WA3-Draft 2

Author Letter

Dear Karen Traviss,

Your book, Star Wars Republic Commando is great. It always has me interested and wondering what was going to happen next. I love your change the settings from the battlefield to a city so easily. With so many of these setting changes you think it would be hard to keep events in order, but you do so well that it is not hard at all. The constant action that you give is what I usually look for in a book.
You use different types of action to keep me interested. I love reading about battles in the book, I can clearly see them in my mind. Also when I'm just reading about mysteries that have come up it keeps me guessing and I consider that some type of action as well. I enjoy reading this book and look forward to reading many other. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,


Justin Bernard

WA2-Final Draft

Two Squirrels and a Storm

It was a beautiful day in Tiny Creature Forest. Everything was going as it usually would. The sun was shining and all the little creatures of Tiny Creature Forest were merrily frolicking around without a care in the world. In another part of the forest though, two brothers were just waking up. Marco and Polo were the most popular squirrels in the forest. They were known for their many adventures and also their amazing skill with the lady squirrels. Little did Marco and Polo know, they were about to have the adventure of their lives.

Marco was the first to come out of the tree dwelling and go look for acorns for him and his brother to eat for breakfast. Polo was awake but he had decided lay in bed like always until he found something interesting enough to make him come out. Marco wasn't having any luck finding acorns, they were becoming harder and harder to find because the economy was in such a poor state. By the time Marco returned to the dwelling Polo had fallen asleep on the mossy floor. "Wake up dude," said Marco with an air of annoyance in his voice. Polo opened one eye and groggily said "Did you bring me back my breakfast yet?"
"Yeah, I did, but I shouldn’t even give you an acorn because you didn’t help me at all."
"Hey," said Polo suddenly awake now, "I only stayed here because I didn’t want to leave the house unattended for some weird bird to come take over." Marco being used to Polo's excuses gave up the argument and handed Polo his acorn. So there they sat gnawing away at their acorns. From the distance a low rumble could be heard, but from the over whelming crunch of their acorns Marco and Polo were completely oblivious to the sound.

They became aware of the noise when the loud crack of thunder shook their tree. Polo pointed towards the door as if to say lets go check it out. "Are you crazy? We don’t know what could be out there. What if its one of those things that walks on two legs." Marco said in a raspy whisper. "Come on," said Polo. "Are you chicken?" This made Marco scamper over to the door and put his little soft furry claw on it. He gently pushed it open until he and his brother could see out of it. Then WHOOSH, Marco was swept away by a gust of wind, he disappeared into the wall of rain coming out of the sky. Polo almost in tears yelled, "Marco!" and faintly in the distance you could here Marco yell back, "Polo!" Then he was gone, Marco was gone. With this sudden realization Polo stumbled lazily back onto one of the only two pieces of furniture they had. Marcos bed.

Marco was never seen again after the storm. It was said that he was blown all the way to Never Never Land, it was also said that he just went up in the sky and never came back down. Whatever happened to Marco still left Polo without a brother. Polo would never be the same again, and will always have a whole in his heart where his brother used to reside.

By:
Justin Bernard

WA-1 - Emotional Experience

Justin Bernard -- Period 4 English

My Emotional Experience

In January of 2007, my cousin Allen was shot and killed by a Greene County game warden. Allen and his girlfriend had decided to run away together. His girlfriend's mom reported her daughter kidnapped by Allen and said that he was armed. That’s why they were pulled over that night. Usually when you get pulled over the cop stops behind you so the dashboard camera can record the stop. That isn’t what the game warden did; he parked his car in front of the car Allen and his girlfriend were in. It was said that my cousin hit the game warden with the car, how is that possible if it was also reported that he had positioned himself to safely remove the girl from the side of the car.

Allen was shot in the head three times through the wind shield; one in the forehead the others under his left and right eyes. If the game warden was said to be on the side of the car how could he have gotten these precise shots off in the first place. Allen supposedly hit the warden with the vehicle, if this is true then he couldn’t have got the shots of then either. The only way he could of got hit by the car is if he shot first making Allen loose control of the vehicle and then the car hit the warden. Another question brought up is why the game warden was making a police stop? Game wardens are in charge of hunting and fishing matters, why didn’t he radio for a regular police unit to come out and assist him.

My uncle called that night to tell us what had happened. As soon I answered the phone I knew something was wrong, I could tell by the tone of his voice, immediately my heart sank. When my mom got off the phone she was crying. She told me what happened and I felt a flood of grief and anger I remember going back to my room and hitting something and then crying. My grandmother wasn't any better. I had to call my other uncle and tell him what happened he broke down too. The whole thing is so blurry, all that really stuck with me is finding out what happened, and the sound of my uncles voice when I first answered the phone.

I have never in my felt so much anger towards one person, it felt like a huge weight on my chest, it made my breathing short and quick, I couldn’t function or think straight. The funeral didn’t go over any better. It was an open casket, having to walk into a room a see your cousin, friend, lying there dead is something I would never wish on my worst enemy or anyone else for that matter. Charges were pressed against the warden for manslaughter but were dropped because of insufficient evidence. I had a friend who was kind enough to come to the funeral, he had only met Allen once and he saw his body lying there and broke down. We both cried. Even now I sometimes cry about what happened to Allen.

It has been over a year since the incident, it's easier to deal with, but even writing this paper brought back that heavy feeling on my chest and the quickened breathing.Things like this never truly go away. The surreal feeling that lingered after everything was done with made everything seem to move in slow motion, this is something I hope no one has to live with. I still get angry from time to time when I think about the game warden getting to walk away without a slap on the wrist. It's completely unfair that my family has to loose a loved one, and then the blame is left lying on the ground. That’s a day that I will never forget.