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Thursday, August 5, 2010

The Masked Frindle vs. Dark Boogey

Today in Drop-in Writing we created a superhero, the Masked Frindle, as a group. Masked Frindle is a superhero who fights bad writing using the power of a shredder. MF's weakness is permanent marker and the catchphrase MF uses is "Onward, Robots!".

Then we designed our own individual superheros! The assignment was to write a story using both superheros: They could a) fight each other; b) team up to fight another crime; or c) discover that the other, previously thought to be merely a mild-mannered friend or coworker, was a superhero!

The following story is Duncan R's. You'll thrill! You'll Chill! To. . .The Masked Frindle meets Dark Boogey!!!

Masked Frindle was on a police mission. Apparently, an anti-hero named Dark Boogey was seen in her neighborhood.

"Great," she thought out loud. "An opponent who doesn't do bad writing. Just great."

All of a sudden, Masked Frindle heard a catchphrase that made her blood run cold: "I know where you liiiiiiiiive!"

No later than hearing that, an invisible force tossed her into the air. Controlling that force was none other than Dark Boogey!

Once he turned away from her, she fell fifteen feet down. Grunting in pain, Masked Frindle slowly rose back to her feet.

"Why. . won't. . .you. . .LEAVE?" she demanded fiercely, while attempting to destroy him with her power of shredder. Although the shredder indeed didn't even scratch Dark Boogy, it did tear off his mask!

She gasped. Dark Boogey was really her boyfriend, Ricardo Miller! Again. . .before she fainted from shock, Ricardo Miller snarled, "I know where you live!""


Is this the end for Masked Frindle? Will she ever escape the clutches of Dark Boogey/Ricardo Miller? Does he really know where she lives? Tune in next week for more superhero adventures!


This is merely a SAMPLE of the AMAZING superhero stories that Drop-in students produced this week! How do they write so well? Might Drop-in students secretly be superheroes and supervillains themselves? Bum bum BA!


Thursday, July 8, 2010

Drop-In Writing Students Control The Weather, Guys!

This acrostic was produced today by a group of Drop-in Writing students and facilitators. We chose the word "Burning" to describe the weather, and also to describe the sort of anger I feel at humidity above 70%.

B ella sits

U nder her umbrella while

R eading a book about cold, cold, cold rain,

N ever believing it would come.

I n the clouds, however, they debated

N oisily, "Should we send a storm?".

G loriously grinning, Bella thought of Edward and hoped the rain would never end!

Pretty cool poem, right?! And what's more, IT STARTED TO RAIN immediately after Drop-In!

It's official: Drop-In students write so powerfully that even the clouds can't help but sit up and take notiice.

Monday, April 12, 2010

A Brief History of 826

by Victoria Trojan

A zombie on a TV show, in a house with his cats, hated his acting life and QUIT. So the cats walked to 826 and everyone there ran away except for Eric. Eric just stood there and Eric said, "do you need help with homework?"

The zombie said, "NO!"

Then the zombie's cats walked up to Eric. But Eric was allergic to cats and puffed up, red, and went to the hospital. The zombie was all alone, so he had a tea party with his cats. Then, Eric got better and joined the tea party with the cats, and zombie.

Then, they played house! Eric was the mean old man person with 10 cats and the zombie was the maid. They had the best time playing house, but then the 826 kids came back and said they didn't finish their homework. Eric said, "Oh NO." (The reason Eric said Oh NO was because the founder of 826 said the reason he made 826 was so kids could finish their homework and have the rest of the day to have fun... also, to pair kids with caring adults.)

Eric told the 826 kids to come in and do their homework. After all the kids finished their homework, Eric and the zombie with his cats played house again, and it was the most dramatic game of house EVER! When house was done they were so thirsty so they had some tea. Then, 826 had to close so the zombie left 826 with his cats.

Eric locked up 826 but it was hard to close the door 'cause there was so much fun in 826 it took a couple minutes to close and lock the door. Then, Eric left...

The next day tons of kids were outside 826 because the kids who'd finished their homework told everyone and all the kids from Ann Arbor finished their homework from then on.

THE END

Friday, March 12, 2010

Devourer of Worlds

by Henry Vandermark and John Bradford

A flurry of arms and legs flies through the dark alleyway. The legless victim tries to escape, but a shadowy predator extends two elastic arms and envelops its prey.

Suddenly, lights turn on. A masculine voice says, “Did you hear that?” Another set of lights turns on...

“Who's there?”

“It's that thing again!”

“That's the thing that killed the mayor.”

“Get him!”

Two men step out of their homes, armed, firing green beams of fluctuating light at the “thing.” With flailing arms, the creature runs.

The community gathers to discuss the recent sighting of the creature, thing, suspected in the rash of recent murders. Witnesses have reported a strange figure with many arms and legs. The crowd produces a plasma ballgun and shoots the retreating figure, capturing it.

The following day, headlines read:

“Murderous Monster Captured, Yet Murders Continue!”

Weeks later, the headlines read:

“Legless, Smoky Apparitions Seen Wandering Town At Night... Murders Continue.”

In the jail cell, a long, scaly arm pushes away a tray of food. “I'll never get out of here,” the creature whispers.

20 years later...

The green plasma bars on the jail cell flicker and go out. The prisoner tentatively exists.

What he sees outside is a green, robed figure, surrounded by legless, wispy, wandering souls.

“Brother! Devourer of humans! How could you do this to me! They blamed me for everything you've done!”

“Don't worry, brother, devourer of souls, I've summoned father – devourer of worlds!”

And everything went dark.

Non-Independent Human Resistance

by Danny Drew and Daquande Summers

Geoff Petersons personal diary, 2046

It's been 10 years now, this has gone on for too long. We're only fighting for safety. The Enemy has no motives, no decency.

As far as I know, my men have died for nothing. Outside, I can hear gunshots and strange breathing patterns. It sounds human, but I know it is not.

We call them zombies, but the NIHR (Non-Independent Human Resistance) are more than that. Some look deformed. Some are missing eyes. They look half-dead, too pale. From a medical standpoint, they are dead. It's only the chip in their heads that keeps them moving. They literally live off fighting. Their tactics include biting chunks off their enemy to consume, even at the risk of being shot. It's their food and only pastime.

I yell at one of my men, “Corporal, get a breach on that wall! We wanna bring the fight to them.” He puts the explosive in place, and we wait. I hear that they are coming near.

Later:

We only escaped just narrowly. Edged up to a cliffside, our only choice was to jump to the chopper. Inside the helicopter, they had supplies of the only thing we know works against the NIHR – dozens of canisters of vaporized concentrate of guacamole.

We threw the canisters into the mob of hideous creatures, and it short-circuited their clockwork. They collapsed in piles, swearing in Russian (or at least, that's what it sounded like), and a few of their stomachs exploded for punctuation.

The Idiots' Pastry Games: No Comment

by Alex Finzel and Noah Knoerl-Morrill

Skyapter Octorson travels to the battlefield of Canada through a wormhole generator, skipping 3 galaxies and evading the parasites, to meet George Lucas in epic battle over yellow cake Uranium.

George Lucas wears a gas mask to protect himself from the fumes. He was trying to poison the bakery across the street because he hates the baker, but the baker is Skyapter's best friend, so Skyapter came to the rescue.

Skyapter wants to blast George Lucas out of existence, but doesn't want to hurt the baker so he uses quiet negotiation instead.

Skyapter: You will be completely obliterated if you don't relinquish the U-235. And leave the baker alone 'cause he is awesome.

George Lucas: No he's not! I hit my baseball through his window and he won't give it back.

Skyapter: That is moronic. Here, have a baseball.

George Lucas chucks the baseball at the baker, but Skyapter chops it out of the air. He then tries mind control on George Lucas. George Lucas pulls out one of his Oscars and uses it to call taun-tauns to trample over the bakery.

Skyapter: Sillyness. Verdict: guilty. I sentence you to be baked into a pie.

George Lucas: Oh no you didn't!

The baker interrupts. He comes in with George's baseball and a cinnamon bun and says, “peace offering.”

George rejects the offering and Skyapter travels back through time to turn George into a giant amoeba and puts him in a zoo. Skyapter then returns to Aridios and continues fighting the parasites.

Meanwile... in the zoo. George Lucas's cells begin to split and he plots his revenge...

TO BE CONTINUED!

Invasion of Earl

by Noah Koehler, Ben Koehler, and Preston Horvath

Commander Gumpwills: We must take it by force. There is no other way. They won't agree with you.

Frank: We need to negotiate. They MUST agree with me.

Commander Gumpwills: They won't though. You've never met them.

Captain Rifo: Why are you guys arguing about how to take the planet when there is a giant minefield in front of us?

Frank: Well, if you're as good a pilot as you think you are then we shouldn't have to worry about it.

Captain Rifo: I did get 50,000 stars for best pilot, but no one could get through this minefield without extreme skill.

Commander Gumpwills: Why don't we just blast the mines out of the way?

Captain Rifo: We have enough ammo.

Frank: But that would be seen as an act of aggression!

[A worker arrives]

Worker: Your landing strip is ready.

To be continued...

Man Vs. Plant

by Eric Levitt and Shruti Sudabattula

“We've almost done it!” said Napolean.

Napolean Coffliss was in uncontrollable happiness. Napolean, his girlfriend, Nehona Gardenia, and his co-worker, Neil Mynson, were making a new species of plant. Instead of making water into food, this planted needed food to make water!

“All we need now is the last chemical, Nebisium,” said Nehona. Nebisium was a slightly radioactive chemical that would complete their experiment.

Just as they were going to put in the last chemical, Nahomen Pestius, another co-worker, arrived.

“Sorry I'm late,” said Nahomen. “I was caught in traffic.”

“Well, you're a little too late,” said Neil. They had already put in the last chemical. The scientists left the lab, but little did they know they were in great danger.

To be continued...