Student’s Writings

Man on the Ledge by KennedyLewis

The students were presented with the challenge of coming upon a person perched on the ledge of a tall building in beautiful Los Angeles.

KENNEDY…channels the plight of a world-weary night watchman to deal with the crisis.

Man on the Ledge

I’m so glad I’m almost finished with my nightshift, being an overnight security guard is NOT for the weak. This month alone has made me reconsider my job. I’ve had things thrown at me, people screaming in my face, someone making direct eye contact with me while using the sidewalk as their urinal, the usual. I do one final sweep in front of the building before I head back to the break room. Just as I’m about to head back inside, a woman frantically runs up to me.

(Madisyn): Sir- sir! PLEASE!

I’m NOT in the mood for this, I try to side step her but she rushes to the door.

Kennedy: Ma’am I’m gonna need you to back up from the door, mkay? Before I have to

(Madisyn): Please! I saw a man on the roof- I think he’s gonna jump off!

Kennedy: Mkay so, ma’am- no one has entered this building- alrighty? No one gets past me, NO ONE. 

(Madisyn): Can you please just check, I saw him dangling off!

In my mind I have ‘probable’ cause to tase this woman, but I’ve already gotten a few warnings this month for using ‘unethical’ force on civilians- whatever that means. And something tells me if there really is a man on the roof, and he just so happens to be embodying a bird, I’m gonna get into some trouble. I wave the woman off and reluctantly assure her I’ll check on the roof.

 GOD, what’s wrong with people these days? Why do I of all people have to deal with this? I just wanted to try and make a pretty buck  and now I have to coax someone off the roof. I’m getting flashbacks of the 2020 discord. 

It takes me a couple of minutes to reach the top of the stairwell, and by then I’m well out of breath. I push open the door, and low and behold there IS a man on the ledge. He snaps his head towards me when he hears the door shut. 

Danny: Don’T Cometh Aught Clos’r!

I raise my hands and slowly inch towards him. ‘’Come on man, you don’t really wanna do this.’

Danny: Nay, nay- I doth! I has’t to! Mine own existence is ruined!

Kennedy: I stop just a few feet behind him, ‘Do you wanna like- talk about it?’

Danny: I’m about to jumpeth and thee wanna ‘talk about it’? Is yond all thee guards very much has’t- what hath happened to propriety- sympathy-

I swivel my heel and walk back towards the door. 

Danny: ‘WAIT- prithee, changeth my own intellect, discourse to me! Alloweth me to plead my own case!’

Kennedy: Can you stop talking like that?

Danny: ‘Just a few hours before this, I went to the Casino.’

I already know where this is going.

Danny: ‘I told myself I’d only bring cash- I swear I did! But when I lost..I found myself reaching into my pocket, and then- then draining my savings, and then my- my kids future college fund, and then the lease to my house..’

How’d you manage to do all that in just a few hours? Nevermind. What am I even supposed to say now? Not that I agree with him trying to do his best bird impression. But he’s lowkey right, his life IS ruined. I try to muster up some words, but the man quickly turns back to the edge.

Danny: so coequal thee concur with me, mine own existence is ruined!

Kennedy: I never said all that!

Just as I see him taking a step forward I tase him.

Danny: Nay! nay nay…

God, even the act of saving him feels like a bad act. No wonder they call this place the city of angels.

Kennedy Lewis

September 19, 2025

Man on the Ledge by Madisyn Hall

The students were presented with the challenge of coming upon a person perched on the ledge of a tall building in beautiful Los Angeles.

MADISYN…is drawn into the ethereal presence of a man she once knew.

Man on The Ledge

I walk up on the terrace to see a man on the ledge. I didn’t expect anyone to be out there around this time of the night, especially not on the ledge. The air was cold and windy. The breeze was strong. I wondered if the stranger could feel it too. I walked over, keeping my distance. The man turned slightly, noticing my presence, but said nothing. 

I sit along the ledge with the man. I looked down and I felt an adrenaline rush, not from the fear of falling but what might happen if I did. I looked over at the man again and his face was obscured. I couldn’t tell if it was the angle but the man didn’t seem to have a face, not one that was visible to the naked eye. 

 Something about his presence was so familiar and nostalgic. He said, “ you know me.” His voice sounded mangled or somewhat muzzled but I felt what he said was true. I did know him. He spoke again. “You shouldn’t be up here.” Then silence. I felt the eyes of the stranger on me for the first time. It was like he could see into my soul and possibly what my true intentions were. It made me feel uneasy. 

 I was reluctant to look back at the man, but when I did, there was no one there. It was just me and my conscience and the presence of a man that was once there and the unspoken questions. 

Madisyn Hall

September 24, 2025

 Poking, Cutting, and Scooping the Surface by Rylee Breeden

The students were tasked to craft a story about a famous threesome, be they historical, whimsical, or from the kitchen cabinet.

RYLEE…thoughtfully applies the functional properties of the knife, fork and spoon to her own development as an individual

Poking, cutting, and scooping, are all things that a fork, a knife, and a spoon are capable of. All of these are things I try to carry with me. There are appropriate times to use these utensils. Then there will be a great meal and you will have all of these utensils to use together.

Poking the surface. For me to get to where I want to get in life, I have to at least poke the surface.I have to at least make some effort, I have to make a breakthrough. Of course, if I just stare at my food, it will never get to my mouth. If I don’t  make the effort.Then I’ll always be hungry for success. So I stick my fork in my food, and I poke the surface.

Cutting the surface. My fork has made holes in my food, so therefore I’ve broken the surface apart. Now I just need to go deeper. I need to make more efforts to get the food to my mouth. I need to make a bigger hole so I can scoop my food. A doorway to success.

Scooping in and taking a chunk out. I have a doorway to success. All I have to do is reach in and use the potential that the spoon holds. Entering myself in the doorway of success to get what I want,to get where I want, and how I want it to happen, requires effort. Scratching, cutting, and scooping are all steps  that I need to make to reach the success that I desire.

Famous Threesomes by Danny Buck

The students were tasked to craft a story about a famous threesome, be they historical, whimsical, or from the kitchen cabinet. DANNY…delivers a master class on the most brilliant generals of all time

There are a lot of threesomes, trifectas, trios that are interesting. Boy oh boy, where do I even begin? The big three FromSoftware (videogame company) games, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, are notable. The big three Greco-Roman gods, Zeus/Jupiter, Poseidon/Neptune, and Hades/Pluto. There are the big three chess players: Kasparov, Carlsen, and Fischer. There are the big three masterminds of psychological anime: Light Yagami, Johan Liebert, and Lelouch vi Britannia. There are the big three classical philosophers–Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. There are the big three physicists– Newton, Einstein, and Maxwell. There’s the big three of Mathematics– Pythagoras, Euler, and Gauss. I could go on for at least 30 minutes about all of the greats, but there’s a specific big three that are most flashy and historically significant.

I’ll speak on the most powerful and tactically brilliant generals of all time, which are pretty much undisputed, except for a few other guys. Some people would throw Hannibal Barca or Scipio Africanus on the list, some would argue for Frederick the Great, and some would say Khalid Ibn al-Walid… All of which are great picks. But the most brilliant, innovative, and beautiful generals of all time are: 1. Alexander the Great, the most powerful man of the ancient world. Famously undefeated, with an empire stretching from Greece to India, he’s immortalized and revered as a nigh-demigod. 2. Julius Caesar, one of the best politicians of Rome’s Republic. He’s known for his brilliant conquest of Gaul (modern-day France) with tactics and engineering. He later became the dictator of Rome before being assassinated for fear of his becoming a monarch. 3. And finally, the sublime, beautiful, magnificent, left-handed, playful, genius, ambitious, diligent, charismatic, glorious emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of the Napoleonic Empire of France.

Alexander’s most significant victory is the Battle of Gaugamela, in which he defeated the Persian king Darius III to conquer the rest of Persia, which was called the Achaemenian Empire. After Alexander patrolled their lands, he determined that any significant cavalry force would be able to defeat any Persian army. Alexander positioned himself to the right of the formation and feigned a cavalry charge to open up Darius’s line. This was for the goal of using his superior mobility to take the chance to wedge the gap (or “hit the hole” in football terms) to attack Darius directly. Darius realized what had happened and fled the battle ,resulting in heavy Persian losses and victory for the Macedonian Empire.

Caesar’s Battle of Alesia was actually a siege. It was an attack on a Gallic city in what is now eastern France against the Gallic general Vercingetorix. The brilliance of this battle is namely the engineering, in which he used a double-fortification strategy around the city, which trapped the forces. This also prevented reinforcements from being able to enter the city, which were alerted during the night while the fortifications were incomplete. An army of 250,000 was sent to reinforce the Gallic forces, while the women and children who were unfit for battle were given to the Romans. The Romans fought the Gauls for days, which eventually concluded when the Gallic forces attacked a gap in the reinforcements with an army of 60,000. The Roman cavalry decimated the Gallic forces, and a major general was captured during this incursion. After this, the Gauls who survived the slaughter on the outer wall fled, and Caesar defeated the remaining forces within the reinforcements.

Now, for Napoleon’s masterpiece of the utmost tactical brilliance. So many things were done well in this battle, like deception, mobility, prediction, encirclement, and more. It was easily Napoleon’s most decisive victory, which he called the perfect battle. The defeat was so devastating that it shook the Austrian Empire for years afterwards. A brief summary… Napoleon’s forces sat on top of the hill with the high ground. During that time, the battlefield was covered by fog, which obscured the vision of the allied forces (Austrian and Russian). They assumed that Napoleon had a weak flank, not knowing that their right flank was soon to come. The allied forces decided to charge at the center, and Napoleon’s forces feigned a retreat. Some of the allied forces were defeated, which led to the allied forces to be encircled by the French army. This led to two encirclements of the Allied army. The allied forces were trapped, and many of the forces were drowned by the firing cannons on the ice. 9,000 French troops were lost, while 27,000 allied forces were lost.

It’s a bit hard to visualize how much of a feat each one of these battles was. Each of the victories was accomplished by an outnumbered force, and the amount of cool-headedness and intelligence that each one of these victories took is staggering. It’s no wonder that these victories are still studied today. The reason why these great men are cemented as greats is much more than just these feats, but they’re definitely the big three generals of all time.

  Bikini Bottom by Tallulah “Mingo” Cord

The students were tasked to craft a story about a famous threesome, be they historical, whimsical, or from the kitchen cabinet. MINGO…takes us below the surface of SpongeBob’s weird world, delivering a clever button of an ending

The last thing I remember is going to bed at 3:00AM after what could have been 6 or 7 hours of doomscrolling.“What is this place?” I think to myself. I had expected the hallucinations to catch up with me after  nights with no sleep, and my phone centimeters away from my eyes. I didn’t think a hallucination could be this lifelike. It could very well be a dream, but this place feels so real. I could feel the chill of the water, and the sand below my feet. I had been so busy trying to comprehend where I was, that I tuned out all the screaming in the distance. 

“I’M READY, I’M READY, I’M READY!!” 

And there I see him, a bright yellow sponge. He has the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen. It’s about now that I realized I was just standing on the walkway, I need to go talk to him, I need to talk to SpongeBob. 

“SpongeBob!” I project my voice as much as I can. 

“Oh hey! I didn’t see you there. Do I know you?”. When Spongebob speaks to me, I see he has buck teeth, a Krusty Krab hat, and he wields a spatula. 

“No you don’t, but I know you.” I said while also wondering how I can breathe and speak underwater, “I am from the surface, you know where Sandy used to live.” 

SpongeBob is visibly taken back. He is clearly wondering how I am able to breathe underwater. Me too SponageBob. Me too. After some introductions, SpongeBob takes me to his workplace, The Krusty Krab. I notice just how starved I am when I smell the kitchen, SpongeBob understands immediately what I desire. He quickly whips up a Krabby Patty, on the house. I take a bite and it is heavenly; it’s down right ethereal. 

“I have never had anything this delectable in my whole 14 years.” My comment makes SpongeBob light up. 

“I’m happy you like it!” He said very cheerfully.

The restaurant doors slam open, and Squidward steps in with a gloomy face. From the first appearance, he seems depressed.

“SponageBob, you know we aren’t open to customers yet.” Squidward says in a monotone voice with a hint of annoyance. SpongeBob is oblivious to it. 

“That’s my new friend!” SponageBob said to Squidward. I can feel the tension, and to break it I make a remark about the clarinet. 

I see Squidward’s eyes widen, “Do.. You play?” 

“Umm, I don’t but I have always thought it is the most beautiful instrument.” I exclaim while trying to butter him up. 

He takes his clarinet out of his comically small pocket, I don’t know how that works and I was scared to ask. He plays me a small tidbit of the song he was just learning. 

“Color me impressed!” I utter. I see a small smirk on his face as he walks away.  

I hang out in the kitchen with SpongeBob for the whole day, and then I walk home alongside SpongeBob and Squidward. 

I’m not shocked when I see the array of houses. Frankly, they are hard to miss. 

I see a pink starfish running right for me, I evaded him just in time. SpongeBob gets tackled to the ground in a big hug from Patrick. I look at Squidward then back at Patrick and SpongeBob. I introduce myself to Patrick, I quickly figure out that he isn’t very bright.

“IS MAYONNAISE AN INSTRUMENT?!” he asks Squidward, “PLEASE I’VE BEEN DYING TO KNOW!” It is apparent that he has had this question the whole day. 

Squidward replies to this by walking away, into his bungalow. It’s just SpongeBob, Patrick, and myself now. 

We spend the rest of the day regaling each other with stories. They are surprised when I finish their sentences. 

“How do you know what happens in the story?!” Patrick screams in frustration. 

“You’re on television.” I try to dumb it down as much as possible, but they both don’t seem to grasp the concept. 

A thought enters my mind, I begin to search frantically. I turn around. And I see a whole dang camera crew filming us.

Invisible Jersey by Mohamed Cisse

My name is Mohamed. I’m sixteen years old, the class of 2027, and before I tell you about myself, I want you to picture something.

Imagine a basketball player walking into the gym. He ties his shoes. He bounces the  ball and takes a couple form shots. To someone seeing this, it looks like a normal boy in a plain t-shirt, getting ready to train. But, in his mind he’s wearing a jersey. It’s stitched with his dream school’s name across the front. He sees the colors and the number even though nobody else can. That’s me. Every time I step on the court, I wear a jersey no one else can see. Some people call it imagination while others might call it delusion. I call it belief.

I was born in Mali, and I came to the United States around the age of 6 or 7. That’s an important part of who I am because it shaped the way I see life. Coming from a place where not everyone has opportunities, I understand that every chance I get here is a blessing. My dream isn’t just me either. It’s about the people back home, my family, and anyone who’s been told their goals are impossible. When I grind, I’m not just chasing a future for myself. I’m caring the hopes of the people who may never step on a court in America. The people who may never have the chance to chase something this big. That’s what fuels me.

I’m sixteen and about six foot- six one feet tall. To most people that just means I’m “the basketball kid.” But my story goes deeper. I don’t have a school team right now. I’m not the player with highlights reels and offers yet. What I have is work. Every jumper in the gym, every film study session, every moment I choose discipline over comfort, it’s me building my invisible jersey stitch by stitch. I know most people don’t see it and that’s okay. I’ve learned that what matters most is not what most people see today, but what you keep building when no one else is watching.

One of the biggest parts of who I am is my faith. I’m Muslim and Islam keeps me grounded in ways basketball couldn’t. Faith teaches me patience and resilience. When I step on the court and miss ten shots in a row, it’s frustrating. But Islam has taught me that life is full of tests, and tests aren’t there to break me. They are there to strengthen me. When I wake up before the sun to pray, when I push myself through another workout even though I’m tired, I remind myself that resilience isn’t just a personality trait, it’s worship. It’s showing gratitude to God through discipline and effort.

And it’s not just about sports. I want to succeed in school too. My goal is to make the honor roll not because I need the recognition but because I believe success isn’t one way. To me, being great on the court but careless in the classroom isn’t true success. True success is balance. It’s proving to myself that I can handle both. It’s building habits of discipline, whether I’m studying for a quiz or working on my jump shot. In a way education and basketball are similar because it’s a long and I want to win both.

When I look at myself, I don’t just see a basketball player. I see a Muslim. I see someone learning how to keep balance. I see someone who refuses to quit, no matter how hard things get. I see resilience not because things are handed to me, but because I’ve learned to keep pushing when the odds are against me.

So then who am I? I’m Mohamed. I’m sixteen, class of 2027, a kid born in Mali who came to the U.S. with dreams that sound impossible to some. I’m a basketball player who wears an invisible jersey. I’m a Muslim whose faith gives me strength. I’m a student who believes honor roll is just as important as a game winning shot.

Most importantly, I’m not chasing this dream just for myself. I’m chasing it for the people who need to see that impossible dreams are possible. For the kids who were told they aren’t good enough. For the families who came from far to give their children a chance. For everyone who can’t see the jersey yet but will one day.

My story isn’t about what you notice today. My story is about the unseen strength, the faith, and the resilience that will make that same jersey visible tomorrow.

Mohamed Cisse

September 9th, 2025