The series of miniature battles had gone on for days. The adults had all gone to the battlefield years ago. None of the kids knew if their families were even alive. Then, the kids split into groups, acquired guns, and they had fought. Fought for territory, fought for revenge, either way, it was fighting, and it was deadly.
There were two types of guns used in the war. There were the steel guns, which were not at all precise, but did more damage than the laser guns. However, the laser guns were incredibly precise and didn’t stop until they hit something.
It was in the middle of winter when another fight broke out. It was between two groups of teenage girls, both wanting the territory, which happened to be the mostly-intact basement of a house. They had set up small barriers out of metal folding chairs, plastic baby chairs, pots, and pans. Anything that could protect them they had in their territory. A box of steel bullets laid, half-buried, in between the two territories.
A gun fired. The battle had begun.
Angel, one of the fighters, sprinted for the box of ammo, but someone from the other group got there first. Lexi scooped up handfuls of the shiny, deadly bullets. Angel growled in frustration, swinging her machine gun like a sword. The barrel of the gun hit Lexi in the wrist. She gasped in surprise, and some of the bullets fell from her hand, to be snatched up by Angel. Angel ran and slid behind one of the walls of metal chairs, just in time before Lexi aimed a bullet at her. Angel ducked down behind a chair, and the bullet hit the metal, leaving a large dent in it.
“Meagan! Get the laser shooter!” Angel gasped, showing her teammate the threat on the other side of the battlefield.
That person happened to be Nikki. She locked eyes with Angel for just a moment, before swiping a metal pan in the air, blocking the laser bullet from Meagan.
“Angel!” Ray called, “Wanna trade?” He held out a laser gun. Nikki watched as the two turned around swapping guns with each other. She fired. The laser bullet grazed Angel in the shoulder.
“You dare?” Angel hollered, whirling around. The blood dripped down her arm, splattering the ground. Lexi used that to her advantage, shooting off bullet after bullet. One of the youngest girls, Shayla, returned with a constant stream of laser bullets.
Angel leaped backward, sliding behind an old, beat-up piano. Occasionally, a red laser bullet would fly out from under the bench.
The fight got more intense. Bullets were flying every which way, and nobody knew who was shooting what. Blood splattered the ground, staining the brown earth a crimson color. And yet nobody had died. Everyone was still standing.
A loud scream of pain came from the other side of the battlefield. Shayla was kneeling on the ground, her hand over her eye. Blood dripped from between her fingers. In her other hand, she held a bloody bullet.
“She lost an eye!” Nikki said, looking away.
“I know we’re against her, but… I can’t help feeling sorry for her,” Leo, Lexi’s younger brother said, “I mean, she’s so young. She probably didn’t even know what she was getting into.”
They watched as Shayla was led away from the battlefield by a couple of people who were against all the fights. Usually, they just tried to help injured people. “You think your injuries were bad” The look in their eyes seemed to silently challenge, “Look at the 11-year-old girl who just lost an eye, and tell me how badly you got shot.” Shayla was breathing heavily, tears of pain streaming from her good eye. There was an unexpected cease-fire as she was led into the small medical tent.
Bang! A gun fired. Nikki ducked down, but not in time. The bullet left a gaping hole in her coat sleeve, and blood gathered, and soaked into the cotton insides of the jacket.
“You okay?” Kate, Alexa’s sister came over.
“Yeah. I’m fine.” Nikki said, taking off her ruined jacket.
She watched in awe as Shayla walked back onto the field, the left side of her face wrapped in a blood-stained bandage. But as she was going to rejoin the battle, someone else came up out of the barrier.
“What?” Shayla gasped, looking at her replacement.
“Sorry, but we don’t want you fighting for us anymore.” Angel said, “I mean, you’re half blind now, so…”
Shayla backed away in fear, away from the gun that was pointing directly at her face, from the people who had been her team!
“Shayla!” Lexi hissed.
She turned in the direction of the whisper. Lexi beckoned for her to come over.
“What do you want?” Shayla asked in fear.
“We want you to join our side,” Nikki said, seeming to read Alexa’s mind.
“I… Okay.” Shayla tentatively agreed.
“Hey, we’ve got an extra steel gun,” Kate said, handing the weapon to Shayla.
“Why are you guys being so nice?” Shayla asked
“YOu know, I have no idea. We just felt like it, I guess. These days, you’re more likely to find an open restaurant than kindness. It’s nice to change that a little bit.” Nikki said.
“Do you have any food?” Shayla asked. Food had been in short supply since all of the adults left.
“Yes, actually. We do.” Leo said, holding out a small treat.
Shayla tore open the package. The treat inside was covered in pink sprinkles. She ate it in one bite.
A wave of laser bullets swept across the field to the other side. Nikki grimaced in pain as one hit her in the ankle. She retaliated with her own lasers. Her red laser bullets hit Angel. Right in the chest. Nikki watched in horror as Angel collapsed to the ground, dead.
“I… Just…. Killed someone.” Nikki muttered, looking down at her gun.
“Angel! No! Please no!” Meagan screamed tearfully, “I will kill you!” She roared at the other team, “And when you’re all begging for mercy, I will not give you any! I will kill you! You will all die slow, painful deaths!”
Bullets flew across the field again, but this time, it was more deadly, as the teenagers aimed and fired, hoping to kill. A scream came from the other barricade. Nikki rushed over to see what had happened. Lexi lay dead on the ground, her eyes closed. In Death, she looked almost at peace, but anyone who had known Lexi knew better. Lexi had been the one to start many of the wars. She was a fighter. She couldn’t die… Not Lexi.
Now Nikki was filled with anger at the other team. She wanted revenge. She carefully aimed her laser gun at Mack, the guy who had replaced Shayla, and in a few precise controlled shots, he was dead.
“Nikki! Stop! Please!” Shayla said but Nikki didn’t listen.
Meagan shot again and Kate was blown back against the wall. Another dead. Nikki ran forward and shoved Shayla to safety, and almost got hit herself until Leo jumped. Right in front of the bullet. He shot one last bullet, and it missed. Blood sprayed across the ground as Nikki and Shayla ducked under a metal chair.
“Nikki. You were saying that kindness is rarer than a restaurant that’s still open, but you wanna know what’s even rarer? Peace.” Shayla said tearfully.
“I’m sorry. You’re right.” Nikki said, wiping the tears off of her face. She stood up, and dropping her gun, she walked to the middle of the battlefield, ready to end the unnecesary war.
“Meagan!” Nikki called, “Please listen!” Meagan looked up, pure hatred in her tear-filled eyes.
“Meagan. We’ve fought. We’ve been enemies for what seems like forever. But kindness is rare, and peace is even more so. I don’t want to fight you, Meagan. I don’t want to kill you.”
“Says you! You killed Angel!” Meagan spat.
“I didn’t mean to. Let’s put the past in the past. Not saying that you should forget Angel, but that we can put our grudges aside. Please.” Nikki said, and encouraged by Meagan’s hesitation, she went on, “We’re all fighting, but why? How did it start? Is that any reason to kill each other? Please, Meagan. Let’s make peace.” Nikki said.
Meagan looked at Nikki tearfully, slightly lowering her gun. Nikki relaxed a bit, and took another step forward.
Meagan made one slight motion and the laser bullet hit Nikki in the chest. She fell to the ground, her dead eyes reflecting the spark of hope that Meagan had just smothered.
“No!” Shayla screamed, leaping out from behind the barrier and before Meagan had the time to look up, she had been hit by the bullet. A series of bangs rang through the field again, and Meagan was dead before she hit the ground.
Shayla took in the scene around her, the bodies, the blood, and fell to the ground. Tears welled up in her good eye.
They had all died, Angel had been the first to give up her life for what she believed, and Meagan had been the last. Lexi had protected her, trusted her. Leo had sacrificed himself so that nobody else had to die. She had won the battle, but somehow she wasn’t even relieved it was over. She had always assumed that she would discuss it with a friend years later when all of the adults came back. But she couldn’t lose hope. She couldn’t give up now.
Shayla staggered over to the white tent near the battlefield and let them patch her up.
“Thank you.” She managed to mutter. Then she walked outside and took a deep breath.
“I’m sorry.” She said to everyone who had fought, especially Meagan, though she knew they couldn’t hear her, “For everything.
The Fairy’s New Year Gift
Two little boys were at play one day when a Fairy suddenly appeared before them and said, “I have been sent to give you New Year presents.”
She handed each child a package, and in an instant was gone.
Carl and Philip opened the packages and found in them two beautiful books, with pages as pure and white as the snow when it first fell.
Many months passed and the Fairy came again to the boys. “I have brought you each other’s book?” she said, “and will take the first ones back to Father Time who sent them to you.”
“May I not keep mine a little longer?” asked Philip. “I have hardly thought about it lately. I’d like to paint something on the last leaf that lies open.”
“No,” said the Fairy; “I must take it just as it is.”
“I wish that I could look through mine just once,” said Carl; “I have only seen one page at a time, for when the leaf turns over it sticks fast, and I can never open the book at more than one place each day.”
“You shall look at your book,” said the Fairy, “and Philip, at his.” And she lit for them two little silver lamps, by the light of which they saw the pages as she turned them.
The boys looked in wonder. Could it be that these were the same fair books she had given them a year ago? Where were the clean, white pages, as pure and beautiful as the snow when it first fell? Here was a page with ugly, black spots and scratches upon it; while the very next page showed a lovely little picture.
Some pages were decorated with gold and silver and gorgeous colors, others with beautiful flowers, and still others with a rainbow of softest, most delicate brightness. Yet even on the most beautiful of the pages there were ugly blots and scratches.
Carl and Philip looked up at the Fairy at last.
“Who did this?” they asked. “Every page was white and fair as we opened to it; yet now there is not a single blank place in the whole book!”
“Shall I explain some of the pictures to you?” said the Fairy, smiling at the two little boys.
“See, Philip, the spray of roses bloomed on this page when you let the baby have your playthings; and this pretty bird, that looks as if it were singing with all its might, would never have been on this page if you had not tried to be kind and pleasant the other day, instead of quarrelling.”
“But what makes this blot?” asked Philip.
“That,” said the Fairy sadly; “that came when you told an untruth one day, and this when you did not mind mamma. All these blots and scratches that look so ugly, both in your book and in Carl’s, were made when you were naughty. Each pretty thing in your books came on its page when you were good.”
“Oh, if we could only have the books again!” said Carl and Philip.
“That cannot be,” said the Fairy. “See! They are dated for this year, and they must now go back into Father Time’s bookcase, but I have brought you each a new one. Perhaps you can make these more beautiful than the others.”
So saying, she vanished, and the boys were left alone, but each held in his hand a new book open at the first page.
And on the back of this book was written in letters of gold, “For the New Year.”
A New Year’s Eve
“This is not how I had wanted my new year’s eve to be,” I sighed as I sipped the cocktail. I had carefully chalked a perfect plan for the night— a sumptuous dinner cooked by myself, after which I could snuggle in my cosy bed with a cup of hot chai and a perfect movie ( or a rerun of F.R.I.E.N.D.S if nothing worked out).
As I ruminate the predicament I was stuck in, I was able to make out the words of the DJ over the blaring noise, stating that the dance was about to begin. I checked my watch and found that it was only 10 PM which meant I had to be locked up for a minimum of two more hours.
I decided to take a stroll on the lawn outside and as I stepped out, I couldn’t help but admire the beauty of the venue. With the commencement of the dance, people had crowded the dance floor and the bar was visibly empty.
The bartender was juggling the glasses and mixing the drinks in a smooth and swift motion. I was amazed by his skills and easy composure. Without taking my eyes off his actions, I walked closer to observe him.
He had finished serving and as I lifted my head I caught him staring at me. That was when I realised that I had been gawking at him for a long time. He whispered something to his coworker and walked towards me.
“Oh my god! I’m screwed. How do I get out of this?” I wondered.
“Hi, do I know you?” he asked.
“Hi. Umm. No,” I replied. “Umm. You were wonderful with the glasses,” I added quickly.
“Oh, that…er… Thank you,” he smiled.
I relaxed a little and spoke, “Sorry, I didn’t mean to stare at you. It was just I was mesmerised by the ease with which you handled them. You are definitely a pro.”
He smiled wider. “I am flattered. Thank you again. Would you like to get some drinks?”
“Nah! Drinks are not my forte. I just came out for some fresh air,” I replied.
“You must be kidding,” he said and noticed my grave look . “Are you telling me that you are here all alone on New Year’s Eve?” he asked, surprised.
“Ahh… Unfortunately, yes, I am.”
“That’s sad.”
“Yes, I wish I was at home, enjoying solitude as I welcomed the new year,” I shrugged nonchalantly.
He motioned me to move aside as people were walking towards the bar. “Shall we go for a walk?”
“Yeah,” I replied and we started to walk in the direction of the shore.
“So, if you hate this party so much, why are you here?” he asked.
“I am the marketing head of the advertising firm that is sponsoring this event. I had planned to go home and spend the new year with my family which got cancelled due to work schedule. But today afternoon, I had almost completed my work and planned a quiet evening for myself.
Our CEO was to attend this event, but he had some last-minute programs,” I rolled my eyes and noticed him listening with rapt attention. “The event organisers requested someone from our office to be present.
With everyone else going for a vacation, my boss convinced me and my colleague and that is how I ended up here. However, my colleague seems to be enjoying the event. She is on the dance floor now.”
“Oh that is bad,” he shook his head. We were silent for a moment when I asked, “I have been talking about myself. So tell me about you. Though I have to admit you are too good looking for a barkeeper,” I blushed as I asked.
He cocked an eyebrow as he asked, “Are you mocking me?”
“What? No…No,” I protested.
“Alright. I am an engineer by profession and quit my job exactly a year ago. I fulfilled my dream of travelling to all the states of India and this is my last stop.”
“That is awesome. Have you been travelling alone?” I asked curiously.
“Yes. I have not only been travelling but also trying my hand at odd jobs — from a dabbawala to selling local goods to bartending. Every job has given me a new experience that I will cherish all my life.
I have met people from all walks of life and learned life lessons. This journey has been an amazing one, but I still feel something amiss,” he paused.
We had reached the shore and the music from the dance floor was distant and the only sound we heard was the soft crashing of waves.
“But, why did you leave your job?”
“In pursuit of happiness. No. Not the movie. I was growing restless with my office job. Hence, I decided to go in search of my true calling.”
“Haven’t you been home? Don’t your parents miss you?”
“They do. But, they are currently shuttling between countries to look after grandchildren. They also know how determined I can be,” he said.
“Oh.”
“But, what plagues me is I have not found an answer yet,” he spoke softly.
“Maybe, you are searching in the wrong place,” I replied.
“What?”
“Happiness is a state of mind and not of the surroundings. It differs from person to person. For a child, getting a toy is happiness whereas for our grandparents spending time with us is happiness. You are searching for it elsewhere, but I think you should seek it within yourselves. Happiness can be found in the darkest of times…”
“Only if one remembers to turn on the light,” he completed.
I was glad he was a potterhead too. Both of us spoke for a while.
“Thank you. I needed to hear this. You have opened up a new perspective for me.”
I smiled, “My pleasure. And do meet your parents. They may not tell you, but they will be missing you.”
“Yes, I am leaving home tomorrow,” he grinned wide, his smile reaching his eyes and a dimple forming on his right cheek.
Precisely at that moment, fireworks went off in the sky.
“Happy New Year,” we spoke at the same time.
“I should thank your boss for sending you to this event,” he said as we walked back.
“Yeah, I guess it did not end up bad. I will find my friend and head back home.”
I took the lead towards the makeshift stage.
“Hey what’s your name?” he called out.
I turned back and smiled and continued walking.
Tangram – Step It Up
Task description: This week during I had free time, so I got to chooses what I wanted to do, I decided to do summer learning journey. I did task called ‘Tangram Tangles’. After that I completed the task, and I posted it on our blog. I enjoyed this task very much, and I hope to do more like this soon. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment; thank you for visiting my blog.
Fun fact for the Day: Do you know why going to the beach is popular during summer? Well, I’m going to tell you! Most beachgoers only visit the beach in the summer when the conditions are great for tanning and swimming – mild wind, warm water, high temperatures, and strong sun!
Tangram Tangles – Kick Start
Task description: This week during I had free time, so I got to chooses what I wanted to do, I decided to do summer learning journey. I did task called ‘Tangram Tangles’. After that I completed the task, and I posted it on our blog. I enjoyed this task very much, and I hope to do more like this soon. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment; thank you for visiting my blog.
Fun fact for the Day: Do you know why ice cream is so popular during summer? Well, I’m going to tell you! Cold water is preferred to warm water as a thirst quencher and cold products such as ice cream may also be perceived as pleasant because oral cooling satiates thirst.
Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as strawberries or peaches.
It can also be made by whisking a flavored cream base and liquid nitrogen together. Food coloring is sometimes added, in addition to stabilizers. The mixture is cooled below the freezing point of water and stirred to incorporate air spaces and to prevent detectable ice crystals from forming.
Rainbow collage – Step It Up
Task description: This week during I had free time, so I got to chooses what I wanted to do, I decided to do summer learning journey. I did task called ‘Rainbow collage’. After that I completed the task, and I posted it on our blog. I enjoyed this task very much, and I hope to do more like this soon. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment; thank you for visiting my blog.
Rainbow collage – Kick Start
Task description: This week during I had free time, so I got to chooses what I wanted to do, I decided to do summer learning journey. I did task called ‘Rainbow collage’. After that I completed the task, and I posted it on our blog. I enjoyed this task very much, and I hope to do more like this soon. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment; thank you for visiting my blog.
Surfboard Business – Wild Waves – Step It Up
Task description: This week during I had free time, so I got to chooses what I wanted to do, I decided to do summer learning journey. I did task called ‘Design your own surfboard’. After that I completed the task, and I posted it on our blog. I enjoyed this task very much, and I hope to do more like this soon. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment; thank you for visiting my blog.
My Surfboard Design – Kick Start
Task description: This week during I had free time, so I got to chooses what I wanted to do, I decided to do summer learning journey. I did task called ‘Design your own surfboard’. After that I completed the task, and I posted it on our blog. I enjoyed this task very much, and I hope to do more like this soon. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment; thank you for visiting my blog.
Fun fact for the Day: Do you know how surfboards are designed? Well, I’ll tell you – The board will either be made completely from scratch or by carving out the board from a surfboard blank, a large piece of foam that works as the core of the board. Inside is a piece of wood called a stringer, glued between two foam blocks, which provides flex and strength.
Maths Riddles – Kick Start
Task description: This week during I had free time, so I got to chooses what I wanted to do, I decided to do summer learning journey. I did task called ‘Maths Riddles’. For this task I had to answer some math related riddles questions. I did find any of the riddles hard or confusing, and when I check them I was so happy that I got them all right. After that I completed the task, and I posted it on our blog. I enjoyed this task very much, and I hope to do more like this soon. Hope you enjoyed. Please leave a comment; thank you for visiting my blog.