Prologue

Franks head whacked the roof of the car, again. “Mum,” he complained, “slow down on the judder bars!”

“Sorry darling!”

Frank was on his way to school. Summer school. Frank thought it was such a waste of time, and he was sure the only reason the whole class was there was because Ms. Levesque had a way against kids. He had no idea of the adventures that awaited him…

 

                                     Chapter 1

                                                                                      Life could not get worse

 

“Meeeeeeeeegehiglyoe!” Frank screeched. He had just stubbed he toe on the leg of his desk, nail first, the pain was unbearable! Chairs scraping the floor and paper rustling were the only noises the silent class made as they turned to face Frank.

 

Frank felt his cheeks go cherry red. Tears welled in his deep sea-green eyes, making his eyelashes look long and dark. He was sure his golden brown hair grew long to suit the rest of his face. Tears made their way down his nose, dripping off the ski-jump like tip. It was bad enough without looking like a girl!

 

                                    Chapter 2

                                                                                             Down like a rock

 

Frank could not stand all the staring eyes, it was too much for him. He wished he could vanish… to sink into the earth and never be seen again. Instantly he began to descend. It felt like a million tiny hands of earth were grabbing at his ankles crumbling away and reforming as they hauled him down… down… down… Frank fainted.

 

                                 Chapter 3

                                                                                 A strange new world

 

Franks eyes snapped open. Wrong move. tiny chips of glass fell down into his eyes from above him as odd people-like things jumped on the glass ceiling above him, surprised at the sight of him alive. A second floor, he figured. He leapt up and felt the clay walls of his cell with his hands. Wait… Franks heart jumped with terror, HE WAS IN JAIL, in a world he didn’t know and strange people-aliens he couldn’t understand!

 

Frank ran over to the bars of the cell, looking out with bewilderment. It was a whole city in a cavern so big he couldn’t see the walls at the other side. It was obviously under the world he knew so well. He had to get out of here. Fast.

 

“Ah!” A whole clump of apple baby food fell smack-bang on Franks head. By looking up Frank could see how they got it to him. In the glass ceiling above he could just make out little slits in the glass forming a square, with hinges on one side and a glass handle on the other. A trapdoor, he forgot about the babyfood that covered his head and tried it, but it only opened from the other side, useless. 

 

                                    Chapter 4

                                                                                        The big escape…plan

 

By the amount of aliens that looked like scientists wearing labcoats on the glass above him, it wouldn’t work to  throw a clump of clay or punch the glass with his fist to get out, because that was less weight than all the aliens; the ceiling was very low. But over the night he had thought up a plan. His eyes still ached from the tiny bits of glass that fell in them the night before, but those chips had turned into a plan.

 

Yesterday the people-things had got very excited that Frank was alive, and had jumped up and down on the glass. The glass obviously hadn’t been made for that much weight to be jumping all over it, and little chips of glass had fallen out. If Frank did something really strange, like breakdancing while acting like a chicken. Then the scientists would hopefully call to other scientist-aliens to come and see, and then about thirty alien-people would be jumping about on the glass above, trying to work out what Frank was doing. Frank would quickly pull the sheets, the pillow and the mattress off his hard bed and hide under them, to avoid being cut by the millions shards of glass that would fall, not to mention aliens. After that in all the dilemma and confusion he would grab a fallen-off labcoat and put it on, then scramble up the ruff wall and slide though the door upstairs. The rest he would make up on the way.

 

                                   Chapter 5

                                                                                           The big escape

 

Frank started at nighttime so there were less aliens. Just to be safe Frank tugged the mattress, pillow and sheets off the bed before he did anything strange. But, apparently this was enough. The alien-people-scientist-creatures jumped up and down calling to others. Frank couldn’t hear them because of the sound-proof glass. Stupid glass, Frank thought, I would love to hear what they’re saying, why- Frank snapped out of it. The other aliens would be there soon and he had to be undercover before the glass cut him to pieces. He scrambled under the bedding.

 

About a minute later, SMASH! Shards of glass fell everywhere, the little bits tinkling on the floor. Frank leapt up, glad for his shoes. Unfortunately no lab coats had fallen off, so he reluctantly slid a coat off a knocked out alien. He looked up, where the glass had fallen there was no longer any floor, the ceiling was two storeys high now. he scrambled up the rough wall underneath the second storey door. Once he was level with the door he turned the knob and pulled. Oops, he pulled too hard. And it was a push door.  The weak hinges gave way and the whole door came tumbling down. Luckily it fell on an alien and didin’t make more noise to attract more trouble, though it did kill the victim.

 

                                   Chapter 6

                                                                                      Out and caught again

 

Frank slide down the dull hallway of the building. Bright blue slime oozed down the walls, light coming off it, instead of the lights in the roof the he was used to. At the end of the hallway there were stairs, he picked his way down them, occasionally slipping on the blue stuff that had made it to the ground.

 

He made it to the bottom of the staircase, turned and started down a new hallway, with rounded walls, and it seemed to get tighter he further you walked. In the distance light streamed through a double glass door. He started running to his destination, his heart beating hard. Just as he was about to be out, to be free, a “YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” broke out as an alien guard burst through an unseen door and grabbed Frank by the scruff of the neck. The alien hauled Frank into the room it had come through.

 

Frank stared around in disbelief at his surroundings. Apparently this was this alien’s room, kind of like a dormitory. In one corner it had a bed, with bright blue covers, and he didn’t know that all the other furniture existed. But, the most odd thing was that every bit of furniture was bright blue, even where, in our homes there would be wood, the same bright blue plastic was there. Even the pillow was hard plastic. The only things that weren’t bright blue were the walls and floor of the room which were the same dull grey as in the hallway.

 

The alien shoved some kind of translator on it’s head and another on his. “What are you doing here, Germ?” The alien questioned. Frank gathered up all his courage and tried to start a normal earth conversation. 

“Um… My name’s not Germ, I’m Frank, and I don’t even know how I got here… Could you possibly help me to go back… Up?”                                                         

“Well, Germ, science tells us there is not a single bit of civilization in the Above, I cannot not believe you.” The alien replied acidly.                                           

“Please! There is an Above! Send me up!” Frank begged.                                    

“Silly Germ, you die if you go to the Above!”                                                         

“Then send me there, I won’t die! And, if you think I will, you are just killing me!”                                                                                                                                      

“Fine. Come with me.”

 

                                   Chapter 7

                                                                                   Free! 

Frank waited patiently as the alien, Bi-Gurtoin, apparently, handcuffed him.  “In the Above… I’m sure your non-existent friends will help you”

“Thank you so much!” Frank squealed with delight.

“It’s not a ‘Thank you’ you are littually asking to be killed!”

Bi finished cuffing Frank and they walked on in silence. Bi pushed the door that Frank had tried so hard to get to open, and Frank gazed around in amazement. “C’mon, keep walking!” Bi comanded. Frank started up again, still staring.

 

Everywhere aliens bustled about the streets. It was like a market; on either side of the street bright blue stands sold all sorts of things, blue lollies, blue sausages, blue necklaces with bright blue plastic thread and bright blue plastic beads, everything bright blue plastic, always exactly the same shade! And of course the ground and walls outside and inside were grey. “Ever heard of the word ‘colour’?” Frank wondered aloud.

Bi tensed, apparently this was a sensitive subject. “Yes. Colour kills us with its beauty.”

“How? I mean, how can you be killed by beauty?”

“Natural. We see any colour but blue or grey, we fall down. Dead.”

They continued on, once again they were silent. After about an hour Bi spoke up. “Here we are, Germ.”

They had come to a side of the cavern that held the city. The earth had been covered by grey paint, to stop the deaths of the aliens who lived near. But the thing that caught Franks attention was the small blue twisting hole in the cavern wall. Looking though it Frank thought it looked like a twisting tube of blue, the blue fading and darkening as it twirled around and around. The tube went straight ahead horizontally for about three metres, then it sharply turned and went up, seeming like it never ended.

“Well, are you going home? Or was this a big plan to escape, but I never let you have a chance?” Bi’s voice was tinged with anger.

“Um… In the Above there is nothing that seems so mythical actually… there.”

“There is here, so in you go! Er… and keep your hands by your side.”

“Okay…”

 

In Frank leapt, hands by his side, looking all confident and cool, then let out all his girl-power and screamed like an expert. Going up had to be worse, unlike millions of hands pulling at his ankles, this is what he felt: He was strapped to a plank that hovered in the air, not moving a single bit, while strong wind blew upwards from underneath him. With force so strong that he was afraid his skin would tear of him and fly up in th wind. It hurt, and he fainted for the second time that trip.

 

When he awoke, he was being hauled out of a misterious molehill by a policeman and, thankfully, his dad. Franks mum pushed past the two men and hugged him tight.

“awww my boy! From unlikely reports from you teacher you just sunk into the ground, but I think that lady just threw you down this molehill! No more summer school for you! Ms Levesque did through you down here, didn’t she, ’cause I’m not stopping your summer school for nothing!”

Frank nodded in his best ‘I-am-really-tired-and-she-hurt-me-alot’ look. This was going to be the best holiday ever. No summer school equals lots of laziness. 

 

 

         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                         

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                          

 

 

 

 

 

There had been a knock on the front door, I had glanced up from my game. I hoped it was Grace! I eased out of my chair, and went to the door. I opened it… It was Grace! This night at my house was gonna be fun, Grace was the first of my friends to come in the holidays.

First I had dragged her upstairs to share a surprise with her. I gave the surprise away though, by asking; I hope you haven’t seen The Smurfs. That had made her grin, because she hadn’t, and now she knew one of the things we were going to do that day. I also asked if she wanted to build a hut, she replied with a “yep!”

We had trotted downstairs, and started the slow process of hualing chairs up the stairs. I can’t remember how many we carried up, but I think it was most of the dining chairs. After we had set the chairs up in an oval rectangle shape, all facing outwards, we searched for blankets to use as the walls and roof.

Next as we had sabotaged my wardrobe for blankets, the result was us trying to squirm out of them when they fell on us. (The blankets were from the top shelf and I had caused the avalanche by absent mindedly pulling one from the bottom of the lot, because i could actually reach it). 

After that we had needed a roof. Easy. Anneke let us borrow her ginormous purple blanket a big as a double bed for the roof, it was perfect! We balanced it on the top of the chair backs, and then draped blankets around it. We then dragged a double mattress, a duvet, and heaps of pillows into the hut.

Well, when the hut was finished it was time to go to the movies at the new cinemas! Grace and I were a bit disappointed at the 3D though. We both couldn’t see any 3D except for one of the ads before the actual movie.

Finally, it had been home time. Grace and I doodled around, played The Sims 3, and climbed into the hut for bed. We talked… whispered… murmured, and then Grace dozed off. I didn’t fall asleep that much longer after her.     

Nelsie woke to the crackle of flames… What’s happening? She asked herself. The sound of a pillar falling somewhere in the mansion snapped her awake!

Smoke was seeping through the crack in the door, and Nelsie got out of bed. She was fourteen, and she was staying by herself at the mansion while her dad and mum were in Singapore.

What had the teachers told them in class? Nelsie racked her brain for the vital information. Nelsie heard a crack and the house swayed dangerously. At least she knew not to panic. That’s it! Nelsie had remembered!

She carefully made her way to the door and felt it. It wasn’t to hot yet…. Bang! Something had fallen. Nelsie tried to open the door, but it was locked. She always locked her bedroom door before bed when her parents were away for safety.

The mansion was swaying  lots now. Nelsie stumbled to the corner where she kept her key. she picked it up and waddled to the door. Nelsie tried to put the key in the lock. Uh-oh! The door was hot now and the lock inside it had melted and deformed.

With a sudden BANG the door burst into flames, and Nelsie leapt back. She could feel her lungs swelling up, she needed to think. Fast!

Why is the house so new we havn’t installed fire alarms, and why do we live alone in the country where nobody can see us? Were Nelsie’s first thoughts. She tried yelling, even though she new it was hopeless. But there was too much smoke and all that came out was a strangled hoarse whisper.

Nelsie got down to the ground, fire was starting to engoulgh her room now. There was a huge crack and a bang as another pillar fell, and the mansion swayed more furiously. Nelsie chocked out a tiny ”help”, and then she blacked out.

WEEEE-OOOOO, WEEEE-OOOOO. Nelsie heard a distant siren. Her throat was dry, and the room she was in was very plain… She recognized this place! She was in a hospital! The white bedclothes were wrapped snug around her, and she had a mask over her mouth to keep her breathing and alive. I’m so lucky! She thought.

A man with a white coat came into the room. He had sharp and scary looking tools in his hands… Wait! his hands were green! Nooooo, Nelsie thought, it must be because I’m still not one hundred percent. She pushed the thought away.

The man bent over to have a look at her. He had huge black eyes and green and blue warts all over his face. He looked her in the eyes and said, as he raised one of the sharp objects, “Say ahhhhhh”.

Nelsie felt herself blacking out again. She mumbled “maybe I’m not so lucky” as she left the science lab and entered a black abiss.  

http://multiplication.com/flashgames/DiaperDerby.htm

This is the maths website I found, and it’s the most fun game I’ve played on the website.

At the start you’re allowed to customise your computer baby! (My one had a blue mohawk and a rhino walker!) You can pick the times table you want to practice. And then it’s a race to get your baby to the end of the corridor. whenever you get a times table right you move foward. When you get one wrong you go back and the other babies go foward.

At the end of the game it tells you the times tables you need to work on, (The ones you got wrong).

This game helped me because I’m still not amazing at times tables yet, and it let me practice them. 

 

Ugh…gh… Hugo’s dad always kept him awake, gurgling and mumbling in his sleep through the thin walls separating them. Sometimes Frank (Hugo’s dad) even sleep talked. Hugo had talked to his dad but Frank just laughed and told Hugo that he amused him; “Ha! I know I don’t say things like ‘Candy floss is green and slimy’ Hu, you can’t trick me and make me put a peg on my nose!”

“I’m not lying dad,” Hugo complained. “I can’t get any sleep, and when I do wierd dreams I can’t stand come!” But Frank wouldn’t believe him.

The next night Hugo had a horrible dream.

Hugo stood in an endless white space. He felt that if he stepped off this invisible platform, who knows how small, he would fall for eternity. Slowly a GINORMOUS jack-in-the-box emerged, forming out of colourful dust that was drifting around it…

Deep laughter echoed through the nothingness, as the box’s handle slowly started to turn… Music filled the endless white, at first lightly then getting louder and louder as it played.

There was a big flash of light and a giant clowns head exploded from the top of the box, gave an evil smile then boomed as the deep voice that had laughed… “Meh, ugh… slippers are yummy, gh…” 

Hugo jumped back in shocked, and stayed there for a while, until he realized where he was standing. He looked around in relief that he hadn’t fallen, but that was a mistake… Hugo plummeted through the white bottomless place, with the occasional “My toes are comfy bean bags…” or “Meh, moogh…shoes, ugh.” Hugo screamed until the shouting voice of his dad yelled….

HUGO! GET UP! THE ENGLAND VS ARGENTINA RUGBY GAME IS ON! Hugo woke with a start, “Dad!” he yelled “How much have I missed?” Frank didn’t reply, he was already intrigued in the game. “C’mon England, you can do it!” Hugo’s dad encouraged the English team even though they coudn’t hear him, but Hugo soon joined in.

The game was a draw, seventeen to both teams. Hugo sighed, at least his dad was good fun in the day.

After dinner Hugo discussed his dreamish-nightmare to Frank. “Maybe I do sleep gurgle and sleep talk, Hugo” Frank sighed, “I should go to the doctor and see what he thinks. I have been waking up with a sore throat that I usually get in the day from yelling or talking too much.”

The doctor gave Hugo’s dad some pills and that night Frank had a great sleep. No interruptions, no dreams or nightmares! That Monday Hugo did way better at his schoolwork, and was much more enthusiastic. Hugo heaved a happy sigh and sat down on the couch after school, thinking of what he should do next. Usually I would be half-asleep right now, Hugo thought to himself. This is exciting!

    

A couple of days ago our class, room 3, did some printing on polystyrene. We carved and stamped and rolled, producing wonderful artwork we had no idea we could do! Here’s how we did it. Hopefully you will end up with amazing prints like everyone in our class.

Materials:

• Fine, thin polystyrene

• 2 printing rollers

• 1 piece of white paper

• Coloured paper

• A sharp pencil and a blunt pencil

• Printing ink (go to the end of the post to find what colours work and what don’t)

• Old newspaper

Steps:-

 1. Draw a picture of anything on a white piece of paper the size of your polystyrene.

2. Place the piece of paper with the drawing on the polystyrene and centre it. 

3. Trace over the lines of the drawing while it’s on the polystyrene, making sure your pencil basically goes through the paper. Which leaves the dents of the picture carved into the polystyrene. (Sharp pencils make thin, fine lines. Blunt pencils make thicker lines that stand out more on the art work).

4. Now that the drawing is carved onto the polystyrene, the paper with the drawing on it can go, now go over the dents on the polystyrene so that the drawing is deeply etched into the template.

5. Choose a flat surface and spread the old newspaper on it. Place a tray to put the ink in on the table. Select a piece of coloured paper that will suit the colour of the ink you’ll use, and put it out of the way along side a clean roller.

6. Squeeze a smidgeon of ink into the tray, and start rolling it with another roller, it may be very sticky, but keep rolling until the ink is all over the roller.

7. Using the roller covered in paint, roll the ink onto the polystyrene on the side with the drawing carved into it. Keep rolling until it is evenly spread on the template, but make sure the ink DOES NOT  gets into the crevices.

8. Place the template, ink side down onto the coloured paper.

9. With the template still on the paper, turn it over and use the clean roller to roll the paper (WITH THE TEMPLATE STILL ON THE PAPER) so it really stamps the paper.

10. Now gently peel the template off the paper, careful not to smudge the ink. Now leave it to dry overnight.

It’s done! Now the basic drawing on plain white paper is an amazing colourful print on bright paper! I hope it was fun to do, and that my instructions weren’t to confusing.

 

I think a lot of my prints turned out well, but lots of colours on certain colours of paper don’t turn out that amazing. I really think white or silver on black looks good, and white on green looks pretty cool. Silver on green doesn’t work though. If you do it well, gold on purple paper looks outstanding!

I reckon the last few times I did printing were the best, because I knew how to do things without ruining my print, and how to make the lines look really effective.

Next time I do printing I want to try doing different colours on it carefully, and this time put more ink on the template. (Once I did it quite well but there wasn’t enough ink, this also happened to my friend, Simone). I want to do it because I love that sense of accomplishment, and I’ve already done heaps of plain one-colour prints. Also, I want to do better than last time, I like to improve on things and if they’re not good enough for me I do them again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great and relentless, the Wharenui stood tall.

It’s carvings old and beautiful.

As soon as you walk into the Marae Atea, and stand face to face with this magnificent creation,

You feel calm and drift into wonder…

How did the people carve such amazing things?

What made them think about it?

How I would love to see it again,

It’s such a lovely sight.

Unbelievable.

Last week, my cousin and anty came for a holiday, but the cousin that came was Francesca, not Ben, her brother. Fran’s 7 so it isn’t as fun to play with as it is with Ben, then,  three days later Enzo, my half cousin came from Australia. So I’ve got two weeks with them….

BUT AFTER THAT BEN AND GEN ARE COMING!!! Yay!

Yesterday morning, St Patrick’s day, when I had to be at the church by 8:30 ton play my recorder, I was eating my breakfast when my cat  Stella, caught a mouse.

Dad and  I chased Stella all over the house, under beds and on the furniture, Dad not wanting to have chewed up mouse on the carpet, and I didn’t want it to die. It was a little brown mouse with surprisingly large ears, and tail.

Finally we caught Stella and put her outside, and put a jar over the shocked mouse.

Today the mouse remains in the jar, and I’m going to let air into the jar and feed it after school. IT IS SOOO CUTE!

 

I made this song up for my mum for her Birthday.

Here is me playing the tune on my recorder:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4460802/My%20Mum%20song%20March%202011.wma