week28-09

By Drew Dudley
Chelsea Public School, Grade 12

Is being accepted all that big of a deal? Do people really need to have other people around them? I know that I love having my friends with me; they're like family that I don't need to go home with. I can call them up in tears in the morning before I go to school and know that later that night I'll be with them to help me feel better. I guess I feel accepted with my friends; I feel that I can be the person I am. Read more »

By Jordan Priar
Chelsea Public School, Grade 12

Acceptance: the most common desire of almost every student, worker or independent person. Some of us dress a certain way, others say certain things. One way or another we're all doing something to be accepted by someone. It's not always a bad thing to be accepted, but are you doing it for the right reasons?

The day was a bright and brilliant Saturday, full of birds chirping in the warm summer breezes and rays of light illuminating the hillsides of the surrounding mountains. I was just reaching the end of a small, wooded path that led to the top of one of the surrounding tree-lined hills. Pushing my bike to the edge of the hill, I looked down to see my "friends" at the bottom, cheering me on. I had recently decided that my best way of making more friends would be to do something crazy and daring, like biking down a wicked steep tree-filled hill with inevitable carnage at the end. Read more »

By Mark Cheng
Spaulding High School, Grade 12

April first is a really funny and interesting day. When I was at school in China, students usually would make jokes with their friends and teachers. Like one of my friends told me that my math teacher wanted to see me after school. The school meetings usually take one hour; I waited at his office but no one came! On the next day, I knew that it had not been true, that no teacher had meetings the day before.

Another thing that happened was one of our teachers told us that there would be a leader coming later to check our classroom. So everyone worked hard to clean the classroom and get it ready for the check, but nobody came. We laughed together and enjoyed working.

I think April Fools' Day is a funny day for everyone.

By Melissa Soule
Leland and Gray Union High School, Grade 10

There was once a time I could look into your eyes
Sink in them
And watch the shifting waves of thought fade to text
Pirouetting in giddy scriptures as I read your private newspaper until my eyes were sore.
You let me walk right in; we felt so content.

Like a quaint cafe
Yellow, of course, with the autumn theme the leaf-peepers expect
They're in and out, charging through life on caffeine and blind ambition
While we sit and talk
The cinnamon waves of laughter ringing like bells on the door. Read more »

By Haley Harder
Renaissance School, Grade 5

Dave woke up to the beeping of his alarm clock. He pressed the snooze button and then looked at the time. 4:30! There were only two holidays that he set the alarm for 4:30. Christmas and April Fools’ Day. He knew it wasn't Christmas, so it must be April Fools’ Day! Time to wake up Greg, he thought.
Greg was Dave’s 14 year old brother. Greg thought April Fools’ Day was for 11-year-old boys like Dave, but Dave knew that Greg really did like pulling pranks on his mom and dad....and Dave. He crept quietly into Greg's room with whipped cream and a feather. He put whipped cream onto Greg's right hand, then he ticked his face with the feather. Greg lifted his hand to scratch his face.
He grimaced and said, "DAVE!" Read more »

By Chester Barber
Renaissance School, Grade 5

On April Fools
There are no rules.
Kids put chairs in the pools,
And when they go to school,
They put tacks on each other's stools.
All day, they'll be pushin'
On that whoopee cushion
So who knows who'll
Be the fool.
April Fools!

By Zachary Falls
Albert D Lawton, Grade 7

Last April fools I thought for sure I had the best trick in the books. Our sink has a hose attached to it, so if you turn on the faucet, you can hold down a trigger to use the hose. I wrapped a rubber band around the trigger. If anyone used the faucet, they would get a rinse in the chest instead. I thought I was as clever as a detective.

April 1st was a Saturday that year, and we had to go to our 4 o’clock mass. When we got back, I had completely forgotten about what I had set for a trap. I went to turn the faucet on to get a glass of water, and, instead, I got a jet stream of water to my stomach. It was bittersweet. I was happy my plan had worked, but unhappy that I was the victim. I guess what I’m saying is, when you set an April fools joke this year, make sure you’re not the victim!

By Arthur Kreis
Spaulding High School, Grade 10

A day people commonly fear
What a wonderful time of year

A day that rains buckets of water
And earth worms crawl in your fodder

A day people pull pranks
In hope their joke will rank Read more »

All the words that people have said,

Running around inside my head.

Fag, stupid, retard, STOP.

Accept me even if I don’t fit your world,

Please be quiet or speak kind words.

When you call me loser,

See yourself through my half open eyes,

And when you step on my broken hands,

Feel my knuckles crunch under your tongue.

I will fight no more but only with silence,

Until you realize that life is just a disguise, Read more »

By Sophie Hale
Spaulding High School, Grade 9

In third grade, one morning we walked into school. “Okay class, clear your desks, we are going to take a test,” Mrs. Pierce said. She handed it out, and I glanced over at my friends, confused to as what were supposed to do. It was telling me in step one to stand on my desk and squack like a chicken. I thought what the heck, and decided I would do it anyway. Everybody was laughing and the few kids that were smart enough to actually follow the directions sat there snickering, but at the time, I thought they were just too much of losers to actually do it, so we all called them party poopers, and continued doing what we were doing. So there I was climbing up on top of my desk, flapping my wings making these strange noises that were supposed to be sounding like a chicken. Read more »

The Fun in Fooling People

By Brooke Gilbreath
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

My mom packs my dad’s lunch
Throws in some hardboiled eggs
Or so we think…
He arrives at work
Looks around seeing pranks being pulled all over the place
Lunch time arrives
In front of everyone in the lunch room my dad pulls out an egg
He breaks the first one and eats it like he always does
Yes, our plan is working
My dad thinks that the next egg is the same, hardboiled
And then…
He goes to break it and it splatters everywhere
All of his friends staring at him laughing
He looks up and says, “they got me again!”

By Felicia Neuhof
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

I want to be accepted.
I change my voice,
I change my laugh,
I change my attitude,
I want to be accepted.
I change my clothes,
I change my hair,
I change my mind,
Is this all worth it?
I am changing who I am,
Is it wrong?
I want to be accepted! Read more »

By Basundhara Mukherjee
Frederick H. Tuttle Middle School, Grade 7

Where do I go?
Who will I be?
Questions arise...
just waiting for me.
My future waits,
longing to come,
What will happen?
And when is it done?
Am I prepared?
Am I concerned? Read more »

By Lea Cosette Stephenson
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

The night is black, trees stand out with the white snow highlighting the edges. Our car stealthily goes down the road, each wheel turning to develop our April Fools master plan. My mom and I are dressed in black, though I wear a pink fuzzy scarf to add flair to my outfit. When we reach my elementary school the car coasts down the curved driveway to keep the silence of the night.<--break--> Read more »

By Imri Bruck
Woodstock Union High School, Grade 10

The best April fools joke that I have ever played on someone would have to be—the one I played on my step mom five years ago.

So it was April first, obviously, and it was customary that we play a joke on someone in the house. So I decided that I would play one on my step mom. That day I decided that I was going to put an egg on the sill of the door, and when she opened the door the egg would fall on to her head, well that was the plan anyway. About mid-morning I notice that she slips into the bathroom and I figured it was time to strike. I reach into the fridge and pull out the biggest egg that I could find. I proceeded to place the egg ever so carefully on top of the door and wait. Read more »

By Frankie Buffi
Lake Region Union High School, Grade 12

It is important to be accepted. It gives people the feeling that they belong and fit in, which is one of the most important things in life. People want acceptance, but it gets dangerous when people go too far to be accepted.

I have never been a person to go to great lengths to gain the acceptance of our society. Yes, I like to fit in and just get along with everybody, but I don’t change things about myself to be more popular. I have done little things, though, like changing the type of pants I wore because I wanted to be like everyone else and no longer wanted my mom to pick out my clothes for me. Read more »

By Savannah Lynch
Otter Valley Union High School, Grade 7

My prank story of April Fools;

April Fools,
is,
very,
simply,
not,
today.
But,
then again,
its April Fools!
Oh,
what,
a,
fool,
you,
are,
in,
April.

By Hannah Gelb
Thetford Academy, Grade 8

Have you ever had a horrible prank played on you that made you feel stupid? Well I have. April 1st, I woke up ready to mess with some people’s minds. My first prank was a tradition; tying the sprayer on the sink so that water sprayed on the victims face.
The day went on pretty regularly, and when lunch time came, I made my way to the cafeteria and took my usual spot at a table with some friends. I was starving, and immediately began eating my peanut butter and fluff sandwich. I took a few bites before realizing that something wasn’t right. There was a crunch as my teeth hit something hard. To the horror of my friends, I spit out the bite and realized that there were tiny ants in my sandwich. As I looked closer, I realized they were plastic. Thank God! Read more »

By Katerine Botelho
Chelsea Public School, Grade 11

So I have never participated in April Fool’s Day, but I think it’s funny to see what happens to everybody else. Trust me, I have seen some very funny things.
There was one time when I was about ten and I was with a couple friends at one of their houses at a beginning of the month sleep over (it was a ritual). We were having a great time playing Pictionary at midnight and one of the girls went to the kitchen to bring some snacks back to the living room. We continued playing without her… until we heard a shrill scream from the kitchen. Of course we all went running in expecting to find a mouse or something, but instead, we found her standing soaking wet in her blue pajamas next to the kitchen sink. Someone had tied a rubber band around the sink sprayer so that when she turned the sink on, the water came out of the sprayer instead of the faucet. It was so funny to see her standing there with a mixed look of shock and anger on her face that we all started laughing hysterically. Read more »

By Madison Hope Doucette
Dummerston School, Grade 7

When my brother and I first heard about April Fools we didn’t exactly get what a prank was. So when my Brother and I woke up the night of April Fools we decided we would pull a ‘prank’ on our parents. We thought about what we should do for 30 minutes and then we finally decided our final plan. I tiptoed down the stairs with my brother slowly following me. I walked over to the cupboard and grabbed the cinnamon. I took the container and walked over to where my brother was standing, he was holding our parents’ toothpaste container. He tried to unscrew the cap, but since he was 4 he was having issues with it. So I took the tube of toothpaste and unscrewed the cap. I popped the lid off of the cinnamon and started to pour the seasoning into our parents toothpaste. When the cinnamon was all gone it was either in the toothpaste bottle or else it was in the bathroom sink! So when my brother said he was tired and headed off to bed I started to wash the sink. When I was done I tiptoed back up the stairs and into my bedroom to fall back asleep. When i woke up the next morning I completely forgot about what we had done last night, but when my Dad squirted the toothpaste onto his toothbrush I remembered why. He didn’t realize until after it was in his mouth, but when he did he spit it right out! My brother and I got yelled at and we decided if we were gonna do April Fools we shouldn’t do the prank against our parents!

A student

By Zilfo Kochaliyeva Israilovna
Spaulding High School, Grade 12

This is not a bedtime story, but instead is about how one girl is trying to be strong in the face of life.

She was once a very pretty girl, and her family decided to marry her to a man that they chose. She knew that she was not ever going to love him, but her family didn't listen to her and she was married to the man. She had no choice, and now she is married and very angry with herself. She hates that she did not speak up and tell her parents she did not want to be married to a man she did not love.

In school, she studies what her husband's family wants her to study. In life, she is does what her husband's family says to do. She just watches their mouths for what they are going to say. Read more »

Acceptance

By Trey Hood
Spaulding Highschool, Grade 12 Read more »

ANNOYING!

By Katie Vezina
Lake Region Union High, Grade 12

I hate the way you treat me,
The way you make me feel,
Giving me the third degree,
Now I've become the third wheel.

You don't seem to be aware,
That you've given up on life,
It seems like you just don't care,
Running away from strife.

We used to be good friends,
Always talking on the phone,
Now its coming to an end,
And I'm all alone.

Nomad

By Lauren Mazzotta
Lake Region Union High School, Grade 12

revolution: circling or insurgence?
you long for dramatic change
wait, haven’t we been here before?

find a foreign place
a new scene and a fresh face
revolution: circling or insurgence?

this current culture’s growing gray
you’ll surely suffocate if you stay
wait, haven’t we been here before?

could your eternal dissatisfaction
be more of a distraction?
revolution: circling or insurgence?

carry on, do what you need to do
take all of your belongings and this attitude with you
wait, haven’t we been here before?

after your last hour and dime have been spent
you’ll realize nothing will make you content
revolution: circling or insurgence?
wait, haven’t we been here before?

Betrayed

By Erin Karasinski
Lake Region Union High School, Grade 12

That is so annoying when I tell you something then with a blink of an eye everyone knows. You expect me to believe it wasn’t you who told, but yet you were the only one who knew my secret. Walking down the hall, all eyes on me, thanks to you I’ve become the joke of the day. All thanks to you. You were supposed to be my best friend but turns out I was wrong. Thanks for ruining my day.

You've Gone and Left, Now You Are Forgotten

By Katie Vezina
Lake Region Union High, Grade 12

1.) Love is just a four letter word,
2.) But now it’s gone,
3.) And you are forgotten.

4.) Dishonesty,
5.) Fabrications,
1.) Love is just a four letter word.

6.) Out of sight,
7.) Gone of mind,
3.) And you are forgotten.

8.) Now rest assure,
9.) Things have changed,
1.) Love is just a four letter word.

10.) You cheated,
11.) You lied,
3.) And you are forgotten.

12.) Now be gone,
13.) We’re over and done you see,
1.) Love is just a four letter word,
3.) And you are forgotten.

Blue

By Erin Karasinski
Lake Region Union School, Grade 12

I lay still upon the ground,
Staring straight up to the sky,
Waiting for the sun to be found,
To shine its light up so high,

The sun starts to shine,
Lighting miles and miles,
Such a beautiful sight,
So many new things,

Oh how I have never seen,
Such a brilliant shade of blue,
Hanging onto its morning hue,
Streaming colors through the sky,

Hours past by,
The sun starts to set,
I get ready for another day,
To watch it all again.

Just being Me

By Colleen Banister-Garvey
Spaulding High School, Grade 12

When I was younger, I tried everything to be accepted; I changed the color of my hair, I acted like a completely different person than I am today. I would make up stories to try and make my life more interesting -- things like I was beaten or I was left alone for long periods of time -- but none of it was true.

I wanted people to like me and feel sorry for me because I was desperate to have friends. I felt so alone and scared that someone would hurt me because I had no one to protect me from all of the bullies at school and outside of school. I needed someone to be there for me when I felt like I wanted to die. Read more »

By Joseph Goewey
Spaulding High School and Barre Technical center, Grade 12

In my last ten seconds
Would there have been time
Would it have been enough to change my thoughts
What’s done is done
And remember I love you

In my last ten seconds
I had grabbed that gun
I tied that noose
What happened is over
You didn’t think it ended right
How could you have changed that night

In my last ten seconds
I loved you
But I hated life too
You couldn’t have done much
Because it wasn’t because of you
Remember me and I’ll never leave you

Youngins of today
By Poulima Juston
Rutland High School, Grade 10

What would I be
If there's anything I could be
I would be a number 23 RB
Shootin' spins and jukes up on the NE
Havin' people say, "Damn, that kid crazy!"
Because I am
And not because they're standin' next to me
And hopefully, that be the reality
If that don't work out
Don't know what I'm gonna be
So I'm trippin' about if it's gonna be the end of me.
Most people decide to lay back, take it easy
But that just ain't how life be
Life is hard, especially
If you just got 80's and don't know what you wanna be
What you're good at, or what you're good for
Wantin' to do the one thing that you truly adore
But unsure of what it is, so you end up moppin' the floor
Or making some doors
Or doing some chores
But that's not what I stand here for
I stand for shooting the stars, having so much more
And when I get it
Will be when I sit
'Til then I'll remain, my legs stiff as I spit Read more »