Short Life by Kimberly, age 10

This “cycle story” is part of a series of Room 2 stories inspired by the Argentinian folktale “The Sun and the Snow.”


Life that is so short,
Why are you mean?
I am not mean.
The blood is mean that vanishes.

Blood that vanishes,
Life that is so short,
Why are you mean?
I am not mean.
The veins are mean that are weakening.

Veins that weaken,
Blood that vanishes,
Life that is so short,
Why are you mean?
I am not mean.
The heart is mean that stops pumping.

Heart that stops pumping,
Veins that weaken,
Blood that vanishes,
Life that is so short,
Why are you mean?
I am not mean.
The diseases are mean that destroy me.

Diseases that destroy the heart,
Heart that stops pumping,
Veins that weaken,
Blood that vanishes,
Life that is so short,
Why are mean?
I am not mean.
The people are mean who eat too much junk food.

People who eat too much junk food,
Diseases that destroy the heart,
Heart that stops pumping,
Veins that weaken,
Blood that vanishes,
Life that is so short,
Why are you mean?
We are not mean.
Life is mean that is so short.

About the Author

My name is Kimberly. I live in San Francisco, California. I am ten years old. I like to watch television. My goal this year is to publish one more book so I can finally beat Sandy’s record for publishing books in Room 2. This is my eighth published book. I am also the author of Muni Disaster and Other Stories, Spy Twins, Spy Maser’s Death, Quan who Buys us Dim Sum, Hypnotized, Stink and Ink vs. Abraham Lincoln, George Washington and Jasion, and the blog post about our class mural I wrote with Holly. Sometimes I wonder why people are different from each other.

HYPNOTIZED by Kimberly & Anna, both age 10

Violence, action and bus transfer that comes to life… are you joining the party?

Chapter 1
Hypnotized

Cobwebs and spiders hung from the ceiling of the bus, empty as a hollow tree. The Mystery was on his way to Janet’s house to plan a birthday party for Janet’s Mom. Voices whispered and a wolf howled at the moon. The Mystery jumped off the bus and walked to Janet’s house.

As The Mystery and Janet planned the party, Janet’s Mom came back early from a class called How To Get an Attractive Man That Will Fall For You and Marry You.

“Hide!!!” said The Mystery.

They hid behind the sofa.

“I thought I saw The Mystery and Janet here,” Janet’s mom said to herself.

Janet’s mom walked to the bedroom and put on fake tanning lotion.

The Mystery’s bus transfer began to wiggle and grow. Arms, legs and a head blossomed from its body. It was three feet tall. It cast a spell.

“Obey my commands and you’ll know what to do,” the transfer said. “No matter what you do, turn your good side into stew. Abracashakachra! My fun shall live in true pain.”

Janet was hypnotized but the Mystery was not. He just pretended to be. He made his eyes turn white. Janet tried to break the spell by hitting herself, but it didn’t work. Eventually Janet completely lost control of her body. The Mystery only pretended he did.

“I will grant you any terrifying wish you want,” said the transfer.

“I wish for a gun,” Janet said.

“Granted, check your pocket,” said the transfer.

“Thank you,” Janet said, looking at the transfer with an evil expression.

“I want a dragon,” said The Mystery. “And I want it as my pet and I want it to be red and it has to obey every command I say.”

“Granted, it’s behind you,” said the transfer.

“Thank you,” said The Mystery. “Now let’s go destroy the world.”

“You got it,” said the transfer.

“Ok,” said Janet.

“I’m going to be giving you each two weapons,” said the transfer.

“Ok,” said Janet.

“Janet,” the transfer said. “You get a shot gun and two nun-chucks. The Mystery, you will get two machine guns and one hundred hand grenades. Get ready to rock, let’s go!”

“Okay!” said The Mystery.

It was time to roll.

Chapter 2
The Bank Robbery

“I’ll climb on to The Mystery’s shoulder,” said the transfer, climbing on. “Let’s roll.”

The Mystery and Janet climbed on the red dragon and took off. They arrived at the Bank of Junk Food.

“First stop at the bank to steal the junk food and money,” said Janet.

Janet kicked the door open.

“Freeze,” said the Mystery.

“Nobody move,” said Janet.

“Put the money and the junk food in the bag,” said The Mystery.

The teller put the cash into the moneybag. Janet, The Mystery and the transfer ran away. They saw Janet’s mom in front of the bank.

“Hi,” said Janet’s mom.

“Shut up!” said The Mystery.

“No,” said Janet’s mom. “You don’t talk to me like that. I’m gonna call your principal!”

She opened up her cell phone and dialed. “The Mystery and Janet told me to shut up,” said Janet’s mom.

She listened for a minute and then hung up.

Janet and The Mystery looked down at their hands. Their skin turned green, they began to grow claws on their fingers and toes, and finally scales appeared on their bodies and tales sprouted from their butts. They were dragons. Janet was the dragon of darkness. She breathed out dark breath and The Mystery was the fire dragon. He breathed out fire breath.

“OMG!” said the transfer. “Why does this always happen when I take control of people?”

Their scales melted like water flowing into a river. The spell wore off, they returned to human form.

Chapter 3
The New Girl

Janet and The Mystery walked to the park. They met a new girl with humungous muscles bulging out over her white tube top. She picked up a sharp stick and threw it at a blue jay.

“What’s your name?” asked The Mystery.

“Me?” asked the new girl.

“Yes you,” said Janet.

“Kathy,” said the new girl.

“I can tell you like violence,” The Mystery said. “Do you wanna help us destroy an annoying bus transfer.”

“A bus transfer?”

“Yeah,” Janet said. “It came to life and put us under a nasty spell.”

“Sure,” Kathy said.

They walked and found Janet’s mom.

“Hi mom!” Janet said.

“Who is that girl?” asked Janet’s mom.

“Never mind that, let’s huddle!” said Janet.

They huddled.

“First, Kathy attacks,” said The Mystery. “Then me, Next Janet and Last Janet’s mom.”

“Ok, the transfer’s going down,” Janet whispered.

Chapter 4
The Big Battle

At last they found the transfer at the hair salon next door to the Junk Food bank and pulled him out. The transfer sent down four fireballs from the sky to crush them. They dodged them. Kathy slashed the transfer’s arms, so it couldn’t cast strong spells. But instead it cast spells with great effects. They struck The Mystery. The Mystery was in pain. Janet ran to him, pulled a sleeve off of her sweater and covered his wound. The Mystery shot the transfer on the leg with the gun. It survived. It cast more spells but everyone dodged. Janet chopped off the Transfer’s other leg with her dagger. Immediately Janet’s mom whacked the transfer on the head with her nun chucks. Its wound bled badly. The transfer melted like ice cream in the heat. Everything that the transfer granted as a wish disappeared. Janet’s mom fainted because she used too much of her energy.

“Are you alright?” said Janet

“What do you think?” said Janet’s mom, opening her eyes.

The puddle reformed in the shape of the transfer. “The Mystery, I have to find that person.”

Dun Dun Dun!!!!!

To Be Continued…

Please join us for our next adventure in Betrayal!

About the Authors

Hi! My name is Kimberly. I am ten years old. I live with my mom, dad and sister in San Francisco. My hobby is playing dodge ball. My goal is to publish Episode Two of Stink and Ink with Holly, and beat Sandy’s book publishing record in Robyn’s class. When I grow up I want to become an author of Stink and Ink books. My favorite animal is a wolf spider because it’s big and scary. This is my fifth published book. I am also the author of Muni Disaster and Other Stories, Spy Twins, Spy Master’s Death and Quan, Who Buys Us Dim-sum. Be sure to visit our blog, room2ruminations.blogspot.com, and read about our class mural. Holly and I wrote the post.

Hi! My name is Anna. I am ten years old. I live with my mom in San Francisco. My goal is to publish another book this year. My favorite animal is a coyote. When I grow up I want to be a marine biologist. This is my third published book. I am also the author of Wolves and The Magic Silkworm.

Spymaster’s Death by Kimberly & Holly, both age 9


Stink and Ink were running to the Spy Master’s house. The twins were excited to see him because he helped them get rid of their horrible parents. Stink tripped “Ouch,” he said.

Ink helped Stink up then Ink fell down. “Ouch,” Ink said.

They laughed at each other as they got up. They didn’t watch where they were going and slipped and fell again.

“That hurts like running into a pole,” said Ink.

They both got up and dusted themselves off. They were almost at the Spy Master’s house. They saw a banana peel. They decided to jump over it. Instead they landed on it and slipped. They landed on their butts.

“Ouch,” said the pair again.

They got up and knocked on the door, but nobody answered. They saw the window and climbed through it. They found a note on the table.

Dear Stink and Ink,

I know that you climbed through the window. That’s O.K. because it’s Ink’s house now. I am suffocating from lung cancer. So in my Will I am leaving Ink my house and everything I own. Now Ink, you better share the trillion dollars with Stink. The money is on the floor. Please visit me in the hospital. You need to visit me because if you don’t I will haunt you forever, curse you, take back the money, and when you sleep I will give you nightmares.

Sincerely,
The Spy Master

The twins ran as fast as they could to the hospital, rode the elevator up to floor five hundred and five, ran through the wall and ended up in a forest, where many freaky one-eyed monsters lived. The monsters wanted to eat Stink and Ink so they blasted out lasers through their eyes. Stink and Ink grabbed two shields that fell from the sky. The lasers hit the shields and blasted right back into the monsters’ eyes. Their eyes exploded and the monsters died.

“Great,” Stink said. “We just killed twenty monsters that tried to eat us. Now we have to find the way out of this horrible world.”

“Just shut up and go find the way out,” said Ink

“No I have to find the way out and you follow, so you follow me.

“Let me think about that. No! No! No! No! I find a way out and you will follow.”

“Fine be that way, I’ll just find the way out by myself.”

“Fine! Fine! Fine! I’ll follow.”

“Great, I know a short-cut that can never fail and I found it.”

They ran through a forest for thirty minutes. Stink found some sleeping monsters hogging some arrows. Stink and Ink grabbed the arrows and threw them at the monsters’ eyes. Stink and Ink needed to enter a magical vortex to bring them back to Earth or else they would stay in this place forever. A voice spoke over them.

“I will kill you, and you too, I swear,” shouted the Monster King.

The Monster King had five eyes so he shot five lasers at a time. Ink and Stink found five magical spheres and they had five seconds before the spheres blew up. Five, four, three, two, one. The spheres landed in the Monster King’s eye and blew up. The Monster King blew over the mountains, off of the Earth and landed on another planet a hundred trillion miles away, called La! La! Land!

“If we run,” said Stink, “we can get back faster to visit the Spy Master before he dies.”

“I know,” said Ink.

They saw the magical vortex that could bring them back to Earth. They knew about the vortex because the Spy Master had mentioned it before. The vortex was a circle. The vortex shrunk a little bit every minute. When it was half-way gone, they quickly jumped in it and appeared in the Spy Master’s hospital room.

“We got your message,” Ink said. “So here we are.”

“I’m glad you came,” The Spy Master said. “I’ve got something to say. I’m going to die any minute now.”

“Noooooooo!” Stink said.

The heart monitor made a loud beep and the red zigzagging line straightened out.

After the Spy Master was buried, Stink and Ink visited his grave every year. Ink lived in the Spy Master’s house. Every time the twins met, they talked about how great the Spy Master was to them. Even though he left them that threatening note, they still forgave him because he helped Stink and Ink get rid of their horrible parents.

About the Authors

Hi! My name is Holly. I am nine years old. I like to read, write and play. I am good at drawing and running. If I were an animal I would be a cheetah because I can run fast. I really want to be good at kicking someday. When I grow up I want to be an artist. One thing about me that makes me different from other kids is that I like to share.

Hi! My name is Kimberly. I am nine years old and I live in San Francisco with my mom, dad and sister. I like to play Blackjack and I’m good at math. I want to be an artist when I grow up. If I could be any animal, I would be an alligator because alligators have sharp teeth and they eat meat and I love meat! I’m different from other girls because I hang out with boys.

How We Made our Class Mural by Holly & Kimberly, both age 9




At the beginning of the year, we got new lockers in our classroom, but actually they were not new. They were ugly and grey so we decided to cover them with a big collage of San Francisco.

We collected drawings, magazine clippings, pictures of street signs, pictures of kids in our class and photos of San Francisco landmarks.

The buildings are the biggest parts of the mural. To make them, first we drew the shapes of the buildings on paper. Then we cut them out and used sponges to paint them. We made window frame stamps out of foam and stamped the window frames onto the buildings then we cut out the windows and put pictures behind them so it looks like people are peeking out. We collected pictures of our families and put them behind the windows too and glued everything to the lockers with Mod Podge.

When you look at the road, you will see that it looks like a fantasy. First, we ripped up Chinese and English language newspapers and glued the pieces together into collages and used crumpled paper to paint the collages grey. Then our teacher cut the collages into sections of the road and we pasted them together on the mural. The road is sort of like a zigzag. When you look at the sky on the mural you will see stars, space ships, rockets and a helicopter.

MUNI Moments: An Occasional Series

During one of our class discussions about where to look for writing ideas, the topic of MUNI came up. MUNI is the bus system here in San Francisco. We rely on it for class field trips. Sometimes MUNI gets you where you want to go pretty fast, sometimes it doesn’t. But either way, it’s ripe with writing possibilities. Below is another “MUNI Moments” story by Stanley, age 9.

The Number Nine Bus
By Stanley

One time in San Francisco I saw a man eating a pie on the number nine bus. He had a purple backpack. The man had ripped pants and band-aids all over his eyes and he can see through the little holes in the band-aids. His backpack was a mess. It was covered in band-aids too. The man’s backpack was moving. Maybe a hamster was playing with paper inside of it. Here are ten things I think the man had in his backpack:

1. band-aids, because he might get hurt
2. a gun, so he can be safe
3. tape, to tape on the band-aids that fall off
4. glue
5. a notebook, to write about his hamster in
6. a pen, to write with
7. a pencil, to write with too
8. 2 water bottles with black water in them
9. a crinkling sound
10. a silver-black sharp thing

The man took a knife out of his backpack to cut the pie. When he finished, he got up to leave and put the knife on the seat then he got out of the bus. Everyone saw the knife, but no one sat on it or picked it up.

About the Author

My name is Stanley. I am eight years old. I live with my grandma, dad, mom and brother. I like to play legos. I am good at math. Someday I want to be good at sitting still. When I grow up I want to be a policeman because I love fighting. This year I want to learn to write better. It scares me when my teacher Robyn talks about diseases. I wonder if wild animals go on trips.