Category: writing

Vanilla Berry Lotion

I wrote a short story for my writing class recently. Our prompt was to write a story about any object on our desk. I wrote a realistic fiction story about my vanilla berry lotion.

I open the lotion jar and sniff its contents. The smell floods my body, sending warm and happy tingles all the way down. I close the lid, but not before taking one last longing smell. I follow Mom throughout the beauty shop, my mind still on that sweet lotion. All I know is that I must have it before it runs out, because surely a lotion with such a smell would run out soon. “Tara!”my mom snaps. I jolt to attention, not sure if she had been calling my name before. “Well?” she asks. I guiltily shrug, not able to picture what she might have been talking about. Mom sighs, exasperated and narrows her eyes at me. “I said,” she repeats,” that I am going to buy something here. I also asked you if you wanted to get anything.” I leap up, my eyes shining bright. I could get anything I wanted! I race to the front of the store, pick up the lotion and race back. My mom laughs at how quickly I’ve chosen. We pay and go home.

To this day, I still love the scent of that lotion and keep it on my desk as a reminder of that happy, lucky day.

Stuck in my head

Have you ever had a song stuck in your head that refused to budge? That happens to me pretty often and here is the true story of what happened during the most recent song-stuck-in-head episode.

A song that was stuck in my head recently was “Rather Be With You” from Descendants Wicked World. It has a fun beat and repetitive rhythms that stick in your brain. This is what happened that day.

I had just split into my small group for virtual learning. Since it was the first week of school, we were supposed to play a team building game. Unfortunately, technology was not on our side that day. The PowerPoint presentation we were supposed to work on didn’t open, so we decided to play some ice breaker games.

We started with “Two truths and a lie”. After we had all played and guess, there was an awkward silence while thinking of what to do next. Someone suggested that we play “Would You Rather?” and we all readily agreed. We all started thinking of, and asking the “Would You Rather?” questions. That’s when I started thinking of the song, “Rather Be With You”. The lyrics of the song have funny “Would You Rather?” questions like

Would you rather wear a shoe made of glass or
fall asleep in your class?
Be grounded under the sea or
help the beast with his fleas?

That’s how the song stuck to me for half a day. What was the last song that got stuck in your head? What were you doing when it happened?

The Tsunami: A Short Story

I soared through the water, my flippers propelling me forward, and forward, and forward……………… Finally, arriving at the perfect momentum I spun around with the exact force coming to a stop right before Liz, my gymnastics coach. She laughed, then clapped for me, “You are doing so great Alexi!” she exclaimed, “You are definitely going to win the Gymturtle show!” I blushed with pride, well as much as a turtle can blush anyways. See, I’m Alexi, daughter of Oma and Letti, two great gymnastic stars who used to be wildly popular, but have been losing their talent ever so slowly. I have been wanting to find out why for years and the only way for me to do that was to participate in the show in which they started losing their powers. The thing is, the Gymturtle Extravaganza was one of the hardest shows to win and I needed to win it. So of course when I mentioned it to Mom and Mother, they hired me the best coach they could find, Liz! The only person who knew why I was actually doing the show was my best friend, Salem. She was a turtle just like me, but we had totally different personalities. Speaking of, here was Salem swimming towards me! As soon as I saw her, I smiled, but then seeing the look on her face, the smile dropped. “Hey Liz!” she said quickly before turning to face me. “Have you noticed the water drop?” she asked frantically. I frowned a bit, “No, I can’t say I have” As soon as I started paying attention to the sea, though, I could tell that it had changed. We all looked at each other, frightened. We decided to check our houses to find our parents and friends, then meet up in front of my house. As soon as I swam into my house though, I knew it was empty. Since I had time to spare, I decided to look around my neighborhood park to try to find some of my other friends. Everyone was missing! I had a bad feeling about what was about to happen……. Suddenly, a colossal wave hit me from the back and I felt so scared! As soon as I could, I went to find Liz and Salem. It wasn’t easy though, sand was scattered everywhere and coral was flung everywhere in sight. The only way to find them was through sound. I sighed. I was amazing at school, always getting A+ on my work. The only thing which I had trouble with was sound location. In my defense, it is really really hard. I shook myself. Why was I thinking about school, when I really should be thinking about Liz, Salem, and sound? Huh. Salem and sound. Salem was amazing at soundcation (sound location). I knew if I gave her a turtle call, she would trace her way back to me. Perfect. I knew I only had one chance to make it right, so I closed my eyes and concentrated hard. I let loose a sharp click cry then fell silent. I silently prayed hard for Salem to hear it and trace her way back to me. 5….4…..3…..2…..1…. “Hi!” I heard Salem call from behind me, Liz right next to her. “Great click call! Ms. Are would be proud!” I snorted a bit then hugged my bff. “Sooo,” Liz ventured. We separated quickly. “Did you find anyone?” she continued. I shook my head sadly, “No, I even checked the park!” “Yeah, I didn’t find anyone either,” Salem said sadly. “I did find something pretty interesting though! Follow me!” Liz exclaimed. Keeping a close on my friends, I swam through the water cleanly, determined not to lose Salem and Liz. Soon we reached the shore, a place where we came all the time to eavesdrop on the humans. “Translate for us!” Salem nudged. I concentrated and then turned back to my friends. “It’s not good news. The current drop we felt earlier, that’s because a tsunami happened.” My friends looked at me blankly. I sighed. “A tsunami is basically a giant wave,” I explained. They nodded, not understanding for a bit, then realization set in and they sat up straight. “Will it happen again?” Liz asked frightfully. I listened for a bit longer then concluded no, it wouldn’t happen again. Suddenly, I heard the familiar creak of the gates. A flood of friends rushed in and Oma and Letti surrounded me in a hug. They were breathing heavily. “Didn’t you hear the alarm?” they asked. “No,” I admitted, “I was too busy training” They hugged me again and I was happy. The Gymturtle Extravaganza could wait.  I was with my family and friends, right where I needed to be.

Changing in the Covid Times

Summer 2020 is almost over and I have a few weeks until school starts. I’ve been thinking about how much my life has changed and decided to share it with you!

I’ve had to adapt a lot because of COVID. A lot of the things which I would have liked to do this year are almost impossible now. 

Normally, I would have finished fifth grade off with a few parties and graduated to middle school. I would have also started school earlier, but it got pushed back. So, change has become a part of my everyday life. I am part of my school’s dance team and we would have danced one of our best pieces for a competition. Since the coronavirus limited the number of people able to be there for a performance, we didn’t have the chance to perform. I would have also gone to India for the summer to spend time with my grandparents and have some fun there. This year though, I am communicating with them only through WhatsApp. Change has come and wrapped itself around my everyday life. I have grown to be more flexible during this pandemic.

I am still changing with what will be best for me. A lot of major events in my life have been delayed or made virtual. It’s always a big disappointment for me, but I have learnt to be very flexible during the pandemic. I have always wanted to start middle school with a big bang, but COVID has made that event a lot smaller. I also had plans to go on a cruise to Italy, but that was canceled. I’m also missing travel and school a lot. 

Change has made itself a big part in today’s life.I’ve learnt to adapt and live with it, even when times are rough. I’ve realized that if you don’t change, you miss even more.

How have you changed in 2020?

Friendship: a poem

I wrote the poem for my WITS writing camp with the prompt “Choose an abstract feeling and use concrete words to describe it”. Here is my poem.

Friendship is your favorite ice cream on a hot summer day
a tasty and welcome treat
delicious.

Friendship is being yourself.

Friendship smells like a warm ocean breeze,
inviting you in.
It smells like citrus,
calming and relaxing.

Friendship feels cozy,
It feels like you are cuddled in fleece,
cozy and just for you.

Relax and just
be happy,
with ice cream,
next to the ocean,
or at home,
You’re with your friends

Shark Encounter by The Mint Girl

I wrote this story for the Houston Public Library’s writing prompt, “If you met a shark in the wild, what would you do?” I hope you like it!

“Let’s go!” Ruchika, my cousin squeals. We have just arrived at the beach and I can’t wait to lounge in one of the chairs with a book, calmly watching the waves. “Uh uh!” my mom, Amruta says. “We need to unpack our bags and settle into our beach house first. Then you all can go play.” A collective sigh comes from us and we burst out laughing. I’m here with my cousins, Aadya, Ruchika, and Kavya. It’s been a long time since we’ve last been together, so when we met at the first hotel, we hugged each other and jumped with joy. Our journey has been long, but so so fun! “Come on now, let’s go to our cabins” my mom’s voice comes, jolting me out of my memory. I hurry after her, but before I go, I make sure to look behind my shoulder and make our sign. I look back just in time to catch my 3 cousins joining their ring finger to their thumb cleanly. We share an excited grin before we go. After changing into my favorite swimsuit, the one with a penguin on it, I hurry out of the cabin as soon as I can and run into Kavya, who’d just come over to check if I was ready. “I love your swimsuit!” Kavya gushes, “I love yours too!” I reply, just as excitedly. Kavya is wearing a light blue swimsuit, with a beautiful peacock on the front. I turn just in time to see Aadya and Ruchika exiting their cabins. Aadya wears a flamingo swimsuit and Ruchika wears a turtle one. We do a group hug. Tara Aunty, Ruchika’s mom, comes out just as we break apart. “It’s like you girls haven’t just seen each other!” she observes. We burst into giggles and skip joyfully to the beach. Once we pick the perfect spot, Sriya Aunty, Kavya’s mom, holds up her bag, filled to the top with unknown things. “I have a surprise for you girls!”  she says. We glance at each other excitedly. What could it be?  Sriya Aunty slowly pulls out a few objects. On first glance, we can’t make them out, but I lean closer and finally I recognize it! My eyes grow as wide as saucers. “Are we going snorkeling?” I blurt out. Sriya Aunty smiles and nods. “ Since you, Ikshita already know how to snorkel, I figured that Kavya, Aadya, and Ruchika can learn from you!” she says brightly. We grab our snorkeling gear and race to the ocean. My cousins catch on quickly and are wowed by the marvelous scenery underwater. When we come up to catch our breaths, I make a suggestion. “Do you want to go into slightly deeper waters?” I ask. Everyone is excited and we decide to do it. We keep our goggles facing down and marvel at the magical underwater background as we swim deeper and deeper in. Suddenly Ruchika nudges me and I look up, a bit annoyed. My annoyance drains away as I see what she saw. We are face to face with a sleeping lemon shark! I pop up out of the water. “Did you see that?” Kavya whispers. We nod, a bit excitedly and a bit nervously. “What do you think we should do?” asks Ruchika anxiously. They all look at me, since I love sharks and know as much as there is about them. “We should just back away slowly” I say. “That way we won’t provoke it”. Making a silent agreement, we dive back underwater and swim back to the beach. When I come out of the water, I see my cousins grinning ear to ear. “That was so cool!” Aadya exclaims, “I can’t believe that we came face to face with a shark!” I can’t help myself, I start grinning too. We rush up to our towel and start telling our moms about the shark encounter we had. “Well that certainly sounds like a lot of fun!” says Chaaya Aunty, Aadya’s mom, “How about you do some more research and maybe start a club at school?” We nod enthusiastically and go back to our cabin, happily talking all the way there.

I hope you enjoyed this. What would you do if you met a shark in the wild?

We All Sing America

We All Sing America

We all sing America,

The future dancers, teachers, and musicians. 

We all sing America,

We are here to protect and defend our culture,

no matter where we came from, because

We all sing America

the Indians, Japanese, and Australians

We all sing America

the land which keeps us free

We all sing America

everyone who lives here

We all sing America

and we stand together for everyone to see

I wrote this poem as a part of my WITS writing camp. Happy July 4th to everyone!❤🤍💙

A Science-Fiction Story

As a part of my WITS writing camp, I wrote a science fiction story. Using the Namibia desert as inspiration, I wrote a story about a 10 year old girl from Saturn.

“All buckled in?” my dad called from the front of the ship. I rolled my eyes. “I’m ten. I know when to buckle in” I replied. He sighed. “Just making sure. Saturn’s atmosphere might give us a bit of trouble.” “Then why are we even going? What’s so great on Earth that we need to leave Bao Mi and Sila and Moila behind?” “We know that you’ll feel more at peace there,” Mom reminded gently,”and we have decided to go to a little island near the- hmmm, what was it called? Oh that’s right!- the Bahamas! You’ll love it there!” “Ok, let me get my facts straight. We’re going to an island which you barely know the name of, where you think I’ll be happy, we’re leaving behind my greatest supporter, my sister and best friend, and my pet, and you didn’t even ask my opinion? Well thanks, I know I’ll be really happy there.” I said sarcastically.  I grabbed my headphones and cranked up the volume. It had started as a normal Saturday. Mom, Dad, and I had gone to get ice cream at Burgle burg’s , but instead of going there they took me to the spaceship. I didn’t know we were going to Earth until we got to the landing dock. Dad proudly looked back, only to see my horrified expression. That’s when we had started this whole argument. We took off, flying at an incredible rate. As we were flying over Earth, our system suddenly malfunctioned and we started to fall. We fell at an alarming rate until we fell into a pile of sand. “I told you this wasn’t a good idea” I told my parents. They sighed. “Let’s go explore for some time,” I suggested. We explored the dry and barren plains.  As we reached the end, I drew out a crystal ball. They gasped. “Where did you get that from?” my mom asked. She couldn’t contain her shock. I grinned. “Moila,” I replied as casually as I could. “Arnan, what was the name of that island again?” Mom asked Dad. “Mmm, I think it was Lofu,” he replied. Mom turned excitedly to me. “Beam us to Lofu!” I ignored her. “If it’s my ball, shouldn’t I choose?” I asked. “Fine” Mom couldn’t hide her frustration with me. “Beam me back to Saturn” I whispered. “No!” Dad yelled and ran for me. Mom grabbed him back, “No Arnan. If that’s what she wants, then she can have it.””But Frugi,” Dad protested. Suddenly a beam of light hit us and we started to rise up. I felt the pressure, but I knew that I could handle it. Suddenly, we were in Saturn! I ran home and hugged everyone. My mom and dad watched silently from the doorway. I didn’t care. I was happy and glad to be home and I knew that I would never try to go back to Earth.

This is my first attempt in writing science fiction. I really enjoyed it. I hope you like it too!

Author Biography

In my WITS writing camp, we had to write a 5-10 line author biography about ourselves. Here is mine!

The Mint Girl is an acclaimed author and TV host. She is most famous for her books Say it Like it is and its sister, Say it Like You Mean it. She hosts the game show What Do you Mean?. She has 3 cats and a hedgehog. She lives in Honolulu, Hawaii and has dreamt about going to live in Japan. Her next book, The Best Place to Live?, is coming out in September and is highly anticipated. 

When she’s not writing, you can find the Mint Girl reading, dancing, and ziplining. You can connect with her on Instagram.

What will your dream author bio look like?

Courage

Courage is trying something new

Courage is following your heart even when you’re not sure

Courage is knowing when to stop, but still being able to step out,

just a little bit,

out of your comfort zone

Courage is helping,

Courage is doing,

Courage is being kind.

We are made of courage

and we are here because of courage.

We need to be brave for ourselves and others.

In this world, we need to be courageous and share our voices. We need to be kind and open-minded. Be brave and kind! We can do this