March 2011 Featured Author

Erin Joines

 

Erin Joines in her own words:   I am 10 years old and I go to LaSalle Academy. I take taekwondo and I like to swim. My favorite activity is drama! I have been in the Kid for Kid productions through the South Bend Civic Theatre-the next one is Jungle Book!! I also got a part in my first Main Stage play, Miracle on 34th Street, this past December. I continue to love to write!

 

Underground Adventure
By Erin Joines

 

     Abbey Goodrich was your typical twelve year old. She had emerald green eyes and brunette hair. Her skin tone was slightly tan. She had an altogether perfect appearance. She was very popular, well that’s what she thought. She was also a VERY dramatic person.
     Early in April, Abbey was taking one of her weekly walks through the woods behind her house, but while completing her deep breathing technique, something went terribly wrong. While closing her eyes, sticking her nose in to air, and taking deep breaths, she fell into a hole. Now this wasn’t your typical hole. It was huge!
     “Like, ow!!! This is like soooo not cool!” said Abbey. Did I forget to mention that Abbey had an obsession with the word like?
     After wandering around the hole for about an hour, Abbey came upon two elf statues. As she kept walking, she started to hear foot steps behind her. When she turned around, there were the two elves behind her.
     “Did you two just like follow me?” said Abbey.

     The elves giggled and then one said, “I am Baltazar and this is Bartholomew.”

     “Those names are sooo last year!” Abbey retorted.
     After that, no one said anything until Abbey came to a door. When she went inside, the room was dimly lit, so she was not able to see Boltazar and Bartholomew disappear.
     Suddenly, Abbey heard a thumping noise that was coming from outside the door. A giant, human sized lizard jumped through the door. He was puke green and had beady, red eyes. “That is like sooo disgusting!!!!” Abbey responded.
     The lizard started to lick its lips, and then it lunged at her, and they were neck in neck sprinting down a path. What they didn’t notice was that they had been running in circles the whole time. The race dragged on and on until they were both out of breath and collapsed.
     Baltazar and Bartholomew had meanwhile been making a plan. So when Abbey collapsed, they pulled her into an entrance to a bat cave. That turned out to not be the greatest plan because what they didn’t know was that Abbey was deathly afraid of bats! When Abbey woke up, they started traveling. Abbey saw a figure dart by and then realized it was a bat! She was in a bat cave! She freaked out! Baltazar and Bartholomew tried to calm her down. Whenever one shifted, Abbey would let out
a high pitched squeal. After about a half an hour of wandering through the cave and listening to high pitched squeals, they came to a door. It had a small crack in it which a glimmer of light was shining through.
     They pushed and they pulled with all their might. The door would just not budge. Then Bartholomew tugged on Abbey’s shirt and pointed to a sign that Abbey had not noticed before. “Slide to the Left.” Abbey read. “Huh?” So she slid it left and stepped into the blinding light.
     Abbey noticed that she was about 10 feet away from the hole which she had entered through. “It is like soooo good to be home, isn’t it guys? Guys?” she asked.
     Just like that the little elves that had saved her life were gone. The only things left were two pointed hats with the names Baltazar and Bartholomew on them. Abbey turned toward the direction of the path she had come on and stumbled home, still a little dazed, to text her friends what had just happened.