Sophia Elahi RPC Blog

Beep! Beep! Beep!

I open my eyes suddenly. What’s that noise? Oh, it’s just my alarm. Wait! I widen my eyes, I just realized, I’m in space! I’m in a rocket! The rocket slowly landed on hard ground with a bump. The door slowly opened and I stepped out.

By the looks of it I was on Mars! How did I end up here? Is this a dream? Or is it real? Why would NASA let a kid go to Mars? This has to be a dream then.

I start walking towards a tiny silhouette in the distance. It looks like a silhouette of a tiny person! Or is it an alien? This is Mars after all. I keep walking towards the silhouette anyways. If it’s just a dream I’m safe.

As I get closer I realize that the silhouette is an alien! And it’s not as small as it seemed. The alien seemed to sense me, it slowly turned around. I stopped walking abruptly, suddenly this all seemed real. But it’s just a dream, it’s just my imagination. When the alien finally turned around completely I realized that it’s not an alien! It’s a penguin! What’s a penguin doing on Mars?

The penguin completely ignores me and waddles right past me and off into the distance. I start walking again towards another silhouette I see in the distance.

When I finally got to where the figure was standing I realize that it’s a giraffe! A giraffe on Mars. I start walking again and see another silhouette. It was a rhino!

After walking straight for an hour I saw a hippo, lion, tiger, bear, and more penguins! What is it with Mars penguins? Is Mars just a giant zoo!

I start to walk back in the direction of the rocket, I was getting tired and wanted to see other planets. I saw another silhouette in the distance. Probably another penguin. I kept walking until I realized; is that a unicorn!

I started walking towards it when it noticed me.

“Hello!” the unicorn said to me. Unicorns talk on Mars apparently.

“H-hello.” I replied.

“Where are you heading?” the unicorn asked.

“My rocket, I want to see other planets before I wake up.” I replied.

“Do you need a ride?” the unicorn asked offering her back to me.

“Sure!” I started to get on, but I can’t ride on someone’s back without asking the person’s (or unicorn’s in this case) name. But the unicorn didn’t give me a chance and used its magic horn to lift me up onto its back. The unicorn was galloping so fast that I couldn’t talk, just be amazed about how fast the unicorn was going.

When we finally got to the rocket the unicorn dropped me on the ground lightly.

“Have fun seeing all the planets!”

“Thank you!”

And just like that the unicorn ran away, and I never knew its name! I looked down at my hand, I was holding on to the unicorn’s rainbow mane so hard a few strands came out!

 

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

I opened my eyes. It’s morning! I have to wake up for school again. That’s too bad; that was the best dream ever.

I start to get out of bed and start stretching. I look down at my hand; the hair is still in my hand! Was that really a dream? Or did I ride on a real life unicorn on Mars?

 

During my break between 6^th grade and 7^th grade I’ve read a lot of good books. And so far in English I’ve learned the different parts of a plot. So in this essay I’m going to write the five different parts of the plot from my favorite book that I’ve read over break; The Last Sleepover.

Exposition

In the prologue, 30 years before the actual story happened, Ms. Wormhouse, the drama teacher at Thomas Jefferson Middle School is fired. We find out that she has written a play for the students to preform and things have gone haywire. A girl has died, and rehearsals have been filled with horrible accidents. Before Ms. Wormhouse leaves the school for good she hides a copy of her play in a streamer trunk in the theatre, vowing that her play will be performed again.

Rising Action

We’re now brought back, 30 years after this scene, and the present day drama teacher, Mr. Gomez has been given a very important task; to put on a new and original play. Mr. Gomez was going to revive the school’s sagging drama program.

Something was calling to him from backstage. He had a panicky feeling, he needed to find something. As he entered the backstage area he spotted the old streamer trunk, in the deepest and darkest corner of the theatre. He quickly went over to it and opened the lid, searching for something. Mr. Gomez’s fingers curled around something at the bottom. He pulled his hand out of the trunk.

Eureka! A script! He stepped back so he can read the script in good light.  He read through the pages. He had done it; he had found an original script to revive the drama program! But wait, he read through the script more thoroughly, something wasn’t right about this. Mr. Gomez quickly returned to the trunk to put the script back when he tripped over a low stool that hadn’t been there before. When he landed he felt a sharp pain in his ankle.

Then we meet Gabrielle, better known as Bree, who is auditioning for the school play, with her best friend Melissa. They’re anxiously waiting in the theatre for Mr. Gomez. But instead and new drama teacher comes in, Ms. Hollows. Mr. Gomez broke his ankle so she would be the substitute.

The play that they were doing was called “The Last Sleepover”. Ms. Hollows handed out the scripts and told the class to read over the scripts when they got home.

Bree and Melissa read it and found that the play seemed quite creepy, but they couldn’t stop reading it. They all auditioned and Bree got the lead and Melissa got the lead’s best friend.

Rehearsals started, and Bree started going through some creepy stuff.

Climax

One of the girls at rehearsal told Bree that “The Last Sleepover” had been done before at their school, and that the play was cursed and that the girl playing the lead last time died.

Every day after rehearsal the thing that Bree rehearsed happened to her in real life. Bree is starting to think that the play really is haunted.

Bree is sure that she is being stalked, like the main character was sure. She saw a face in her window one night, just like in the play. And she kept on getting creepy phone calls telling her to beware, just like in the main character did! But, of course, no one believed her.

Falling Action

The day of the play Bree decides to give up and leave the show, having enough of this. So she goes to the theater early to tell Ms. Wormwood that she wants to quit. But Ms. Wormwood isn’t there! Bree sees a shadow running up the stairs to the second level of the theatre, she follows. When she sees the person that she was following she realized that it was herself! The other version of Bree pushes her down the stairs, making Bree hit her head and black out.

Resolution

Bree wakes up in the hospital three days later. The play was postponed and Bree was safe. On the day of the play, at the time the play was going to start an explosion happened  in the theatre.

When Bree falls asleep again the other version of her explains everything, she was the one stalking Bree, the one that sent the creepy phone calls, and she was the face in her window. This Bree came from an alternate reality where Bree died in the explosion and the other Bree was trying to save her.

In the end the other Bree went back to her alternate reality, and “our” Bree lived to become a mother and live a happy life.

 

Those are the five main points of a plot, describe using a story! I hope you now know the five parts of a plot. Thanks for reading!

This year in my English class I learned how important grammar is and how fun reading books by famous authors can be. In this essay I’m going to talk about the things I liked and disliked in the years’ English course.

Every two to three weeks I would switch from grammar to literature. I really liked how it switched, because if you’re like me, you get bored with one topic easily.

My favorite is literature because I get to read books and the video lessons are really short. I also enjoyed writing essays about the books. Writing essays about books helps me remember them.

I’ve really enjoyed all the books that I got for my reading assignments this year. I’ve already  heard of some of them from my other homeschool curriculum that wasn’t RPC. I never got around to reading those books back then so I’m happy that I got to read them now.

Grammar was a little boring and the lesson videos quite long (for me at least). But other than that I really enjoyed English this year!

I really like the English curriculum (specifically the literature section) and I can’t wait for next year’s English curriculum! Thank you Mr. Luke Mullins and Mr. Bradley Fisher for a great English course! Hope to see you next year!

Long, long, ago, when the Earth was just a new planet, the Dog was a happy froliking creature that enjoyed life. You may imagine that the Dog chased his tail all day long, but he didn’t! Why? Because the Dog didn’t have a tail! Can you imagine that? Dear Reader?

One day the Dog was relaxing on his favorite rock in the Sahara Desert when the best idea came to him.

“Why don’t I travel to Antarctica?” the Dog asked himself aloud. The Lion happened to be passing by when he heard the Dog say that.

“That isn’t a good idea Dog!” the Lion said, quite loudly in his deep, loud, and majestic voice. Because the Lion spoke so loud all the animals nearby heard and came asking, “What isn’t a good idea?”

Now the Dog had to share his idea with everyone. The Dog told the Ostrich, the Hedgehog, and the Lion’s cubs! All the animals said the same thing the Lion said, “It isn’t a good idea Dog!”

Finally, the Dog getting upset with everyone saying that it was a bad idea asked them, “Why is it a bad idea?”

“Because, you don’t have thick fur to protect yourself from the cold!” the Lion explained.

“Then I shall ask the magic Jinni for a potion that will grow my fur out!” the Dog said enthusiastically and ran off for the Jinni’s house.

When the Dog got there he asked the Jinni for a potion that will grow his fur out. The Jinni gladly gave him the potion and told him to apply to the areas of his body where he wanted more fur to grow. The Jinni’s mischievous assistant and apprentice, the Monkey, offered to help the Dog apply the potion. The Dog thanked the Monkey and lay down so the potion could be applied.

The Monkey didn’t offer to help the Dog to be kind; he offered to help so that he could test out a new potion that he made on the Dog.

The Dog became immensely relaxed  and fell asleep. The Monkey thinking that this was the perfect time grabbed his potion and rubbed it on the Dog’s stub (where his tail should be, but isn’t because the world just began).

After a while the fur growing potion and the Monkey’s potion started kicking in. The Dog woke up from his nice little nap and ran to the Jinni.

“Did the potion work?!” the Dog asked excitedly.

“Very much so.” The Jinni said smiling, proud that his potion did its job. Then he frowned. The Jinni saw something hang from the Dog! The Dog becoming concerned ran to the mirror in the room and smiled. The Dog’s fur never looked better! But wait! What is that dangly thing coming from behind me?

The Dog turned around in circles, trying to get a good look at his tail. When he suddenly realized what had happened.

“Oh No! I have a tail Jinni!” the Dog cried.

“Ha-ha!” the Monkey laughed, delighted that his tail grower potion worked. The Jinni was very mad and cuffed the Monkey greatly.

The Jinni, unfortunately, couldn’t come up with a cure for the tail. So the Dog learned to live with it. Since then, the Dog would try chasing his tail trying to get a good look at it.

Now, I hoped you learned, Dear Reader, to never let a Monkey put a potion on you.

My favorite character out of all the books that I’ve is Oswald from “The Story of the Treasure Seekers”.

Oswald is the narrator of the story; he is a humble, but proud and confident boy. He feels that it’s important to always be polite, but he himself can be quite rude. He’s not afraid to speak his mind, as long as it’s private because he knows that what he says can be rude and unkind sometimes. He has a big ego but doesn’t let it get in the way of what matters most at the moment.

I really like Oswald because he was trying very hard to help his siblings find treasure or money to restore the fallen fortune of their house. He was always kind and fair, and I think that if he wasn’t a fictional character, he would be a great and trustworthy friend.

Really there’s nothing special about him because all his siblings seem to act like him, but I feel like I know him better because he narrated the story.

If Oswald Bastable ever came to life I would befriend him right away. He seems like a good person to have as a friend. What do you think after reading this essay? Do you think he would be a good friend to have around?

This is a great story for people who like books about children fooling around, it’s a silly book about the six Bastable children fooling around trying to help their Father by earing money for him, but most of their attempts end up causing more trouble than good.

The children decide to try to earn money for Father since after their Mother died the family became quite poor. They tried many different ways, becoming bandits, selling wine, and trying to get a loan to be a business partner for a patent company. But, as you may have expected they all fail. Sometimes they get a little bit of money out of it all but end up spending it all as soon as the coin hits their palms.

I think that the book is fun and entertaining. It seems like more of a book for children, but I think that adults might enjoy it as well. The book is written by one of my favorite authors, Edith Nesbit. She tells the story through the eyes of the second eldest child out of the six, Oswald; and let me tell you, she did an amazing job! She made the reader think through the eyes of a child.

I’ve done a book report for “The Railway Children”, which was also written about Edith Nesbit, and I think that this book is than “The Railway Children”. There’s lots of action and adventure in this book; more than what was in “The Railway Children”.

I highly recommend this book; it’s by far the best book that I’ve read all year for my English class. If you like adventure, action, and lots of silliness from children this is the book for you! Thanks for reading!

In 2018 my parents and I moved to Singapore. I had many mixed feelings about it; I was excited to move since my Mom told me to think of it as an adventure in somewhere new. But I was upset that I would have to leave the place that I grew up, I knew downtown better than my parents! And we were leaving it all behind.

I was happy once we moved to Singapore, but my happiness turned into homesickness. My Mom felt it too, I’m not sure about my Dad, he seemed to be very happy. My parents and I lived in my Grandma’s apartment for a couple of months until we found an apartment of our own.

Every weekend my cousins would come, so I got used to how locals talk and act. At first I didn’t like it, the way people talk to each other here is very harsh and mean. People are yelling at each other in a normal, happy conversation! That made me miss the US where everyone talked kindly and nicely to each other.

Then there was racism, mainly from the senior citizens. I’m not completely Chinese, my Mom is Chinese, but my Dad is Pakistani. And my skin tone is more on the brown side, like my Dad; and my skin got even tanner when we moved here because it’s always sunny, so I tanned quite a bit.

In the beginning I saw many Chinese senior citizens staring at me in a weird way. One man even pushed me aside when I couldn’t get out of the MRT station because my card wasn’t working. In Singapore you have to tap your card on a machine to exit and enter MRTs and buses. For some reason my card wasn’t working that day and the man pushed me aside when there were plenty more machines available!

That really bothered me, I’ve always known that racism was a thing, but I was never part of it, much less on the receiving end.

I started missing my home, my friends, and all the stuffed animals I used to have. I started missing every little thing, down to how I like to walk on carpeting (there’s no built in carpets in apartments in Singapore).

My homesickness got even worse when Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas came. I missed the chilly weather and snow, Halloween isn’t celebrated the here the way it is back in the US. Thanksgiving isn’t even a thing here! And Christmas isn’t Christmas to me without snow.

But, things got better. I made friends here who are homeschoolers, made my new bedroom homier, and started enjoying the weather and having almost all of my Mom’s side of the family near me. I found a place to trick-or-treat with my friends, my parents found some restaurants that serve Thanksgiving dinner, and Christmas feels quite festive and fun now! And I’ve chose to ignore the dirty stares I get by Chinese senior citizens now!

If you’ve ever moved before from your home, you will get homesick. It’s the most horrible feeling in the world, but it’ll past. You’ll get used to life in your new home, and soon you’ll feel right at home. Trust me, it might take a while but it will pass. Thanks for reading!