"House Poems" Part 2 of Chapter 1: Tick the Clock and Tock the Clock

Tick the Clock

What a wonderful ticking clock am I!

My gracefulness will make the other clocks cry,

Polished oak and working hands,

I'm the best clock you'll find in all the lands,

The worst thing you'll see is my brother Tock,

He is not fit to be a proper clock,

The walls say we argue, the curtains say we fight,

To be honest, they are both right,

What a wonderful ticking clock am I,

My gracefulness will make the other clocks cry.

House Poems, Part one of Chapter one by Kaayana Sharma: The Walls and The Curtains,

The Walls

I am the beautiful walls of your home,

I may be either straight or dome,

I cannot walk, I cannot roam,

I protect you with my snug embrace,

You can only break me with a spiked mace,

I am quite sturdy, try pounding on me,

You'll just break a finger, while I'm laughing with glee,

I do all these things for free,

I am nocturnal, I'm awake at night,

So are the clocks, I can hear them fight,

I am the beautiful walls of your home,

I may be either straight or dome.

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The Curtains

    We come in cotton, velvet, or silk,

We can be as black as night or as white as milk,

Open and close me as you will,

I work for you and never get ill,

When you are asleep, I am awake,

I chat with the walls but no noise I make,

The other curtains have beautiful designs,

Leaves and flowers along their delicate lines,

I myself am a yellow plain,

The color of golden lion's mane,

The walls are nice and quite polite,

The clocks are arrogant and they fight,

About who looks better in the spotlight,

I am a pretty yellow plain,

The color of a golden lion's mane.

How I got my Betta Fish (a how-to guide on getting a pet)

It was a cloudy Sunday morning. I was leaning against the window. I was not in the best mood that morning. I had just been refused a dog. Each time I asked for a dog, the answer was a stubborn 'no'. The exact dog breed I really wanted was a golden retriever. Maybe a poodle even. First of all, my dad is against dogs and then our house was carpeted in all of the rooms. And there was a chance the dog might pee on the carpet. Secondly, our house is small, so the dog would not have much play-space in the house. We could fence our backyard but that's costly. Finally, we travel a lot, and having a dog would be difficult to manage during the trips. So the expenses for a dog are too high. In fact, the dog itself is about $4,000 to $5,000, if we buy it from a breeder. 

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I was devastated when I learned the costs and maintenance of a puppy. So, soon after, I reluctantly stopped talking about it. For a brief period of time, after that, I then entertained the subject of a hamster. But, then I learned that there was not a small hamster that is good for beginners available at my local pet store. Also, we did not have a good place to put a hamster villa. And I did not want a hamster to live in a small space like a small cage. 

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After about a week, even that subject was dropped. So, I was sulking on a cloudy Sunday morning. Then I decided to just get on my computer and look up some random cool facts. That always made me feel better. I looked through a list of twenty facts. The last one was this: "betta fish can breathe on land." First of all, at that time, I did not know what a betta fish was. I wanted to research a little deeper into the subject. After lots of research, I found a perfect website for information about betta fish. There were many helpful discussions on betta fish care. There was even a section where you can ask any questions about the fish care. Click on the link below if you want to visit the website: 

https://bettafish.org/

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As I found out more and more about betta fish, I started to portray them as cool pets. If I can't have a dog or a hamster, why not a fish? What I did first to get the attention of my parents was this: I would drop random facts about bettas at random times. Though, I would not recommend you do this because it will seem that everything you ever talk about is a betta fish. 

Soon, my parents got the hint that I really wanted a betta fish. One night, I was asking my friend how she convinced her parents to get a dog. There was one simple explanation: She made a slideshow. The slideshow had to include these three simple things: the cost, what are the benefits to your family, and why do you want a fish (pet). This slideshow trick works for all. In my case, I made a separate slide for each of my parents. Here are a few things one should include in the pet slideshow:

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1. The cost for everything (including the pet itself.) For example, if you want a dog, include the cost dog too.

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2. You must include why you want a pet. For me, I said that I get lonely at times. If you are not a single child does not use this excuse. 

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3. Include benefits of getting the pet. I included both health and emotional benefits for me and my parents.

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Here is my slide show to convince my parents:

Click on the link below if you want to visit the website I learned everything from: 

https://bettafish.org/

Those were the things you must include in your slideshow. If you do not want to do a slideshow then you can write an essay or speech. What my family did, is take a video of my presentation and post it on my personal youtube channel. We sent it to all our family members. If they thought the slide show was convincing enough, they could vote 'yes'. If 95% of the people we share video with, said yes, then I would get a betta fish. So, I got 95% approval within 30 minutes of sharing the video. 

Well, loyal readers, this is how I got a betta fish on Oct 25th, 2020.  I am also attaching a picture of my betta fish named Luv (nicknamed LuLu.) 

You can recommend this idea to your family members. 

 I am also attaching a video showing some other ways to get a pet. 

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Love Kaayana.

The Haunted Shed on the Hill

 

THIS STORY IS NOT FOR CHILDREN UNDER 10 YEARS OF AGE. IT IS VERY GRAPHIC. 

 This is a great scary story for sleepovers, it is especially good if you live in a neighborhood with a house that has a shed.

It becomes even scarier if you put scary music in the background.

Once upon a time, under the black willow, there was a small, creaky shed. It had once belonged to an old widower. A big flood was then washed over the land, and neither the mansion nor the widower was seen again. All that was left of the house was the shed. It resided at the top of a hill. A scary hill it was. The hill could take the soul out of you. It could crush you!

On Halloween nights, children made it a tradition to go up to the shed and knock on the door. As soon as they knocked, they vanished from view. Worried parents waited all night for their beloved children. But the youth never came back. After a few years of this happening, it became clear that the shed was not safe. Youth and adults avoided going there even on Halloween nights.

Later, one Halloween night, a headstrong nine-year-old boy named Dale stupidly decided to go into the shed on the scariest night of the year. Dale's friends (who were also stupid) dared him to go inside the shed; little did Dale know that this Halloween would not go as expected...

 

Dale slowly climbed the scary hill. He had brought a recorder just in case… The other end of the recorder was with his friends. He looked around, the grass was dark and gray unlike the rest of the neighborhood. A layer of low and gray fog settled over the hill. Dead trees lined the hill. And finally, the shed was in sight. The shed looked like it had come out of a horror movie. It had was made of gray wood and you can easily say it was about to fall apart. Determined to prove to his friends that he was not scared of anything, Dale confidently ventured to the broken shed. 

Once there, before he could even knock on the door, the door creaked open. 

Use the sound effect to spook your audience. 

Dale stepped inside. He barely had a chance to look around before he fell. Down, down, down. 

His whole life flashing before him. When he reached the floor, he looked around. Before he even got up, he turned on the recorder he had gotten so that his friends would know he is in trouble. The floor was made of concrete and the walls were wooden. Two torches gave an organized glow to the room. A brown door was on the left side of the torch. Dale thought that the door would lead him out of here. So, he slowly opened it. The room was dark, and bodies of children who had come before him laid on the floor. Blood was dripping from the ceiling. Suddenly, he saw a figure. It had red eyes and hair covering its face.

You can cover your face with hair or a black cloth to increase the amount of fear.

It was coming towards him, inch by inch. Dale wanted to scream, but no sound came out of his mouth. He wanted to run but was frozen in place. It was as if there was the figure kept him as still as ice. He saw red hands coming from the dead children with a red knife. It was wearing a white gown, stained with blood. The last thing children heard on the recorder on the other side was a bloodcurdling scream and a cold laugh. Then the recorder went static. Silent as it could be.

The shed still stands. Now, it is out-of-bounds. Dale's ghost now roams around the shed, warning children not to make the same mistake as he did on Halloween 2020.

Quarantine Birthday Part 2; 12:00 and Beyond

 Sally and Cally said it was time for me to come out of my room. The outside was beautiful!!

Rainbow streamers draped the hallway, and I was not prepared for what was in the living room.  A large banner read "Happy Birthday." Yellow balloons with smiley faces were scattered around the floor. And three helium balloons were next to the cushioned chair. My mom's laptop was sitting at the center table with my relatives online. It was nine o'clock in the morning for them since they were in India. Finally, as the clock struck 12; I blew out some candles and cut the purple pound cake that was iced with delicious icing. There was a special candle holder that hummed the tune of Happy Birthday.  After the cake cutting, I witnessed the most amazing video of my life. There was a youtube video created by my parents, where everyone from my grandparents to friends in India and different parts of the USA and my teachers wished me Happy 10th birthday via video. Each of the videos was about 20 seconds to 1 minute long. It was out of the world to listen to all the wishes. It was a  25-minutes long video.  I am so happy to see that everyone loves me so much.

In the morning, I found out that my parents had done something fun with my presents. They lined the presents up in a row and on each of them she placed a clue that led to another clue which you had to solve to find out what the present was, and then I could open the present and enjoy my gift. So, there were 10 presents with 20 clues, that took my whole day. Later, in the evening  I had a zoom birthday party with my friends at 5:00 in the evening. I cut an ice cream sandwich cake which I enjoyed for a week because it was so good. My birthday turned out to be a blast even during the COVID lockdown.

When I fell asleep that night, I finished my 10 rounds around the earth ready to live many more!!

Quarantine birthday part 1

June had always been special to me because it is my birthday month. In 2020, I had a quarantine birthday. Usually, I would study for about 1 hour each day. But on my birthday week, I had 1 and a half weeks off from studying! However, things seem to twist around on the weekend before my birthday...

My friend, Sally, stayed with us on  Friday just a few days before my birthday. My other very close friend, Amy, was coming to Gainesville with her family from Lousiana they were supposed to come tonight. I was already planning how much I would play, and teach how to make friendship bracelets to Amy. In other words, I couldn't WAIT. When Sally's mom came to pick up Sally, she got a text, that would change my life forever....

Okay, I know what you are thinking, I am just a tad too overdramatic. Anyways, what that text said is that the babysitter that had to sit for Sally had tested positive for COVID 19. My mom read an article that said that people with COVID start spreading the virus 2 days before they get their symptoms. Sally's babysitter got symptoms on Wednesday and sat for Sally two days before....

 

Then my mom made some calls. First, she called our neighbor who specialized in COVID. He said that it was very unlikely that we caught the virus since we were third in the chain. 

Then my mom called Amy's family. Her family had just left New Orleans three hours ago. My mom called her and said that "this-this-this" had happened and it was quite unlikely that we caught COVID and so she would leave it up to them if they still wished to come here. Finally, the grown-ups decided it was safer for Amy's family to turn back and head back to New Orleans. I cried a little bit because I was really looking forward to them coming. I thought that everything was ruined and we had COVID and all those bad things. Then  3 days later my mom tested negative for COVID. And it was hard not to be excited even though Amy was not coming. I mean come on, it's my tenth birthday, DOUBLE DIGITS!!! 

The day after my mom got her test results back, It was my birthday eve. Sally and her sister, Cally were having a sleepover with us. Cally was doing my hair and Sally was helping my parents make the "surprise" party. Every half an hour or so, they would switch places and someone would accompany me while I was locked in my bedroom. After my hair was done, we would just watch 5-minute craft videos on my bed. Finally, it was 11: 50, 10 minutes until my birthday. I walked outside of my bedroom. It blew me away....