I Got Clothes!
       Category: 6-8 grade

      It was Christmas morning; I woke up at 3:00 a.m. just to see what I had waiting for me under the tree. My sister Sally, had already been standing by the railing at the top of the stairs, staring gleefully down at the bulging Christmas tree, full of presents. Christmas morning was finally here!
 	With all of our excitement and rousing around, my tired parents opened their bedroom door moaning, “What are you guys doing up?”.
“When can we go downstairs, and open our presents?” we asked hoping and crossing our fingers. They said not until at least 5:30 a.m., it was 3:07 a.m., so we waited and waited and waited for what seemed like hours to pass and we finally got to go downstairs at the stroke of 5:30 a.m. We started with our stockings like we always do, which was fine by me because basically, all normally get is candy and money. My dog got the largest stocking with the most stuff peeking out. Basically, my dad completely adores the dog! Winston is his name, he got at least 50 bones and dog treats. My cat Kali, sat silently under the Christmas tree eating all the gifts and wrapping paper, without anyone noticing her, but me. My mom got coffee in her stocking, her all time favorite “snack” in the world. It was shoved deep inside her stocking. Sally got everything possibly possible to do with fashion. She thinks she’s “all that”, but we know she isn’t. Oh ya, and my dad got socks and some other miscellaneous guy things.
       Finally we all lumbered tiredly over to the Christmas tree, staring at all the presents, just waiting to open them. I opened the first one because Sally has been such a diva this year, that I got honors to go first. My first present was a blue Aeropostale long-sleeved shirt. I was thinking to myself, “Ok, that’s not that bad,” but what I really wanted was the new Halo 27 game. It is the best Halo game ever made, I just had to have It! After that, Sally opened her first
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      gift, she got make-up… shocker. Three presents later, I now had 3 shirts and 0 Halo. My parents asked me, “Do you like your presents so far?”, I thought about saying, “ I HAVE SHIRTS!, YOU KNOW WHAT I REALLY WANT THOUGH AND IT’S NOT JUST CLOTHES!” But instead I said, “Yeah, It’s pretty cool, so far.”
      After opening my last gift, the score was, clothes: 7, Halo: 0. I tried not to show disappointment on my face. We moved along and ate our breakfast, I asked Sally nicely, if she wanted to go outside and play in the new fresh snow. She said sure. When I stepped outside, I felt the cold winter air stab me smack in the face, then I grabbed  a shovel. I darted into the backyard and shoveled up a giant pile of snow. I started making as many snowballs as I could, in a couple of minutes, before Sally even made it outside. By the time she found my hideout, I had at least 20 snowballs made and ready to throw. I caught her off guard and took out my anger on the shirt fiasco I had just endured, out on her. She went inside looking like Frosty the Snowman had given her a body slam.
      When I sauntered casually back inside like nothing happened. I saw Sally lying on the couch, face drenched in tears, gulping down a giant cup of hot cocoa.
      Mom and Dad came over to me and asked if they could have a “talk” with me. I didn’t want to but, finally I agreed. They told me that they wanted me to stop hurting my sister, blah, blah, blah, you can only earn your responsibility, blah, blah, blah, you know, the usual drill.
      They also told me that they forgot about one more present with my name on it under the tree! Could it be? Could this save Christmas for me after all? It was wrapped in some sort of weird, glowing wrapping paper. I hesitated at first but just the thought of playing Halo 27 was electrifying. I quickly unwrapped the last present and I couldn’t believe it, it was The New Halo 27. I’ve practically been waiting my entire life for it and here it was																		After thinking about it, I finally took the gift, staring at it and I said, ”Mom, Dad I’m going 
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      to take this in my room and play it right now.” 
      “Ok, but don’t stay up there too long.”
      “Yeah, yeah…BYE!”
      I ran up the stairs so fast I almost tripped over Winston gnawing on one of his new bones. But I finally made it to my room and shut the door and locked it. I ripped open the cellophane wrap and opened the case, as if I were the Incredible Hulk. And there it was, the moment in my life were I finally found true happiness. I was the proud new owner of Halo 27.
       “YYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!” I screamed. I finally got it. I flicked on the TV and shoved the disc into my Xbox 720. The 7,935 reviews I saw, they were all true! The game looks awesome already and I’m only at the title screen! I pressed campaign, shaking at the thought of playing this phenomenon. But what happened next changed everything I ever knew about this game.
      You know when you’re drinking a smoothie and when you get to the bottom it makes that annoying slurping, squishy noise? That’s what happened when I pressed campaign, there was a giant swirling purple hole on my TV, sort of like a wormhole or something. I was sucked through the hole and was actually in the game! I was playing Halo 27 In the real game. I was in what looked like a hospital. Then a Robotic doctor came over and started speaking a language I’ve never heard before, he said, “oeow hoahdoo oawydotr josof?”
      A translator device I had found in my pocket said that, oeow hoahdoo oawydotr josof, meant “How are you doing?” 
      I gave the robot a thumbs-up to signal that I was ok. I also asked him, “Where am I?”
      He said, “27 ts ui iejifos hosdio eli Halo” On the translator it read, “Halo 27 Hospital for the Wounded.”
      “ What? I’m not wounded?” And that’s when I saw it. A huge tear in my arm, really 
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      bleeding. A tube oozing orange liquid was escaping from my arm into a filter.
      “What is that?!” I exclaimed. Other patients from across the hall were staring at me, but I didn’t care. Robert was the robot’s name; he had it on his electric nametag.
      “Robert, how did I get here?” 
      “You broke your arm in battle.”
      “You can speak English?”
      “Of course I can.”
      “Then why did you just use that weird language?” I asked.			                    
      “Oh, that? I was speaking Gruntian”
      “Why?”
      “I do that to all the patients.”
      “How did I get here?”
      “Follow me, I’ll show you.”
      I followed Robert to a room called “Showings.” He told me to sit down; I spotted a chair at the end of a table and sat in it. There was an old movie screen on the wall, and an old projector in the middle of the table.
      “When’s your birthday?” Robert asked.
      “July 14, 2045. Why?”
      “I need to find the right showing.” He pulled out of a box with a shiny metal  little disc with my name, birth date and gamer tag on it. He shoved it into the old projector and pressed a button. He got up, turned down the lights, and left the room.
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      The screen started blinking, and then a video started playing. It said, December 25, 2057, that was the date today! Then a picture came up of someone getting a plasma grenade thrown at them. The grenade blew up, sending the person flying threw the air, hitting a wall and then it stopped. After the clip ended, Robert came back in. He told me that the person that just blew up, was me!
      “What! That can’t be me, I’ve never done that!”
      “Yes you have, that’s how you got here.”						       
 I had to wait a second, to take it all in. How would I get here without knowing it?
      “The wormhole! Where’s the wormhole?”
      “There is no wormhole here.” Robert said looking puzzled.
      “I came here through a wormhole, I need to find it!”
      “There is none here, but I do know where one is.”
      “WHERE! WHERE IS IT?” 
      “Your probably not going to like this…it’s in the Zenipeds Region.”
      Robert said I was the messiah of the Spartans, and that I had to bring the energy core to the  Zenipeds in order to save them from destruction. “Where is the core?” I asked getting impatient.
      “It’s in the main laboratory next to the regenerating section of the hospital.”
      “When can I start the journey to the Zenipeds Region?”
      “Whenever you’re ready.”
      “When will I be ready?”
      “You’ll know.” 										p.5
      After all that, I went directly to the laboratory, and I saw Grunts, Elites and Spartans of all different colors being hooked up on wires and tubes. One Elite had both of his arms missing, and three doctors sewing up his chest, which had a gaping hole in it. I saw the person I trusted the most, and walked up to him and said, “Robert, I’m ready.”
	“Splendid, follow me to the core.”
      He walked to a door opened it up, and told me to “get in.” I hesitated, and finally stepped into the room. It was nothing but a dark black empty room. “Rob, there’s nothing here.”
	“Look up.”										
      When I looked up, there was a faint light that looked like it was miles away from my reach. “Reach for it.” Robert said casually. I did and sure enough it fell into the palm of my hand! It was warm and light, like a pop tart. “Now where can I find the Zenipeds?”
      “They are on top of Mt. Alphdas.”
      And with that, he showed me the way out and I left for Mt. Alphdas. The first thing I saw outside, was floating metal debris and Falcon fighter jets, ghost drones and Spartans everywhere. The sky and clouds were all black and gloomy. Right then and there a falcon jet crashed not nearly 30 yards away from me! The propeller flew off the ship and went hurdling toward the hospital! I’m not sure why, but I threw myself in it’s path to try and stop it. I knew it wouldn’t work, but hey if I am the messiah, why not give it a shot? “BOOM!” My fist hit the propeller and sent it flying across the sky, hospital destruction averted. Robert emerged behind me and said, “Yes, you are ready.”
      “So, how do I get to the Zenipeds?”
      “You’ll need to find a falcon fighter jet.”
      “I’m getting a falcon!”
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      “Yes, yes you are my friend.”
      “Let’s get this show on the road!”
      I was off for Mt. Alphdas. We traveled over battlefields, forts and mountain ranges for a couple of hours. Then we finally made it to THE Mountain, Mt. Aplhdas. 
      I landed my falcon on a cleared spot on the side of the mountain, I could see the core from the window. It was glowing bright it hurt my eyes. I quickly hopped out and grabbed the core with my protective glove and placed it in a safe storage box. I ran for the Zeniped Region located deep in the mountain, and then, “Boom!” an angry Grunt shot me in the chest with a magnum pistol…hard. Everything turned black, wait no not everything, I could faintly make out a figure in the distance, “Hey Hello, can you help me?” 
      “No, I am going to kill you.” 
      “What, who are you?” 
      “I am death.”
      “BAM!” a land mine exploded right next to my face. I had lost hearing in my left ear, everything was ringing. Death was saying something but I couldn’t make out what he had said. I still had the core hidden safely in my battle armor, and I had a plan. I got up and then fell down thriving in pain “HA HA HA!” Death sneered. “AAAAWWWWWWWWW!” I yelled as I ran up to him and jammed the core into his ribcage. Hey fell to the ground, and then vanished.
      The blackness went away, I opened my eyes, and I was tucked safely in my bed here on Earth. “Oh thank God, it was all just a dream. I peered over at  my alarm clock, it was 3:00 a.m. early on Christmas morning. I jumped up, ran into the hallway and sure enough sister Sally was there, staring down at the Christmas tree. A couple minutes later just like I had envisioned, Mom and Dad came out in the hallway and said that we couldn’t go down stairs until at least 5:30 a.m. So we waited and waited and waited. After the stockings were opened we went to 
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the Christmas tree, and I still got all those clothes, we still went outside to make my army of 
      snowballs and were I was going to make my base, surprisingly Robert was standing there. “You did it! You brought peace to The Halo, thank you messiah!” 
      “I did?”
      “Yes, Death was the leader of the Zenipeds and you destroyed him! No one has ever defeated Death!”
      “Well, your welcome.” 
      Even though I never got Halo 27 that day, I got something else; a pin shaped like a shirt from Robert. As I looked closely at it, it said Be Thankful in gold letters. I didn’t throw any snowballs at Sally that morning, and ran inside told my parents that I loved all of my gifts, and never once asked for Halo 27 ever again.
      
      											      
      
      
      
      
      
      
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