The Unexpected Pelagic Boat Trip

 

    Ever since I knew we were going to Science Camp, I had been looking forward to it. During my years at Chaparral, I had heard many stories from the senior students in sixth grade. The stories were all about the hikes in the chaparral, oak woodland, and riparian ecosystems. Never did I hear about the boat ride out to sea on a cruiser boat. But this unexpected boat ride turned out to be the best part of the trip.

     On Friday morning, the last day of Science Camp, our cabin was among the first to wake up. We chatted loudly to one another for a while. Around 7:00 am, everyone in our cabin was packed up. Since we were early, we went down to the Science Camp playground, set our luggage on the basketball court to be loaded on the U Haul truck, and went to play. Pretty soon, the kitchen staff handed out delicious breakfast sandwiches, still slightly warm. After the 100 or so sixth grade students were finished with their breakfast, the teachers ushered us onto two yellow school buses and we drove off to the seashore. Our teachers had told us we were going to the Dana Point Harbor, so I expected something spectacular on the last day.  

As planned, we arrived at Dana Point Harbor around eight thirty in the morning. We were going to examine the intertidal and pelagic ecosystems. Our instructor, Amanda, first led us to the intertidal, which was a bunch of tidepools with many different creatures. We found some of them, like small fish, crab, hermit crab, clam, sea anemone, starfish, and weeds .Although this was one of the spectacular things I had expected, some intuition told me there were better activities to come.

Next, we went to the lab and examined many interesting creatures. We saw jellyfish, shrimp, crab, fish, and many other interesting things. Everyone also got a chance to examine bacteria and plankton under microscopes. The most interesting part was the dissecting of a fish. It was pretty bloody, but not disgusting at all. It also gave me a little practice for my wish to become a doctor. Our trail group tested the qualities of different types of water to see if they were was fit for moving sea creatures

After a delicious lunch of pizza, I joined Darren and Jackson, my friends, wondering what activity our trail group would have next. Dimly, in the back of my brain, it kept on telling me something about a boat. But when Amanda, our instructor, was telling us the schedule, I wasn’t listening, so I knocked out that idea. Suddenly, the teachers and instructors told us to line up against the wall by the harbor. I was surprised, but my friends were all very excited. When I asked Darren, he told me that we were going on a boat ride. I was gobsmacked that the idea in the back of my mind was correct, but became excited like the rest of the students. We waited for a minute or so, and boarded an 80-person cruiser boat. Everyone aboard was very hyper. As the ship gathered speed, Darren, Jackson, and I stood up and leaned against the railing.

After about 10 minutes behind the breakwater and calm harbor, we entered the rougher seas. For a while, the ship just lurched gently. We were all calm and chatting to each other. Suddenly, without warning, the ship rose and crashed into the water. A few people screamed. It made my heart come to my throat, but the movement of the ship was exciting and felt like a mild roller coaster. That was when we saw the dolphin family, circling around us. The family was huge, with at least 30 dolphins circling us in turns. They played with the ship like an overly large toy. One of the instructors told us that these were the Common dolphins. These agile creatures danced around the ship and everyone oohed and aahed. This family of dolphins followed us for almost 15 minutes, and only stopped when we turned around to head back.

As we headed closer to the breakwater, the sea became calmer. When we were a couple hundred feet from the calm water, the ship passed by a green buoy inhabited by three lazy sea lions. One of them raised its flipper and seemed to wave at us. As we entered the calm harbor, the instructors set up stations for us, like plankton studying, the sounds of sea creatures, and touching small fish and starfish. A couple minutes later, we arrived at the small dock.

        As I boarded the yellow school bus with Darren after the boat ride, I

thought to myself, “Wow, what an unexpected and exciting day!”

Young Server From Norms

Description

Blanca is a young woman working at the Claremont Norms as a server and receptionist behind the paying counter. She has gelled jet black hair tied back in a ornament ball held together by a black, shiny, jeweled clip. On her rather small earlobes sparkle little red earrings. Her eyebrows are penciled heavily, and long eyelashes and black eyeliner surround the brown pupils of her almond-shaped eyes. Her smooth, slightly tanned skin makes the bright red lips stand out from the rest of her face. The blood red lips match the ruby tie on the white uniform every server wears. As the next customer in line steps forward to her, she smiled dazzlingly, showing her white, perfectly straight teeth. Below her left shoulder, a metal clip shows her name, Blanca. When she types something down on the computer behind the counter, she reveals shocking hot pink nails.  As she reads the names of people who are in line, I can tell her high-pitched voice is sharp and clear. She works very fast, and is very experienced. Soon, before I know it, we are at the front of the line and being ushered to a table. As she walks us over to our table, I notice that she has overly large buttocks, and is wearing matching black trousers and shoes.

Background Story

There is no way I can tell what Blanca’s real background story was by just watching her, unless I was someone like Dumbledore or Voldemort and could read minds. So I made up my own version of Blanca’s backstory.

Blanca was born in a traditional Mexican family in Southern California. She was one of five children.  Her family was neither rich nor poor, although her parents were always busy raising money for the five children and paid very little attention to Blanca. With little attention from her parents, she became a wild young girl. At an elementary school in Upland, she became more civilized and grew beautiful. But her grades were only mediocre. Blanca also lived through the end period of the Cold War. She and her family were always very scared about nuclear missiles from the Soviet Union. But luckily, when she was in junior high, the Cold War ended. She was a pretty popular girl and was surrounded by friends most of the time. Many boys at school liked her, but she had high expectations, and rejected all of them.

Although Blanca tried hard to improve her grades, she could not succeed because no one from her family could help. Even though Blanca tried her best, her grades stayed the same and did not improve. After she graduated from high school, she started to help earn money for her family. She knew could not get into college, so she has had minimum wage jobs ever since.

          Recently, Blanca has been a server at Norms Restaurant. After a few months there, the manager promoted her to be a receptionist. When I was observing her, it was just a regular work day. From her expressions, I could tell she enjoyed her job greatly.  

Big breakfastl at Norms

Dr. John Dee, the Ultimate Antagonist

 

    In all action and adventure books and novels, there is always at least one antagonist, or bad guy. Without these characters, there would be no content in the story and no protagonists, or, heroes, for us to admire.

    Recently, I have started a new series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel. In the first book of this excellent science fantasy, The Alchemyst, the antagonist is a small, gray-faced man named John Dee. This sinister man was a real figure in history as a mathematician, navigator, astronomer, philosopher, and consultant to Queen Elizabeth I. But in the series, the author gives him magical powers, and makes him an alchemist, a magician, a sorcerer, and a necromancer. Earlier in his life, Dee was also Court Magician and a spy for Queen Elizabeth I in England. Born in 1527, Dee is an immortal, and is nearly five hundred years old when the story happens in the early 21st century.

The main way Dr. John Dee opposes the protagonist, an immortal called Nicholas Flamel, who is some seven hundred years old, is by trying to gain The Book of Abraham The Mage, or the Codex, which is a very powerful book that contains the recipe to become an immortal. The Codex also has instructions for making stones, metals, and coal into jewelry, gold, and diamonds. Most importantly, the Codex contains spells that could allow the Elder Race, magical people who at one time were worshipped as gods in the ancient civilizations and were the first generations of living things on Earth, to rule the planet. There are also spells to keep the Elders at bay in their own realms. Dee wants the Book because he works for a group of Elders called the Dark Elders, who want the Elder Race to rule the Earth once more. But Nicholas Flamel wants to prevent that, because he knows if that happens the human race, or humani, as the author calls it, will either become slaves or food.

There are three ways in which I can tell that Dee is the antagonist. One of them is his gray, skin, and his slight build. I knew this person was up to no good because his small build was sinister, and he wrapped himself in heavy coats, gloves and, boots.  Usually, heroes show their faces proudly and never try to be anonymous for no reason. The story tells that John Dee has a very unhealthy-looking, pale, gray skin. Mostly likely, this type of appearance and figure belongs to the antagonist, not the protagonist.

Dr. John Dee is a very convincing antagonist because his aura, which is a magical energy around a person that has a specific color and smell, has the sulfuric odor of rotten eggs. The sulfur smells super bad and is very repulsive. It is negative, and the sulfuric yellow is the exact color of an antagonist. Most certainly, heroes will not want their auras to smell like rotten eggs. And that is true, because the main characters’ auras smell like mint, vanilla ice cream, and oranges.

The third and last reason I know that Dee is the antagonist is because he always likes to experiment with many dark magical creatures and animals under his control. He is a necromancer, so he raises an army of mummy and skeleton people and animals to destroy the protagonists. He has a very magically powerful creature, the sphinx, to guard over his prisoners at an island fort. He creates men made of clay and mud called Golems and even faceless guards made of a smooth stone. I know he is a bad guy because he tortures innocent animals, like rats and birds, to be his spies and keep an eye out for him.

Overall, I dislike Dr. John Dee greatly because of all the evil deeds he has done throughout his long life and his thought that humani is in a lower rank than the Elder Race and immortals. But, still, a side of me likes him for some reason. It is probably because of his extreme power and wit.

But, whether I like John Dee or not, I should thank him, because without him, the book The Alchemyst, and the series, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel, would not have been the same.