Fact or Fiction Project

Off to Florida
By Catie Skinner
“Cara, get up sweetie. It’s time to go.” My mom whispered from the side of my bed.
“Already?” I grumbled back. “Alright; can you turn on my light as you go out?” I said as I closed my eyes for the brightness that would attack them in a second. When I had adjusted to the light I got up and started to get ready, only then realizing that I had forgotten to pack the stuff that I would need in the car and on the plain to keep me occupied, other than sleeping.
“Ha-ha! I’m dressed before you! Cara’s a slowpoke! Tee-hee!” My little brother, Kyle screamed as he came into my room.
“Shut-up Kyle! I’m actually trying to get changed here!” I said, ready to hit him in the face. “Do you want us to miss the plane because I wasn’t able to get dressed fast enough? I didn’t think so. Now get out."
* * *
“Kyle, can you help with your bags? We need to drop our stuff at the hotel so that we can go eat dinner.” My dad said, getting a little exasperated. “Don’t you want to go to the restaurant? It is on the beach; maybe you and Cara can play in the waves.”
“Dad? I might walk in the wet sand, but I am not going to ‘play’ in the waves, especially with him.” I said, nodding toward my brother.
“What am I? Toxic waste?” my brother said, scoffing at his ‘joke’.
“Yeah, that’s actually a really good category to put you in. Nice one!” I teased, skipping out of the way as he tried to kick me. “Oh, don’t worry, you’re never gonna reach me, los — OW!” I said, hopping on one foot as I held the leg that he had hit.
“Never going to reach you, am I?” He said, walking away from me with one of his bags. “Mom? Can I sit in the back?”
“Sure sweetie. Just don’t kick the back of your sister’s seat.”
“Mo-om! You know that he’s going to do that first thing after he yanks half of the hairs out of my head!” I protested.
“I thought being a teenager might make you too ‘cool’ to whine about your little brother. Guess I was wrong, huh?” My dad grinned as he hoisted the bags one by one into the rental car.
The ride to the hotel passed without anything exciting happening, besides the fact that my brother was to busy listening to his iPod to bother me. As soon as we got out of the car though, he decided to shove me out of the car from behind, making me fall hard on the pavement right in front of a guy that looked my age.
“Sorry!” I said, blushing as I tried to get up quickly. “Kyle! Why the heck did you push me out of the car?! I almost fell right on top of this guy!”
“That’s okay, I mean, at least you didn’t do it without help.” Then to my puzzled expression the guy added, “Meaning you didn’t just fall out of the car because you’re a little klutzy.”
“Oh, right, well…” I said, getting hotter and wishing that he would somehow blame it on the heat. “Bye… I have to help get the bags inside.” As I walked away, I ‘accidentally’ swung the suitcase I was carrying into the back of Kyle’s legs, but lightly enough that he didn’t actually fall, just stumble and drop his bag on his foot; which then made him fall. “Treat people the way you want to be treated.” I laughed as I walked by him.
* * *
“Gigi?! Is that you?!” I shouted excitedly as my grandmother turned around. “Hi!I thought you were coming tomorrow!” I dropped my suitcase and ran over to give her a hug. “Did you decide to come a day early because you missed us too much?” I added smiling.
“Hi Cara! We never planned on coming tomorrow, maybe you misheard me when I told you over the phone.” She said as she gave me a hug and kiss. “Bo will be right down; he’s up putting our stuff in the hotel while I came down to wait for you guys to come. Hello Celia, hi Kyle, how are you?” She asked as my mom and brother joined us. My dad shut the trunk and walked over.
“Hi mom.” He said as he dropped the two suitcases that he was carrying at our feet. “How was yours and Dad’s flight down?”
“There was a bit of turbulence during the middle but otherwise it was pretty good. How was your guys’? The kids behaved?” She said winking in our direction; she was more than used to our arguing.
“As well as they were going to at close quarters. Well, actually they were better than they were when they got out of the car this afternoon,” he said. “Hey Dad!” he added as Bo, our grandfather, walked up behind Gigi.
“Hey son! Kids, how were you behaved for your parents on the way over?” He asked grinning at us. “The usual ‘Cara’, ‘Kyle!’?”
“Mom, Dad, can we go get something to eat?” I interrupted, a little embarrassed at how well our grandparents knew us. “Please?”
“Sure, but don’t be too long, we still have to bring our bags upstairs.” She said still facing Gigi and Bo.

Diction in "Lines of Scrimmage"

The author used words that were easy to understand, but they were also words that explained what she was trying to get across: the fact that you have to believe in yourself, your team, and your origin. The only unusual words in the story were the words that were said in a different language. Even with the words that were in a different language, they were still easy to guess at the meaning, and example of this would be: habibi, probably meaning son, or something that you would call your child.
The sentences weren't long, but they weren't short either; they were sort of right in the middle. This style of writing made the story easy to understand but still exciting to read. It wasn't complicated, but it wasn't silly or childishly simple either. The way she wrote her sentences kept the story flowing smoothly without misunderstanding.
With the flowing the story also went sort of up and down, meaning there wasn't one thing that kept getting repeated. The author made each football game different she didn't talk about every small detail, except for where it was interesting.

Quote from, "My Favorite Chaperone"

"Maya! You can go!" Nurzhan jumped up and down like a little monkey, and I stared at him in disbelief.

"Don't joke with me about such a thing, boy!" I snapped.

"No! It's true. Look!" He waved the permission slip in front of my face.

This is when Maya has lost hope of going to the Spring Fling; especially after her father saw her, Daniel, Shannon, and David goofing off. Nurzhan had offered to try to persuade their father to let her go, and Maya doesn't think it will happen. Nurzhan comes back into her room after trying and she can't really believe that it happened. Her parents come into the room to confirm what Nurzhan has said; under the condition that Nurzhan goes as her chaperone.

This is one of the parts in the story that show how close Maya and Nurzhan are. They help each other out a lot; Maya helped Nurzhan out when he got into the fight with the boy; and Nurzhan helped Maya with this. I think this has something to do with the fact that they are new to the country and they have to work together to survive happily.

obstacles with being an immigrant

The first difficult thing about being an immigrant would be leaving the people and things that you love that won't be coming along. These include family, friends, your house and homeland, and other things that you love. The next thing that would be hard would be having to get used to the new place. You would have to find new friends-- if you didn't want to be lonely--, you would have to get used to the new culture, and-- if you didn't want to be laughed at and made fun of-- you would have to get used to the style that was "in".

The next thing that you would have to worry about would be finding a job to make a living. One of the harder things about finding a job, and in general, would be language. Of you don't know the language of the place you move to, then it might be hard to communicate about the job and-- if you get the job-- during the job; unless you are working in a factory and you don't need to say anything.

People also might take advantage of you because you're new and don't many thing =s about the country. They might try and tell you something that isn't true about something very important and then get you into loads of trouble. 

There are of course good things about being new to a country: where you come from you might be considered ugly and not smart, but in the new country you could be considered pretty/handsome, and ahead of your class. Another good thing would be if you were really good with numbers and the way the numbers were written are the same as where you come, then you would still be considered good with numbers.

Quote from Anahita's Woven Riddle

"Luck, my friend, comes only to the one who doesn't expect it. If you boast about winning, it will flee. If you concentrate on the process, it will come to your aid like a bird."
(p. 286) Arash says this when the sandstorm is swirling around him and Ismail when they are heading to the riddle contest. They were talking about how Ismail thinks Arash is going to win and Arash is warning him not to get his hopes up.

definition and etymology of ROOK

Rook-- noun. A swindler or a cheat, especially at games.
verb. To swindle or to cheat. example: customers are afraid of being rooked by unscrupulous vendors.
Etymology-- Middle English, from Old English, from Old High German.
Date-- Before the twelfth century

What can be different colors, might make you cry, and might a spice that you add to your food?


What seasons your food, might make you thirsty, and distinguishes rivers from oceans?


What brings great beauty, gives scent to a room, and if some people inhale it they may start to sneeze?


What brings warmth to a room, can take down a forest, and dances before your eyes?


What do traveleres ride, that catches the wind, and a type of this thing is called a caravel?