Words can Change You

That day was incredible, I must say thanks to Raphael, he was very brave and just told me what I needed. It all happened one day when I bothered him too much. This is the story of my life, the story of Jake Cold.
This is just the story of a boy called Jake and his classmate, Raphael. Jake was a guy who just wanted to call the attention of everybody. As he was very shy, he started to bother many people, because he thought that it would make him popular. He was the typical example of bullying; he never stopped bothering other guys or just hiding their things. Raphael, a guy who studied a lot and was very fat, was the main object of Jake’s laughter. Every single day he was bullied by him, so he didn´t want to come to school. The 4th of July, Rapha was in a very bad situation, his mother was ill so he hadn’t studied for the final test, and that was the day when Jake decided to bother him most. At the end of the day Raphael went back home crying and not willing to live.
After that day, the 5th of July, Raphael only thought of dying. But then, as he knew he was a very intelligent and good guy, he decided to tell Jake something that was going to change the rest of his life.
“Hey Jake, come with me just for a minute, I must tell you something very important.” Jake wanted to listen so he would have another chance to laugh at him. “I think that maybe bullying is not the solution for your shyness,” said Raphael, “or for your problems in your house. Please stop bothering me, my mum is ill and I can´t come to school if you bother me every single day. I will help you with all your problems, you will think I’m crazy but we can be friends, no matter what you did to me or how many times you bullied me. Let´s start from scratch, I’m just a person like you, we are all brothers Jake.”
After listening to that, Jake was surprised. He never thought Raphael could adopt such an understanding approach. He started to cry and felt very proud of Rapha, who had been very brave. He accepted his offer and they became friends.
This is just an example of one of the millions of cases of bullying. There is just one way to put an end to it: NEVER KEEP QUIET, OPEN YOUR MOUTH AND TELL THE OTHERS WHAT BOTHERS YOU.


Category B
Pen name: BehindYou

Little Habana

I am a Miami, Little Habana, inhabitant who lived in Wilfred’s times, there are not so many men who remember or have heard this story, that’s why I will tell it to you.

Wilfred Battista was a great old Cuban man who lived in Miami, Little Habana, in 1998, as you know it is the most dangerous town in all Miami, and it has a lot of drugs and murders. He had a wife named Mary and two daughters. During the day he was an excellent police man, he was like Dr. Jekyll but he had his dark side, then, at night, he was like Mr. Hyde, he had an addiction of killing people.
But he didn’t kill people at random, he killed the assassins that were freed by the police or who were never caught.
Every time he killed someone he took his boat and threw the body to the sea, but he knew that one day he would be discovered. Every day he thought more and more about confessing his real life. And the day he was going to confess, something really bad happened, all the corpses appeared. He felt totally lost but he didn’t know that all the citizens would consider him a hero.
When he noticed all the corpses had appeared in the sea, he took his boat and rowed to Cuba, La Habana, to his family house, to take cover. He spent one night there and when he woke up he saw the news and read a title which was “A Cuban hero killer in Miami”.
He decided to come back to Miami and confess. The people in Miami couldn’t believe how Wilfred had captured them and had killed them; the people thought he was a real god. The old evil assassin he used to think he was, ended up with the name that the entire town gave him “The great fair assassin”. Then, when he came back, he continued with his addiction until his own death.
Today, August 23rd 2013, is the 5th anniversary of Wilfred’s disappearance. Supposedly, he died the 26th of March, 2013, but I’m the only one who really knows his complete story. He simulated his death because he couldn’t work properly, all the assassins knew him. So he went to another town in another country to continue with his addiction, maybe now he is still killing bad people...

Category B
Pen Name: LAFU

Our trip

It was Sunday, and I was going camping with three friends. They were Mateo, Nicolas and Tomas. We had been waiting for that trip for a month and we were very anxious. We went to the bus terminal. We started doing all the paperwork, and then was when the trouble started.
When we were doing the check-in, Mateo realized that he had forgotten his identity card. He phoned his wife but she didn’t reply. So Tomas had to go home to get it as he was the only one who had a car. We waited for him. He lasted at least one hour. The longest hour in our lives. Then, Mateo could do the check in and then we got on the bus.
Once in the camp site, the guide ordered us to start putting up our tent. That night we were going to eat on the beach. When we were walking to the beach, Tomas saw something strange and walked away from the group. We followed him. Nobody noticed.
We strolled into the forest and, honestly, I was very scared. We were very tired, so we decided to stop for ten minutes. At that moment, I realized that Mateo was missing.
We stayed in that place for one hour, maybe he was just delayed. After waiting for some time, we decided to make a plan.
We were going to spread out, all in different directions. We were going to look for Mateo for an hour and then we would return to the same place. I got on my way. As time passed by, I gave up the search. I couldn’t find anything so, I returned. When I arrived at the meeting place, Tomas was there.
We waited for Nicolas for two hours. We started to think that he had also got lost, but we decided to follow the plan. We stayed there.
Suddenly, we heard some weird noises. It was Nicolas, but he wasn’t with Mateo. We became very worried as there were no signs of Mateo. After two hours, we surrendered so we went to the beach. When we were on our way, Nicolas saw a body on the floor. We got nearer, and found out the worst. It was Mateo. He was just sleeping, so we woke him up. Fortunately, he was okay
We waited for him to get better. He had fainted. After he could stand up by himself, we headed back to the beach. There, on the beach, the campers were eating. Very silently, we joined the group, and I realized nobody had noticed we had been missing. We were surprised and sad because of this. Nicholas was the only one who was relaxed. He thought that, as nobody had noticed that we had been missing, then nobody would scold us. He was right about that.


Category B
Pen name: Funes Mori

Died in the island

When I was 12 years old, I lived on an island. All my family lived there, and my friends too, so I loved the island. But one night all the things that I loved disappeared, one night all my dreads became alive.
One day, I was with my friends playing on the beach. We stayed playing until 10PM more or less. When I arrived home I couldn’t find my family in the house! My brother! My sister! My mother and father, all of them were missing! I started to cry and pray to God to give me my family back. When I opened my eyes I saw a strange man at the window.
I started to shout for help but nobody came. The strange man told me to go with him to see something. I don’t know why, but I went with him.
When I went out of the house the strange man told me to look at the lake and I saw the bodies of my friends and my family floating on the water.
I couldn’t stop crying. When I turned around I saw the strange man holding a knife. When I saw this, I ran to the forest as fast I could.
I spent the night hidden in the forest, crying and shaking of cold and fear. The next day, I came back to the village and I saw that nobody was there. I took one of the boats that was near the village to escape from this terrible place.
I stayed in the boat for more than 3 days. But in the morning of the day number 3, I saw a big ship near a small island. I started to shout and said
” Help! Help! Over here!”
When I saw the ship again, it was turning round towards my location. I was so happy that I couldn’t believe it. When I boarded the ship they told me that they would take me to the city of New York. When I arrived in this city, the people in the ship took me to a Hospital and then they took me to the police station. There, I told them all that I had seen, including the location of the island. They sent a group of Marines and detectives to the island. When they came back, they said that they hadn’t seen anything there. I was very angry, but then they said that they had found a photograph of one person in the middle of the forest. The person was an old member of the island. It was a WANTED sign.
At that moment, I understood everything. The stranger had killed all the people in the island because, 1 year before, the people of the island had decided to kill him. But he had escaped, and he sent a note to all of us saying that the children’s of the island would see the bodies of his parents before they died.
The police said that they would find that person and they would put him in the list of the worst criminals in history.
One month later I found a job, and later, when I was 20 years old I got married to a beautiful and good girl.
When I was 23 the police said to me that they had found that terrible person who had killed all my family and friends. They took him to the prison for life.
When I was 55years old, I went to the island again to finally say the last goodbye to my parents and friends and I promised to never go to that horrible place again.

Category B
Pen name: WillyRex

Danger in the Forest

I got up at 7 o’ clock. It was a shiny and brilliant day, the sky was very clear. I was very tired that day, I don’t know why. Unfortunately, I had already invited my best friend to my house. My best friend was a really curious person like me so I assumed that we would have an adventure exploring the big and attractive forest around my house.
I got ready, wearing my sports clothes. I think that my friend Juan arrived at 3 o clock, but it isn’t important. We spent some hours in my little but cozy house. Later, we decided to finally explore the enormous forest. So we went out and started to walk through it. We talked all the time but also exploring and enjoying the incredible nature. We walked through it for several hours and we looked at all the details of this fantastic place.
Suddenly, we heard a strange noise like not too far from us, so we decided to spy what, where and who was making this uncanny noise. We tried to locate where that strange noise came from. Fortunately, about two hours later we discovered where and who was making that puzzling noise. It was an animal that no one had ever seen before. It was atypical. But the problem was that we didn’t know how to deal with him because it was a strange creature. The animal turned, saw my friend, giggled and suddenly, it jumped onto Juan like a shark on a dolphin. The abnormal animal ate my friend in only one bite. I was shocked and horrified so I started to run home as fast as I could. I turned round a couple of times but the animal wasn’t following me. I arrived home, closed the door behind me, called the police and waited for them to come.
Three hours later, the police arrived home and explained to me that they couldn’t find any clue or trail of this fierce animal. My state of fear was so high that I decided to stay away from the forest, for good.
But 7 years later, I believed that the monster had left or died and I returned to walk the forest…
for the last time…


Category: B
Pen name: Juan Gómez

An adventure in Alaska

Ten years ago there was a student at Harvard University, called Sam Hawking. He was going to travel to Alaska with his father, John Hawking. His mother was dead; she had died when Sam was 2 years old. Sam and his father were rock climbers and Sam’s grandfather, a brave man called Tom Hawking was one, too. He died in a mountain looking for a treasure. He told about it to his son and his only grandson, Sam. The boy had wanted to go on this expedition all his life, it was his dream.
They only had a small problem, according to his grandfather; the treasure was in Mount McKinley, the highest mountain of the Alaska Range!!! But they were not lost at all; Tom had given John a map before he died. It was a strange map but they knew that with time they would learn to read it.
In the journey, they met a man called Bruce who was going to climb the same mountain with the difference that he didn’t know anything about a hidden treasure. At first, they were not planning to tell him about it but some hours later they became very good friends and John thought that maybe he would be helpful and he told him about the treasure. Sam smiled but he didn’t agree with what his father had done, he didn’t trust him very much.
When they arrived in the airport, they separated. Bruce went to a hotel and Sam and John went to a cabin that Tom had left for them before dying. They agreed to go together the next morning in search of the coveted treasure. The next day Bruce was waiting with a carriage pulled by polar wolves. He had rented them since the first part of the mountain had a path for moving. This time who was not too happy with the idea was John who preferred to live the adventure without the aid of anything.
They advanced with the carriage all morning until there was no more way to follow. From that moment onwards they began to escalate until night fell. John, who was the leader of the group, decided it was best to rest and continue in the morning. The next morning, they climbed to where the map indicated but arrived there too fast and they could not believe it was there where the treasure was. It was a small place with nothing to explore. All they had was a well that sure would die falling there. Suddenly Sam shouted. In the snow he found a paper with some kind of writing, the problem was that it was not written in English but in Spanish. None of them knew Spanish but Bruce had a plan, not a plan to help their friends, but a plan to betray them.
He pushed Sam and his father down the well and went to look for someone who could translate the message to then return for the treasure. But things did not go as expected. Sam and John fell down in a lake and they swam up. When they arrived they found the hidden treasure in front of them. There were a lot of gold coins and very many objects made of the same metal. There were many diamonds and other gemstones. They could not believe they were rich, richer than anyone in the world. The exit was in front of them, where did Tom die? John turned around and saw the lake. Now he understood everything. Tom did not know how to swim and therefore was dead at the bottom of the lake. But it was sad because he had completed the task that his father had given him, he had found the treasure.
The next day two tourists found Bruce dead. He had fallen down the mountain while he was coming back. Just out of curiosity, Sam and John went to find out what the message said. A Spanish man who was vacationing there told them that it said: close your eyes and trust.



Category B
Pen name: Carlos Rodriguez

The Time Machine

My days were often the same: going to school, playing the guitar, doing homework. I was very comfortable with that routine, but one day something incredible and marvelous happened that changed my life forever.
It was a regular day. I was walking back home thinking about all the things I had to do, when suddenly I remembered that the next day I had to bring to school something that I liked or that interested me to talk about it, and I couldn’t think of anything.
When I got home, I looked for something interesting to present, but I didn´t have anything in my room. So I looked into the other rooms with the same result. Disappointed, I went into the attic and between lots of boxes I found an old, dirty bicycle. I took it out and showed it to my parents.
“It´s from your granddad” said Father “Where did you find it?”
“I found it in the attic between some boxes” I answered quickly.
“Your granddad rode it to deliver newspapers when he was five years older than you are now” he explained.
“Can I take it to my class to talk about it?” I asked happily.
“In this conditions? I don´t think so” said dad.” Let me clean it and fix it so it will look as good as new”
After four hours, the job was done. The bicycle was in perfect conditions to be presented in front of a class
“Thanks a lot, dad”. I said “Now I have something to show at school.”
“I´m going to try it” I decided. “When I’m back I’ll tell you if it works well or not.” I told him.
The first five blocks, I rode that bike without any problems. But when I took a descending slope and accelerated, a beam of light came out from the wheel and I closed my eyes.
When it stopped, I opened them slowly; the first thing I saw was a beautiful park with a lot of young kids playing races with flying toy cars. The bike had taken me twenty years into the future.
“Awesome! This bicycle is a time machine!” I exclaimed. “I´ll take a look at the city and I’ll try to find myself”
I cycled around the City Centre looking at the modern buildings and how they were made in five seconds and with no people working on them. I also looked at the people’s clothes, made of brilliant colors.
I found my street and when I´ve arrived I saw a huge man with a white suit coming out of my house. When he got to the street he saw me and got astonished.
“What´s your name?” he asked me.
“My name is Jonathan” I answered calmly.
“Are you coming from the past?” he asked.
“Yes, but how do you know that I’m coming from the past?” I asked him interested.
“I know that because I’m you.” he said.
“Amazing!” I exclaimed “I found myself in the future too.”
“Yes, but you must go back to the past because your father, or better say, our father awaits you to tell him how the bicycle works” he told me.
“If I tell father that I traveled into the future, will he believe me?” I asked
“Maybe” he said “But you´ll never know if you don´t try.”
“O.K.; I’ll go back but I have two questions.” I said. “Am I going to marry my girlfriend, Susan? And How can I go back in time?”
“First, you´ll know that in your future, I don´t want to ruin the surprise, and second, you´ll go back in time pedaling backwards.” He said.
I started pedaling backwards after saying goodbye to my future. The same light appeared and I couldn`t keep my eyes open, like the first time. When I opened them I was in front of my house in the present time. I went in and told Father the story and, surprisingly, he believed me. Then I went to my room to rest after that great adventure and to think what was going to happen to me in the future.
The next day, I was happy but worried. I couldn’t decide if it was good to tell the whole story in my presentation at school. Finally, I decided I would do it.
When my turn to speak came, I took the bike and put it next to the teacher’s desk. Then I started to tell my story, and everybody believed me! “It’s very strange” I thought, but it is also very nice that they do not take me for a liar!
Now my life is different and exciting, thanks to the bike. When I come back from school, I always go for a ride on my magic bike.

Category B Pen name: Matelate