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Once upon a moonlit night, a young woman raced past all the shops and homes of the city. Passing a host of confused faces peering out of illuminated windows, she finally made her way to the outskirts of town, where the only sounds were train whistles hooting in the far distance. Never looking back even once, she fled into the ominous forest. The city was not safe anymore. As she caught her breath at the foot of a large tree, there was a rustling in the bushes. A chill went up her weary spine. She couldn’t stand this feeling anymore. She ran as fast as she could, stopping abruptly at a bush where light seemed to omit and whispers were carried on the icy wind. Was this the very place of refuge she sought for? She carefully peeled back the undergrowth and peeked into the clearing. Three men in black coats, hats, and sunglasses stood roasting marshmallows on an open fire. Just who she was trying to get away from! She tried to conceal a surprised yell, but it was no use. A strained sound escaped from her dry throat. The shady men wheeled around on their leather-clad feet. They looked around intensely, yet did not spot the frightened woman hiding in the bushes. After they stopped looking for her, she fainted with sheer exhaustion. The woman was awakened when the songbirds belted out their merry tune and the bright sunrise creeped through the forest. She was still lying by the bushes. But the men were gone. She quietly got up and brushed herself off. She was to resume her treacherous journey immediately. Running barefoot through the woods, the poor woman got many nicks and scrapes on her dirty feet. She was worried about her feet, yet kept on running.  She was so busy looking down at her injured feet that she didn’t notice the wall. She ran into it with a loud thump. As she once again got up, she realized that the large brick wall was surrounded by thousands of bright red roses. She gave a very slight smile. She knocked on the wooden door. A friendly face answered. The woman whispered the password. The face nodded, typed something into the door, and suddenly there were multiple clicks, whirs, and beeps as the mechanical gate slowly creaked open. The woman collapsed tiredly inside the safe walls. Many people surrounded the woman- the woman whose name was Rose.

It was Friday, August 13. I rolled out of my lumpy bed, and walked to the mirror. I clearly wasn’t going to let some superstitious Holiday ruin my day. I smiled at myself. “ Hello, beautiful.” I thought as I combed my ratty hair and struggled into my itchy dress.

As I was going downstairs for breakfast, my mom stopped me. “ Good morning, Addison! “ I said good morning back. “ What’s up?” I asked. “ You know about Grandma Louis’s sprain, right?” I nodded worriedly. “ Well, turns out your Aunt couldn’t deliver those oatmeal raisin cookies to her, and I certainly can’t go, since I have a meeting at our house with the bookclub. I was hoping you could take them. After all, you are 12.” “ Ok, mom.” I said. “Good.” She handed me a large map of Oklahoma, and rushed off. “ Lois should be somewhere on West Huckleberry Lane,” She called over her shoulder. “and feel free to ask around for directions if you need them!”  “ Love you, mom!” I called back as I rushed downstairs to enjoy some delicious blueberry pancakes.

Around Five O’clock I pulled on my plaid sweater, said goodbye to mom, and hurried off into the chilly evening. I hopped onto my bike, and put the cookies in the bike basket. I started off confidently, but as the cold evening got even colder, and it got darker, I had second thoughts.

“ Man,” I thought to myself. “ I’m like the present day Little Red Riding Hood.” I looked down at my red sweater. Eventually, I got lost. I got off my bike and studied the map, but in the dark evening, I could barely see a thing. I confused East Herod Way with my grandma’s street, and for the second time this evening, I rode off. 

I looked around as I peddled, and things got stranger and stranger. The woods became darker and more ominous, and strange animals rustled around in the forest. Believe it or not, no matter how many times Grandma Louis visited, I’d never been to her house. I came to an abandoned-looking shack. “ Well, I guess this is grandma’s place.” I mumbled to myself as I shifted uneasily on my seat. As I squinted my eyes, I thought I could detect a a person moving around inside. “ Uh… this place gives me the creeps,” I thought. “ Well, I guess your house would look like that if you lived all alone in the forest…” I remembered the strange noises, and thought I’d better get inside.

I climbed up the creaky steps and knocked on the scratched wooden door. Nobody answered, so I opened it. The house was dark, and cats gently mewed from all directions. I slowly proceeded. The house seemed empty as I tiptoed down the hall, and it had an eerie red glow to it. Suddenly, from behind, a voice whispered a greeting. “Hello, dear” It said. The hairs on my neck stood straight up. I let out a shrill scream.  The lights came on. A woman stood there, horrified, as her hair bristled with curling pins. “ Oh, sorry.” The woman murmured. “ I was expecting my daughter, but I guess she didn’t come tonight.” The woman looked sad. “ I’m sorry about that.” I sympathetically said. “ Why is your house so…“ I couldn’t finish the sentence for fear of hurting her feelings. “…creepy?” She finished. “ Oh, well, that red light you’re seeing is actually my nightlight. Red’s my favorite color, you know. You probably saw me moving around in here, since I was just about to go to bed when you came.” The woman explained. “ Sorry I disrupted you.” I replied. “ Oh, dear, you didn’t bother me one bit. I’m lonely, and that’s why I keep so many cats.” 

The nice lady gave me the directions for Grandma Lois’s house over a cup of tea. Turns out, she and grandma were childhood friends. I got on my way, giving grandma the cookies and telling her hello for the sake of the nice lady, and now every Friday the 13th we visit the nice lady. I’d glad I got lost, because I made a nice new friend!

                                 THE END

“Crash!!!”  People rush to the scene of the wreck.  Yes, sadly it is another car crash because of the lack of sidewalks in our community.  These small-seeming issues can truly affect our health, safety, and overall wellbeing.  Sidewalks may not seem important, yet they have many health and safety benefits.  They also may be able to improve our lives in ways not even imagined!

This important issue needs to be addressed because our safety is in jeopardy!  Pedestrians that are forced onto the road because of the lack of sidewalks may accidentally be plowed into by a vehicle.  These accidents are both dangerous to automobiles and walkers.  Sidewalks would also provide a safe riding habitat for bikers.  Don’t you want your children to grow up in a safe city? 

Another reason why we need sidewalks in Jasper is because they promote health by an active lifestyle.  People can get out of shape because they can’t walk or ride their bikes around safely in our beautiful city!  Jasper’s adult obesity rate has skyrocketed!  What used be 20.5% is now 33.6%.  The obesity problem could be improved by the installation of sidewalks.

Even though Jasper may be a bit of a small city, the installation of sidewalks could help grow the economy here, helping businesses thrive!  There are many small businesses and important public buildings in Jasper that are located within walking distance of each other.  Sidewalks could make shopping and other activities more conveniently accessed by pedestrians.  This would also increase the opportunity for these businesses to sell their goods and services, therefore growing the economy.  Sidewalks in Jasper could be the path to a brighter financial future!

As you can see, sidewalks are an important investment in Jasper.  They’re an investment in our health because they promote an active and healthy lifestyle.  Sidewalks are an investment in our safety because they keep you off the road and out of harms way.  And lastly, sidewalks are an investment in our economy because they make businesses more accessible.  If you want our community to be safer, healthier, and more successful, then sidewalks are a step up!

CHAPTER 1

Farmer Brown

Farmer Brown sighed. He was tilling the ground by his farm, and he wanted to find the tool that was just right. His eyes fell to the old pitchfork. He smiled and picked up the tattered piece of metal. It always seemed to hold the answer. Suddenly, it started to rain an orange liquid. He held out his hand to touch the enchanting substance, but winched in pain and drew his hand back quickly. He stared at his hand in awe. It was smeared with blood. “I won’t last long in this storm,” He thought. “ It has just rained, and this lava stuff will make a deadly flood!” Some people would have lost hope, and at first Mr. Brown did, but then something marvelous happened. He thought of the pitchfork. Without even thinking, he grabbed the sturdy fork and stuck it into the ground. He grabbed his rake, and then his shovel, and sunk those Into the ground, too. He was making a path to the big oak that was a few feet away from him. He climbed onto the pitchfork and smiled in satisfaction as the fork groaned, then settled with a high-pitched squeak. He gathered his breath, and with a mighty leap jumped to the rake. But the trouble came when he jumped on the shovel. As he was about to jump to the mighty oak, the shovel broke. He yelled out in surprise. “ This is the end!” He cried.   

CHAPTER 2

Sequoia

“Cheery Up, Cheerily! Cheery Up, Cheerily!” Sequoiasighed. “ There is wisdom in your words, Robin.” She whispered. Sequoia’s mother had died earlier in the month. She was very close to her.  Sequoia was jolted back to reality when she noticed a strange sap oozing out of a nearby tree. A small leaf filled with water tipped out of the same tree, dousing the odd sap. It immediately turned black. She reached out in wonder, but some of the sap fell from the sky, right on her! The sap stung like a bullet. She quietly rubbed her arm while thinking. After a few minutes, she had pieced all the pieces of the puzzle together. “ Lava!”  She cried. “It’s lava!”  Just at that moment, a baby raccoon stalked up to her. It was all alone and smudged with dirt. She scooped the baby in her arms and they huddled together through the deadly rain.

CHAPTER 3

Karla 

Karla Johnston wiped her head in satisfaction as she surveyed the  delicious batch of cookies that  just came out of the oven. Her gaze shifted from the cookies to the smiling  painting of her mom. Darlene Johnston looked proudly down from her stoop on the wall. Karla smiled wearily. “ I kept my promise, mama.” She quietly said.    “ I’ve ran the bakery.”  Her daddy had drawn that picture of mom when Karla was very little. Now, her mom was in a nursing home and barely ever called or visited. Karla had ran mama’s little bakery for a over a year now. She wiped her flour-stained hands on her apron, and decided she needed to go shopping. As she was about to walk down from her cozy apartment, she stopped dead in her tracks. Below her was a boiling vat of lava! She rubbed her eyes, half expecting to wake up with her head on the marble counter, but nothing happened. She gulped, and ran unto her room. “PAWS!!!” She cried. The little kitten slowly walked up to her. She picked up paws and held him to her face. “ We need to get out of here- NOW!”

CHAPTER 4

Danika.

“Like… this is taking like-forever!” Danika Larson angrily tapped her foot, until a text popped up on her screen. It read:

She and her friend, Mattie, had a long, looong  conversation.

Basically, Mattie thought they would have their party (yes, they were having a party.) in the city, but  Danika said they were going to have it in the mountains, and got all upset. Mattie understood and was sorry, and then Danika asked if she had remembered to hire a car driver. Danika forgot, and so Mattie just gave up.

“Uhh…” Danika thought.  “ Mattie’s nice… but she sometimes gets on my nerves.” “DAN!” Came a cry from the living room. “DAAAN!!!” “What, sis?” Danika yelled back, running into the living room. “Orange juice!” She happily stated as she pointed to a bubbling orange mixture. “ Uhh… hate to burst your bubble- BUT THAT’S LAVA!!!” She screamed. “WE HAVE TO GET AWAY!!!!!!!!” She grabbed her sister, Harriette, and slung her over her shoulder. She dashed away from the frothy lava.

CHAPTER 5

Farmer Brown

Mr. Brown slowly opened his eyes. Was he dead? He looked around him.  There was lava swirling everywhere. Why wasn’t he burning? He looked down. There was a gray slab of concrete. He remembered. “I fell on The  Ruins…” “The Ruins” goes back a hundred years, when Mr. Brown’s great grandpa settled the land and built a thriving, bustling farmhouse. After many years of use, the old farmhouse fell apart, and only a particular slab of concrete remained. Mr. Brown fell into a dreamy daze… and only woke up when he burned. The lava had risen, and his arm had fallen in the it. He pulled it out of the horrible brew. “I need to go to the Oak!” He thought as he stood up. He gathered his breath and jumped onto the majestic tree.

CHAPTER 6

Sequoia 

“Whimper. Whimper.” As the bubbling lava turned into puddles, baby raccoon whimpered. “Shh… baby raccoon, shh…” Sequoia comforted the raccoon. The lava encircled them, and the kind Cherokee girl began to worry. “I know what we need to do.” She stated as she quietly stood up. There were trees all around, and she planned to jump from tree to tree. She put the raccoon around her trembling neck like a scarf, and gathered her wits. She finally jumped onto a tree, and held on for dear life. She swung until she had gathered enough momentum. She then let go, and she flew to the other tree effortlessly. This went on until Sequoia felt she would burst with soreness. She groggily climbed the mighty Elm she was currently on, and closed her eyes with exhaustion. Before she knew it, she was dreaming. She dreamed she saw two men walking on the lava. They walked right to her Elm and held up a pair of rock-shoes. “Wait a minute…” She thought. “I’m not dreaming!” With trembling hands, she grabbed the rock-shoes and put them on. The men explained everything. “We knew a lava crisis was coming,” One man said. “ And John here thought rocks wouldn’t burn apart if they were submerged. Well, he was right , and he also thoughtup the brilliant idea of rock-shoes.” They talked as they walked the long way to higher ground, and even raccoon felt at ease.

CHAPTER 7

Karla

Paws meowed and wiggled. “Now don’t you knock us off here.” Karla quietly reprimanded him. They had found no place to get out, so here they were, sitting on the window ledge with no place to go. Karla thought hard as she stared at the gurgling mess in front of her. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head. She reached for the scissors she kept in her pocket. “Always be prepared.” Her mom had always said when they were baking. Karla could almost hear mom speaking to her right by her side. She looked at her thick, black hair. “ Man…” She thought. “This hair won medals!” She took yet another solemn moment to look at her hair. After she finished, she carefully cut each of her separate, long braids, and quickly tied them together. “Hard as steel.” She thought to herself as she pulled on the sturdy braid-rope. She tied the rope to her bedroom window, and carefully climbed down, Paws clawing at her neck like a jaguar. She climbed until she reached a tree stump, and hopped on.

CHAPTER 8

Danika.

Danika franticly texted her friend.

Danika said that lava makes her very sad and that she and her sis were trapped on a car, and Mattie rolled her eyes. Danika then said she was very carsick, and then Mattie was surprised.

This fits in with the story, because Danika and her sister were trapped on a car. They jumped from their apartment building to get away from the lava and landed on an overturned car, and there they were. “Uhh…” Danika said. “ I don’t feel so good…” Harriette giggled.“ Big wave come up!” She said.  Danika suddenly became ever-alert. “That wave could kill us!” She whispered. The wave quickly washed past, but knocked Danika’s phone into the lava! “NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!” Danika screamed. “NOT THE PHONE!!!!!! ANYTHING BUT THE PHONE!!!!” She watched in horror and resentment as her Apple I-phone slowly sunk into the glowing, orange liquid.

CHAPTER 9

Farmer Brown

Mr. Brown shivered. “Strange I’m cold” He thought. “I’m a few feet away from scalding lava!” There was no sound around him. Not a bird. Not even a cricket. Lucky for him, the lava seemed to be going down. “All gone…” He whispered to himself. “it’s all gone…” He looked down at his house. It was a heap of charred bricks, in the midst of swirling lava. He fell asleep looking at the house. When he woke up, the lava was gone. There was no grass, just unrecognizable heaps of black stone. He gingerly climbed down from the tree. He walked through a new world. He almost stepped on an object, which he picked up. It was a pitch-black skull. He shivered at the thought of what had happened to the owner of the fragment of bone. It was child-sized, with a hole on the top. He shed a single tear. He walked for a while, and sighed with relief. There was his wife, surveying the damage done by the lava. He walked over and hugged her.

CHAPTER 10

Sequoia 

Sequoia laughed. “Dawson is funny.”  She thought. John and Dawson took her to their home on top of a hill, where they introduced her to their sister, Carmela. They gave her some clean clothes, and waited while the lava went down. She looked at the little raccoon, which she had named F.S.. (“F.S.” Stood for Fire Stormer) He was happily nibbling on a cracker. Sequoia was going to keep him as a pet, since his mom was probably killed by the lava. She gathered the baby raccoon in her arms, and rocked him in her chair. “Hey, everyone!” John said. “The lava’s all gone!” Everyone in the room cheered, and John walked over with smile on his face. He walked right over to Sequoia, and got on one knee. “I never thought we’d survive this.” He said to her. “Will you-“  He started. “Yes.” Sequoia said. “Yes!” She hugged John tight and grinned. F.S. climbed onto Sequoia, and snuggled into her shoulder.

CHAPTER 11

Karla

Paws  walked to the other side of the stump anxiously. His tail accidentally dropped into the lava, and he hissed with pain. “Smart move,” Said Karla sarcastically. “I was getting your tail clipped, anyway.” The lava was going down quick, and soon a group of people appeared. They kept saying things like “We survived!” And “Thank God!” Karla looked at her shoes. She had given up on religion ever since her dad died. “Why do they look so happy?” She thought. “They seem so carefree- like they never worry!” She waved her hands to get their attention, and they came over. A woman in the group smiled. “Mom?!” Karla cried. “Is that you?” The lady hugged her. “Sorry I never visited!” She cried. “It’s all right.” Karla said. “I guess I didn’t make an effort to keep in touch with you.” Darlene whispered something in her ear. “Yes!!” Karla cried. “I’d love to join your group!” She hugged her mom again. “Let’s go home.” Her mom said. And they did.

CHAPTER 12

Danika

“I’m gonna call Katie on your phone,” Harriet said, reaching for Danika’s pocket.” “You can’t,” Danika bluntly said. “It’s burned up, remember?” Harriet pouted. “I have no life now!” She whined. “ ‘fraid so.” Danika said. Harriet’s eyes widened. Look behind you!” She cried to Danika. “I’m not falling for that, now.” Danika said. “IT’S TRUE!!!” Harriet excitedly yelled. “There’s Mattie!” Danika slowly looked behind her. “Why, you’re right!” She said. “There’s Mattie and her family, and the lava’s gone!” She jumped off the car and ran to Mattie. “Sorry I was so impatient!” She said as she hugged her friend. “It’s all right.” Mattie said. “The lava destroyed your home, so now you can live with us!” “All right!” Danika yelled. “C’mon, Harriet! We’re living with Mattie now!” Harriet ran over to them, and pumped her fist with glee.