Student Work

Mr. Buerkle's Home Page

"The Masked Maniac"

by Joe Tauer

Build a Story (7th grade)

Marty whirled, pointed an accusing finger at the man in the white mask, and said, "You're trying to kill all of us!"

Marty thought he had seen the man following him several times throughout the day. Now he was positive he had just seen the masked man duck behind the bush. Right in front of him were his two friends, Jack and Jill. They hadn't even noticed this strange masked man Marty had seen. This was the third time today they had been with Marty when he had supposedly seen the "stalker." They were now starting to believe he was crazy.

"What's wrong?" asked Jack.

"Didn't you see him?" Marty asked astonished. "He was right there!"

"Where?" asked Jill.

"Over there," said Jack while pointing where he had seen the masked man last. "He just ducked behind that bush."

Jack looked at Marty and noticed his finger was shaking uncontrollably. In spite of all his fears, Marty never ran away.

"Okay," said Jill. "I'll show you this maniac is really just the result of you watching too many scary movies in the dark.

She started walking toward the bush. She took only two steps when she felt a hand grab her shoulder. "What now?" asked Jill in an annoyed tone.

"Don't do it," said Marty, his voice trembling. Jill removed Marty's hand from her shoulder.

"Would you relax," she told Marty. She walked over to the bush and right when she got there the masked man jumped out of the bush. Everyone screamed, especially Jill.

"What do you want from us?" Jill yelled at the strange person. The masked man threw his fist in the air when suddenly...

"Cut!" the director yelled. "Good job, people. That's a wrap. See yo tomorrow. Nice work."

"To Build a Fire" Dialogue Story (8th grade)

Pepper showed up at camp, frozen and hungry.

"Where is your master?" asked one of the men. "Something is wrong over here guys. This dog showed up all by himself."

Two men by the name of Allen and Harry set out with Pepper to look for the missing man. Pepper led the way.

After walking for about an hour, Harry yelled, "Allan over here."

Allen came over to where Harry was and asked, "What did you say?"

"I think Pepper found him over this way," replied Harry. "Can't you hear him barking?"

The two men hurried towards Pepper's barking. Pepper was standing by his master. His master was dead.

"Poor, Pepper," said Allen.

Harry kept his head down, so as not to look at the body and answered, "I know."

"I'm so cold my knees are shaking," grumbled Allen, realizing they needed to start back.

"Yes, it's definitely cold out here!"

The two men had to make something to take Pepper's master back to camp.

"I have an idea," said Allen, starting to gather up branches.

"Let's make a sled."

The two men gathered many twigs and branches and started making the sled.

"Finished," sighed Allen. "That was a lot of work!"

Harry suggested, "Let's pick him up and move him to the sled." Harry took a hold of his feet and said, "On the count of three. One, two, three, lift."

Taking one last look around, Allen shivered and said, "Let's go!"

"Come on, Pepper, we are heading back to camp," said Harry.

The two men grabbed the sled and pulled it back to camp with Pepper at the back of the sled.

Date Debate
by Alison Hemmingsen

Developing Dialogue (7th grade)

It was after supper on a Wednesday evening as Joe paced back and forth in front of his bedroom window. He had picked up the phone and dialed Judy's number for the fifth time, and finally worked up the nerve to stay on the phone instead of hanging up. As the phone rang, he shifted uneasily from one foot to the other. Suddenly he realized that someone was on the other end.

The voice was saying, "Hello? Hello?"

Joe stammered, as he nervously played with a button on his shirt, "May I speak to Judy, please?"

"This is she," Judy replied irritably.

"Oh, I didn't recognize your voice. This is Joe, from history class. Remember?"

"Oh, yeah," Judy said dryly while she brushed her long black hair. "You're the guy with the weird hyena laugh."

Joe shockingly responded, "I hope you're just joking when you say things like that."

"Well, I'm not joking," snapped Judy, "you do laugh like a hyena."

Joe was a little dumbfounded and hurt by Judy's rude remark, but decided to ignore her rudeness and said, "Say how about Friday night? Busy?"

Judy responded quickly, "Well, I do have a busy night. First I'm having my nails manicured and painted deep purple, then I'm off to Trade Secret to have my shiny long black hair braided into corn rows with those cute little beads placed at the ends." Judy continued dreamily, "I have a date with Bob Friday night you know."

Joe responded dryly, "Bob who?"

Judy settled comfortably into her fuzzy purple chair. "Bob Gretski," she replied airily. "That muscular, tall, hottie on the football team. He's the captain you know."

By now Joe was beginning to get a little annoyed with Judy, but responded, "Yeah I know him. Well, listen, how about Saturday? I think I can get the car, and I thought maybe you'd like to --"

"No I don't think so. Anna, Joyce, Nicole, and I are going to River Hills Mall shopping for the day, the whole day. I have some major shopping to do."

Joe groaned, then he said, "Oh, well are you going to the Christmas Dance? I know that's almost three months off, but I thought --"

Judy interrupted, "Well, sorry, but I've already been asked to that dance by Bob, Ted, Ed, and Phil, so you're a little too late."

By now Joe was flabbergasted. "Man you sure are popular! Not going steady, are you?"

Judy, sounding insulted, responded, "Who me? Of course not! I like to have a little variety in my life."

Joe thought for a moment then quietly asked, "Well what about Easter vacation? I know that's looking pretty far ahead, but --"

Judy again interrupted, "Actually my family has made plans to take a skiing trip to the Alps. We'll be gone during the whole vacation."

By now Joe had decided he was getting nowhere with Judy and that it was a huge waste of time, but he tried to keep the conversation rolling.

"You've sure got a packed schedule. Well, listen, Judy, maybe I'll call you again sometime. Maybe in three or four years. Right now I have to get outside and start washing my dad's red Corvette Stingray. As soon as I get that done, I have to clean out the swimming pool."

Sitting straight up in her fuzzy purple chair, suddenly very interested, Judy said excitedly, "Cool, your dad has a Corvette? Wow! Those are expensive cars. Does it have leather interior and T-tops? And did I hear you say you have a pool? Hey! You know what? I've got a great idea. I just noticed I'm free tonight, so maybe you can come by and pick me up for a ride in that hot car, and then we can go for a swim in your freshly cleaned pool."

Joe was so shocked that he nearly fainted.

He stammered, "Tonight? I thought you said you were all booked up until next summer?"

"Well," Judy slyly replied as she pictured herself riding in the Corvette, "I can always make time for guys with cool stuff like Corvettes and pools."

Thoroughly disgusted at this point, Joe coldly replied, "Look, Judy, I don't think I can make it tonight because I've decided this has been a big waste of time, and I'm not interested in dating girls who are more interested in what guys have than who they are."

The Fence House
by Kendall Jensen

The bright, yellow sun was glistening down on us. It was October 30th, and my best friend Sarah Krueger and I were bumping a volleyball back and forth with each other at her house.

"Tomorrow's Halloween," I shouted excitedly to Sarah. "Halloween is my favorite time of the year."

"I know, what should we do?" Sarah asked.

"Well, I heard about this place called the Fence House, and it's located on top of Hilly Peak," I explained to Sarah. "It is supposedly haunted by old man Elkreub, who lived there nearly 100 years ago." Her eyebrows raised and her skin turned pale.

"Wow, Kendall, that place sounds really scary."

"I know, which is exactly why I think we should go!"

"Oh, ok, I suppose we can go," said Sarah with hesitation in her voice.

"Great! Meet me at my house at 7:00 p.m." I said.

The following day I was really excited. I couldn't wait until nightfall arrived! Finally, at 7:00 p.m., I saw Krueger's car pulling into our driveway.

"Yes, she's here!" I shouted to myself.

Sarah burst into the house while calling out, "Kendall come on, let's get going."

She sure seemed more excited about my plan than she was the day before, unless it was my imagination. I grabbed my furry, brown coat and put on my black boots. I was ready for some haunting action.

"Alright, Sarah, let's go."

Hilly Peak was only eight blocks away from my house, so we decided to just walk there. It was a crisp, breezy night and the big, round, harvest moon was lighting our way. "It sure is a nice night," I said while enjoying our stroll.

Sarah replied, "I know, usually it's cold and rainy on Halloween."

"I guess we just lucked out," I said.

As we approached the bottom of the hill where the Fence House was located, we were nearly out of breath because we had raced each other for six blocks!

We started hiking up the hill. As we got closer to the house, we felt a faint, warm breeze on our faces. It was as though a ghost or some sort of presence had floated past us.

"Man, that was really weird," I said while I shivered with fright.

We finally reached the top of the hill and stood before the Fence House. Sarah grabbed the tall, iron gate that surrounded it. She shook it forcefully and the clanking chains locking it fell open. We slowly approached the black, spooky house.

"Well, I suppose we should go in," Sarah said as we arrived at the entry.

She opened the creaking door which dangled from its hinges, and we walked in. We went exploring
separately, when suddenly I heard heavy footsteps. I soon realized it was just Sarah heading
up the spiral staircase to the left of the front door.

"Hey! Wait for me," I yelled.

"Gross! Look at all these cobwebs!" Sarah groaned as she pulled some from her face.

"I know. It looks like nobody's been in this dump for years."

All of a sudden, we heard a low moan. Could it be old man Elkreub? Sarah screamed, which made me scream, and we grabbed each other in fear.

"What in the world was that?" I muttered, while peeking through my barely open eyes as I do whenever I watch scary movies.

"I don't know, but I'm really freaking out," Sarah said.

We then noticed a small crack in the wall near the window. The howling wind was humming through it, creating the moaning sound. We looked out the dusty, big window and saw a bolt of lighting and heard
sounds of thunder coming from the sky. How quickly the weather had completely changed!

We decided to go back downstairs and check out the main floor because we were just too scared upstairs. Sarah and I crept down the dilapidated stairs.

" I think that's the living room over there, "I said pointing toward the right.

"Let's check it out," Sarah replied.

There were white sheets over the furniture, but
nothing appeared intriguing to us. There didn't seem to be any genuine haunting going on.

"You know Kendall, this place isn't very fun," Sarah told me.

"I think we should just go home and rent some movies off DirecTV," I suggested.

Sarah said, "That sounds great!"

While we were walking out of the room, the door
swung open and we heard an evil laugh! When we could clearly see the door, we saw that it was my mom! She just loves the tricks and treats of Halloween.

"Oh, Mom, you scared the living daylights out of us!" I shouted.

My mother just snickered and said, Well I didn't think you girls wanted to walk home in this kind of weather.

"Thank you so much, Mrs. Scheffler. I know I'd appreciate a ride!" Sarah said.

"I agree. We're just going to rent movies at our house. Is that ok?" I asked her.

"That sounds great, let's get going," Mom said.

So that night, Sarah and I rented some of our favorite scary movies and stayed up until dawn laughing and screaming. We're surely not going to the Fence House next year. We want to find a house that's actually haunted. Perhaps it's a different house on Hilly Peak that old man Elkreub's ghost inhabits. We'll have to investigate!

The Sweetest Car
by Brennen Boettger

Three Wish Story (7th grade)

Shane was so excited. He finally turned sixteen so he could get his driver's license. After he passed his test, he went to his trusty computer and logged onto Carsoup.com. Shane found his dream car, a '69 Camaro SS for only $1, 000. Shane's dad Hank would buy the car for Shane if Shane paid for half.

Shane replied, "Sure!"

"Okay, it's settled. I will buy the car," Shane's dad replied.

Shane decided he would need a job to pay for gas, so he got a job at Tis a Gift. Shane was so happy!

When the car arrived at Shane's home, the man said, "Whenever you shift to fifth gear, you will be granted one wish. You only get three wishes. Be careful a horrible thing will happen to you after you make your third wish."

Like always Shane was not listening, and he used the first wish. Shane wished that all the clowns in the world would change to peanuts because Shane was scared of clowns. Plus, now the Payday bars and elephants wouldn't run out of peanuts.

Shane replied, "All right!"

The next time Shane shifted to fifth gear, he wished that he could fly. Shane found out that it wasn't fun to fly because he kept flying into street lamps. Shane decided that he wasn't going to fly anymore.

The next day while Shane was driving on the highway, he decided to use his last wish, but before he could shift, his buddy started to talk about football.

"Who do you think the Rams are going to sign for their quarterback?" he asked.

Shane had an idea and told Nick, "I bet that I can be the starter for the Rams."

Nick replied, "Na, you aren't good enough."

"Who says?" Shane demanded.

"I do!" shouted Nick.

Shane shifted into fifth gear and shouted, "I wish I was the starter for the St. Louis Rams!"

The Rams called Shane the next day. Nick couldn't believe it, nor could the rest of the school. When the season was over, the Rams were 0-16. They fired Shane that same year. All of the money he earned had to go back to the government for taxes.

The next day, Shane's dream car blew up.

Shane asked Nick, "Can I ride with you, please?"

"No," Nick answered.

"Why can't I have a ride?"

"Fine," Nick replied, "hurry up, or we will be late for school. It will cost you five bucks though."

"Okay just hurry up," Shane said.

Shane had to get another job, but lived happily ever after.