A JUBILANT CHANGE By Zara V.

On July 23rd, 3:01 a.m., I found myself face-to-face with the biggest change of my life. I was blessed with a pair of identical twin brothers. I had been so excited when I'd initially found out my mom was having one baby boy, but when she discovered she was having a pair of twins, my heart raced with joy! I couldn’t wait for those nine months to finish because I wanted to see my siblings' adorable faces. During those nine months, I made quilts for each of them, and went shopping to get their clothes, toys, blankets, strollers, and swing.

Then came the day, and my twin brothers were born into this world. It was a jubilant change to my life. “Aww, they are so cute,” was all I could utter. I had these two adorable brothers and I didn’t know which one to hold first. The first one was named Ismail and the other one was Ishaq. Ismail was born three minutes before Ishaq. They both had brown hair and sky blue eyes. Ismail was 8 ounces and 18 inches while Ishaq was 7.2 ounces and 19 inches.

They smelled so fresh, looked so cute, but when they cried, my ears would hurt because of their piercing cry. They didn’t cry that much, but when they did, it was very loud. What was most difficult was when they started crying at the same time. It was challenging for my mom as well. She had to take care of two babies at the same time. My dad, siblings, and I helped my mom a lot. They kicked and later rolled all over when you tried to put on their diaper. When I tried to feed the babies their apple sauce, sometimes they ate it but when they didn't want to, they spat it out on my face. They burped all over their clothes and make them so dirty. Their toys and various accessories also made the house untidy and messy. But we weren't just helping mother out with the babies, we shared the housework as well. We did the dishes, sweeping, moping, and cleaned the counter tops.

I loved watching my twin brothers grow and even though they were very small, over a few months they developed their own, cute personalities. Ismail cried more than Ishaq but Ishaq made more of a mess. Ismail always pretends to talk on the phone and Ishaq loved to watch TV and pretend to drink coke.

It is hard to have a pair of twins but a great pleasure having them around too. They fill our life with color, and I am not just talking about all the finger painting handprints all over the walls!!!

A LIVING NIGHTMARE BY ZARA V. Age 12 .(first story)

One dark, cold, Halloween night, I was walking home from my friend’s house, when I saw a man holding up a knife. He was dressed in a black gown with the hood on his head. I was so scared, that I thought it was my last day to live. I started running at top speed and as I was about to enter the garage, when I tripped on a sharp rock. The jagged edge of the rock went into my knee with the other half still left sticking out. I screamed for the pain was unbearable. I was trembling in fear and my heart was thumping but the man was still there and I knew if I wanted to survive I had to go inside the house.

With tears streaming down my face, I limped into the garage and closed the garage door. I had never experienced something so scary and frightening before. My knee was hurting so much and I was out of breath, but I felt safe and no longer worried about the man.

I dragged myself to my parents’ room, explained the whole story and showed them my knee. They screamed in panic on seeing my knee and quickly called the hospital. An ambulance came to my house and put me on a stretcher. They took me to the hospital, and the nurse took me to a room that smelled of different types of medicines. It was very stuffy in the room. The doctor examined my knee immediately and decided I would need surgery. When I heard that I would need surgery I started crying like there was no tomorrow.

They wrapped my knee and gave me an ice pack. They said they would start the surgery the following morning. I thought of nothing but the surgery the whole night. I did not want to go through with it. I was worried they would cut off my whole leg. I was afraid that something would go wrong in the surgery. What if I was not able to walk again? All these worries in my head were making this surgery a lot scarier. I tried reasoning with myself - I had to get surgery or else the pain in my knee would not go away. It was my only option, so I had to deal with it and have a positive attitude. I tried to get a goodnight's sleep and forced myself to forget about the looming horror.

When I opened my eyes to an early morning, I knew that the surgery would begin; but when I took a quick glimpse at my knee, the rock had been removed.

I limped to my parents and the doctor, and told them the good news. The doctor smiled and said they'd already done the surgery while I was sleeping. I was so happy because it hadn't hurt a bit. I had been worried for nothing!

I was hobbling on my crutches to ask the nurse if I could leave. She said that I would have to stay in the hospital for some more time until my knee healed completely. I was okay with that. When I went to my room the nurse was already there. She examined my knee, and told me that it is not healing. Worse, they needed to do another surgery.

This time the surgery would happen when I was wide awake. I closed my eyes as the doctor brought in the huge needle. He said that they would inject that into my knee, and squeeze out all the bacteria such as pus into a tube. Also they would give me lots of different shots, and antibiotics. I didn’t want to be scared this time, because last time I didn’t feel a thing.
The doctor started the surgery by giving me medicine that numbed me against the all the pain. Then he injected the needle and squeezed out all the pus, blood, and bacteria. It hurt a little bit when he put the needle in my knee. Then he injected a few more shots and gave me antibiotics. The doctor said I could leave after an hour.

I was so happy all the surgery was done. I could finally go home. On the way home I recognized the man with a knife ! He was taking Haloween decorations off his house and I realized the costume and he had been fake. It was only a Halloween costume and theme party that my neighbor had organized! I'd learned the very hard way that things might look scary but in reality are not that bad.

THE END