Jeremy Sporner

The Rude Duckling

It was the beginning of summer in Denmark, and the usually barren desolate landscape was covered in endless colors of yellow wheat and green oats, and the smell of fresh-cut hay filled the air. In the middle of this majestic landscape sat a long forgotten house overran with tall grasses and weeds, so high in fact that a family could live there and never be found out. So desolate in fact, that this was the location a mother duck had chosen to build a nest which contained 6 eggs, one of which was larger than the others and was an ugly shade of grey. The mother duck wondered about the different egg and how it had gotten to be that way. As a matter of fact other birds thought that when the duck went for an evening swim another bird that didn’t want to be a mother may have snuck the egg in and fled, with the mother duck oblivious to the whole situation. However, the mother duck wasn’t the brightest and shrugged the strange situation off, and took care of the odd egg with the same love and care of the rest. The mother duck was a first time mother, which caused her to be much more careful about the eggs, never leaving them out of sight for too long of a time. However the longer she sat on the eggs the more weary and tired of tending to them she became. Although she longed to be rid of the burden of sitting on the eggs, she knew that abandoning them and allowing them to die would most certainly lead to being exiled. And so, persistently the mother duck sat on the eggs only getting up several times a day to check for cracks in the shell, possibly the reason why the eggs didn’t crack sooner.

The mother duck had looked at the six eggs at least one hundred and fifty times, and still the eggs looked the same as they had the first time she had looked at them. However she persistently kept up with checking for cracks when to her surprise she saw tiny cracks on two of the eggs, and excitedly moved the eggs closer and proceeded to sit on them, never moving for the rest of the day. By the next morning, the rest of the smaller eggs had cracks in them, and by the afternoon there were several small yellow heads poking out of shells. This fresh encouragement led her to free the baby ducks from the shells and proceed to clean the broken shells out of the nest. However, the one large grey shell still didn’t have any cracks in it by the end of the day and began to complain to neighbors about the strange egg. An old neighbor asked to have a look at the strange egg and immediately had an idea. “It is a turkey egg, once I was tricked into sitting on turkey eggs, and once they hatched they were so stupid that nothing could make them learn to swim” said the neighbor. Not being deterred by what the neighbor had said, the mother duck decided to give the egg one more day, before giving up on the egg hatching. And so, the mother duck sat on the egg for the next day, giving up the morning bath, and sat all day. When the evening came the mother duck risked a peek and noticed a small crack in the egg. Excited from seeing the crack, the mother duck sat on the egg all through the next night, not risking even a single move. With the morning sun came the feeling of something moving under the mother duck, and as she moved, a large goofy bird fell headfirst onto the ground.

Nobody could deny how ugly this bird was including the mother duck. However the ugly duckling was big and strong and could out-swim all of his brothers and sisters. After the swim the family went back to the bank where the neighbor was waiting. The neighbor exclaimed that the ugly duckling was not a turkey after all, but was distinguished and held its head up well all though the neighbor couldn’t determine what the ugly duckling really was. When the duck family joined the rest of the ducks, the consensus idea was to chase it out, seeing as there were already too many ducks around, and one duck ran at the ugly duckling and bit his neck. The mother duck defended the duck however, the damage was done and many of the crowd began to make fun of the duckling calling him ugly and strange. From that day forward the ugly duckling was made fun of endlessly.

The ugly duckling had been made fun of for so long that I began to notice a change in him. A change that I, myself had seen happen too many times to count. You see, the more you hurt someone and put them down the colder they begin to get. As his siblings persistently made his life hell, the duckling reached a point where the only thing he wanted to do was to make them experience the same pain he had experienced, and make their lives hell as well. As I said before, the more you torment someone, the more pain and suffering they want to inflict onto others. And it was at this point in which I watched the ugly duckling become the rude duckling. As the duckling began to tire of being hurt he began to make fun of his siblings for things they couldn’t control, such as being a slow swimmer or having a small beak. The rude duckling relentlessly tormented his family to the point where they didn’t even want him around anymore and they began to avoid him. The rude duckling quickly lost his welcome and was chased away from his family. The rude duckling traveled alone for some time until he ran into a group of wild ducks. The wild ducks tried being friendly to the rude duckling, however with his new-found rude nature, the rude duckling proceeded to hackle the wild ducks, and they quickly flew away leaving the rude duckling alone once again. The rude duckling was alone and cold, with no food to speak of when he came across a cottage.

In this cottage lived a kind old woman along with her cat and hen. The old woman cherished pets more than anything in the world as they were all she had, so when she found the rude duckling alone and on his own, she took no hesitation in offering him a place to call home. The rude duckling, realizing that he had nothing decided to treat the old woman with kindness and respect in order to gain her trust, however the rude duckling had no intentions on treating her pets with the same respect and kindness. When the old woman would go to the market the duckling would proceed to make the pets lives hell, making fun of them, biting them, and creating a mess they wouldn’t dare to blame on him or else face the wrath of the duckling when the old woman left again. For several months the duckling got away with it, and summer turned into fall, and fall into winter. One day the old woman had gone to the store and the duckling proceeded to raise hell like usual when the door opened and the old woman saw what had really been going on the whole time. The rude duckling, having no excuses for his actions was thrown out of his house into the freezing winter to fend for himself again. The duckling found a cave on the edge of the lake, and spent his whole winter realizing the error of his ways, and the ways in which he had wronged people in his life and vowed to make a change.

Now through this whole time the rude duckling had been changing, not only on the inside but on the outside as well. Spring was back again, and the ice had melted off the lake, and the rude duckling decided to take a swim when he noticed a group of swans. Immediately the swans began to call out to him as if he was a long-lost friend. The rude duckling was bewildered by this and couldn’t figure out what was going on. The swans were cracking jokes amongst the group, and making fun of each other in much the same way the rude duckling had made fun of his siblings. The rude duckling looked down at the water and realized that he was not a duckling at all. Over the winter the goofy looking duck had turned into a beautiful swan, and with that he realized why he looked so goofy and awkward. With that realization the swans took off, with the ugly duckling right amongst the rest of them and took flight. The ugly duckling had never felt so accepted in his life.

Christana Vaal

Modern Princess

I clutched his hand tightly as we walked up the steps to the apartment. I stopped halfway up the second flight. “Derek, I’m not sure this is the best idea.” I said, trying to stress the distress in my voice. “From what you’ve said, your mom is very picky about who you bring home, and well, I’m not the best girl ever either.” I rambled, stalling.

Derek leaned down and kissed me before laughing and saying, “But, I love you and you’re different from other girls.”

I was different. Oddly different I decided, looking down at my knee socks that didn’t match and the high tops that were marked up, unfortunately, these shoes were my only decent pair. I continued to climb the stairs as I looked over my appearance. I wore a tore bright green long sleeve shirt over a black tank top and an orange pleated skirt. I still was boggled about what Derek saw in me exactly.

“Mom, she can be tough, but, once she sees how beautiful you are and how talented you are at cooking, she’ll be almost as madly in love with you as I am.”

I sighed, hoping he was right. We had finally reached the door. Apartment number 529. Derek knocked briskly and waited, bouncing on the balls of his feet in excitement.

“Derek!!” Mrs. Garrett called as the door swung open. “Baby!!” She attacked him with smoochy kisses on the his cheeks, she left sticky lipstick behind. “It’s been too long!”

“I know mom. We’ll visit more often. I promise.” He laughed at himself as if he had just told the funniest joke on earth. “Mom, this is Emma Leigh.” He pulled away from his mother to grab me around the waist and pull me in tight.

I stuck out my hand in a friendly gesture and said. “It’s so wonderful to finally meet you!” Mrs. Garrett stared at my hand a moment like it was going to bite her and give her rabies.

“Well.” Was all she said, she looked over me with one eyebrow raised then gave Derek a weird forced grin. “Come in, come in.” She turned and left quickly into the very modern, dully painted apartment of hers.

Derek squeezed my hand and I walked into the devils lair.

********************************

“Emma Leigh has almost completed her Master’s degree in culinary arts.” Derek said, trying desperately to make small talk at the quiet table.

“Oh really?” Mrs. Garrett said, her interest peaked.

“Yes,” I said, putting a hand over my mouth to keep from showing the Potato salad I was eating. “I graduate at the end of the semester.”

“I guess we’ll have to see.” She said to me.

“Mom!” Derek said, half in my defense, half in his own. He added a laugh to lighten the mood. “Emma Leigh is an amazing cook!”

“Again, we’ll see.” Was all she said.

I gawked at her. How could she be so bold to say that to me? I contained my anger well as I continued to chew.

DOOO DOOO DOO DA DA DOOO DOOO DOO DA DA

Derek jumped as his phone started buzzing in his pocket. He pulled it out and looked at the caller ID. “Dang, it’s the office. I got to take this.” He said apologetically as he scooted his chair away from the table. He walked into the other room, that’s when the fireworks started.

“You have no right to be with my son.” She spat.

“W-What?!”

Mrs. Garrett sat forward and gave me a death glare. “Your lies may fool him, but I know better.”

“I. I don’t understand.” I said, taken a back.

She huffed loudly and leaned back again. “You’re not a real cook. If you were a real cook you would know the secret to this potato salad just by eating it.”

Was she challenging me? I looked at her along time and it became so silent that we could hear the other end of Derek’s phone call.

“Fine.” I said. “I love Derek. And if the only way I can prove that too you is to let you know the secret ingredient to a recipe I’ve never seen. Fine”

She stared at me, waiting for an answer to her impossible question.

My mind went blank as I uttered the only ingredient that would come to mind. “Almond extract.”

Mrs. Garrets face went as blank as mine felt. “H…” She didn’t form the question completely for a while. “How?”

I grinned madly at her as Derek re-entered the room. “Sorry ’bout that ladies.”

“It’s alright.” I said. “I was just thinking Derek.” I looked at him and raised my left hand to grab his, the small golden band with three tiny diamonds sparkling off it looking brilliant. “It’s about time to tell your mom the wonderful news.”

I quite frankly don’t know what I would do if I couldn’t write or read.

Mallory Mehall

How to Avoid a Broken Heart

She left you. She left you, just like the one before her. They left and you did nothing wrong. It was not your fault they left. There is nothing you could have done to prevent them from leaving. But there is something you can do to keep from getting hurt again.

Do not fall in love. Do not eat that leftover Chinese food. Do not look at those pictures. Do not go to the bar with your friends. Do not trust. Do not give someone everything. Do not give up everything for her. Do clean your apartment. Do fix that television or throw it out. Do wash the sheets. Do play basketball with your guy friends. Do play hard, so for at least an hour you won’t be thinking about her.

If you do eat that Chinese food you will only think of her because you know it’s her favorite. If you do go to the bar do not talk to a girl, this can only end bad. If you do talk to a girl do not bring her home. If you bring her home do not sleep with her. If you sleep with her do not say her name because it will come out as HER name. If you do clean the apartment and wash the sheets, her scent will be gone. If you do look at those pictures, you will only be sad. Rip them up. Burn them. Make them disappear.

Only bad things can come from talking to a girl. She will tell you she loves you, and you will trust her. You will trust that she is telling you the truth. You know it will be a lie. When you trust her, you will love her. When you love her she will leave you. She may choose to leave or she will be forced to leave. It may not be right away, but eventually she will leave you. When this happens, your heart will be broken. So please listen to me when I tell you do not even talk to a girl. Remember this pain when you feel the need to talk to her. Avoid them at all costs. If you see one looking at you out of the corner of your eye, ignore her.

No matter what you do or how hard you try, your heart will always break. So do not talk to that girl.  Remember she left you.

Courtney Harris

Do Not Be Vulnerable

Do not be vulnerable. I realize being selfless is your thing and all, but has it worked so far? Don’t even contemplate that… the correct answer is no. Remember your best friend Stephen? The bottom line is that self-sacrifice is always a mistake. The moment you give into temptation is the moment you will surrender your ability to make logical connections. Keep in mind you are a realist. Hearts and minds will never agree. It’s only best to ignore those feelings.

This term you have AP Biology, don’t go. Transfer to a new class; were you ever terribly serious about Pre Pharmacy anyway? Because if you go to that class, the beginning of the end will happen. You will enter like every other student and believe that this advanced class can only enhance your grade point average, however, you are different. You won’t learn about mitosis or the lack thereof like everyone else, but rather you will become aimless and distracted from this point on because of one person. If he asks you questions you know he knows the answers to, turn around and walk away. Do not look at his smile or laugh at his immature jokes. Don’t even bother learning his name.

That hall that goes directly past the lunch room, avoid it. If anyone asks, just… don’t answer. If you question anything in regards to him, you’ll fall trap to an emotional roller coaster that will inevitably follow you for at least four or more years. More time wasted than you can spend wisely… it’s not worth it.

Everything will seem very… surreal, at first. Months will pass and you will begin to hate him. At least you think you do, but only because he gives you the kind of attention you don’t want, like stealing your books or making jokes at you. Every day is filled with new questions, and observations made as though you were rendering your very own experiment. Don’t form theories about him, or test them. Don’t think about him.

Eventually you’ll have a “ground breaking/ life changing” conversation and you’ll both become vulnerable. You’ll say things you both think you mean, but don’t…over time those things said in the moment will become true. Surely you’ll have a few good laughs in the months to come, but things will change. Your friends and his will make judgment calls about your relationship, and you’ll listen to them. His friends who claim to know him so well will tell him he is becoming “too serious.” You know that he wants more than this steady relationship, but you’ll ask yourself if you can give anything more than what you already have. This question will go unanswered for several months and it will ache inside of both of you each time you face each other because neither of you will say what is on your mind.

Don’t let silence override your conscience thought. You’ll regret it. From this point on you will tell yourself that “in order for pain to be avoided, the truth must always be spoken.” You won’t believe it, but you will always act on it, even in future relationships. You will hurt too many people with the “truth,” including yourself. You’ll never learn the right time to be honest because of your fear of not being honest enough.

Years will pass. Moments filled with pain and regret will pass slowly, digging deep scars that will never heal and will only leave bitter memories. Times that include happiness will disappear so quickly it will be as though it never happened. You’ll become a hollow shell of a person only waiting for him to revive what is dying inside of you. You both will feel completely empty. Finally that day will come when you both understand each other, and yourselves. But it won’t make you better people, and it won’t make you any happier. You’ll finally muster up the courage to ask him a question you’ve wanted to ask for a very long time.

But because he loves you, he will tell you he doesn’t. You’ll fall victim to yourself, because you will begin to close yourself off from the world. You will feel exactly what you are, numb, abandoned, and misunderstood. Time will continue to pass, but you will find little personal growth only clinging to the short lived memories of why you should have never let yourself become vulnerable in the first place.

Megan Totzke

The Adventures of Hansel and Grettle

Grettle was not afraid of being left in the woods because when she was a little girl she was a girl scout and had a lot of training in starting fires, camping outside and how to survive without electricity.  Her younger brother Hansel was very brave about the situation as well.  He did just as she said and never second guessed her decisions.  Their goal was to get out of those woods alive and that was exactly what they were going to do.

Hansel and Grettle were walking into the woods with their parents.  Their parents told them they were going to go on a family camping trip to get away from town and all of their monetary problems.  Hansel and Grettle were very excited about this because they usually fell asleep every night to their parents yelling about how they would pay the bills and feed the family this week.  Hansel and Grettle thought if they could spend some time away from society and get back to the important things their family’s life would improve.  They were also very excited to have the undivided attention of their parents for the first time in a long time.  Their parents seemed very excited as well. Right when they got to the campground they started a fire and began telling campfire stories to the children.  Everyone was having fun.  However, to the surprise of the father, the mother said, “Wow, it’s been forever since I’ve had this much fun!” Hansel and Grettle smiled, as they replied, “Us too mom.  Thanks for bringing us out here, I think it’s just what our family needed.” They made smores, and told scary stories.  The world could not have been more perfect for this desperate family.

Hansel and Grettle’s parents said, “It’s getting close to the time that we need to start settling down and get ready for bed.”

The children rejected this idea, as any child would while having fun in the wilderness without a care in the world.  The children replied, “awww mom, can’t we stay up just a little later? Pretty please?” However, their parents did not budge on bed time and the children eventually gave in to their parents. Little did the children know that they would be staying up very late the next evening, but in a circumstance very different.

Hansel woke up in the middle of the night and went to check his parent’s tent because he had heard a very bizarre noise and did not want to wake Grettle.  To his surprise, his parents were nowhere to be found.  There were two pieces of bread sitting out by where the campfire burned just hours before but no sign of his parents.  Hansel immediately went back to the tent and woke Grettle with the very confusing news.  Grettle told Hansel to calm down, that there must be a very reasonable explanation for why their parents had disappeared.  Grettle calmed Hansel down and told him to try and sleep and that their parents would surely be back in the morning.  Hansel fell asleep, but Grettle did not, for she knew that there was no reasonable explanation for parents leaving their children in the wilderness by themselves in the middle of the night. It was not as surprising to Grettle as it seemed to Hansel because she is old enough to understand the financial problems their parents are going through and that they are trying to survive.

While walking through the woods trying to get prepared for the hard time they had gathering wood and looking for water, they ran into another young woman who looked to be around Grettle’s age, 18.  The children were absolutely shocked by this and equally a excited as they agreed that three heads were most certainly better than one!

“Hi there!” said Grettle

“Who goes there?” said the new girl across the way as if she had been alone for awhile and was untrusting of anyone she did not know.

“Our names are Hansel and Grettle; our parents left us in the woods last night. We were just wondering if you would like to stick together with us.  It will probably improve our odds of getting out of here alive!” said Grettle.

“Yes. That sounds like a great idea. I will meet you in the middle!” said the unknown girl.

Grettle and Hansel had no idea who this girl was, but couldn’t help but see the sun suddenly shining through the layer of tree’s that seem to depress the situation just minutes before finding what would sure be a new friend.

“Why in the world would your parents leave you two in the woods by yourself?” asked the unknown girl.

“Well, don’t you think we should at least know your name before we go telling you our life story?”

“My name is Meg. I am 18. I am out here because my family and I went camping and we got separated while hiking.”

“Exactly, how long have you been out here?” asked Hansel.

“I’m not sure. Too long to count anymore these days. I just try to survive” said Meg

This saddened Hansel and Grettle as Meg looked to be a little scruffy at this point, but was probably very well put together in real life and seemed to be quite nice.  To be left in these woods for as long as Meg had been terrified them.

“Well, then.  We don’t want you to spend any more time in these woods than you already have so let’s make a pact to get ourselves out of here safely and alive!” said Grettle.

“Ay yi captain!!” said Hansel, in his ever promising and youthful way.

As Meg, Grettle and Hansel started to make their way through the woods they noticed a little house that looked overly comfortable, with smoke coming out of the chimney.

“This has got to be too good to be true!” exclaimed Hansel.

The three of them made their way over to the house, and there was a little old lady living in there.  She was appalled at the situation of the three unfortunate children and invited them in.  She made warm cocoa, and dinner for the three as they explained they had not eaten in twenty four hours for Hansel and Grettle, and who knows how long it has been since Meg ate.  The children were extremely grateful and expressed the desire to lie down, so the little old lady took them to the spare bedroom where there was enough room for all three of them.

“Wow, did we hit the lottery or what?!” said Hansel very excitedly.

“I guess so! Say your prayers and be thankful Hansel” said Grettle.

And the three of them go to sleep.  In the middle of the night they wake up to the little old lady pouring poison into what looked like the milk jug.  They quietly run back to the guest room and make a plan.

“Okay, our only option is to somehow get her to drink the poison. And for heaven sakes, do not eat or drink anything else, if we aren’t poisoned already.” Said Meg

“Ok. I know. How about when she sits down to watch television, I offer to get her a warm cup of coffee, she won’t know that I know the milk is poisoned, and I will put just a few drops in there” proposed Hansel.

“That sounds like it’s worth a try!” Agreed Grettle.

As the little old lady was watching television Hansel did indeed ask her if she would like a cup of coffee and she replied, “oh you sweet child, I would love one!” So Hansel went and retrieved it.  Within seconds of drinking the coffee with the slightest amount of poisoned milk in it, the little old lady passed away in her chair.  The children felt badly about what they had done, but they needed to survive; for whatever reason this little old lady wanted them dead.  It was her or them.  To the surprise of everyone, there was a note in the house; the little old lady was a friend of their parents.  She was supposed to poison the children and put them back in the woods to make it appear they had gotten lost and starved to death.  The three young adults decide that life in the woods in this little house was safer than anywhere else.  The little old lady possessed a car, which they would need to go to and from town for work and school.  They had been left by their parents, but together they found in each other a new family and lived happily ever after.