My Life as a Spider

by 3D Jason Chow Chun Lai

Hi, I’m a spider.  I don’t actually have a name.  I’m just a jumping spider…

I woke up in the morning.  I yawned.  I tested my eight legs.  What’s for breakfast?  I used my eight eyes to look out for food. I tightened my leg muscles and jumped.  I flew in the air for a while and landed on sticky soil… the best environment for hunting!
　　　
I looked around for food.  I thought I heard something and stopped to listen. I stood as still as a stone.  I didn’t move a single muscle. Although I couldn’t see it, I could make out what it was by looking at its shape; it was a praying mantis, an adult one.  The mantis didn’t seem to notice me.

I stealthily jumped on to the grass and carefully stalked the mantis. I tightened my muscles - and leapt!  I landed on the mantis and took it by surprise.  My front legs pinned it on the grass – and I sank my fangs deep into the mantis’s back.  Blood spilled out of the mantis.  He cried in pain and struggled frantically.  I raised my fangs, but just as I dug them into the mantis’s head, it broke free and sliced its claw through my skin.  Pain shot through my body.

The mantis stood up, stretched its arms and pinned me back on the grass.  I screamed in agony.  I couldn’t die here.  I thought.  I had to fight back!

I used my ultimate weapon, stabbing my poison into the mantis’s abdomen in a last ditch effort to survive my ordeal.  It fell to the soil.  I didn’t wait for it to flip back, and knocked him over.  I raised my fangs and tried to stab the mantis again, but missed.  The mantis’s menacing claws swiped towards me.  Oh no! I t stabbed its claws into my body, I was going to die…

Well, I could envisage my end in graphic detail. The mantis froze there. What happened?  Oh right!  My fangs! They have venom and it was working at last!

I didn’t waste my time. I spun a web and moved around and around so the web wrapped around the mantis. Then I dragged the mantis into my cozy home.

I ate the mantis from one of the fang marks I had made. I ate half of it and felt really full.  Time for a nap.  Soon, I drifted off to sleep.  Zzzzzzzzz…

The Story of a Wolfgle

W.K. Ku 2A

My name is Chanying, and I’m a wolfgle.  Actually, my father is a wolf but my mother is an eagle, so you can imagine that my appearance is very special: I have the head and legs of an eagle, and the body of a wolf.  My body is grey.  My mouth and teeth are big, so I can eat my favourite food, pork, quickly and easily.

I was born in mainland China, but when I was two years old the Chinese Government sent me to Hong Kong to kill the people who had joined the Umbrella Movement.  My best friend is a wolf called CY…

Now I’m three years old, and my body has grown a lot in a year.  The Hong Kong police train me every day, but I don’t want to hurt the Umbrella people; however, if I refuse to be trained the police will punish me…

Once they made me attack the people who were taking part in the Umbrella Movement protests.  They gave me tear gas and told me to let it off where all the people were, but I really didn’t want to hurt them, so – I took it back to the police and let it off where they were!  The police shot at me and I was hurt, but the protesters saw what I had done and saved me.

Now I want to thank the protestors for what they did for me.  I’m proud of them!

The Story of a Lizbat

 Ip Chun Fung, Jeffrey 2A

My name is Mac.  You can call me ‘Mad Mack.’ I’m a lizbat: my father was a bat and my mother was a lizard, but they’re both dead now.  After they died I flew to the Amazon jungle; it is so big, so quiet, and I love living here very much.  I now live in a nice, dark cave.

My appearance is very special, and I guess a little scary.  In fact I am a lizard, but I have a pair of bat’s wings and I use two legs to walk.  So – I can swim, run and fly, and I think I’m the luckiest animal in the world to be able to do that.  I love to fly, and climb trees…

I’m now eight years old; I’m two meters long and I weigh 82 kilos.  A few of the native jungle people have seen me.  Because they think I am a god they respect me, and they bring food for me every week.

One day something horrible happened: some men from the city with guns came hunting and tried to kill me.  At first I thought they had come to give me food, but suddenly they started shooting at me, so I pounced on them and bit them with my razor sharp teeth.  Now their bodies are in the river…

Do I like my life in the Amazon jungle?  Yes - I think it is really nice; I have the best food brought to me every week and a comfortable place to live, but these days more and more people are coming to the jungle, so maybe in the future I will fly to another place… or maybe I will stay here and ‘play’ with them, as I did with the men from the city...

Anyway, please remember that if you come to the Amazon, don’t go into any caves – especially if you have a gun!

Blind Love

by 2D Candy Lee

 

Ken is a bank clerk.  His daily repetition of boring work was his life, until one day, something happened…

“Stop moving! Put your hands up!”  Five bandits with scarves tied around their faces rushed into the bank. They were armed with guns and smashed the door open.

“Oh my God!”

“Help!”

“Call the police! Hurry!”

People were confused and started screaming.

“No talking!”  The tallest bandit shouted, and walked over to the counter. “Give us all the money!” he shouted at Ken, who was very scared.  He began to tremble all over, moved back a step and stepped on someone’s foot. “Aah!” a female employee, Kelly, screamed.

“Oh! I’m so sorry!” Ken said.

“Are you okay?” one of the bandits asked Kelly, politely.

“I’m fine thank you,” replied Kelly, surprised at the bandit’s concern for her.

At that moment, the police arrived.  The five bandits rushed out of the bank without any money. “What?!” Ken could not believe what had happened. “They just ran away?”

Three months later, Kelly told Ken that she was going to marry one of the bandits, whose name was Jerry.  Ken was amazed - love really is blind!

The Pet Sitter

by 3B Ethan Ho

The ad in the paper said:

Wanted: pet sitter

Need someone to look after little monkey Jolly

while I am away.

Willing to pay $400/day to the right person.

Four hundred dollars for looking after somebody’s pet!

‘Easy money!” I thought so I took the job. When I arrived at the house, a man gave me the keys. He then took his suitcase and left. I was left alone with Jolly.

“Just a monkey,” I thought, “they have those in zoos too.”   But you know, monkeys in zoos are locked up.  I immediately noticed the door swinging open because of the wind, and there Jolly went, as I chased after it.

After 15 minutes or so I got the little monkey back, and almost “stabbed” the door lock with the key, so anxious was I to get it back into the house.

“You… you sit there!”  I was furious.  Looks like the monkey wasn’t trained to listen to people.  You see, the pet owner’s house had fancy lights like chandeliers, and I could see why some lights were out.  The monkey almost brought down one of them.

“Get down now!” I was shouting like a barbarian or something, shouting up at “King Kong”.  But this time he listened, though he landed on my head and gave me a few scratches to my face.  Meanwhile, I noticed something on my head.  It was poop. He had pooped on my head!

Then I just yelled like a maniac.  I looked over to the neighbour’s place and saw an old man staring at me.  It was almost like he was saying, “Go see a doctor.”

I washed my head and began to leave.  I saw the monkey and almost kicked him - but I wouldn’t do that.  As a last resort, I saw a banana, and threw it at him like a boomerang.  Guess what, he caught the banana and started poking at the television’s power switch.  Then he just sat and watched television without any more fuss.

“Wow,” I thought, “You didn’t train him to obey, but you trained him to watch television.”

So, I put a bunch of bananas next to Jolly and left.  I left the keys under the “Welcome!” rug at the door. Not easy money, for sure.  Today hadn’t been ‘jolly’ at all!

Growing Pains and Gains

 by 2D Janet Wong

Ashley’s birthday party was over.  It was very late when Constance left for home.  When she arrived, her parents were in the living room.

“Why are you so late?  It’s nearly twelve o'clock!  I didn’t get any call from Ashley’s home!  Where have you been all night? At a bar or somewhere?”

“Mum, I'm so tired. Maybe let's talk in the morning.  I had better go to bed now.  Good Night.”  Constance yawned and pretended to be very tired.

"Constance!" yelled mum.

"Mum, I've said goodnight," Constance replied in an impatient tone.

"Sorry, Constance, I don’t think I can let you go out at night anymore! You are NOT allowed to go out at night!"  Dad shouted furiously.

"Why dad? What have I done wrong?  FINE! You're so annoying!" Constance started crying and rushed out of the flat.




Constance looking down at the dark street

At midnight, she was walking along the street as a dark shadow moved slowly up behind her.  Constance looked round and trembled with fear.   She was about to scream, when the dark shadow moved towards her.  A girl with a friendly smile waved at her… "Hi,” she said, “I'm Jo."

She asked why Constance looked so sad.  Constance told her she had had a fight with her parents.  Jo gave her some medicine.

After meeting Jo, Constance never went home.  She stayed with Jo and some bad guys every night.  She seldom went to school.  Constance's bosom friend, Leah, was worried about her. She called Constance many times but every time she phoned her, Constance’s phone was switched off.  She left a voice message reminding Constance not to take drugs.

One day, Leah was on the way home and she saw a girl; she couldn't believe her eyes, Constance was lying on the street!  She phoned the school counsellor, Mrs Leung, and they took Constance to hospital at once.

Constance received residential drug treatment and realised that she had been extremely stupid. She felt sorry for her parents and apologised to them, and finally she regained a good relationship with them.  She really thanked her bosom friend Leah for the emergency help and realised that every teenager has problems; she had gained a valuable lesson.

 

The Hands Resist Him

by 5F Liu Chin Wai

 



The Hands Resist Him
Bill Stoneham 1972
 

‘It must be that haunted painting, it always brings misfortune!’ the curator screamed.

The previous night, serious vandalism had occurred in the Hong Kong Museum of Art and several masterpieces had been damaged, so Patrick Ip, a criminal investigator,  and his assistant David were on their way to there to investigate further.  It was a cloudy morning; as they arrived, a gust of chilly wind blew the huge banner hanging high at the top of the entrance.  It swung as if it were welcoming them.

 

‘Let’s go in and make a start’, said Patrick to his sidekick.

 

As they moved towards the entrance, the glass sliding door opened automatically. It was even cooler inside, and Patrick trembled even though he was wearing a pretty thick jacket. He showed his warrant card to the approaching guard and they were led to the Special Exhibition Gallery where two more guards flanked the entrance. The poster next to it bore the words‘Exhibition of the World’s Scariest Masterpieces’.

 

In the center of the hall, five paintings, each the size of a coffee table were on display, and burn marks could be seen on all of them - except the middle one.

 

‘Wow, that’s pretty horrible, I mean the painting in the middle,’ commented David.

 

This was indeed true: in the picture, two children were standing in front of an opaque door.  Behind the door, numerous tiny hands were pushing against it. No facial expression could be seen on the children.  The most horrible thing was that when studied closely, it became apparent that they had been painted with no eyes!

 

 

‘That’s “The Hands Resist Him” by Bill Stoneham, a painting rumoured to be haunted,’ a middle-aged woman murmured as she approached the two detectives, a distracted smile on her face.  Nonetheless, in her eyes, there was a sense of sadness and worry…

 

‘I am Susan Wong, the curator of this museum,’ she explained.

 

Patrick introduced David and himself, and asked Susan if they could view the CCTV footage from the previous night.

 

Everyone was shocked when the video was played - nobody made a sound.  Everything was alright for the first five hours after the museum had closed, but then something astonishing happened, just when the digital clock struck midnight. The brightly shining spotlights dimmed, and the “Hands Resist Him” painting suddenly vibrated, electricity arcing like live snakes through the other paintings, leaving scorch marks on each of them. One, two, three… four.  In an instant the four valuable pictures burst into flames, a billion dollars had gone up in smoke!  The eyes of the two children in the painting remained hollow and murky, as if silently observing the destruction around them.

 

David held his breath with his mouth open; Susan’s eyes widened as she covered her mouth with her hands, trying to conceal her terror.  Patrick managed to keep calm, but he felt his skin crawl, especially when a blast of chill wind blown out by the air conditioner went down his back, raising goosebumps on his flesh.  They all fell into silence, none of them daring to be the first to comment on what they had just witnessed.

 

‘It must be that haunted painting.  It always brings misfortune!’ screamed Susan again, ‘In the rumour I told you about, those two children will come out from the picture at night and play tricks!  They must have burnt the pictures and caused all those things to happen!’ she continued.

 

They fell into silence again, Patrick tried to break the panic; he didn’t believe in anything supernatural, at least he didn’t want to, and certainly not before his investigative instincts as a detective had been tested.  He turned around and walked towards the now dead canvases.  David followed.  Patrick studied the paintings in great detail, almost as if he were an art restorer.  As he reached out to touch one of the paintings, Susan stopped him.

 

‘The frames of all these pictures are electrically connected as part of the security system’, she warned.  ‘They could still be live.’

 

Patrick’s heart almost stopped beating when he heard this, and he breathed a sigh of relief for having been warned and escaping almost certain electrocution, the same fate as the very things he was examining.   He welcomed the thought of being warm again – but not that warm!

 

‘Wait, what did you say?  The frames are connected to the mains?’ David asked.

 

‘Ha! Great minds think alike,’ replied Patrick, again taking pains to avoid touching the picture frames.

 

‘I want to know more about this frame - please disconnect the electricity and find person who designed it. I would like to have a talk with him,’ ordered Patrick.

 

They were finally able to take the paintings down for a closer study after the security system had been turned off.  However, to their disappointment, nothing untoward was found except a network of electrical wires.  While they were still checking the connections, the designer arrived.

 

To their astonishment, the designer was a man from the Middle East named Adam Hussein.

 

‘So you are the designer as well as the new security manager here at the Museum?’ asked Patrick in a firm voice.

 

‘Yes, that’s right. I made the frame, but I didn’t do that, I haven’t committed any crime!’ replied Hussein immediately.

 

‘I never said you had.  Why did you say that?’  Patrick’s iron-like tone hardened.

 

Hussein’s face went pale and his hands started shaking,  confirming Patrick’s suspicions.  He walked over to David winking at him unobtrusively.  He leant close to his head and whispered to him to leave and run a check on Hussein.  He kept talking to Hussein, whose replies got more and more confused and contradictory; the hunter had nearly caught his quarry.

 

As their conversation became heated, Patrick received a message from David on his mobile.

 

‘Hussein is a fanatical Christian. Could be important!

 

Receiving the message, Patrick realised the truth of what had happened in a flash.  So strong was the realisation that it was like an electric shock.  He asked Susan for more details of the damaged artworks.

 

‘Here you are,’ she said, flicking through the Museum’s catalogue of the exhibition.  ‘As our theme is horror in this exhibition, we have paintings related to horrible topics, so they are “Sin”, “Death” and “The Devil”, “St Michael Defeats the Devils”, “Building the Devil’s Bridge”, and finally, “Satan Before the Lord,” said Susan, enumerating all the pictures in the exhibition.

 

‘Bingo! All the damaged artworks are related to the devils; a Christian fanatic will neither approve of nor allow the existence of the devil, even in art.  Am I correct, Mr. Hussein?’ asked Patrick, his voice now like steel.

 

Adam’s eyes became hollow, like the children in “Hands Resist Him”.  He stuttered, ‘Brilliant, really clever deduction.  Devils cannot be allowed to exist, so I deliberately connected the wires to those pictures in order to cause a short circuit.  They burnt when the security system was turned on at night, when I was out of sight, out of mind. The lord will bless me for my deed,’ he choked, a crazy smile on his face.

 

‘Yes, true, so may God forgive you, in jail. Take him away!’  Patrick ordered and Adam was handcuffed by David and the security guards and led away.

 

‘There is no supernatural,’ sighed Patrick. ‘Let’s call it a day. File closed.’ Patrick grinned at David as he spoke, watching the delusional criminal being manhandled out to the waiting police car.

A mobile phone story

BY 3E Lau Cheuk Yin Alex

Every day, humans bring us to school and office. They always use us to chat with their friends, use Facebook and also play games. I am a mobile phone. I think you may have one too. You may be using your phone for games too. But I am an old model mobile phone, I am Nokia 3310.

In the past, I was a famous mobile phone. I had a high selling price. Only some rich people could buy me. After they bought me, they didn’t use me much because the fee of chatting was extremely expensive. It cost one dollar per minute.

Although I represented rich men in the past, now I was thrown into a dirty, dark drawer. Nowadays, there are a lot of different mobile phones which have a lot of functions. Their master can use them to play games and send messages. Although I also have games, messages in my system, I am too old-fashioned. Last year, I met a new mobile phone which was the most famous model in the world---iphone. He told me why no teens use me. It is because I can’t take photos; the monitor isn’t big enough and the most important thing is I am not a smart phone.

Five years ago, my master wanted to recycle me, so she took me out and put me in her pocket. When she was driving to the recycle store, there was a car behind her and hit her car and pushed it into a speeding train. She was dragged along for above half a mile.

 

She was terrified but she managed to make a call with her mobile phone. However, she forgot to bring her mobile phone ( the new one ). After 30 seconds, she realize she had brought me to recycle, so she took me out immediately and used me to dial 911. This was the first time she had used me in 10 years! I felt extremely happy that time. I still feel happy now because I have saved her life.

Finally, my master found out that the basic use of a mobile phone wasn’t playing games or using Facebook. So she sold her new phone and used me in the following years, until she died……

A Mobile Phone Story

by 3E Au Yuen Wa Sunny

I am a mobile phone. I am of the newest model this season. I am popular, and many people want to buy me. However, I am very expensive. I live in a mobile phone shop with my friends. Every day, many people come to the shop and try us. Some of my friends which are also new model mobile phones were bought, but no one buys the old mobile phone.

Last week, I was bought by my owner. She was a young woman, about twenty years old. When she took me home, she started to play with me immediately. She downloaded a lot of apps and games on me, such as whatsapp and candy crush which are the most popular apps and games in town. She played the games whenever she was free. But she always used whatsapp to message others and never called them. I was very sad. I am a mobile phone. My main function is calling other people but my owner never uses this function. Moreover, she never took care of me. When she ended a game, she just threw me somewhere, such as sofa, desk or even on the ground. So, I was very upset. However, she always decorated me with a beautiful case, with some stickers. This was the only thing that made me happy.

After two months, a new model mobile phone -- iphone 5 was on sale. My owner was going to buy it, so she took me to a second-hand shop and sold me to the shop keeper.

I saw many mobile phones in the shop. They were sold by their owners, too. Their owners also didn’t take care of them. Their owners also wanted a new model mobile phone and sold them to this shop. We had the same experience. We are all waiting for a good owner.

Luckily, a student, Linda, took me home two weeks later. She was a good owner. She took care of me. She put me in a comfortable place. She didn’t change her phone frequently and I have been used by her for two years.  Nowadays, I am getting older and older. Some of my functions don’t work. Linda bought a new phone, but she didn’t throw me away. She put me into a box and I live there forever.

Ruined Face Ruined Day

by 2D Pun Siu Chi 

 

Today, a terrible thing happened to me and Jonathan. It started when we attended the Career Expo.
 

We worked in different companies, so I chatted to Jonathan on the phone. When I was about to ask him out for dinner, I heard someone scream loudly.
 

“Somebody has stolen my handbag!”
 

I was able to see the suspect, so I told Jonathan, “A short spikey haired thief with big sunglasses and cap who stole a handbag is running away!”
 

I was so scared that I said everything in one sentence.
 

Anyway, Jonathan was able to find the suspect. He tried to stop him by pushing him onto the floor. Then, the suspect started to struggle. First, Jonathan was winning, but then, the suspect elbowed Jonathan’s face quite a few times, and Jonathan let go because his handsome face was ruined. The suspect ran away in a blink of an eye.
 

Now, the police are still looking for the suspect, and Jonathan is saving money for plastic surgery. I hope everything can be back to normal and I can ask Jonathan out for dinner.