Although Charli had nerves of steel, she was terrified. More terrified than falling off a precipice in the Grand Canyon. More terrified than having a lion rip her insides out. Well, ok, not that terrified. But anyways, the red on the flagpole flag symbolized bloody death to Charli. And Tina, the second time that week, fainted again. The bully came out of hiding from behind a dumpster. Charli bit her lip, hoping that her wittiness would not be scared away, and put her right hand over her heart and hoped that George Washington's ghost would help her. The bully punched his hand, threatening her. Charli trembled with fear.
She gathered up her courage(or what was left of it) and said, "You don't scare me." How anyone could be a bigger liar, she didn't know. What she did know was that he was coming closer, and her days were numbered. Numbered 3, 2, 1-go! She took off running towards the bully(at 60 mph). She noticed that a crowd had gathered, and they were chanting, FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! Her heart beating in her ears, she headbutted the bully. Staggering back, he rolled up his sleeves and squinted at her. "You look funny squinting. Are you nearsighted?" Charli wanted to provoke him as much as she could. He held up a fist and aimed it at her.

It was just their luck that the eyes belonged to the bully. Charli had noticed that but hadn't wanted to trouble Tina from the small victory. Charli thought it was not a big deal. But it was. And naturally, Tina had an outburst when Charli told her that during lunch.
Five minutes later, Ben came by and closed his eyes and told Tina to kiss him. Charli held back Tina and drew a mustache with Tina's lipstick. Tina made a kissing noise and stupid Ben was convinced. From in a crowd of laughing people, the bully mouthed that the two girls were 'so dead'. He also said, "Meet me at the flagpole at 3:15. Every second late is one extra punch." Charli was terrified, and Tina passed out in a dead faint.
Social Studies seemed short for Charli. Only 45 minutes until we die. Where was courage when she needed it? While her partner rambled on and on about how a man did suicide because his true love hated him, Charli wished Tina were as mean as herself so they could get rid of the Ben-leech. When her partner said, "...beat him up," Charli straightened up and came back to reality. When the bell rang for 3:15, the most dreaded twenty minutes of her life was here.

Tina was the prettiest girl in the six grade. Which explains why all the boys wanted to have her. But one boy, Ben, the most conceited one, managed to get Tina by cheating.

One day after school, while Tina was unlocking her bike, the dark shadow of an eighth grader towered over her. After Tina stood up, the eighth grader held a fist up to her face. Tina was scared. After all, who wouldn't be? An eighth grader is scary enough to sixth graders. He scowled. Then he spoke.
"Listen here, girl. If you don't date Ben, I'm going to have to mash up your pretty little face." Tina gasped. No one had threatened her like that before. "And if you dare tell anyone about this little rendezvous, I'm going to murder your friends one by one." So of course the next day Tina kissed Ben on the cheek with the bully standing behind a tree, nodding his approval.
Another thing I have to tell you about Tina is that she was also the nicest girl in the sixth grade. She never liked to hurt anyone's feelings. So she restrained herself from telling Ben that she loathed him.
This story would just be another one of arranged dating if it weren't for Tina's friend, Charli, and her antics. Charli loved to pull pranks and make plans. She also liked to take action instead of telling someone what was wrong. In second grade, she got a D in behavior for socking a guy in the stomach when he told Tina that her hair looked ugly. (Because guys insult girls if they like them and don't want to show it.)
Walking home from school, Tina complained to Charli about what happened with Ben and her. She was hoping Charli would have a good plan, instead of writing love notes to a chipmunk and sticking them in Ben's locker. At Tina's house, Charli cracked her knuckles and squinted her eyes to make it look like she had a really good plan. Tina laughed. Charli could always think of a way to make her laugh. It seemed like their master plan was invincible. And loop-hole free.
Something that Tina overlooked was that Ben took the same route as her to school.
The next morning, Tina woke up 15 minutes late. She grabbed her breakfast slipped on some jeans and a dress and ran out the door just in time to see Ben right in front of her lawn. It looked like Ben was everywhere at the wrong time. She froze.
"Hey honey."
Who said anything about 'honey'? And weren't they too young for this stuff anyway? She could see the bully across the road so she clamped her mouth shut.
It was Charli who came up with the comeback. "Is that all you can say?" she said halfway down the block.
Ben opened his mouth to say something, but decided against it. Good thing too, or else Charli would have pounced on him. She was never afraid to get in trouble. She always had an advantageous excuse that was also valid, on hand.
"Let's walk to school together," offered Charli. She herself was surprised she had said it, but it was part of the plan. She cringed when Ben bent down to kiss Tina. It was enough to sicken an immobilized snail. Tina's eyes were wide with need of help. Charli grabbed his arm and showed him the mountains in the distance. "Aren't they so pretty when they are pink?" The mountains really weren't pink, but Charli had the charm and power to mesmerize people. And under the spell of a kiss, Ben agreed. It was now or never, Charli told herself. Following her intuition, she pushed Ben into a mud puddle close to a gutter. As if on cue, a car drove by, splashing water onto him.
The two girls laughed, high-fived each other, and ran away while Ben stood on the curb, wiping mud from his eyes. They felt so victorious they didn't notice that a pair of angry eyes were following them.

If you want to contact SmileyDee, please email yeridoodle@gmail.com.

In the 2008 election, there were 3 candidates that stood out from the others. There was Hillary Clinton, the first woman to run for president. There was Barack Obama, the first African American presidential candidate. Also, there was John McCain, the oldest man to campaign. This time, it will Barack Obama who will be sworn in in January of 2009. This proves that America accepts the idea of a variety of people leading our country. However, 40 years ago, this was not true. People used to segregate and discriminate against people of colors and others different from them. It took a lot of courage for Barack Obama to become the first African American president, and for Hillary Clinton to try, although she did not win. And of course, John McCain tried hard too. These 3 brave people should be inspirations for everyone. The 2008 election will forever be etched into the history of America.

Section 4 is all about seafloor spreading, evidence of sea-floor spreading, and the terrain under the sea.
On the floor of the deep ocean, there are hot water vents. The water there is heated by geothermal energy, which means that the hot water is heated by the heat inside the earth. The water gets heated near the mantle. Then, the water spurts up.
Mid-ocean ridges are undersea mountain chains. Of course, people cannot travel down that deep because of the water pressure. Therefore, they use sonar, a device that bounces ultrasonic sound waves onto a landscape and records the time it takes for the sound to bounce back.
Sea-floor spreading happens when new crust is added. It spreads apart on both sides of the mid-ocean ridge. Spreading begins in the middle of the ridge, which forms a crack in the oceanic crust. Molten material in the ridge rises, and erupts. Then, the older rock, farther away from the ridge, moves outward. The rock that has formed most recently is closer to the ridge.
There is much evidence for sea-floor spreading. The submarine Alvin found rocks shaped like pillows and toothpaste. That meant that those rocks had cooled and hardened quickly underwater. More evidence came from the magnetic stripes in the rock of the sea-floor. Those rocks contained iron. The iron lined up to the magnetic poles. After it cooled and hardened, the iron bits were locked into place. The poles could then reverse themselves, and the iron in the new rock lined up to the new poles.
The Glomar Challenge, a drilling ship, found more evidence. They found out that the newest rock was nearest the ridge, and the oldest rock was furthest away from the ridge.
Subduction trenches are where the ocean floor eventually goes. The oceanic crust sinks beneath the continental crust at the trenches. The ocean floor turns too dense and sinks at the trenches. Also, gravity helps pull it down. The ocean floor sinks towards the mantic. The Pacific Ocean is shrinking because there are many trenches and few ridges. The Atlantic Ocean, on the other hand, is growing, for it has few trenches and many ridges.

In section 3, Alfred Wegener, a scientist, formed a hypothesis about continental drift, which was a very new and radical idea at the time.
Alfred Wegener thought that the seven continents had drifted to their to their present-day locations. He believed that the continents used to be a giant super continent named Pangaea. The other scientists didn’t believe it was true, so he tried to prove it with evidence. They didn’t believe him because he could not explain what moves the continents.
First of all, Wegener collected evidence from land features. For example, he found out that the mountains of Africa and South America lined up. Also, he discovered that the coal fields in Europe and North America matched up.
Second of all, he gathered information from fossils. The fossils of Glossopteris, a fern-like plant, were found in Africa South America, Australia, and Antarctica. If the continents were put together, the fossils, like the coal fields, would line up. He found Lystrosuarus and Mesosaurus fossils in South America and Africa, which are now separated by the Atlantic Ocean.
Lastly, he learned about continental drift from ancient climatic zones. He looked for clues on fossils and rocks. In South Africa, he saw deep scratches in rocks, which meant that there were glaciers there. However, South America is very warm today. In Spitsbergen, which is now very cold, he found fossils of tropical plants. That meant it used to be near the equator, meaning that Spitsbergen had drifted.
He concluded that continental drift is real, but still no scientists believed him. Today, everyone knows that it exists.

In Section 2, the author talks about the 3 different types of heat transfer: radiation, conduction, and convection. It also explains how the different types of heat transfer occur in the earth.
One type of heat transfer is radiation. Radiation is the transfer of energy through space, using electromagnetic waves. This type of heat transfer doesn’t require direct contact. An example of radiation is the sun giving light to earth.
Another type of heat transfer is called conduction. To transfer heat through conduction, heated particles in something transfers heat to the particles of another substance by touching.
The last type of heat transfer is convection. Convection transfers heat by using moving currents in gases or fluids. The sun heats up the equator the most. The warm air rises, but it cools down at a higher altitude, sinking. That creates a current, but it is just one example of convection currents. Convection currents are caused by the heating and cooling of the fluid, changes in density of the fluid, and the force of gravity.
Inside the earth, it is basically the same. The core is the hottest, so it conducts heat to the outer core. Then, the outer core uses conduction again to conduct heat to the mantle. In the mantle, there are convection currents. The hottest part of the mantle is near the outer core, so the hot rock there rises toward the crust. Then, it cools, and sinks back down again.

Section 1 is about the interior of the Earth, what the inside of Earth is like, and how geologists know what is inside the Earth.
Geologists have 2 ways to figure out what makes up the interior of the Earth. First, they have an indirect way of doing it. The scientists collect rock samples from inside the earth. Second, they use an indirect way. They track seismic waves during an earthquake to see what is inside. We cannot dig a hole through the earth to find out what’s inside because of the extreme heat and pressure that increases the further you go inside.
Using seismic waves and rock samples, they’ve discovered that the earth has 3 main layers, each composed of different materials, different sizes, and have different temperatures. There is a crust, a mantle, and a core, which is divided into an outer core and an inner core. The crust is the thinnest layer of the earth. There are 2 parts of the crust: a thicker continental crust under continents, and a thinner oceanic crust underneath the oceans.
Below the crust is the mantle. The upper part of the mantle is called the lithosphere. Under the lithosphere is the asthenosphere, which is soft but solid rock. Underneath the asthenosphere is the lower mantle. The whole mantle is made of hot but solid rock.
Under the mantle is the outer and inner core. The outer core is liquid. It’s mostly made of iron and nickel. The very center of the earth is the inner core. It is solid iron and nickel because the pressure of the other layers squeezes it. The core is the hottest part of earth. It is about 4000 degrees Celsius!

Dreams

One night, I had a wild dream. As I tipped my head onto my pillow, I fell fast asleep. In the blink of an eye, I was free falling into an oversized chair on a balcony. A telescope was right in front of it, like an astronomer’s house. Being the curious kind of person, I stared into the telescope and peered into space. I saw a round ball of clay like the moon, only it looked like it had been bitten by huge mice. Just as that thought popped into my mind, a huge rat made its way on top of the clay. Then, he started gnawing at something invisible, perhaps something supernatural. I focused the telescope until I saw what it was: a thin strand that looked like hair. I rubbed my eyes twice to make sure I wasn’t seeing things. Nope, I wasn’t. This was for real. If that rat kept gnawing, the moon might fall onto the earth.
I looked the other way, and I saw a planet on fire. It looked just like earth, but its waters were dried up. People ran around, screaming. Heavy fog covered the air. At least I thought it was fog. Then, I figured out that it was smog. People were falling off the planet and into the bottomless pit of darkness. In the midst of all that chaos, I saw a fairy, beckoning for someone. People just walked through her. I finally realized she was pointing at me, so I got out of the comfortable chair, and swam through the air to see what she wanted. When I got there, heavy sweat had covered me, for it was a sweltering 122 degrees. She was wearing a crown of leaves and had a green dress. She looked exactly like a fairy in fairy tales. I could tell that she had been crying. She cried out in alien, “Help! This is what earth will become if you humans don’t take care of it!” I don’t know how I understood it. I woke up in my bed. I had really been sweating because I was covered with a thick wintertime blanket.
This dream taught an important lesson: don’t take what you have for granted; instead, cherish it.