Toro

"Toro"



By Marissa Stephens







"Hey, did you see that?" Lynn asked her sister as she looks at the clam glistening in the water.

"What?" Clarissa turns and looks at where her sister is standing in the cool stream running

just behind the fence of their back yard. As they both looked there it was swimming right by

Lynn’s feet. It was long and black almost like a, " snake!" they both yelled. Lynn shot out of the

water and quickly grabed onto her sister hand. Standing on the old rickety bridge that their dad

made out of a piece of log used to make flower beds, Lynn and Clarissa look into the now stirred

up water looking for the snake or at least what they thought was a snake.

"It disappeared!" Clarissa said while looking at her sister in disbelief as if she didn’t see it at all.

"But it was just there, didn’t you see it?" Lynn asked her sister who was now heading back up

the steep hill to the house.

" Come on it was just a stick, and even if it was a snake, it’s already gone, so hurry up. I’m not

going help you up this hill." She demanded.

" Wait for me!" Lynn cried falling as she walks up the hill.

Later on that cold windy night, the rain started to fall. Lynn awoke from her chilly bed. There

wasn’t that many covers on it because of an accident she had with a cup of milk. She got up and

walked to her sister’s room, knowing that her bed would be warm. Clarissa had the nicest cover,

brand new silk sheet that she just gotten for her birthday last week. As Lynn walked in her

sister room she smelled the sweet smell of roses; it was Clarissa new perfume " Pink Roses."

"Man, her room smell good " Lynn thought to herself.

" Wake up, can I sleep in here? It’s cold in my room." Lynn pleaded with her sister.

" Why is your room cold? It’s spring. Did you check to see if the air was on?" Clarissa asked as

she rubs her eyes to see better. " Come on, get in. I’m sleepy" Clarissa whispered as she rolled

over to make room for her sister. There was ample amount of room because Clarissa had a full

size bed and compared to Lynn’s twin size bed it was huge. Lynn and Clarissa used to share the

full size bed when they were younger, but now that Clarissa was getting older their parents

thought it was time for them to get out that habit.

" Do you really think that was a snake we saw today?" Lynn asked her sister as the rain slowly

started hitting against the window,

"Yea, what else could it have been?" Clarisssa said to her sister turning over to look at the time.

" It’s just that, snakes don’t disappear that easily. We’ve seen so many. It was weird this time.

And I just…" Lynn paused as she glared out the window.

" You just what?" Clarissa waited to see what her sister wanted to say.

" I just had this feeling. That’s all." Lynn quietly said as she closed her eyes to go to sleep.

" Good night, I guess we’ll find out tomorrow." Clarissa told her sister. Then she went to sleep.

The next day Lynn and Clarissa decided to take another look at where they saw the snake. "

Wow, the water is really clear today, like there’s something different." Clarissa told Lynn as she

looked at her refection in the clean, clear water. The water was clear that day, clearer then

they’ve ever seen it before. " I would think it would have been dirty after all that rain last

night". Clarissa said as they walk further along the steam. When all of a sudden they noticed that
where they were standing was the only clear spot in the water.





" That’s not right, do you see it to?" Lynn asked her sister as she walked slowly closer to the
steam.

" I know. Get in!" Clarissa said as she nudged her sister closer to the water.

" NO! Are you crazy? You get in!" Lynn replied fiercely to her sister.

They started to fuss and fight until they heard a small voice say, " Why are you fighting?"

"What did you say?" Clarissa asked Lynn.

" It wasn’t me." Lynn looks at her sister with a puzzled look.

" It was me!" They looked down, and there it was, the snake. It wasn’t a snake or at least it

didn’t look like a snake they’ve seen before. " AHHHH!" The girls screamed.

" Please don’t run I won’t hurt you. My name is Toro, and I’m lost."

"What are you?" Clarissa asked him with a weird look on her face.

" I’m a Toro. What are you?"

" I’m Lynn and this is my sister Clarissa." Lynn told Toro. He disappeared.



TO BE CONTINUED . . . IN LIT 11.

Inkheart pages 1-9

I'm reading a new book. The last book that I was reading wasn't that good to me, i guest thats what i get when I listen to my mom, just kinding. This new book that i'm reading is about a little girl name Meggie who loves to read. She stay with her Father whos name is Mo, her mother is died. The story beginning off by Meggie in her room reading a book becuase she could go to sleep. It rianing outside when Meggie looks out the window and sees a man standing there look back at their house, by this time Meggie's light are off and she looking at the man, but she doesn't knoe if he's looking back at her. She jump up and runs to tell her Father that there's a man standing outside of their house. He goes to looks and the man is still there. It was someone who knew Mo so he goes and lets the man in the house. The man name is Dustyfingers, Meggie thinks that this is a weird name and spy on them to hear what they are talking about. ...

The Lottery

1. The story I read was " The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. This story was really weird, but pretty good once I got into it. The story start out but talking about the villagers. The story took place in a small village, right in the middle of the Town Square. The time was around ten o’clock when the lottery started.
The children had just got out of school for the summer. The boys were gathering stones while the girls stood around talking. Next the men came together, they wasn’t talking about anything fun just tractors and taxes. When the women came together they talk gossip and then went with their husbands. The children were called to they family and finally came after being call four or five times. A man came out to the middle of the Town Square holding a black box. The man name was Mr. Summers and following him was Mr. Graves he was carrying a three-legged stool.Mr. Summers placed to box on the stool. Mr. Martin Held the box down while Mr. Summers stirred up the papers inside.
The lottery starts off by the calling of families’ last names. In each household the man was the head, so it was only right that the man would go and pull the papers. Mr. Summers was the one who calls the names and prepared the slips of paper. He started calling to name and slowly one by one each man of the house came and got a slip. There was only one woman who had to take the place of her husband. After every name was called and every household had a slip of paper they waited. When told so they were to open their papers all together. When that was done every one started the get happy but one. A man by the name of Bill Hutchinson had pulled the slip of paper that no one wanted. It had a black spot in the middle of it. His wife Tessie said, "It wasn’t fair,"
All of the villagers had the same chance. The whole Hutchinson family gather up together to pull again. In the family were little Dave, Nancy, Bill Jr., Tessie, and Bill they all had to pull. First to pull was little Dave then next were Nancy, Bill Jr., Tessie, and Bill who was last. When they all had a slip of paper they started to open them. Dave opens his slip, nothing was on it; then Nancy, then Bill Jr., and nothing was there just like Dave’s. It came time for the parents, Bill slowly open his, nothing. He looks at his wife, Tessie didn’t want to open it but he made her. A big black spot was there on her slip of paper.
Mr. Summers said "Its Tessie," then Bill shows all of the villagers the paper. Mr. Summers told "All right, folks. Let’s finish quickly." Tessie walks her way to the stool; "It isn’t fair". They started to stone her the whole time she just said, " It isn’t fair, it isn’t right".


2. Mr. Summers was one of the main characters of the story. He was the one who called the names for the lottery."The was conducted...by Mr. Summer, who had time and enegry to devote to civic activities." He made the black box and put the slip of papers inside it. Bill Hutchinson pulls the first slip with the black spot that caused he family to pull also. Tessie is Bill’s wife, she was the one who said it wasn’t fair and in the end it really wasn’t fair for her. She was stone, because she was the one who pulled to black spot. " Bill Hutchinson went over to his wife and forced the slip of paper out of her hand. " Tessie's last word were, "It isn't fair, it isn't right."


3. We could tell what the characters were like by the author. The character Mr. Summer was a happy but lonely man. " Jovial man and he ran the coal business…he had no children and his wife was a sold."

4. a.Simile- figure of speech that makes a comparison between two seemingly unlike things by using a connective word such as like, as, than, or resembles.
b.Metaphor- figure of speech that makes a comparison between two unlike things without using a connective word such as like, as, than, or resembles.
c.Personification- type of metaphor in which a nonhuman thing or quality is talked about as if it were human.
d.Allusion- reference to a statement, a person, a place, or an event from literature, history, religion, myth, politics, sports, science, or the arts.
e.Hyperbole- figure of speech that uses exaggeration to express strong emotion or create a comic effect.
f.Irony- contrast or discrepancy between expectation and reality.

5. Metaphor- ‘Old Man Warner snorted. "Pack of crazy fools," he said.’ This is a metaphor that talks about other villages near by who got rid of the Lottery.

Personification- "he dropped all the papers but those onto the ground, where the breeze caught them and lifted them off."

Irony- In the story it talks about a lottery, so when most people think about the lottery they would like to win it. In the story none of the towns people wanted to win this lottery. At the end of the book we find out why no one want to win, because who ever won only won death. Who ever pull the winning ticket dies by getting stone by all of the town’s people.

Lost

Lost
Marissa Stephens
After March 28, 2003 my life would never be the same. In was the end of spring break and I was at my grandma’s house in Sanderville, GA. The night before my mom had came from Florida. She was there to pick up my brother Maurice and me, because we were going back home that day. At the time my older sister Melinda wasn’t staying with us, instead she was living with my grandma. Spring break was ending for my brother and me, and only beginning for my sister. Every day of my spring break I would asked my sister to come and visit us at our house in Florida for her spring break. When I asked her she would only say, "I’ll think about." Or "maybe."
The day we were leaving, my mom and my sister were already up and getting our stuff packed. I got up and got ready to take that long 9-hour trip back the Bradenton, FL. As we were riding in the car, my sister started to have second thoughts of going back to Florida, instead she wanted to go to Atlanta with my cousin. So we took her back, thinking that we were going to see her that summer. Our trip to Florida all was good, we got there on time, but waiting for us was a call from my dad saying that my sister was in a car accident and that we needed to come back to Georgia.
My mom, my step-dad, my brother, and I were all going back to Georgia. An hour had past and my mom was on the phone the whole time. When she was on the phone she said little words if any. She was quiet until the last call came from my dad. That was the call that made her start to cry. I keep asking her to stop crying but she wouldn’t, then my step-dad took the phone from her and said the words that I will never forget; " she didn’t make it."
After my sister’s death, life got harder. Every day I found myself crying; sometimes I was at home and sometime at school. I was sad all of the time. I got into arguments with my parents more then ever. It hurt so badly; I didn’t know how to deal with it. To make matters worse, the friends who I thought were there for me, turn out to be there only for themselves. They started using me and didn’t care for my feelings at all. I even found out that one of my "so called" friends was talking to my boyfriend.
Most days, I just got sick of it all, there were times when I had thoughts of hurting myself, but I would never want to put my family though to same thing twice. So I decide to run away just to get away from it all, the pain, and the hurt I was feeling inside. Not knowing where to go, I decided to go to the beach. As I sat there, I was thinking about everything that was happening to me and why life was so hard. As it began to get dark, I didn’t know where to go, so I went back home where my mom and the rest of my family were waiting.
After that, I asked my mom could I move back to Georgia with my dad. She might have been mad but I knew I had to do what was the best thing for me at the time. A part of me felt closer to my sister when I moved back because my sister always loved Georgia. It was her home as well as mine. Living back in Georgia made me feel better. Although I still cried every now and then, but my dad was there to help ease the pain.
My sister’s death had a big effect on my life, but having her around for the time that I did had a bigger effect on me. I will always love her and even though I never got the chance to say good-bye I know that she loved me as much as I love her. I don’t cry as much as I used to, but it always made make me sad. I will remember all the fun times we had together and that will as ways make me smile, but when March 28 comes around I find myself crying as if it was that same day she died.
Melinda Clarissa Stephens 16 years old died March 28, 2003 in a car accident. The car she was riding in ran a stop sign. It was hit on the passenger side by a log trunk where my sister was sitting. Four people were in the car that day. They had all been smoking weed, and although people may think they can drive under the influence they can’t. My sister died instantly, but the paramedics still tried to save her. It was no use. Melinda Clarissa Stephens 16 years old died March 28,2003 in a car accident. She was buried on April 2,2003 in Deepstep, GA.
We all make bad choices in our life, but some of those choices may cost us more then just our lives. It will cost our families lives as well.
R.I.P. Linda, Love Always Your Baby Sister Rissa.

Petals on the Wind Pages 1-17

The story so far is pretty good, not the best, but I'm not really a reading myself anyways. I started off with this three kids running away for home on a bus trying to make it to Sarasota,FL. The main person is this girl named Cathy. Her, her older brother Chris and her younger sister Carrie are all were riding on the bus but carrie sick and she start to get worse. On the bus they meet this lady name Henrietta Beech who helps them bye taking them to a doctor. The doctor ask them where they were running away. and next time I'll tell you where that is, but so far maybe the book is better.

About Me

My name is Marissa,but my friends just call me Rissa. I was born in Wuzbrug,Germany on Decemeber 2,1988. I'm mixed with black and mexican, 5'10 with hazel, green eyesand long black. I moved to Augusta,GA where i was only two years old. My parents name are Maurice Stephens and Matilda Wooden. I have a 12 year old brother name Maurice Stephens Jr., a 5 Mouth old sister new Monica Wooden, and I had a older sister who died when she was 16 she would now have been 20 years old her name is Melinda Stephens.

I like drawing, the on the phone, getting on myspace, hanging with my friends Ashley and Tip, and spending time with my family. I enjoy listen to japanese music .