From the last drawn out ring of the school bell to the first colorful highlights on leaves, it’s summertime!…School’s out while flavorful ice cream, sunny cerulean skies, and warm languid afternoons take its place. A time for making golden memories. But this summer had something extra special, the first annual Schoolhouse Summer Camp!
Students from around the world came together to share everything from a new language to chess and even baking! In particular, over 50 poets and authors internationally joined the Summer Writing Club to appreciate the beautiful world of words. Every week, whether it was trying to creatively wrangle a story together from a jumble of random words, collaborating together to fill-in-the-blanks to create a piece about babysitting, or comparing which is easier between beginnings, middles, and ends, the club would come together to create amazing writing together. So without further ado, to celebrate and wrap up an unforgettable summer together with the brilliant writers on Schoolhouse, please bring out your attention to the spotlight and raise the red curtain. The Summer Writing Club Showcase has been proudly unveiled!
The Knight In the Principles Office Cleaning the Toilet With a Plumber
White armor shined like silver in the moonlight as the figure wearing the armor walked into a small hut by the sea shore, just on the edge of the forest.
"You are here at last!" The man said, who greeted him from inside the hut.
"Now, tell me how to create the emerald portal." The man in armor demanded.
"I already told you I wasn't sure how to do that, no one ever known in history has created the portal."
"TELL ME!" The man in armor said, unsheathing his sword. "I am not sure if you know, but I am the royal knight of the Emerald Empire, and I will do anything to protect my Empire. The dark ages have been very rough for all of us. If there is any way to survive, I need to find it and help my people. If there is another world out there, I need to find out and move my people there. The black death is wiping out whole populations!"
"I understand, but I don't know-
"Too late now,'' the knight said and disappeared behind the bookshelf. The man who lived in the hut chased after the knight, only to find him vanishing into the purple flame of the Emerald portal, and the Portal shrinked into ashes.
The knight was falling, and he fell until he hit a hard concrete floor, in front of a building looking like nothing he had ever seen before, he was in a new world. He walked into the building, saw children and adults with many different clothes and big yellow rectangles with wheels. "Onto the school bus kids!" He heard one of the adults say.
He kept walking, eager to explore this new world, and entered an office room with the sign that read ' Principal’s Office,' although he did not understand at all what this meant. He opened a door in the principal’s office and saw a white seat, a mirror and a sink which looked very different to him than it was in his world. He took the stick looking thing, which was the only thing he thought was a weapon he could use to protect himself and started sharpening it on the white seat's surface just when he heard the door behind him swing open.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH A PLUMBER CLEANING THE TOILET IN MY OFFICE, THE PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE!!!???" A man with a suit and bow tie screamed at him even though he didn't understand a word. The knight was taken to prison by security for 3 months and then released. Soon after being released, the knight continued to explore the new world learning their language and their way of living, when he finally found out he had made his way to the future.
My Writing
Vince had been in the mafia for all his life. He was a criminal; he lived a risky lifestyle. He had been steadily and proudly climbing the ranks of the FBI's most wanted list just as he climbed the ranks of the mafia. But he had never faced anything as dangerous as this.
He could admit, as the faint sounds of unearthly, high-pitched shrieking reached his ears from outside the building, that he was terrified. His hands were clammy, ready to grab for a weapon at the slightest provocation; sweat trickled down the back of his neck and wet the starched collar of his shirt.
The aliens—Vince wasn’t convinced they were really aliens, and was still ready to blame this on some trick of rivals, but what else was he supposed to call the sleek gray squid-like creatures flying through the skies?—were outside somewhere, but they were irrelevant. The real threat was in the elevator with him.
“Vincent,” said his companion, who was exactly the type of little old lady everyone would instantly expect to have a bizarrely large stash of candies of dubious provenance in her little purse, “under your shirt, why do you have a—”
“Don’t worry,” he said, too loudly. “Everything’s gonna be alright, mama.”
So Vince had admittedly never gotten around to telling his mother that he was a criminal. She still thought that his odd hours were the result of him being a really dedicated plumber. This had never been a problem, nor hard to maintain. He’d been very careful to make sure law enforcement never found out his mother’s identity—he may have been a criminal, but even he took care of his mother. The woman had raised him, after all! He’d even convinced her to legally change her name so that they couldn’t be connected by explaining that his plumbing business was so popular that he didn’t want his customers to harass her so that they could get discounts. It had the added bonus of explaining how he’d gotten his ill-gained fortune.
“You know, Vince, I know these are special circumstances,” his mother continued, undeterred, “but you know I don’t approve of weapons. They’re just too dangerous.”
“I… need them for my job.” As a plumber.
Lawyer at Nursing Home Teaching Competitive Debate
Timothy J. was a middle aged lawyer from South Carolina. As a kid, he loved to argue and ended up channeling that passion into the form of debate. In high school, he was a national debate champion and ended up going to Harvard, where he competed on their debate team. He always knew that he wanted to be a lawyer, as he felt that it was a perfect career for him. After attending Yale Law School, he worked as a corporate lawyer at a large firm in New York City for about 25 years. As he approached his 50th birthday, he realized that while he achieved financial success, he felt empty on the inside. So, he made what some would call an irrational decision: he abruptly quit his lucrative job and he relocated back to his hometown of Charleston, South Carolina.
After moving back to his hometown, Timothy purchased a beautiful luxury condo on the beach.
The Accident
One day, a doctor was on a date with someone on the balcony. Suddenly, an angry ewok jumps at him and he falls to the ground! Someone calls the ambulance right away. Meanwhile, the reporter is with a newscaster on a very dangerous mission to find their TV! They luckily get it back and return it! The doctor is okay, and only got several wounds and one broken leg.
Write a Story about Somebody in Love with Somebody from Their Past
(This part is the back story of my character and their past love)
It all started that one August day when you asked for my eraser. You had just moved to town and were already the most popular person in our seventh grade class. I remember looking at you and immediately falling in love with you. At the time, I didn't know what love was. All I knew was I always wanted to be around you and dreaded the goodbyes. Time grew on, and through an unlikely twist of fate, we became friends. I still remember the first time we had a sleepover.
The Scholar
The village was in drought. Plants were drying and fields were eroding, the river had decreased in depth by a meter or two. There was nothing to eat, the children looked malnourished and the adults were starving.
That's when a renowned fortune teller roaming around the world stumbled upon their village. The villagers swarmed him and pleaded for answers, unable to tolerate this cursed life anymore. They asked him about when it would rain, and he answered.
"No less than 3 days of wait." He said.
The villagers felt a mix of emotions. If he was right, it would be beneficial for everyone. Had he been wrong, it would only be the villagers who suffer. They waited, and soon the day came.
It rained heavily that day, the villagers were overjoyed. For the whole next week, they treated him as a God. He was the greatest fortune teller on the face of this earth.
Or maybe he was not. He, in fact, was a scholar. He would go from one place to another. By scientific derivations he would give people hope. Hope that didn't exist, but hope that he made it out of fact. A con-man, some would call him. Yet he called himself a man of science.
Life Changes for Better
Hank Thompson is a 32 year old coal miner from the US state of West Virginia. He was born and raised in the state of West Virginia his whole entire life. Life has been tough for him, as he was raised in an impoverished, dysfunctional household. His parents were constantly bickering, and the environment caused Hank to become quite resentful in life. During the entirety of his education, he knew that he would be working in the coal mines, as that was what the economy of his whole entire region was built on. However, Hank always felt he was different from his peers, as he was always looking at the complexities of life. Hank loved technology, and anything related to it. He was always taking apart various pieces of technology, and then rebuilding them from scratch.
My Writing
The mist curled around her lithe body. The scent was intoxicating, welcoming, and mind-reeling. Her feelings would have to be put aside for now though, the emperor awaited. Was it really a lie if you changed someone’s life? If you had their best intentions at heart? The people of Kandavia had long been plagued by disease, war, and famine. However, there just was no place else to go. The people were stuck. After watching their king die right in front of them, Sky knew what she had to do for her country. Live a double life, giving hope at a cost. So far, her tactics had been godsend for her ravaged country. But it still hurts to lie to their face, her friends, her neighbors, her ruler. Her ruler, the person who was supposed to make everything better. Pah! He was rubbing salt in the fresh wound. Lying around having parties with the rich and declaring more wars. The only reason why the people hadn’t revolted yet was because of their loyalty to Kandavia. The emperor! Slowly she pulled herself back to the world of the living, entangling herself from her thoughts.
“You will have victory if you depend on your people. Trust them. Do not waste your time. Prepare your warriors diligently.” She gave her declaration boldly but anyone with 2 cents would see that it was common sense. However, this was the king she was talking about.
“Thank you, my lady. You have my word.” Then the king turned tail and galloped off.
Conclusion
And now a final tremendous round of applause for all of our fantastic writers! Thank you to our authors, their supporters, and Schoolhouse for leading to the creation of these extraordinary stories! Cheers to a memorable summer and hopes for another great one next year with Schoolhouse Summer Camps.
Thank you Hafsah M for editing this article!