Michelle's Story

WHO’S LOOKING AT ME?

Do you believe in ghosts? If you don’t, then you have to be careful because I was once just like you. Before everything happened, I (Laura Maggie) used to be a girl who thought that ghosts and magic was just an imagination. I always thought that the people who beliefs in ghost were ridiculous but after everything that happened to me at my ballet school last month has completely changed my opinion about ghosts.

Everything started when we decided to register for a famous ballet school called “Ballet Queen”. Most ballet dancers would love to be in this school because it was the best ballet school in our country but not everyone could get in. Luckily, my ballet teacher, Ms. Blare, is one of the teachers in that school, therefore two of my friends, Daisy and Jess including myself were accepted into the school.

After being in the school for three months, Ms. Blare announced to all of us that I have been chosen to represent our country and compete at the world ballet competition. I was very surprised at the fact that I had been chosen. Daisy and Jess kept talking about this for the whole lesson.

After practice, the three of us decided to go to the Coffee Bean café. In the café, Jess was telling us about a lady, who was the best ballet dancer in our ballet school for the last few years and the lady was representative of the country who attended the last world ballet competition but she didn’t win in the competition. When I heard this, I was so excited to meet her but Jess told me that she disappeared after the competition. There were no signs of the lady and where she disappeared to.

The next day, we were having our usual lesson but after that, I had to practice for the competition. The competition was next month. So, Ms. Blare told me to try on the costumed that I was going to wear during that competition. After I have finished putting on my costumed, I ran as fast as I could to the class because I was late. As I got to the door of the classroom, I realized that there was an odd lady staring at me with her cooled violet eyes from the corner of the hallway.

The lady was wearing the exact same purple coloured ballet costume as mine but her one was dirty. I thought that was the reason she kept on staring at me. There was a lot of red coloured liquid on her costumed. Since I don’t know what that was, therefore, I kept on looking at her and I realized that while I looked at her, she started to say something but I couldn’t hear it. “Laura, hurry up! Everyone is waiting for you!” Daisy called me from inside the room. “Alright, alright, I’m coming” I replied. I turned around to take a better look at the lady but she wasn’t there anymore.

Ever since, the image of the lady kept appearing in my mind. The lady looked angry while she stares at me. She has untidy long hairs that cover half of her face but I could saw her cooled violet eyes clearly. I kept on wondering which class she was from. I thought she was a new student because I have never seen her in the school ever since school started.

Today I was late for the practice and I had to wait for the others to finish their rehearsal before I could start mine. While waiting, Ms. Blare told me to change into my costume. Before I got changed, I heard music coming from the class in front of the fitting room. I became curious because there shouldn’t be other classes for the day except for our class. So I decided to take a look in.

There was a lady dancing in the room. I recognized her; she was the lady that I met yesterday. I observed her from the outside of the room. She danced perfectly, better than me. I was thinking that the school should’ve chosen her to attend the competition instead of me.

The lady saw me watching her and we were having eyes contact after that. Her eyes were scarier than before when she looked at me. She was laughing but I couldn’t hear anything. She came towards me with her hands pointing at me and suddenly, “There you are. What are you doing here? Ms. Blare is looking for you” Jess shouted at me from behind. “I was looking at the lady who’s dancing inside the room” I told her while pointing my finger toward the room. “What? There is no one in the room. Who’s the one you looking at?” Jess asked but I could not answer because I was shocked. The lady was just in the room and she didn’t even come out from the room but she wasn’t there anymore. There weren’t any music anymore and the lady was gone.

After the end of the class, Daisy and Jess had gone home early. I had to wait for my dad to pick me up; he told me that he would be a bit late. I sat on the swing outside the classroom while waiting for him. It was 8pm already and there was no one left but me. 

Suddenly, there was music coming from one of the classrooms and there were sounds of footstep. I started to feel nervous as I stand up from the swing. On my way to the room, I felt someone followed me from behind and the music stopped as I turned around to see who it was. There was no one and suddenly, “LAURA!” there was someone shouting my name from the room and the music was now to be heard again and it even got louder than before.

 I started to shake as I continued my way to the room. Then, I felt that the floor was wet and as I looked down, I saw the floor was red in coloured. I was afraid and decided to leave but then, I saw a lady standing not far from me. I couldn’t see her clearly because it was too dark. As she came near me, I found that she was the lady that I saw during my class not long ago. She looked creepy and her eyes were bleeding. She gets faster when she walked towards me and she asked me sadly “Laura can you help me?” I tried to say something but my voice came out like a squeak. My throat felt sore, my neck felt pinched, and I was shaking all over. Sweat trickled down my cheeks and my heart pumped furiously.

Since I don’t answered her question, she continued “Do you know that I’m the best ballet dancer in the country and famous before, but, since I’ve lose in the world ballet competition, all of the peoples are laughing at me and my ballet teacher is very mad at me. She kicks me out from the school. Even my family says that I’m useless. From that on, I cry every day until my eyes start to bleed. I remember the day I went swimming with my family and I’m drown, I’m so scare, I shout for rescue but not even a person save me and after that, I’m in the deep sea. Alone!”  She laughed after that and after what she said; I know she was the lady Jess told me in the café. She was dead. I felt more nervous than before because I was now talking to a dead people, so, when she wasn’t paying attention at me, I staggered back, trying to escape, but I was out of luck! 

Suddenly, she was pressing down on me and shouted in front of my face “Don’t you dare to escape from me! Do you get me?” “Yes” I replied with my shaky voice. Then she asked me softly “Can you help me?” I said “Yes”. 

“I want your body” she told me but I didn’t understand why she wanted my body, so I asked her “For what?” “For my soul, we are mean to be together, don’t you think so”. That’s when my face got pale but she continued “We are the same. We love to dance. We are the representative for the same country and competition and the most important is we have the same name. You are Laura and I’m also Laura” she touched my face slowly with her bloody hands. “That’s all. Is time to say goodbye!” She told me with a creepy devil smile, I wanted to shout for helped but there’s no voice coming out from my throat and I slowly felt that something coming into my body. At last, I felt nothing. 

There was a men coming towards me and asked “Are you alright Laura? Sorry, I was late. Come on; let’s go home, your mom is waiting for us”. So, this man was her dad then. I told myself, from now on, I (Laura James) was going to start my new life. “It’s alright father, let’s go” I replied.

The day of the competition: “The champion for the ballet competition is Jacqueline Lawrence” The winner should be me not her!

Miya's Story

WINGS

“To get wings, one must help at least 50 people”, I chanted in my mind. I was determined to get those wings and I hoped mine will be as huge as the headmistress and as white as snow.

I saw an old lady hauling 4 bags that looked extremely heavy for an elderly to carry. I skipped towards her and gave her a huge bright toothy smile. The very second smiled, the lady hit me with her cane and shouted, “THIEF! THIEF!” I shielded my head with my arms and ran away from the crazy old lady.

I continued to walk along a side walk, exhausted and anxious, I saw a homeless man sitting down by himself. He was dressed in ragged clothes, holding a recycled empty can of soup with a fading ‘Spare me some change’ label stuck on it. I sat down next to him and took out my notebook. I started counting the tallies that I wrote down of all the good deeds that I’ve done or at least tried doing. 4. A milestone for a person like me. I smiled to myself feeling satisfied and gave myself a pat on the shoulder.

I put my notebook back into my brown satchel and turned to the homeless man to see if he wanted any help. He grinned at me as he handed me a bottle of liquor. Feeling petrified, I jumped to my feet and bolted away. While walking en route for my apartment, I see a lady looking to find the reason behind her car not wanting to start its engines. I approached her feeling heroic until a very masculine man climbed out of the car.

I felt a weird urge to compare myself with this man. I have skinny arms that could barely carry a glass table while he has veins protruding out of his humongous arms. I stood here as tall as 5’1 while he stood up strong and tall at approximately 6’5. I shook my head in disappointment and walked away. “To get wings, one must help at least 50 people”. I kept repeating and repeating as I walked home. Easier said than done.

A few months later, I saw the old lady, who struck her cane on me, again. She was missing her cat named Doggy. I spent around a few hours searching for her missing cat, good thing it only roamed to a couple of blocks away from the old lady’s house. A pretty long road for a small and fluffy cat to travel. She invited me into her house and I was rewarded with milk and cookies. “Typical old ladies with their milk and cookies” I thought to myself. I took out my notebook and added a tally. I totalled the tallies once again and there were 12. So far so good. I smiled and put it back to where it belongs.

I sauntered in the direction of the cafe where I will meet up with a friend of mine. While I was walking, someone bumped into me and a purse fell. I caught hold of it and handed it back only to see a man glaring menacingly and snatched the purse from my hand then ran away. “Did you see a man wearing a red t-shirt, black jeans, about 5’8, stubbly beard?” A policeman asked with 2 more policemen behind him looking around a few minutes after the encounter.

I pointed to the opposite direction of where the thief ran and the policeman nodded his head before running to the pointed direction. I grinned to myself and took out my notebook. I mean I HELPED the thief ran away, that counts, right? I am willing to do anything just to have that wings, lying to the police included. I added a tally anyway and continued my journey.

The cafe was so quiet that there weren’t any sign of breathing human beings. Feeling nice,    I got out my phone and posted something on the internet before sitting down in a booth to wait for my friend since he wasn’t here yet. Less than an hour later, the cafe was packed with people chatting and shouting orders. I smiled and took out my notebook to add one more tally. 14. I then got my phone out and clicked on my social media. Somebody said Barry Tyles would be in MoonMoney at 5:15pm!! I pressed the like button as I chuckled to myself.

It may not be true but at least I helped the cafe acquire more customers.

5 months later, I have helped 47 people. Some of them may not be the good kind of help. I now need to help 3 more people to get my wings. I strolled out of my apartment to look for people who needed help. I locked the door behind me before walking down the stairs. As I reached the bottom stairs, I see a man in a black outfit trying to pick a lock to apartment 1C. I skipped towards him with a huge grin and took the bobby pin from his hands and helped him enter the apartment. When I succeeded I gave him back his bobby pin with a smile to which he smiled back,”thank you man” He patted my back and entered the apartment. I closed the door after he entered and took out my notebook to add a tally. Shutting the notebook, I continued my way to the entrance door. The cold wind immediately attacked me making me shiver and chattered my teeth.

I hugged my brown jacket tighter and started walking down the sidewalk. There trying to cross the road was an old man. I grinned and jogged to him then told him that I wanted to help him cross the road to which he accepted. I walked to the middle of the road and stopped the cars from driving. I then gestured the man to cross. When he was on the other side, I walked back to the sidewalk and waved to the old man.

I got out my notebook and added one. 49. Smiling, I put it back and continued walking. I walked for hours and hours straight and nobody wanted any help. Night fell and I started my walk back to the apartment.

Feeling quite parched, I stopped at the local convenient store, Six Twelve, to get myself a drink. I got myself a can of Pepsi then went to the counter to pay. While I was walking out of the store, I saw a homeless woman peeking through the window with her mouth wide open and drooling.

I thought to myself, “it’s another chance to do a good deed”. I went back the store aisles and grabbed a few more drinks and snacks. I paid for it and handed it to the homeless woman with much sincere in my heart and a smile on my face. She then smiled back and with a heavenly voice, “Thank You.”

“To get wings, one must help at least 50 people.” Knowing what I had done, I got out my notebook and add another tally. 50! Smiling in victory, I ran back home. I got inside my apartment, grabbed my special car keys then ran back out. I walked towards the underground parking lot and clicked the unlock button.

My silver car beeped signalling it has been unlocked. I got in and started the engine. I drove out of the underground basement at the speed of light. Literally.

Still smiling, I looked for a vacant parking space. When I found one, I walked towards the familiar building. I got inside and skipped my way to the elevators.

I pressed the 123rd button and the elevator went up. I held my notebook tightly in my hands with a huge smile. The elevator doors opened and I rushed to the headmistress’ office before it fully opened. I barged in not caring to knock then handed her my notebook. The headmistress looked perplexed but picked it up anyway and looked through it.

She smiled showing her pearly white teeth then handed me a small velvet box along with a small white envelope. I reached for it and thought, “I’m finally getting my wings!”

I then walked out of her office with those two items held tightly in my hands. I opened the box slowly and saw something I did not expect. “To get wings, one must help at least 50 people.” was her exact words but this was not the type of wings I had in mind. A gold badge in the shape of wings with ‘Good Helper’ encrusted at the centre. Baffled, I rushed to open the white envelope. It was a 30% discount card from House of Chicken Wings.