piece.

It was a black and stormy night; Sally was sitting up in her bed waiting for the storm to pass.  As she was sitting there watching the rain roll down the window, Sally pretended that the rain falling down the window was a race, WHICH ONE WILL WIN?! While glaring out the window she saw the now familiar figure she can’t explain. Sally’s eyes have seen a strange thing, she saw a person, who distinctly looked like her younger sister. When Sally would try to look harder the person would simply disappear; just like when that cheesecake you really like magically disappears. Sick of this nonsense, she decided to go find this mysterious fading person. Walking down the stairs, she notices the window was open. While looking at the window with curiosity Sally tripped on a random bottle. Sally picked up the bottle and saw there was something in it. After pulling the cork with all her might, it finally opened. Taking out the note, Sally discovered it was addressed to her. It went like this:

Dear Sally,                   
               I have noticed that you have currently found me. Sally, you have no idea what you just got yourself into! This is definitely not a good thing. Writing this note brought pain to my heart, I did not want to give this to you, but I have to. I’m sure that you will be very sad to hear this, but I will have to eliminate you. The reason for this is because you saw me. Before I eliminate you, I will be showing you who I am. You better watch your back, because I'm coming for you! Also you can't run... All connections from phones and computers have been disconnected. Ohh and it’s on…IT’S ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!

Good luck,
The Shadow Women

  Not only was Sally astonished by the note, she was scared at the same time. As Sally thought about what she had done, she didn't hear the ruckus coming from upstairs. Then out of nowhere someone jumped on her back, they fell  down the stairs. Smashing through the glass window at the bottom of the steps. After being smashed through the window Sally and the mysterious person have found themselves in a forest. When Sally looked up she knew it wasn't the normal forest that she was used to; it changed from being bright and filled with rainbows to feeling dark and murderous.
      Right when they stood up after smashing through the window, Sally and the mysterious person started rolling down the an enormous hill. At the bottom of the hill there's a large lake, Sally gets up quickly and runs into the water trying to get away from the crazy person. When Sally finally gets across, the person is just laying there. Sally though "Am I ok?" she looked at her clothes to see if there is any blood. She finds blood all over her side!
As Sally felt to see if her side hurt, she took a quick glance up, and found the person half way across the lake. Sally turned around and started running for her life, she was scared to death. As Sally was sprinting away, she was thinking who  could that be. "Who did I make angry, or was rude to?" Sally imagined. She was reviewing in her mind what had just happened, but there was blood on her side? When the person was in the water there was a trail of blood right behind him. My side doesn't hurt Sally thought, so the blood must be the other person’s.

Sally knew where she was going; she knew the forest inside out. Going all the way to the front of the forest, sitting by the Shore of Wacotichi Island. Sally believed that the person was behind her, she quickly looked for a boat to scream for help. There was not a boat to be found. Sally got up and went to the opposite side of the forest, still on the shore of the island.
Again Sally sprinted, she sprinted right back to her house. Sally went through the back door locking it behind her. Getting the old rusted hammer with the red handle and also a box of large nails. Sally got all of the aged rotten wood from the basement. Hammering the wood on the doors and windows. In a rush to get the last window done Sally had pinched her finger in between two bulky pieces of wood, hurrying to get unstuck. She didn't want to die, not here not now!

 Sally waited and waited, she thought "Is the person ever going to come and hurt me? But I won't let the person hurt me!"  Having unsure feelings on what is going to happen. One of the windows began to ache and moan. Sally didn't hear these noises because she had fallen asleep, to the silent waiting of the murderer. Once Sally woke up she looked around the house, catching her eye was one window. It was the window that had been moaning and aching. There was a circular hole in the wood boards. Sally stuck her head through the hole; it was big enough for a body to fit through. Investigating the house, Sally heard a loud sound. It sounded like a bird flapping its wings. When Sally turned into her guest bedroom she was in complete shock!
            When she walked in all her sheets and covers were over the windows making the room pitch black. She flipped the light switch with a shaking hand and with her head on a swivel; inside she was crumbling from fear. Sally knew something wasn't right, yet she kept moving towards the flapping noise. It was coming from the bathroom; Sally tried to be steady and silent. The old wood didn't help her at all, every step she took there was an earsplitting screech. Once Sally reached the bathroom, there was the faded black blob hanging from the curtain pole.  It was that very thing that made her run out of her house screaming bloody murder.

Out of plain instinct, she ran away. Sally ran with all her might, still sprinting until her home was out of sight. The sweat dripping down her face, yet no time to wipe the sweat away, Sally had fell a few times, but got up as quickly as possible. Coming to a halt, all the breaths she could have taken are gone, panting she stopped at an old oak tree. The oak tree stood tall and proud in front of her, great and mighty, she started examining it. Hands shaking from the running she had set them on her hips, crooked back, leaning forward, Sally had noticed something terrifying!

If seeing the slimy black blob in Sally’s house wasn't enough, the same blob was there! Little black blobs, dripping off of the gigantic one, as if it were raining black slimy, goopy, icky black blob! The rush of scariness has hit me smack in the face. There hung  the blob that will end my life, Sally thought as she backed up slowly. Not seeing the blobs eyes or face, she had thought, the blob hasn't seen me I must get away while I have my time! As If there was a baby in the room, Sally kept sneaking away farther and father. Quietly. She hadn't been looking at the ground, but just the blob. SNAP!! Sally had now just marched right on top of a stick! Looking down at the now broken stick, Sally instantly looked towards the blob.

For the time being, there were still no eyes! Wait a quick flash of light and now eyes, mouth, ears, and nose. The blob had her marked down in sight!  Oh-No what do I do? In a panic Sally starts to turn around but fails, and ends up hugging the ground. By the time Sally had looked up the blob was dripping on her! Right on top of Sally lays the key to being non-existent! The blob took a while examining Sally. Trotting in a circle around Sally, starring, the stair that Sally was given was strange, it felt like the blob had been starring into Sally’s soul. Letting all Sally’s emotions free, no longer afraid of the blob Sally sat up. Toppling back went the blob; he must not have been ready for that.

I’ll be the first to admit, I was ready for that blob to hurdle on top of me and battle me down to the ground again. Yet nothing, just the blob being frightened. If the blob wasn't ready for me to sit up…what about bolting away, I had caught my breathe long ago.  As I make my master escape, the blob trapped me, I am immovable  It has tied me up—with what?—wait I’m covered in black blob, it must be him!