NMC Class of ’10 Memoirs

We studied Down These Mean Streets by Piri Thomas, Black Boy by Richard Wright, and Going Solo by Roald Dahl to learn how writers create memoirs that are engaging and fun to read.

Click on the blue hypertext to hear students reading excerpts aloud.

Antonio Coleman

11/4/09

Final draft

Party Time

Morning:

I woke up this morning the radio is blasting. “I gotta feeling …” D the friggen radio broke my sleep. Well that’s a good way to start the day. As I sit on the edge of my bed it creeks like when the springs are old and rusty. I look around my room and watch the small desktop in the corner go into hibernate and the top bunk lay still in the darkness of dawn. Ohhh shiznack today is Stephanie’s party, I gotta get ready. I’m in my red boxers with a white tee shirt. I have morning crust in the corners of my eyes so I can’t exactly tell what time it is.

“Tony! Come wipe the pee of the gotdamn toilet seat,” my mom screeched.

Ohhh my gosh not again.

“C’mon ma if your in there do it ya self”

I go to the living room turn on the TV and browse the channels: 35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44 … 35, 49. Disney Channel Phineas and Ferb it’s when Perry the Platypus and Dofenshmirtz fight with hot dogs. I turn my phone on and I have one missed call and two aim messages. The missed call is from Joelve and the Aim messages are from j2damnnic3 this is the screen name of Joelve.

“Yo where u at?”

“In my crib chillen like Bob Dylan.”

“Come down stairs and help set up for the sweet sixteen”

In a joking manner I say “Geeee buddy I jus woke up outta my slumber.”

My dad called from his room. I wondered what he had wanted.

“Yo Jo brb”

“IGHT”

I walked in my dad’s room it smelled of incense.

“Yah?”

He instantaneously replied, “I need some Basmati rice and the little puffy vegan balls and an odwalla.”

“What flavor odwalla?”

“Strawberry-banana-mango.”

“You want me to gota Whole Foods?”

“Yep here’s $30 bucks,” He gave me a $10 and a $20. The money was old except the $20 it was nice and crisp, “Get ya self some Turkey Jerky”

I leave the front door of my building and look around. I see the Tavares Deli, Yellow Fever, and Crack Heads. They all hang out around the Tavares Deli I never knew why though. I turn my body around and begin walking to Whole Foods when I see this crack head.

“Could you spare some change?”

“Naw man sorry I don’t got change, it’s a recession.”

“C’mon man I got these cheeseburgers man”

The cheeseburgers were the Big Az burgers from the Tavares Deli. I told you they hung out there.

“No! Leave me alone” I was outtie I dipped up outta there. Thank God I finally made it to Whole Foods. I felt out of place there. Everyone had on Suits and Ties and I had on a sweat shirt and sweat pants.

I got to the hot food section in Whole Foods when I see the black man from America’s Next Top Model Ms. J. He was wearing like some super duper skinny jeans and I was like “sup.”

He said “Hey.” Then I went on my merry little way. I got my dads food and my Turkey Jerky and got out of there.

I stepped out of Whole Foods and sniffed in the NYC air full of emissions gas as I ate a piece of Jerky and said, “Ahhh that’s my loving city.”

I got back to my block and saw the crack head and briskly eluded him. I got to my house and my Dad was knocked out so I had to wake him up.

“Dad … Dad … your food.” He got up and he was chest naked.

“Morning son, Got my food and drink?”

“Hey pops, yea I got your food and drink.”

“Thanks.”

“No problem.”

Let me tell you something, my dad is a vegan so he doesn’t eat anything that comes from animals.

Back to the story. So I go back to my room and my Mom is in there getting her clothes because her closet is in my room.

“Hey Tony good morning.”

“Hey ma how ya feeling.”

“Well a lil’ under the weather you know.”

“Well actually I umm n-no I d-don’t know.”

“Well I don’t feel very good.”

“What? But today is your big party.”

“Yea I know I’m excited.”

“Well you don’t sound all revved up.”

My Mom’s big birthday party is today and she having a big bash in a club in Brooklyn. She is wearing this yellow shirt with a stripped pattern knitted in. Apple Bottom Jeans and boots with the fur no just kidding she wearing snap on brown shoes. Today is also the big party of Joelves cousin Stephanie so I’m going to her party because my Moms party is for adults only.

I hear my phone ringing but I don’t see it crud. As I’m hearing the faint ring tone, Mims- Move If You Wanna, I look around and think where was the last place I was at. Hmmmmm … aaahhhhaaa the living room on the couch when I was watching Phineas and Ferb. I slowly jog to the couch when my phone sweet I grabbed it quickly and answered with a, “Hello”

“Come downstairs.”

“Downstairs where?”

“In the community room.”

“Oh Alight. Wait, lemmie take a shower first and I’ll be down soon.”

“Ok see you then.”

I hop in and out the shower quick with anticipation that the party will be good.

I go back to my room that is now filled with the recently risen Sun and put on fresh undies a new white beater, which is actually black, and throw on red shorts, with an Army fatigue green shirt, and my red Nike Zooms and start to walk down stairs. I get down stairs and Joelve is there and he said, “Dang man what took you so long?”

“Didn’t I tell you I hopped in the shower?”

“Ha Ha, oh yea”

We get to work on the decorations and he was like, “Oh snap I forgot that we needed scissors and some tape.”

So I ran up stairs back to my house and grabbed the scissors and tape came down stairs and we really got to work.

Luis Cordero

October 22, 2009

Memoir

Burning Pool

“Ahhhhh!!” I have just woken up on Saturday morning at 10:00 a.m. My mom had already made breakfast for me. My room was very messy. I never did my bed and the good thing is that the room was big. On the floor of my room was my dirty laundry and shoes too, but you never saw a book near my room. My mom’s name is Marcelys. She is a very nice woman. She has long black hair and she’s pretty tall. When I was in Colombia she was 43 years old. After I woke up, I brushed my teeth then I took a shower. I ate breakfast and started playing with my toys. I was only eight years old. Every time would be next door playing billiards with my uncle. I had a lot of friends and they were taxi drivers. They would sometimes let me park the car in front of my house. I would also use my brother’s roller blades and ride around the block. A couple of hours passed, and I stopped playing with my toys. I turned on the TV and started watching Power Rangers. I was a huge fan of Power Rangers. I didn’t have my shoes on but I had my sandals. My neighborhood was crazy. You see people driving their cars very fast or motorcycles. You also see kids on the street playing soccer. The day would always be sunny and when it turned night it would turn kind off cold.

“Lucho!”

“Que pasa mami?”

“Paso algo en la pisina.”

“Que le paso?”

“Yo no, se pero parese que le esta saliendo umo.”

All the Spanish that was being spoken by me and my mom was just my mom telling me that the pool was on fire.

Smoke I thought. Why the pool would be smoking? Then it occurred to me. The pool was on fire. Then I thought, “How did it get on fire.” Then I heard my mom saying that one of the fans in the pool broke and that’s how the pool got on fire.

My mom come’s back to me and she says,”Nos temos que ir ya.”

“Ok”, I said.

“Coge las chancletas.”

I and my mom booked out the house but we had forgotten something: We left my brother. We ran back and we started calling his name, then we found him. My mother grabbed me and my brother’s hand and we dipped. Then we went to the corner and we saw a lot of smoke where the pool was and we also saw pieces of the roof on the floor. The fire smelled disgusting. It was black and huge. It smelled like a car burnout. I started to tell my mom to run to the plaza. I and my brother and mom started running up the block. After one long block we heard “brrrrrrrrr!!” “ Mami se esta esplotando la pisina,” I said. “Oh no es que Hernan se echo un peo.” My mom and I thought that the pool was blowing up but, it was my brother that was farting because he was so sacred. After we saw this huge fire with black smoke we kept running. While we were running,my sandals broke. The front part broke. I was so tight. My mom saw the big fire and she got scared and she started dragging me. I was getting scrapped up, then I suddenly yelled and said,

“MAMI!”

“Calmate”

“Mira lo que me isistes.”

“Me cortastes tolas las pieenas.”

Running barefooted was the worst. My feet were hurting so much I thought they were going to break off. We went to my aunts house and her daughter was sitting on the front porch. I greeted her by saying

“Hola mamasita.”

After two long hours the cops and the firefighters came to were the pool was and they put out the fire. I was really happy they did that. I was also sad because my grandmother was crying. She thought that the pool was going to blow up and the bad thing was that the gas station was next to it. The house didn’t get burned or anything but the problem was that if the pool blew up then the gas station and if that were to happen maybe it could have taken most of the town. I was also happy that my father wasn’t there because I wouldn’t want him to see a huge fire with black smoke. He could of maybe have had a heart attack because he has heart problems. About a year later the pool was fixed. My cool crazy aunt gave us a party were the fire was. I though it was pretty weird because who would have a party were there was tragedy. Well I didn’t care because we had a lot of fun. There was food like meat, sup, mash potatoes and more. For the drink we just had water, juice, and soda. After we were all tire of partying we went to our safe homes and slept.

Jesse Collado

11/4/09

Hazardous Cherries

“Hey wasup Jess,” said my cousin, Matt. He had just finished walking into my apartment on Cherry Street. He and his aunt had come from New Jersey. It was very rare that they came over, so we didn’t expect that to happen. He was wearing a weird multi-colored graphic tee and a pair of light-wash jeans. He was about 6’3” and he was 14 years old. Even though he’s Dominican, it sure didn’t look like it; he looked like he was Caucasian or Columbian. He was the skinniest person I knew and all he did was play sports. My apartment looked like anybody else’s about that lived in the projects. It had a TV, 2 sofas, and a couple of closets.

“Wasup, what you been up to?” I inquired as we walked to my room. My mom told me not to bring anyone in the room, but I didn’t want to hear my mom and my aunt’s bochinche, seeing as every time she comes over, they gossip about the dumbest things possible. My aunt is one of the coolest people I know. She has some wrinkles, but that’s because she’s getting kind of old. She’s very small and a little bit chubby. She usually wears a T-shirt or a tank top of some sort with dress pants. It’s a weird combination, but it flows on her.

“Yo, let me bust that _____ in Madden 07,” said Matt with a cocky attitude. Madden 07 had just came out not to long ago. It was the Giants vs. the Giants because we were both Giants fans and we didn’t like to play with any other team.

“Yea, iight let’s see about that.” I said with confidence.

************************************

By the end of the game, he beat me 28-25. Wham! He slammed the controller on the floor.

“What I tell you? I told you I was going to whoop that in Madden,” screamed Matt.

“What you slammin’ the controller on the floor for? You goin’ to buy me a new one?” I asked furiously.

“Sorry. Yo let’s throw some stuff out the window like we did last time,” suggested Matt.

“Okay,” I said. I took a handball and threw it out the window as fast as I could. As it went down, I looked toward the horizon; the view of the World Trade Center was no longer there. All I saw was New York City skyscrapers. We watched as it went down and hit the concrete pavement in back of my building. Crack! It hit the pavement and started to approach my window again. It was so close to reaching my window, but it never did. It just went right back down to the floor and as it went down; it hit a car parked outside near the store. The side rearview mirror had broken into small pieces.

“Yo, the window broke. We goin’ to get in trouble, we should stop” I suggested, scared at the fact that I might get in trouble.

“Na man, let’s keep throwin’ stuff out the window. This is fun. It’s better than doin’ nothin’.

“Alright,” I sighed, “go find somethin’ else to throw.”

It was getting late. I felt as if my room was empty, as if I had just moved into the apartment all over again. There was still a whole bunch of things in my room, but for some reason it still felt empty. I felt as if only my bunk bed, my brothers’ bed, my dresser, and my TV were there, but that wasn’t all that was around me. Everything seemed to be invisible.

“Do you even use this?” Matt approached me with a small blue mirror in his hand; it had bright yellow stars on top.

“NO! I hate that thing, I’ve been tryin' to get rid of it, but ma mom doesn’t let me,” I said with a sudden rage of anger. “I hate the books that she buys me too. She buys it for no reason because I never read them anyway,” I said.

“So then, let’s get rid of them. We can throw the mirror out the window and we can burn the books with this lighter I just found,” he said cheerfully.

“Are you sure that we won’t get in any trouble?” I asked.

“Positive,” he replied.

We took the mirror and forced it through the safety bars of my window. Somehow it managed to fit. This time we didn’t watch because of the risk of getting caught. Boom! It sounded like a gunshot as it hit the floor. Aww man. I shouldn’t have thrown that out the window. How dumb am I. We then took the books and the lighter and tried to like them on fire, but it didn’t work. We tried for about 5 or 10 minutes, yet it didn’t work, so we gave up. You could see little red embers falling from the book. It turned into ashes as it hit the ground. We threw it out the window.

************************************

Boom! Boom! Boom! The apartment door opened; we were scared. We had a feeling it was security. He was explaining to our parents what had happened. I had jumped on my bunk bed and lay down, acting like I hadn’t done anything. Matt had sat down on my brother’s bed and turned on the TV. We were trying to play it off so that he wouldn’t think we were throwing the things out the window.

Next thing you know, my door opens. I see a big guy coming in. He was a fat African American and he was about 5’5. He looked like a darker version of the Big Show from wrestling. I’ve seen him around my building before, but I’d never actually met him in person until then.

“Have you seen anything fall past your window?” asked the security guard.

“No sir. I haven’t,” I replied, terrified of what would happen next.

“Were you guys throwing things out the window, such as a burning book?” he asked. There was no point in him being here because we were going to lie to him anyway and he knew it.

“No sir. I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I lied.

“That’s all the questions I have. Thanks you for your time,” he said as he left my room. He had a limp, like if one leg was shorter than the other.

I heard the door close and once it closed my aunt asked, “Were you throwing anything out the windows?”

“No!” we both said. We burst out in laughter.

“Yes, we did.” I said.

“Don’t do it ever again!” she demanded.

Jose Hernandez

10/23/09

ELA

WAR

It was on Sunday, February something when I went to Peru for the war. It is when every one gets water balloons and water guns and start wetting random people. To me it is a lot of fun because I mostly wet the people in cars and they get all mad and start to chase you with their car and they have their children (if they have any) to throw their stuff at you. Me and my uncle used to do that with his car until it crashed into a tree because we did not leave it on park when we did a recon mission through the park. Most days’ people would set up a base camp in their house or a tent/car in the park. I would say that the park is at least seven more miles bigger then Central Park in New York, the park has many trees and tree houses for kids, teenagers, and pets. They also have underground tunnels to make trips from one side of the park to the other faster. They also separate the areas for kids and teenagers so nothing bad could go wrong or so.

~recon one~

It was early in the morning like around five o’clock. I did a solo recon knowing that the risks were higher with an ambush. Within seven minutes of starting my recon I found an enemy base. It had the banner and guards on duty. The banner had a emblem with a dragon and a sword going into it (made for sense for the reclaimers). My mission was to get their banner (which was inside this big tent and with a fence around it) and bring it back to the helicopter (car) within the hour. I knew that the helicopter would not stay long for it is a slow moving one. I looked closely at the badges that the guards were wearing. It looked like the reclaimers symbol. I was scared because the last battle (last week) I had been shot with their shotgun (super soaker) and was scared it might happen again. I thought for a moment and decided to throw a rock. I did and the guards looked away! This was my chance and I started to run for the banner. I quickly got it and ran as fast as I could back to the helicopter. I ran and jumped over fences and rolled down the hills. Dawn was breaking and time was running out. I could hear the yelling of the reclaimers trying to find where their banner is. It did not take long before snipers were shooting at me. Four bullets (nerf snipers) zoomed right by my ear. I could see the chopper it just over the bridge. I ran so fast it felt like I was flying! The doors swung open and I jumped in it hitting the other side of the door. The chopper quickly took off and went back to base. I put my gear down for a minute and asked if there was another base nearby.

“Yes.” the sergeant (cousin) replied.

“Ok.” I said.

It was not long before we reached it. There were four other groups with seven people to it so I had 28 ground agents (family members) with me on my second base fight. I had snipers on trees and bombers ready. The only thing I needed was a stick. The point of the stick was to take out the banner without setting of the alarm that was set next to the banner. It was not long till I found one and went for the banner. When I went to take out the banner I noticed that there were shadows behind me. I thought that that was some of my bombs ready for the explosion. I turned around and noticed it was an enemy guard. I looked back and noticed that the snipers were shooting at the other guards but the bombers were dead (soaked with nerfs and water).i decided to take a glance at the guards behind me and saw they had a gun (water pistol). I thought this was the end of me but then I noticed that the chopper had returned with more troops (7-12 year olds). I took out my stick and smacked the guard right in the leg and took the banner with me as I fled to the chopper. I set the banner down and jumped in the chopper. I felt something on my leg. It was wet and it felt like a sponge. I had gotten sniped in the leg. I jumped in the chopper and quickly closed the door and got on the roof of the car with a grenade launcher. We had only made it a block before the chopper ran out of fuel. I was limping a few streets with seven banners and knew that I was the prize, I was holding everything, and if a group had gotten all these flag they only need six more with my flag included. I decided to have my sergeant carry the banners and I’ll set the bombs. A few days before we had set bombs (water bombs) under every base. This would kill them all for sure. I only needed to find the switch which is in the center of the park. The bombs only work if one person gets in it and gets drenched in very cold water for 1 hour with an oxygen mask. The other way is to have all the banners from every team and declare yourself king. I was ready. I went in the park and started to crawl my way towards it. I radioed all the troops telling them I was going to be the one to end this war.

~ The last straw~

I got in the machine (it was a real machine that drenches you in very cold water or so and it like drowns you so that’s why you need an oxygen mask with it) and closed the door. I looked up and got the mask and the eye shield. I sat in the chair which would later make you stand and float. I saw that many of my fellow troop members were there and were ready to praise my efforts to win them the war. The sergeant pushed the red button and the water started to rise. I was cold alright but the chair would keep you warm and the water will start to heat up slowly. The water pipes started to shake and the water could be seen going down to all

The enemy’s base. You could hear people screaming and water flying everywhere. I slowly closed my eyes and fell asleep. The next thing I knew was I was at home on my bed because I slept for more than 1 hour. I knew that I had won the 2004 water war and I had to make a new character because the old one had died in the chamber. I could not wait till next year when there would be more teams and more people.

Brian Hernandez

October 28, 2009

Memoir Story

The Weekend

I was upstate with my dad, my brother, and my two cousins. Well, Luis is 14 we grow up together; this is the first time in while that we were hanging out together. Since my mom and dad got divorce about five years ago I haven’t seen much of him. I guess it is just that being a single mom my mother doesn’t have much time to visit her sister in the other side of Brooklyn. Luis has always been taller than me. He is about 5’11 very skinny like always and he has a kind of a hunch back. I remember that when we were kids his mom only bought him dressing clothes and khaki pants he hated that. It’s funny because he still does hate and his mom still does buy him the same type of clothes.

Junior, my other cousin, is 19. He just came from the Dominican Republic about eight months ago. Junior is kind of a funny looking person, because for some reason every time I look at him he reminds me of a monkey. Junior is pretty skinny for someone who is 19. He so skinny that every time he has skinny jeans on they look like baggy jeans on him. I don’t know much about him, but I do know he was a rapper in DR and he said something about trying to write new raps or something. We see each other from week to week when I visit my grandma and sometimes he is there with his dad. He is always on the computer in my grandma’s house which kind of pisses me off cause I want to use the computer. As you might guess he doesn’t speak much English, but He trying to get his G.E.D. in a school that’s for people who don’t know much English. He is different from a lot of people that I know that came from the D.R. Most people say that they don’t like it here that the D.R. is better because there is more freedom, but for some reason he said this is much better than the DR and I don’t blame him. Another way that he is different from most of the family is because he don’t be asking, “Como tu dice this in English.” I hate that it’s mad annoy. I don’t mind that they ask once or twice but when they come back and be like, “A united estate is that how you say it.”

My dad’s friend has three kids: Chloe, Juliet, and Diego. I’m not sure what his name is I’m sure he told me but I never bothered to ask again. I’m not scared of him it is that he is kind of weird in a way. You know how when a person smokes a lot they always have that smell of cigarrillos. Ever since I met him about 6 months ago every time I see a mafia movie it reminds me of him. With his brown leather jacket, kind of wrinkly face, and his deep French accent which sound Italian to me. I always forget that he is French I keep thinking that he is Italian because he reminds me of Mr. Lovallo, and it is crazy when I played him ping pong in his house he plays just like Mr. Lovallo.

Diego is the youngest, and the craziest of all he is six. Diego is a good kid he is just a little crazy. Sometimes I think Diego is more Dominican than my brother. He is mad tough or a least he be acting mad tough for a 6 year old kid. Whenever I’m around Diego he reminds me of Daniel, because they have the same type of hair. Diego is shorter than my brother even though he is one year old than my brother.

Juliet is the quiet one and the middle child. Juliet is shy, but when she gets to know you she won’t leave you alone. That weekend when I was there it was the same weekend that Juliet got a new cat, kitten I should say. His back is black and his belly is white. His face is a mix of white and black. Not too many people know that I’m not an animal person; that I’m afraid of most animals except of little fishes because there is always a two inch thick glass between us. Juliet was the first to find out that I don’t like cats or kittens whatsoever. So the whole time I was there she just kept putting the kitten on my neck when I was not looking and I always gave a jump. Will at least I’m not affair of kittens no more.

Chloe is different from most girls I know. She plays lots of sports and is an A plus student. Chloe looks Chinese and Mexican put together she is about 5’4. She is thirteen and is the oldest.

It was about two o’clock and mostly everyone was inside expect for my two cousins and me. My dad was taking a nap because of the long drive yesterday. My brother was playing wii with Diego which is kind of weird since just 10 minutes ago both of them were fighting. “Give me my give me my toy,” Diego would say.

“But I wanna see it,” my brother would say back. As both of them were fighting for the toy Diego wanted to play dirty and choked my brother (You see why I think he is Dominican), and that was the dumbest thing you could do to my brother cause I done it before and he got so mad he started punching me, kicking, and biting me. He went crazy I just don’t understand why he got so mad for that. I was just playing around, and plus he almost never gets mad. He elbowed Diego in the face, grabbed his shirt, threw him on the ground, and started beating the ____ out of him. I ran after my brother I didn’t want him to be charged for man slaughter at such an early age. I sat him down and he looked at and said, “Brian heee heeee started it I’m sorry.” Afterwards he started crying in my arms. When I calmed him down, Diego came back and said sorry and both of them started playing wii again was like at WHAT THAT **** is wrong with these kids.

“Loco lets ride my rip stick,” I insisted.

“You stupid so I could crack my ***.”

“Ima teach you guys, it mad easy.”

“Aright then,” said Luis.

“Lets go to the main road and ride it there,” I said; that most have been one of the most worst ideas I have had in a way. It wasn’t that a lot of cars pass by the main road, to tell you the truth almost no cars pass by the main road. I kind of missed the city, because here in the country side there is no one around and even the highway is almost empty.

“Damn! You dumb you don’t understand I said it like ten times already put your right foot on the front of the board and kick off with the other foot.”

“It’s that I don’t even know how to ride a skateboard,” said Luis.

“I don’t know how to ride a skateboard either,” I replied. “Look Ima go down the hill and watch how I do it.” As I started to ride I saw Chloe and Juliet come out of the house and started to wonder what we were doing. When I finally got some speed on the hill I bent down so I could try to catch more speed. I looked back I was my cousins running back into the house and as I was turning my head I wonder why they running away I saw this dog running straight at me. “Wooooffff wooofffff,” I jumped of the rip stick and started running for my life. I could see the dog running right behind me, and the only thing that was going in my head is {am I really faster than a dog or is it just playing with me.} I was about ten feet away from the house. As I ran into the house I saw the next door neighbor inside the house. Chloe and Juliet were laughing. Chloe’s mom asked me what had happen I told her there was a dog chasing me.

The neighbor told me in a loud voice, “Please don’t tell me you were you were running away from my dog he’s a Chihuahua.”

“That a vicious Chihuahua,” I said out of breath. My cousins, Chloe, and Juliet were all laughing at me.

“Damn Brian you act like a tough guy, but you afraid of a little dog,” said my cousins.

“That not any little dog that’s a fast *** dog,” I replied. “You shouldn’t be talking because you were the first one to run both of you.”

“It’s cause, hmmmmmm.”

“Yea that’s right you got nothing to say,” I laughed.

“You boys really need to man up,” said Chloe’s mom. I was so embarrassed when she said that. The only thing that I was thinking was how crazy of a weekend it had been.

James Mai

11/1/09

Memoir

Getting into High School

Introduction

As many of my classmates know, high school is a really stressful process, especially for me. Right after 8^th grade started I attended a school called Ivy Prep. It’s not like any other school. In this school, their main goal is to get kids into the top 3 specialized high school (Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, and Bronx Science) in New York. After my regular school, which ends at 4:15, I have to attend Ivy Prep from 4:30- 7:30. On the weekends I have to go there from 1:30- 6 and sometimes until 8 if we have test. In addition to all this the secretaries are really mean, in particular this really short women called Melissa. Whenever we’re in class she will look trough the window to see if anyone is talking. If they are talking they get pulled out. Most of the times, people get pulled out for no apparent reason. Also whenever you ask her a question, she doesn’t answer you. Furthermore, every Tuesday we have to meet with the principal of the school, Mr. Wong for extra work. He is just a really dumb guy with big glasses, and a big nose. Ironically, he got many kids into Stuyvesant. The homework he gives us is even more ridiculous, but I don’t feel like getting into detail. Besides, he made us promise not to tell anyone otherwise his “secret” for getting into the top 3 specialized high schools. In addition to this, he tells us to skip our regular school because his thinks it is not necessary for us to get into Stuyvesant. He rather make us stay home and do all of his homework.

However, even under all this stupid stuff, great things happened. I met most of my old classmates from back in Elementary school that I haven’t met for a long time. First, there is Michael. He was a really smart kid and one of my closest from in 5^th grade, but he looks really different now, since he has long hair. Next, is Sophie, I met her back in 3^rd and 4^th grade at this summer program. Then, there was Wilson, he never was much of a friend, but it was good seeing him now. I also made some new friends, such as Oliver, he is a really random guy. Every time in class he will walk out the room and some back all of a sudden.

Chapter 1 Cutting Classes

“Guys, move to 208(208 is just a number to name the rooms),” said Melissa in a really squeaky voice.

All of the students got their book bags and began to move over to 208.

“When is Mr. Wong coming?” said Roy, one of the students there.

Melissa made a face, “He’ll be coming soon,” sighed Melissa.

We settled down and began doing homework. Melissa wrote down a bunch of names on the board. She did this to determine which student will go and see Mr. Wong first. I was always last and this ticked me off.

Here: 1.Oliver Absent: Christine

2. Jason Wilson

3. Michael Vincent

4. Roy Alex

5. David

6. Sophie

7. James

“Oh my gosh, I’m 6^th again,” complained David, a student who currently attends Brooklyn Tech.

“I know right, me and James are always the last ones,” said Sophie.

“Hey where is Oliver?” I asked.

“I don’t know, he comes late every time, why even bother with him,” sneered Jin, one of the newer students there.

Melissa walked out the room.

“Yo, James, how many pages do we need to do for the SAT math workbo-,” Michael’s question was interrupted by Melissa.

“Sorry guys, you all have to move back to 206,” said Melissa cheerfully. She loves to see us suffer.

“YO, that’s ,” shouted Jin.

“Well if you have a problem speak with Mr. Wong about it,” replied Melissa.

We all hastily walked down the dirty hallway filled with crumbled paper, to 206. By the stairs was a girl about the age of 17 with blonde hair. She turned around. It was Ruby, Sophie’s sister.

“Hey Ruby,” I said.

“Hi James, is Sophie here?” she asked.

“I’m right here!” exclaimed Sophie.

“Oh, my bad. Mom told me to pick you up today.”

“Ok, sure.”

As I walked into 206, I felt an aura of evilness. Not really evil but bad. I walked into 206 and surely Mr. Wong was there sitting at the front left corner of the room smiling as we walked in. His weird smile always gave us the Goosebumps. It was somewhat disturbing. You could never read Mr. Wong’s expression. It is just too unpredictable. One second is smiling at you, they other he will yell at you for not doing your homework.

“How are you guys doing?” asked Mr. Wong.

No one answered. Oliver suddenly bolted into the room.

“Hey guys, was sup,” he said.

No one answered because of Mr. Wong’s presence in the room.

“Oliver, come over here, you are the first one today,” he said nonchalantly.

Oliver sat down in the seat right in front of Mr. Wong. He reached for his book bag and took out one Webster’s New World Dictionary, Scarlet Letters, Ivanhoe, Jane Eyre, and Prince and the Pauper.

“Show me your yellow slip (A.K.A a post it in which he writes down the homework for you to work on the following week) now.”

Oliver handed his yellow slip to Mr. Wong. Mr. Wong then looked at his book. His face looks taut. Oliver probably forgot to do his homework again. This was not a surprise because Oliver never does his homework.

“Aahh, Oliver you have to work harder, you can’t win a school if you slack off. Did you review you’re your English homework?” asked Mr. Wong.

“No, I don’t have time to; I have a lot of projects from my school.”

“Oh, no, don’t worry about your school homework. It won’t help you win a school. Do my homework and you’ll be ok.”

“But I will get zapped by my teachers.”

“Zapped?”

“Yes.”

“What do you mean by ‘Zap’?”

“I can’t really explain it.”

“Well, just do what I say and you will get into Stuyvesant,” assured Mr. Wong. “You can drop out of school like I told you last week.”

“But I’ll get zapped.”

“Well you won’t get zapped if you drop out of school.” argued Mr. Wong. “Did I ever tell you guys a story about this girl who dropped out of school?”

It was silent.

“Anyways, I had this student who was a girl. She looked extremely weak, as if she would die at any minute. Just like I told you guys, I told her class to drop out too. No one dared to skip school. So one day, she skipped school. No one believed her. However, as she kept skipping school her scores on the mock test got better. The guys in her class felt ashamed and cowardly. So they also started to skip school. They also noticed that during the time they skipped school, they got a lot better at the mock test, and they all went to Stuyvesant, Brooklyn Tech, or Bronx Science. So as you can see, skipping school will help you win a school. If you don’t do it you will score really badly on the SHSAT. If will destroy your future.”

It was still silent.

“So Jason (a kid who currently goes to Stuyvesant. He is here because he is part of the Go Harvard program.) did you skip school last semester.

“No, I’m a good boy.”

Everyone was laughing, even Melissa, this was really rare.

Finally it was my turn to meet with Mr. Wong. I gave him my book and the post it notes with my homework on it. Just like Oliver I don’t do much of his homework. However, Mr. Wong doesn’t ever seem to notice this. As I waited patiently for him to check my homework I felt two negative auras floating in the air. It was hard to describe these two auras.

“Ok, James this week you had a….” Mr. Wong looked at my tan portfolio and found my test score for Sunday’s mock test. “Wow, James you improved a lot. You have a new high of 600. But you still need to work on your English.

Oh, yes! I’m so pro, I got a 600, and I can probably make it into Brooklyn Tech now.

“But then again, just because you have a 600 doesn’t mean you can slack off.” Mr. Wong opened my big SAT book to the big vocabulary page.

Oh, no. He better not ask me how to define on of those words. I never read it. It was completely silent. Mr. Wong was still flipping the pages. My heart was pumping so hard I felt like it was going to explode. Mr. Wong was slowly opening his lips. Oh, no I’m screwed. If I don’t know what the word is, he is going to make me stay extra late. Slowly and slowly he is opening his lips.

“So James, what do you think…” he didn’t finish his sentence. He then looked down on the page.

Ugh, quickly just give me a word; I’ll probably have to stay late anyways. I felt a cool droppings fall down my cheek. I touched my forehead only to notice I was full of sweat. Mr. Wong was about to say a word.

“So, what do you think you’ll do the last 20 days to improve upon the arrival of the SHSAT?”

Oh my god, he got me really scared. However I was really relieved.

“Well, I think I’ll be working more on my English.”

“Yea, you’re absolutely right. For the next 20 days, just work on your vocabulary.” He smiled at me. “Bye, James, see you next week.”

“Bye,” I said. I quickly got my stuff and went out the door. That was a pretty intense meeting with him. I called my dad to take me home. What a rough day!

Michael Moronta
November 4, 2009
Memoir

The Rusty Bike

“Yo Mike!” Luis said.
“Yeah, what happen?” I asked.
“Let’s go ride bike at the F.D.R.”
“Ight!” I said before I hung up.…
My bike was a blue and yellow mountain bike, kind of dirty, scraped up, heavy it looked like I had found it in the dumpster, but my uncle really gave it to me. Who know he might have found it. We met up about 15 minutes later. When we met up and was riding to the F.D.R. You could see and hear all the curses and drunk people talking. So we kept riding and while we were riding my chain popped, so we had to Franks Bike Shop which was a block away.
“How much a chain?” Luis asked.
“Fifteen dollars” the worker replied.
“I’ll take it, put it on that bike!” Luis said.
The guy took about 5minutes to change the chain.
“Hey kid, you sure you want to ride this bike? I mean its kind of rusty and old, don’t go to fast!” the worker said.

So we went and rode to the F.D.R. On our way over there me and Luis where trying to do wheelies.

“You whack!” I said to Luis.
“Yea ok!” he replied.

We arrive at the F.D.R and we rode all the way to 10 street. The view of 10 street is magnificent, filled with nice green trees, kind people saying hello to everybody and nice and tall brown buildings. We stood at 10 street for about 5 minutes. Looking at the ocean, the sky and feeling the nice cool breeze.

“Yo, let’s go back, I don’t want to go any further!” I said to Luis.
“Ight, I’m going to lead the way!” he replied.

As we speeding through the trees and about 1,000 people, I feel like I’m in a Lamborghini going about 100 mph.
“Yo hold up my chain popped!” I screamed at Luis who was ahead of me.
“Maybe you should just walk from here so that if you’re going fast again that wont happen.” he replied.
“Na buddy, you’re just scared that I’m going to beat you!” I replied in a funny tone.
“Psych!”
We almost next to our destination when a group of kids that looked like hood rats said to us
“Aye you give me your bike!”
My heart was pounding Boom boom, Luis and I just kept on riding. We still were going like 100 mph when…
“Watch Out!”
“_______!”
I felt like I just jumped of the Empire State building.
“Holy ****, you ok?” Luis asked.

“Ahh, Yeah, what?”
“You bleeding, look at your elbow!”
“**** man!” I shouted.
I couldn’t understand anything or know what was going on It felt like I broke my arm.
“I’m going home!” I said.
“Ok, I’ll take you there!” Luis said.
So I had to walk my bike with a bleeding elbow as Luis told me what had happened. I noticed a group of

people behind me.
“Why you keep on looking back for?” Luis asked.
“Yo is that the same people who said give me your bike to us? I am not trying to get my bike robbed.”
“Yo let’s book it!” I said.
“No, they won’t do anything to us!” He replied.
So I kept on looking back to see if they would pass me but they didn’t. I had stopped and moved to the

side to see if they would pass us.
“What’s that in your pocket kid?” one of them replied.
“Don’t worry!” I replied.
“Let me see it!”
“No!!”
“Yo should we hit this nigger?” he asked his friends.
“Na man leave the kid alone!” they replied.
“No!” he said.
He kept asking me for my phone and I kept on denying him. When he attempted to reach for my pocket

I picked up my bike and threw it at him then ran. It felt like I was running away from the cops, my adrenaline

was pumping… I wanted to fight. At that time my bike was heavy. I was surprised that they didn’t chase me.
When I got home first thing my mom looked at was my elbow.
“Omg, Muchacho de Diablo, what happen?” she asked.
“I fell off my bike!”
“Go put alcohol on that!”
So I grab a piece of cloth and put alcohol on it.
“Ahh, it burns, I feel like a French fire about to be fried!”

Daniel Peña

11/5/09

Getting Chased by Cops

Have you ever had to run away from the cops for something stupid? Well, I did one time. It was a Friday afternoon and I just got out of school. Me, Danny and Junior went to the park for about two hours and got tired of playing basketball so I went to my mom’s job to get money so I could buy something to eat and drink. D man I’m so tired of playing basketball all day, I thought to myself as we walked down Forsyth Street. It was 5 o’clock when I got to my moms job. Wow mom must be having a good day, I thought to myself as I walked into my mom’s job. I told her I was going to Friday Night Center and to give money. Junior decided to buy gum from the candy machine. So, he bought the gum then gave one to me and Danny to eat. He ate one himself.

Junior’s mom called his phone and told him to pick up his brothers. Danny and I went too because we all were going to Friday Night Center. I couldn’t wait to go to Friday Night Center, thinking of how fun it was going to be. Once we were right next to the school I rocked Junior on the head with a gum. He tried to throw one at me but he missed. Then, Danny tried to shoot the gum in the garbage but it missed and it hit the metal piece of the garbage. He got mad and threw a gum at the garbage. It hit the garbage and made a loud bang. Junior and I started to laugh. Then, Danny started to laugh too. So, he did it again and this time a lady got scared and said, “You think it’s funny to throw rocks?” and she went to tell the cops that were in front of us!

Danny yelled, “We are not throwing rocks!” When we saw her go to the cops we turned around and walked until we reached the corner of Essex Street then, we turned and ran. When we were turning the corner, I saw the lady from the corner of my eye point us out to the cops. I told this to Junior and Danny and they simultaneously said, _____! We stopped at Norfolk Street which was a block away from where the lady said we were throwing “rocks.” We did this so the cops would think we ran away “home” and so we wouldn’t waste our energy. The bad part was that the cops were right in front of Junior’s brothers’ school! So we decided to take off our sweaters and walk with a short sleeve shirt so the cops wouldn’t notice us. We went inside the school and picked up Junior’s brothers. We dropped them off at Junior’s house and our journey to Nativity began.

We started to walk through Houston Street since it was the safest place to walk threw. Then, we all started to run threw Houston Street. When I looked back I didn’t see Junior or Danny. I must have lost them! So, I waited for them because I knew they had to be at least two blocks away. While I was waiting I was thinking to myself, I hope she dies!

“Yo Danny!” I heard as I turned around. It was Junior and Danny.

“Yo what took ya so long? I thought the cops took ya to jail,” I replied.

“Naw you stupid, it’s that you running mad fast for no reason,” Junior said.

“Okay now that we in Eldridge and Houston we can walk,” continued Junior.

“Whatever I just want to get to school already and be safe,” Danny said.

“Okay let’s go guys,” I agreed.

We were walking throw the city one of the dirtiest and polluted city with all the cars beeping the horn. We got to school and we were safe again. What a long day we all had.

Daniel Segura
11/2/09

Memoirs

Day I got Stitches

My dad and I were in the Dominican Republic the most beautiful country at least that’s what I think. My dad had an appointment, so I stayed with my aunt. We went to a friend’s house. It was a big white house. It had 2 floors and a basement. I wished I lived there. It was a hot day so me and my cousin Raphael were hanging out outside. At this time I was 7 years old and he was 12. He had on a red shirt and was really tall. He had a little lighter skin then me. My cousin Raphael then says, “Loco dame tu mano.” Which means give me your hand. I gave him my hand. He rubs his hand into mine and says, “Vuelelo,” which means smell it. Once I put my hand on my nose he slaps his hand into my hand, which hits my nose. I had this feeling that my nose was going to start bleeding but it really didn’t.

“Diablo!” I said, “eso dolio,” that means man that hurt. He just started laughing. There was a white railing about 3 ft above the ground. I sat on it and started swinging back and forward. Then after a while my hand slipped and I fell backward. “Boom” I hit my head on a small rock. I really wasn’t thinking that I got hurt but actually I did. I reach my hand back to my head I felt something wet when I put my hand in front of my face so I can see, my hand was full of blood. Once I saw that I started crying like a little baby. My cousin took me inside the house where my aunt was.

“Que paso,” she asked? Which means what happened. She looked really worried and didn’t know what had happened to me.

“Se callo de el poste,” my cousin says. Which means he fell from the pole that is out there. Right now my heart is pounding really fast and what made me cry more is what my aunt said next.

“Vamo a mandar lo pa la emergencia,” which means lets take him to the emergency room. My aunts friend drove me there. It was a big black jeep and she was trying to go fast but the car was really slow. When we got there I had a white towel that she gave me from her car on my head. I got taken care of really fast. I got this girl nurse she was fat and I knew that is was going to hurt. I knew that she was going to be rough. They were trying to tell me it’s not going to hurt. I’m a fool I actually believed them. I knew that stitches were like staples and that frightened me more. I guess it hurt because I was thinking about it too much. I can’t really remember how the room looked but I remember it was little and the walls were white. After we left the hospital my aunt called my dad. He said he was going to pick me up. I got really happy. All I wanted to do was to see my dad. When we got back to the friends house he was already there. It was about 7 o’clock.

When we go there the 1^st thing he asked me was, “Estas bien,” he asked? Which means are you okay.

I said “Yes,” and he put a smile. I was happy that this was over with. I asked my dad if I was going 2 have to stay with the stitches my whole life. He didn’t say anything. But I found out why he didn’t say anything. Because 2 days later when I was sleeping my aunt and my dad took off the stitches. Anyways after I left the friend house we went to eat in a restaurant. It was called “La Cavaña.” It was the best food I ever ate. I had fried pork with French Fries. I ate it with so much pleasure. With the meal I had a lemonade which was really good. When I finished eating I felt like I ate a pig. I was so full. After that we went to the house. I didn’t have no video games here like I had in New York so I couldn’t stay inside the house the whole day it would be boring. Our house was in a place called the Gran Manzana. It was 3 floors. It was white from the outside and in the inside it looked nice. It had bars, pizzeria and places you can hang out in. In the last floor was our home. I loved living there. The only thing is that in the night the 1^st floor would get a little loud and it was kind of hard to sleep. But it wasn’t that bad.

Adrian Suriel

11/5/09

Memoir

Head Injury

I was on the 5^th floor of the Nativity building. I took out my clothes for Cross Country. I quickly went downstairs and rushed into the 4^th floor bathroom. I looked outside to see if anyone was coming…no one. So I quickly got to changing. As I was about to unbuckle my belt, the door nudged. So I held my foot against it in imply that there was someone in here. The door nudged again, he hadn’t got the message. As I took my foot away from the door there was a flash of yellow and Junior’s face. I became dizzy; I could not understand what had happened. Junior repeatedly asked me if I was okay. I was still confused. He spun me around and had me face the mirror. I saw a deep gash above my right eye on my eyebrow. It was about as long as a thumbtack and deep enough to put to put a pencil eraser inside. It was gushing blood down the side of my face. I saw a mass of people outside as Danny P. led me down the stairs.

As I appeared in the office, he quickly asked, “What happened?” as he wiped the access blood off. I told him what had happened; he placed gauze over the gash and taped it there. I was in sudden hysteria as he told me, “You’re going to need to go to the hospital and get… STITCHES!”