Rush Hour

In 3rd quarter mandarin, we learned about the Chinese New Year. In this video, you will learn about some facts that you probably did not know.

This is my operation manual. It is a book of universal laws about how earth works. We have to make the pages out of recycled materials only, and it is really fun.

In 3rd quarter mandarin, we learned the 祝福词 (wishing/blessing words.) It has 16 terms. My favorite game on quizlet is space race, because you have to type in mandarin.

chapter 1: controversial call

I  take a deep breath, and push the doors open. I walk down the halls with a giant smirk on my face. When I pass my friends, my smirk grows even more. They all look a little sad, but when they see me, they flash a friendly smile. I know why they are sad. The reason fills me with aplomb. The San Francisco Giants beat the New York Mets last night. It was the wild card game. The one game elimination. If you win, you go on, but if you lose, well, better luck next season. Jaden, a Mets fan walks up to me. He and I really know baseball, more than anyone in the grade. We talk about the game, our predictions and the stats of all of the players. As a fan, Jaden is upset, but he is always willing to discuss a game. But as we are talking, going through the game inning by inning, a controversial call comes up…

 

In the seventh inning, with two outs, Joe Panik, the SF Giants second baseman was on second base, when Hunter Pence sailed one deep. It was not a homerun, but it allowed a big opportunity to appear. The Giants jumped on it as soon as it happened. Curtis Granderson sprinted towards the wall to catch the ball. He realized that he wouldn’t make it so he dove. Luck has it that he missed. Juan Lagares, the Mets center fielder ran over after Granderson missed, and launched it to second baseman. He relayed it home where the Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud caught the amazing throw and tagged Joe Panik. He thought he tagged him out, but he didn’t look at the umpire’s call. The ump called Panik safe, but by that time, the catcher was already walking towards the dugout, pumping his fist. His teammates were yelling at him that the runner was called safe. He turned around, and his face turned white. Hunter Pence had just crossed home. That was two runs for the Giants. Terry Collins, the Mets manager calmly walked onto the field, and talked to the chief umpire. He wanted a instant replay. 10 minutes later, the call came it. “After review, the ruling on the field stands. The runner is safe.” Boo’s ran out from across the stadium. The players in the Giants dugout cheered. The players in the mets dug out put their hands over their faces and turned around. The final score was 3-2, Giants.

 

We said our arguments for how the call was safe or out, but we were still in disagreement. Jaden even took out his phone to show me a clip of the play. It was so close, but we were still in disagreement. After five minutes, we laughed and said, “Let’s agree to disagree.” That was fine for us. The bell rang and we walked to class together.

 

We entered the room, and sat down. We were the last people to arrive, but we are still on time. I sit down and talk to my friends for a few minutes, but then the teacher tells us to be quiet so she can take attendance.

 

 

chapter 2: a chemistry disaster

“Julien Adams”

“Here”

“Joseph Austin”

“Here”

“Miranda Barbers”

“Here”

“Brandon Cain”

“Here” I say.

 

I  zone out for the rest of the names and wait for my next class to start. I look up at the schedule, and see that it is science. Science is my favorite class, so it’s a great way to start the day. We are studying chemistry. And that is even better. I love putting chemicals together to make explosions.

 

We walk up the stairs to the science lab and I see a small brown fluffball running around. My friends and I realise that is the pet gerbil of the science lab. Julien reacts quickly, and just like that, problem solved. We get the gerbil back into its cage and we start class.

When we enter the science lab, our teacher has this written on the board:

Today, you will be testing various chemicals. You will mix the chemicals to make a chemical reaction. With 5 minutes left, you will present your reaction to your table. I will come around and ask questions, so make sensible choices of chemicals to mix.

He explains our class objective for the day.

“Today we will be testing chemical reactions. You need to find chemicals in the lab that represent these four chemical types. If you can make your mix make smoke, steam, or bubble up, you may present your chemicals to the glass. When you are testing, make sure to wear safety goggles, gloves, and if you don’t want to get dirty, a smock. Oh, and if you would like, you can pair up with a partner.”

Immediately after he says that, jumping eyes dart across the room, all directed at the person my classmates want to be partners with. After that is done, we all nod, eager to start.

Jaden and I get off of our stools and walk over to each other. We talk about our ideas, and the chemicals to use. Then we walk over to the safety locker, where all of the safety equipment is located. We grab goggles and gloves, and run to the line to get the chemicals. we are the 6th pair in line, but we are quickly allowed to skip everybody because we already know what chemicals we want. We grab six chemicals and run to the back table. Two other groups arrive soon after. We do a quick 2 minute discussion and then we get to work.

Julien and Joseph are paired , and they can get a little crazy sometimes. Luck has it, that ten minutes later, they are just dumping all of their chemicals into their beeker. They picked random chemicals, and those chemicals are highly reactive with each other. They are laughing and jumping around, but right when Mr. Davidson looks over, they stop and look serious. Miranda walks over, and being the bossy person that she is, has a fit about what they are doing. In the process, she knocks the last chemical into the beaker, and the whole thing explodes. The whole beaker breaks into many small glass shards, and everybody is screaming. One of the shards sinks it self into my arm, and this one is a big one. I shriek in pain, and drop down on my knees. The glass is making my arm numb, but it also feels like There is a rabid dog tearing my skin apart. I take my left hand, the one that is ok, and  take the two inch long piece of glass out of my arm. I hurts even more, now it feels more like I got shot. But after a few seconds, I get a bit of relief. I stand back up and help clean up, with my right arm throbbing. I push it to the back of my mind.

After a minute, everyone stops what they are doing and looks at me weirdly. I look at them awkwardly but then Mr. Davidson says, “Brandon, what happened to your arm?” I look down, and all of the color get flushed from my face. My arm is covered in blood. Mr. Davidson yells, “JOE! Bring Brandon to the nurse now, and do it quickly!”

“Ok.”

I start walking to the stairs, with Joseph right on my heels. My sprint down the stairs, blood dripping from my arm. four floors down, we stop quickly, turn the corner, and run into the nurses office. She is working with a fourth grader who is sick, but right when she sees me, dropps here thermometer and grabs thread and a needle. She motions for me to come to her, and I obey. I am a little sceptical of getting stitches, but it will help me. The nurse grabs the paper towels on her desk and wipes the blood away, without ever ripping the sheet from the roll. I see how big the gash is for the first time I wince. It is bigger than the glass. Ouch. The nurse grabs the needle, and threads the string in the blink of an eye. She gives me 12 stitches, close to one another. The nurse walks me over to the bathroom, and we wash my skin off. She gives me a quick debrief of what happened, and I nod my head. Then she calls my parents, and the come to pick me up.

When I am in the car, I feel really tired. I fall asleep in a heartbeat.

 

 

chapter 3: the lottery

When I wake up, I’m lying down in my bed. My mom and dad are on the edges of it. They look a little too happy for what just happened, but before I can say anything, my mom says, “Brandon, honey. We just heard from the San Francisco Giants lottery people.”

“They said that you got first place!” my dad said.

“”You won the trip to San Francisco! You get to go onto the field, throw out the first pitch, and meet all of the players!” stated my mom as she eagerly read from the letter.

Right as she finished that sentence, I realised what had just happened. I was going to San Francisco and was going to meet the players on my favorite baseball team!

 

 

3 months later

chapter 4: the ride

My family and I board the plane, eager to take off. When we do, I look at the fight path. We are taking the normal route for good weather. Over the rockies and more or less in a straight line. The flight is really smooth, partly because of the recently invented ThroWing™ technology.

I decide to sleep, as I have a big next few days…

I jolt up, and that is when I hear the wing snap off…

 

 

chapter 5: a sudden tragedy

I hear sirens going off from the cockpits, and emergency speakers saying: “WING DETACHED! EMERGENCY! THE WING HAS DETACHED, AND THE ENGINE IS DOWN!”

The oxygen masks drop from above us, and the whole plane is chaos. It is slowly falling, but its speed it increasing by the second. The good thing is is that we are not falling nose first, but instead we a free falling with the plane at the angle it is when it is flying. The next thing that comes into my mind is where are we going to crash? I see that my flight path is still on, and we are over the middle of the rockie mountains. Oh no…

At that moment, we hit the snowy mountain side. We start sliding down the mountain, and after a few hundred feet,  we hit a boulder and launch off of it. We land smack in a break in a different mountain. Now, everybody screams. They get out of their seats. A few mothers yell, “My baby, help!” or, “My child, help! He’s hurt!” By now, people are getting out of their seats and helping the injured. But then, a shout ricochets across the broken walls of the plane. “The pilot and copilot are dead!” A man falls to his knees, “My wife and one of my children is dead!”

“AHH!” a woman yells, right before she faints. She falls and hits her head on a piece of glass. Her eyes fall to the back of her head. She is dead. A child starts crying, then another, and another. The a few adults. They all cry the same thing, almost in unison, “DEAD! DEAD!” They all started crying. I start turning, surveying the damage, and the amount of people who died. About 75 people out of the 100 people have died. When I am turning, I see somebody out of my eye. I tell my parents that I have to go find something. They give me a nod of approval and I walk off, which is when I feel the sorrow in my chest. I feels like the heaviest thing in the world, like an unliftable weight. I grab my coat from the broken coat rack, and walk off into the snow. I notice that the inflatable slides have deployed from the plane, and the snow is three feet deep.

I trudge through the snow, and I wearily approach the sprawled out figure. He is not dead, but he is close to being dead. I hear him moaning, and the weight on my chest gets heavier. I say, “hello?” It is almost like he doesn’t hear me, be he sputters out, “my leg…” I look at him, and then see that his leg is under a rock, twisted at an abnormal angle. I feel crazy. I want to lift the rock. I walk over, and right before I try to push, the weight gets lifted and am am immediately filled with adrenaline. I heave, and surprisingly, lift the rock. The man moans, but slowly he stands up. He tilts his head,and looks at me. I feel a strong urge to run, but my curiosity gets the better of me. I walk up to him, and in a weak voice say, “Hello.” He slowly responds but when he does, he mumbles, “I’m Jason. I need to help these people. They all need help, and there are a lot of dead people.”

“I want to help to, but lets get you into the shelter of the plane, and I’ll look for some first aid stuff. Ok?”

“Ok.”

As we walk, he asks about the radios. I think, wow, he really cares about other a lot more than himself. I don’t know if that is good or bad. I answer him by saying, “I don’t know. After everybody stops freaking out and gets some rest, we can look. Are you with anyone?”

“No. Just me.”

“Ok”

 

 

chapter 6: the plan

After we all wake up, everyone is much more calm. I take Jason to the cockpit. Behind me, a man walks up to me and says, “We moved all of the bodies out and away from the plane, and we cleaned up the blood so that people wouldn’t get more scared.”

“Ok, thanks.” I reply

I open the door, and I see the controls. It smells like smoke and I guess that they caught on fire. Jason starts mumbling words that I can’t make out, but it seems like an equation. I ask him, and he say that it is something he learned 30 years ago in college, about wires and electricity. He walks over to the wires that connect to the radio. He takes the black and blue wires in one hand, and the white and gold/yellow wires in the other.he starts rubbing his thumb against the blue wire, and does the same with the white one. They just start mending, magicly! It is amazing. I am mesmerized. I thought that magic was fake. I come closer, and soon, where there used to be a white wire and a blue wire, there is a light blue section of wire. I am feeling so weird and exited, I think that I might faint. Then, he tells me.

“Brandon…”

“How did you know my name?”

“I know a lot… But I need to tell you something.”

“What?”

“I am not  human.” I feel like I just took a hit to the gut. He no longer sounds weak and frail like he did. I see him slowly turning into someone younger, His true self.

“Then what else are you?” I ask, curiously.

“I am a wizard. I can do magic, and I intend to use it to save these survivors. But I need help, and clearly you are the right person.”

“Ok. What do you need? I ask eagerly.

“More magic.” I am stunned.

“How can I do magic?”

“I can give it to you. Convert you to a wizard. But you need to promise me something.” Then, I realize that him lost and stuck  under a rock was a test to see who his companion would be.

 

“What?” I don’t believe this. It is crazy.

“You must promise to never use magic for evil, you can never use it in front of humans. You can also never use it to cheat on tests and in sports.”

“Ok.”

“Also, now will be able to tell who is a wizard and who is not.”

“Ok. I promise.” I am freaking out. I feel like I am about to explode with happiness and excitement.

“You will also know the wizard langue.”

I nod.

He whispers something, and wala, I see him differently. He is wearing a blue cloak, but no pointy hat like you would expect.

Finally, he says, “We are going to save these people.”

But then he vanishes. gone, forever…