ANYONE WITH ME? By Branden Wang

            We were laughing our heads off when I told something Ashton never knew. Friends are people who are hardcore, willing to talk, and very helpful. Not everyone will do that with you.

            Every friend is hardcore. In my definition, hardcore means crazy in a good way and likes doing parkour. For example, parkour can be when you go over the school bus seats, when you go under the school bus seats, climb the boys school bathroom walls, and (not necessarily) shooting the boys school bathroom roof with soap. I recall a time where Rodolfo and I went to the boy’s bathroom and we shot soap on to the roof.

            “This so much fun!” said Rodolfo.

            “I know right?” Branden responded. Just then, Rodolfo shot a glob of soap onto his shoes.

            “Sorry dude.”

“It is okay; let’s get back to class before we get in trouble!”       

We laughed the whole way back.

            A friend is someone who will talk whenever he has free time. Ashton will talk to me if I call him over the phone. Sometimes we get so caught up in our conversation, we talk for over an hour. Once, we were talking about how Ashton was very good at Minecraft.

            “So you beat all of those noobs in team death match?” asked Branden.

            “Yup,” replied Ashton “I totally did.”

            “Remember that noob who did not know how to use that butter slapper?”

            “Ya, he was like, uhh... what’s this?”

            “That guy is a total noob!”

            “Exactly! That is what he deserves to be!”

Ashton is a great friend to have.

            A true friend will teach you many new things. Not everyone will teach you new things, only a true friend will. I recall a time when Malem told me something I never knew about Minecraft. He had told me that emeralds in Minecraft were not as good as diamonds. I use to think that emeralds were much better than diamonds. It turns out that diamonds were still better than emeralds and emeralds were completely useless. Emeralds can only be made into blocks and can be used in trading with villagers.

            “So you can’t make weapons out of emeralds?” asked Branden.

             “Well duh,” said Malem, “that is why no one likes dumb emeralds.”

            “So basically, you are trying to tell me that emeralds are useless?”

            “Yup yup yupity yup.”

Malem was being a great friend and told me the differences between awesome diamonds and dumb emeralds.

            What do you think a friend is? In my opinion a friend is someone who sticks with you not only in the greatest but also in the darkest times. As Muhammad Ali had once said, “Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.” He is definitely positively correct.

THE END

“I love you guys,” said Branden.

“Me too,” said good-friend Malem.

“Me too,” said good-friend Ashton.    

 

INSPIRATIONAL GIVERS by Branden Wang

            Think, think, think! I got to write a new novel or else! Sitting at my creamy, caramel-coffee desk, with a cool, as in temperature, silver desk lamp, I typed a fiction on a dark raven desktop computer. I stared through the tall, thin, circular glass window out into the open field. I am Branden’s hero - Michael Buckley. 

            Countless heroes are very, very hardworking. They are all hardworking because they usually want to achieve a goal. In Michael Buckley’s case, his goal is to write a New York Times bestseller. He wrote five superior N.E.R.D.S books and he wrote the number one New York Times bestseller series, “The Sister’s Grimm”. I assume it takes Michael Buckley about half a year to complete a New York Times bestselling book. The N.E.R.D.S (National Espionage Rescue and, Defense Society) is the written Mona Lisa of the 21st century. Michael Buckley has to put in a lot of effort and hard work to create this most crazy-awesome book ever.

            A great imagination is a quality heroes need. They need a vast imagination, as vast as the entire sea, because in Michael Buckley’s case, he has to write a book with an interesting plot and characters. He creates nutso villains for the N.E.R.D.S gang to fight. For example, there was Dr. Jigsaw and Simon (former NERD choppers).  The nerds and their super powers are very amazing! Jackson (braceface) Jones’s supped up super braces can turn into any gadget, like a gigantic robot! The team leader Ruby (pufferfish) Peet has allergies that detect danger or dishonesty (she is also allergic to many, many, many other things). Matilda (whezzer) Choi’s inhalers allow her to fly and blast enemies. Duncan (gluestick) Dewey - this paste eater sticks to any surface. Julio (flinch) Escala is hyper-fast, hyper-strong, and just plain hyper. Don’t you think these super power kids are power to the bone? Don’t you think Michael Buckley has a hyper-sticky imagination?

Heroes are inspirational. They usually inspire someone to be just like them or do what they do. For example, Michael Buckley inspires me to be a totally awesome funny kid’s novel writer! After reading the second exciting NERDS book, M is For Mama’s Boy, I was inspired by his fantastic writing skills and wanted to write like him. I will publish bestsellers like Michael Buckley did.

I have to think! If I do not get a new novel idea, I am done for! Sitting at my dark chocolate colored desk, with a shiny, silver table light, I type a fictional story on my sky-blue laptop. I stared through the tall rectangular window out into the flying hologram field. I am - Branden of 2057.     

INTO THE WATER By Branden Wang

            Help! Help! Help! I yelled during the bitter winter of 2009 at the Hunter College swimming pool. The water felt colder than the blizzard blast. Coach Alex swam faster than a killer whale and saved the other student, John, and me. This experience was the electrifying start of my swimming career...

When I was about five, I started swimming classes at the Hunter College. Coach Alex was an impressive instructor; he swam swiftly through the water like a jet plane. I went there for five months, which was one session. However, we stopped going there because the commute was terribly terrible, so we had to find a closer swimming school.

No need to explain the next place we tried and hated! The conditions were extremely dreadful. I was there only once.

After going to that awful place, we took private lessons with Jenny, my nanny’s niece. I learned floating, kicking, streamlining, freestyle breathing, and breathing under water. I had lessons from her for the summer, but we stopped going there because she had to leave for college. Now I feel enriched with basic swimming knowledge.

My dad went to the Flushing Meadow Aquatic Center’s swimming school and tried to sign me up, but they were full. They suggested us to go to Gateway, a swimming school that rented their space. We walked over to Gateway and signed me up for two sessions. Half a year later, my dad asked me if I wanted to try Swimania. I was stubborn at first because I like sticking with the familiar. But then, I wanted to change swimming schools because Gateway talks too much.

Swimainia is BOSS, my way of saying THE BEST. Swimainia is the current swimming school I am in. I have progressed tremendously after one year. I now know freestyle, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly (still working on). Sometimes, if we complete our lesson earlier than usual, we can have free time and play around. We can have fun! We can be kids! Because we swim more, I learn how to swim quicker. Swimania is BOSS.

Then on August 14, 2014, at the Baruch College Summer Camp, there was a one-on-one breaststroke race between two swimmers. The competitors were The Freestyle Master and The Breaststroke Master. The Masters dived off the boxes and into the pitch-dark eight-feet water. They quickly kicked themselves up to the horizon of the mighty deep water. The Breaststroke Master immediately started the breaststroke with streamline position. He then pushed myself with his arms and feet to the forbidden border of the deep end and the shallow end. His feet snapped like a lean bamboo-green frog. Both Masters bolted to the end, neck to neck, until they were a yard away from the starting point, which was the end as well.  I, The Breaststroke Master, won by a tiny inch!

I finally became the best breaststroke swimmer. Being the best takes time, patience, time, hard work, and MORE time. Everything I have gone through paid off.

THE SWEET AS HEAVEN ADVENTURE - by Ryan Ng

When my family and I vacationed in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, we went on the Wild Tiger Adventure Buggy Ride. It was a ride with cool jeep buggies on a bumpy road that goes on top of rocky hills. While we were discussing about which of the two tours we should join, the dark chocolate colored tour guide leader put on a black garbage bag. I was so shocked! Then we decided to go with the three other tourists from England.

            We had to go in two different buggies because each buggy held only two people. My mom and I rode in an orange buggy. My dad and my brother Nicholas traveled on a green one. Both dirty buggies wobbled. After a few minutes, our orange buggy ran out of gas and our ride was delayed. The tour guide helper exchanged cars with us, so we could continue on with our adventure.

            SPLASH, SPLASH, SPLASH. Driving in the mud was CRAAAAZZZZZZYY. We drove up and down on bumpy muddy roads with dirty water splashing everywhere. It was so much fun bumping up and going down hills. We finally reached the end of a mountain. When my mom turned, our car spun out of control and bumped into an iron fence. The car still ran fine, but the fence tilted.

            We drove up higher into the mountain and saw an opened flat area and continued onto it. We kept on driving in circles, up and down a big crater. Finally, we took a break drinking my favorite sodas – Coke and Fanta. We then drove to the hut and rinsed ourselves in water because all the mushy mud from the day before splashed on bags and clothes.

            The small wooden hut turned out to be the refreshment center. Oh, yeah! There, a friendly man explained how to make hot chocolate from cocoa beans. Then the tour guides let us try some in little cups; they were as sweet as heaven. There was also a wine called Mama Juana, my mom didn’t like the name. I wanted to buy the hot chocolate spices, but my parents refused to because they thought the hot chocolate tasted the same. But I disagreed.

After we returned the buggies to the main station, I saw the tour guide leader took off his garbage bag and washed it. “OOOO, now I know why he wore the garbage bag.”    

MAKING FRIENDSHIP STEW by Ryan Ng

           The four ingredients of making a friend are good communications, spend time with each other, help each other, and try not to argue. If you carry out these four elements, friends shall appear. At the same time, you will feel blessed surrounded by amazing friendships.

            We need good communication media to keep in touch with friends. Friends talk to each other frequently. There are many communication apps out there. My family uses Skype. It is an app that can be downloaded on the computer so you can talk and see (if you have a camera on your computer) with your friends. Also, you can text or call each other on a phone. My brother and I always keep in touch with our friend Charlie. We usually text or call each other every week. This makes our relationship stronger.

            Friends do things together such as play video games, sports (soccer, tennis, or basketball), go to an amusement park, or eat together. For example, I went to a new sushi restaurant with my friends, Alex and Charlie. We had a good time; the food was good and everyone had a lot of fun. The conveyer belt moved in circles while carrying many mini plates of sushi. What an extremely fun night and divine memories!

            Being nice to your friends is very important. You can help each other out by studying with your friend before a test. That can help you and your friend get a better grade. If you don’t understand something, ask your friend. One time I forgot my spelling list for the test, and I asked my friend Jeffery, but he forgot his list too. Jeffrey then reminded me that the list was on VocabularySpellingCity. So I got 100 on my test.

            Try not to argue with your friends. Instead of arguing, why not find a solution to the problem. One time I argued with my friend Massimo (mA-sI-mO), we were arguing if I should give him some pieces of my salty seaweed. The solution was I let all of my friends decide, and they said yes so I gave him a few. Later on my mom packed me rice and seaweed, and she put an extra bag of seaweed for Massimo. I learned that sharing is caring.

            I don’t like to make enemies; I like to make friends. I will follow my friend-making ingredients because I do not enjoy being alone. By the way, what are your ingredients for making a friend?

A KING FOR 10 MINUTES by Ryan Ng

            “Presenting the winner of the Liberty writing contest…Nicholas Ng!!!!!!!!” We were in an oversized stadium. There were many people in the building at their seats ready to watch the game. Everyone saw my brother smiling and proudly waving his hand in front of the crowd.       

           

            Since my brother won the writing contest we got to go to the game for free. Nicholas is a smart, talented, friendly soul who is very good at writing. When we first arrived at the stadium, we picked up our complimentary tickets. We then walked through a jumbo, grand tunnel and entered the enormous basketball court through one of the four grand entrances. The tunnel was so colossal because basketball players are skyscraping. As we paraded out, we heard the crowd screaming. We saw our friends who came with us, high in the stadium seats. When we entered the court, our excited faces appeared on the big screen TV.

            Walking in the gigantic tunnel made me feel funny because I felt like a NBA player. My nervous body shook and sweated. I felt proud to be the younger brother of the essay winner. This lifetime chance would have never come true without Nicholas.

            It was sad to see the Liberty team lose the game by a few points. But that didn’t matter because I was a king of the world for ten minutes, in a stadium full of people cheering my family and me.

Grace Tran authors...

The Great Scientist, Albert Einstein

You may know him as Albert Einstein, one of the smartest scientists who’s ever lived.  But did you know that he failed his entrance exam to the Polytechnic school?  Or that he founded the theory of relativity?  Or that he wasn’t afraid of death?  There’s much more to him than one of the smartest scientists in the world.

This future genius was born on March 14, 1879; and didn’t start talking until he was four.  Before that, his parents took him to many doctors, but they found nothing wrong with him.  It was just his nature.  At ages 5, he encountered the compass and was fascinated by the invisible forces, which pulled the needle.  At age 12, he came across a geometry book, which he read it over and over again.  These two events marked the beginning of his still undiscovered genius.

As Albert grew up, he found life more difficult. After dropping out of Luitpold Gymnasium and failing much of his entrance exam to Swiss Federal Polytechnic School, he was finally admitted into the same school because of his exceptional marks in mathematics and physics.  He liked to study alone and cut classes and earned the hatred of some of his teachers.  He soon learned that he was a major target for the Nazis.  His pictures were posted on magazine covers with the words, “Not Yet Hanged” written beneath.

Life brightened for him as he reached 1905, the “miracle year.”   He published four papers in one of the best known physics journals, Annalen der Physik, and discovered the formula, E=mc2.  This suggested that tiny particles of matter could be transformed into large amounts of energy.  With the help of (possibly the most significant physicist of this generation and the founder of quantum theory) Max Planck, Einstein was became known to the world for his unusually smart brain.

He was offered countless positions in the best schools including the University of Zurich, the University of Prague, the University of Berlin, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.  As more people started noticing him, his bond with Mileva Maric, his wife, got weaker.  It was not surprised that Einstein and Maric soon got a divorce.  Time passed, and the popular scientist started to fall in love with his cousin, Elsa Lowenthal.  

In November 1915, Einstein finished the theory of relativity. This was confirmed by the Astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington during the solar eclipse of 1919.  Two years later, Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics.  The theory of relativity is a complicated explanation, but very simply put, time is relative. For example, a man places two poles near a train track and uses a double-sided mirror to see both poles. When lightning strikes the poles, he sees it striking on both poles at the same time. On the other hand, a woman sitting on a train in this same scenario won’t see the lightning striking the poles simultaneously. Instead, she sees lightning striking one pole first followed by the other.

In his last years, Albert Einstein is known as an accomplished man.  Before his death, he was taken to the University Medical Center at Princeton for cures, but refused to have surgery.  He confidently spoke these words the day before his death, “I want to go when I want.  It is tasteless to prolong life artificially.  I have done my share, it is time to go.  I will do it elegantly.”  The next morning, on April 18, 1955, Albert Einstein left planet Earth peacefully at the age of 76.