Oh-Wait-that's MY name?!?

So yesterday my school hosted a mini meet for Power of the Pen--which I was totally excited about and totally nervous about (it was my last chance to make the Traveling Team--kinda)!  So when we went to round one of writing, we were given this prompt:

Seeing is believing.  Use this as the central theme of your narrative.

Immediately I loved it!  But then I thought--now everyone is going to write about Santa.  I should probably put the Santa idea back in my vault and write about vampires or something.  But then it also occured to me that the judge isn't going to want a Twilight repeat.  She's probably sick of vampires by now.  So back to the Santa idea I went.  My pen was ablaze as I wrote about a 16 year old girl who didn't believe in Santa anymore.  But on the night of Christmas Eve she wakes to the sound of hooves on the roof.  She runs outside and Santa is on her roof.  She doesn't believe it's Santa, she thinks he some kind of clever Christmas robber or something.  She climbs up on the roof and finds it is Santa.  But he's yound, skinny, and has jet black hair.  He tells her that the image of Santa was created so faulsly so that he could live with humans without being noticed.  His workshop is really a popular toy store.  Ever heard of Toys 'R' Us?  He's 16 too.  Been that way since 201BC.  And they fall in love.

Describe what happens when enemies are forced to work together.

This was our second promt.  Again a genaric idea came to mind about two school girls, but I quickly pushed it out of mind.  Instead I wrote about a girl having to cook Christmas dinner with her witch of a mother-in-law.  Her mother-in-law yells at her for everything she does, no matter what.  She snaps and decides to leave, but her husband convinces her to stay.  So when they all sit down for dinner and uncover the food, everything is as dark as Snow White's hair--it looks like burnt charcoal.  Everything is silent, but then she and her mother-in-law start cracking up.  Neither of them really knew why they were laughing, but it didn't matter.  All she knew was that her mother-in-law was no longer her worst enemy.

So, my Santa story won Best of Round 1.  Scoring a 1--97 quality points.  Story number two scored a 1--98 quality points.  Giving me FIRST PLACE FOR THE EIGTH GRADE!  When they called my name for Best of the Best my jaw dropped and my heart stopped.  It took me a minute to realize that they had called my name.  So I jogged up there and got my journal and my coach's dad gave a little speech about my story and I sat down.  They announced 8-1st place for 7th grade.  And then 8th grade.  They got all the way to 2nd place, and I knew I wasn't getting 1st.  But then they called my name.  It still took me a minute to realize that they had called my name.

My reading teacher from last year was there (she took a year off to be with her new baby) and she knew I had gotten first because she worked in the judging room.  She said she had to stay to watch my reaction.  My librarian was there too.

My parents and siblings were there and I recieved this trophy: (sorry not a great picture--lighting's bad.

The picture at the top is of my Best of Round journal.

Have a wonderful and blessed day!

With eternal love and blessings,

Officially Inspired

P.S.  Leanna Renee Hieber, if you by chance read this--I have your newspaper copy, I just need to send it to you.