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Creative Arts Program: Chapter one
A motorcycle zoomed down the street, the engine creating a slight racket. The rider slowed down in front of a large white building. He parked his vehicle and climbed off it. He took off his red helmet and placed it on the handlebars. He stared up at the large building, his spiky jet black hair gleaming in the early summer sun. It sure was good to be back.
A few blocks away, three girls walked on the sidewalk, heading toward Woodson High School's summer Creative Arts Program. One had chin-length violet-colored hair and violet eyes. Her name was Raven. Raven swore that she had never dyed her hair purple, but some people didn't believe her. Raven was considered a goth, although she hated people labeling her. She wore only blue and black. No other colors. You would most likely find her with her head in a thick book. She was not really that social.
The next girl had long red hair that fell to the middle of her back. She had very interesting green eyes that seemed to light up whenever she was happy. She, at the moment, was wearing a purple halter top, a purple mini-skirt, and long purple go-go boots. On her wrists were the same silver wristbands that she always wore. Around her neck was the same silver neck-piece that she wore every day. Her name was Starfire, but most people called her Star. Starfire was a foreigner. She was originally born in Europe, but transferred to a city in America when she was fifteen, which was just last year. She had a hard time learning the English language and American customs at first, but she was starting to understand now.
The last girl was Terra. Her long, messy blonde hair was swinging around her shoulders and back. Her bright blue eyes scanned the streets as she walked. She was wearing a simple white and blue t-shirt, blue jean shorts, and brown hiking boots. On her hands were brown climbing gloves. Some people may have called Terra a tomboy, but there was more to her than that. Terra was very interested in rocks and the Earth. She was a fun-loving girl with a passion for nature. She might have been happier in a sleep-away camp in the woods, but she ended up going to Woodson High School's Creative Arts Program every summer and enjoyed it.
The three girls crossed one last street and arrived in front of the school, a big white building. Starfire swung her purple bag onto her shoulder, the biggest smile she could muster on her lips.
"Oh, friends, I am so happy to be back here!" she exclaimed, clasping her hands together. Raven raised an eyebrow.
"Why are you always so ecstatic when we come here?" she asked, pulling her dark blue cloak tight around her, covering her long-sleeved black shirt and black shorts. She could never really understand her friend's cheerfulness.
"Because, friend Raven, we have been attending this summer program for so long. I miss it so much during the school year when we have to go to Bailey High School," replied Starfire. Terra nodded.
"Yeah, Raven. It's like a second home," she said. Raven just rolled her eyes, privately agreeing with her two best friends.
"I see you girls have been doing well since school ended," said a new voice. Starfire turned around to see the same boy who had arrived on his motorcycle.
"Hello, friend Robin!" Starfire said, nearly yelling. She fought the urge to jump up and hug Robin. Raven was right, she was ecstatic.
"Hey, Starfire, Terra, Raven," he said, nodding to each one of them.
"Where are Beast Boy and Cyborg?" asked Terra, looking around for them. Robin shrugged.
"They must be late. Beast Boy told me Cyborg was giving him a ride in his car," answered Robin. A few blocks away, a blue car that was obviously cared for and waxed drove down the street.
"Faster! Faster!" yelled Beast Boy at his friend, Cyborg. Beast Boy, or BB as some called him, looked a bit short for his age. He had the most adorable green eyes. They were very large, giving Beast Boy a young look. His hair was dirty blonde, although Beast Boy dyed his hair every month so that it had a green tint to it. He was wearing a purple t-shirt, green pants, and purple and green sneakers. He was considered the class clown to everybody. He was always thinking of jokes and puns that weren't very funny, but made you laugh anyway. His friend, Cyborg, was the one driving the car.
Cyborg was a tall and muscular African-American boy with small gray eyes. His head was shaved for sports. He was wearing a white t-shirt and gray sweat pants. Cyborg was more of a jock. He was on most of the sports teams at his school and the summer program. He spent a lot of time caring for his car, and building strange mechanical devices.
Cyborg stopped the car and stepped out of the driver's seat. Beast Boy climbed out of the passenger seat soon afterward. They stopped to look at the big, white building that they spent each summer in. They spotted their best friends Robin, Starfire, Terra, and Raven standing near the bike rack. They made their way toward them.
"Hey, ya'll. How's summer been treating you?" asked Cyborg. They all exchanged "fine"s and "my summer was great so far"s.
"You'll never guess what I did to my cousin, Vicky," said Beast Boy. "We were at some family reunion. We were all heading toward the kitchen, when Vicky opened the door and red paint splattered all over her!"
"Why do you play so many pranks?" asked Raven. Beast Boy looked at her like she was crazy.
"'Cause it's funny," he answered. Raven just rolled her eyes.
"C'mon, kids. Camp is starting!" yelled one of the CITs. Robin, Raven, Starfire, Cyborg, Beast Boy, and Terra started toward the gym.
"Bee's late again," said Robin with a sigh.
A black car pulled up just as all the campers were going inside. A girl with puffy-ish black hair stepped out. She was wearing a yellow and black striped halter top and stylish black pants. Her name was Bee. Her real name was Beatrice. But what made her unique was that she had an interest in insects - mostly bumblebees. That's how she got her nickname. Although Bee was very smart, she would step on you if you got in her way. Most people didn't try to intimidate her. Everyone except Cyborg, who was always challenging her.
"Thanks for the ride, Dad," thanked Bee, getting up and grabbing her yellow and black bag. She shut the car door with a snap and started toward the gym.
Inside the gym, many teenagers were gathering around the bleachers. The building had a problem: There were never enough seats for all the kids. Some late stragglers had to retreat to the floor or the steps. Robin, Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Terra, and Cyborg managed to grab a few seats near the top. They saw Bee run in, panting slightly. As a kid was about to sit in a seat next to Cyborg, Cyborg blocked the seat with his hand.
"Reserved," he stated simply. The kid scowled at him, and found another seat. Bee came running in and took the seat next to Cyborg.
"Hey, guys. Sorry I'm late; My hair dryer broke," she explained. The others nodded while Joanne, the head of the summer program, started to speak into the microphone.
"Welcome back, campers. And to those who have just come here this year, welcome to our program. There are a few changes being made in this building. In the lunchroom..."
"Blah, blah, blah," said Beast Boy, moving his hand so it resembled a mouth talking. "We have the same announcements over and over again. Why can't we just skip them?" he asked. Raven held her finger to her mouth.
"Shhh!" she said, turning back to Joanne. Beast Boy glared at her.
"So, campers, when you go to lunch, just line up on the stairs in a single-file and kindly wait for a CIT to let you in while there is construction going on," finished Joanne. She gave one last smile to her campers and put the microphone down.
"Okay, campers! Let's go!" yelled Nat, one of the CITs. Everyone jumped up and ran off the bleachers.
"Excuse me, excuse me," said Starfire over and over again as people accidently pushed and shoved her. Robin narrowed his eyes. He held his hand out as one kid was about to step on Starfire's foot. Robin's hand stopped him just in time.
"Sorry," he said, moving along.
The campers moved out the door. Once they were out of the gym, they took out their schedules.
Terra Williams
Period One: The Buzz - Computer room
Period Two: Photography - Photo lab
Period Three: Literary Magazine
Period Four: Swimming
Period Five: Lunch
Period Six: Rock Band - Music room
Period Seven: Music Technology - Computer room
"Yay! I have The Buzz first period. What about you guys?" asked Terra. Terra and her friends had singed up for nearly the same activities, and were hoping they had almost the same classes together.
"I have The Buzz, too!" exclaimed Starfire.
"Me too," said Cyborg
"I got it as well," said Bee.
"Great! We all have The Buzz first period! Let's get going." said Terra excitedly.
The seven friends walked up a flight of stairs and opened a door. They arrived at a small wooden door reading Computer Room. Robin turned the handle and they all walked in.
"Hey, Abe," greeted Cyborg to the teacher. Abe smiled and nodded to him while six other kids filed in and took seats at one of the computers. Terra, Beast Boy, Starfire, Robin, Cyborg, Bee, and Raven all sat next to each other, in that exact order.
"Settle down, settle down!" said Abe, waving his hands. When everyone stopped talking about their summers and what awesome tans they got at the beach, Abe started to talk.
"Okay, kids. This is The Buzz, a daily newspaper written by you that will be given to each camper at the end of the day. You can write about current events, movie reviews, game reviews, book reviews, etc. Since today is going to be the first issue, one or two of you would probably like to write about your first day. If you'd like to write about something else, be my guest. We can start now!"
The class immediately turned to their computers. Beast Boy raised his hand.
"Abe?" he asked. The teacher turned toward him.
"Yeah, Beast Boy?" he answered.
"Is it okay if instead of writing articles, maybe I could do a cartoon?" he asked. Abe considered this for a moment.
"Hmm... Well, we've never had someone do cartoons before, but why not? You'd have to draw it on the computer, though," he said. Beast Boy nodded.
"Not a problem!" said Beast Boy. "Thanks, teach."
Beast Boy turned to his computer to start drawing. Meanwhile, an excited Bee was typing quickly on her keyboard.
"What are you writing?" asked Terra, who had no idea what to write.
"I'm writing about the basketball game tonight," Bee answered. That night, Bee's favorite basketball team would be playing against another team that Bee hated. She was praying that her team would crush the opposing team. "I can't wait for the game!"
"Yeah, The Blue Jays are totally gonna flatten The Red Ravens," said Cyborg. Bee looked at him like he was crazy.
"What are you talking about? The Blue Jays suck," she said, preparing for another challenge.
"Yeah? Well - "
"Will you two please stop arguing and start typing!" said Starfire, who was starting to get frustrated at her two friends. Cyborg and Bee gave one last glance at each other and turned back to their computer screens.
"Hey guys, look at this!" yelled Beast Boy. Everyone looked at him. Beast Boy was pointing to a drawing he had made on his computer.
It showed Joanne screaming at a crowd of kids. A speech bubble near the top of her head read "Shut up, monsters!"
Beast Boy was laughing like a maniac. Terra giggled. "How'd you come up with that?" she asked. Beast Boy stuck his chin out.
"I'm a genius, what can I say?" he said, pretending to admire his non-existent muscles. Terra laughed. Raven just rolled her eyes.
"What are you writing, Starfire?" Robin asked. Starfire looked at him.
"I am writing about whether or not iPods should be allowed in the school" she answered.
"What do you think about it?" Robin asked, trying to engage her in conversation.
"I am not exactly sure, to be honest with you. I have witnessed iPods making disruptions in camp activities, but I also think that a camper should be allowed to bring in something they like..."
"Oh, Lord!" whispered Terra, staring at her computer screen. Her mouth was wide opened.
"What is it?" asked Beast Boy, who was the only one who had heard her. Terra pointed to something on her computer.
"London was bombed this morning!" she said. She was on The Daily News website.
"That's awful!" cried Beast Boy. Terra nodded.
"Well, at least you have something to write about now," said Beast Boy, trying to cheer her up. Terra smiled.
"I guess you're right!" she said.
"Told you I was a genius!" exclaimed Beast Boy. Terra laughed and started to type.
After Abe had said it was time to go, Robin, Terra, Beast Boy, and Starfire made their way to the Photo Lab. The Photo Lab was near the basement. The four campers had to go down a series of steps to get there. When they did get there, they pushed past a black curtain and stepped into the dark room, which wasn't dark at the moment.
"Hello! Well, I think that's everybody, right?" said the teacher, Mark. A girl with curly brown hair that was dyed pink near the front nodded.
"Yep, only seven kids can fit in here," she said. Mark nodded to her and straightened up. Mark was wearing a graying white tee-shirt and checkered brown and gray shorts. He had a beard and mustache of curly light brown hair.
"Okay, here we go! Since some of you are new here, we will start off with something simple. Photograms!" he said. Some of the campers cheered. Starfire bit her lip. She was one of the newbies...
When Mark had explained what to do to make photograms, he handed out sheets of blank paper.
"Remember, shiny side up, dull side down," said Mark. Everyone got to work. The campers were supposed to put simple objects, like a ring or their own hand, onto the paper and turn the timer on, which would imprint the shadow of the object onto the paper.
When the campers had done that, they dropped their pieces of paper into the tub of liquid (two at a time) called Developer. But something weird was happening to Starfire's paper.
"Nothing is coming up," she said, confused. "I must have done something wrong..." Terra looked at Starfire's paper.
"I wonder what happened..." she said. Hearing this, Mark came over.
"What's the problem, Starfire?" he asked. Starfire showed him her blank piece of paper. Mark looked at it and laughed gently.
"You must have put it the wrong way, Starfire. The shiny side was supposed to be facing up, not the dull side."
"Oh. I did not realize, I am very sorry!" she exclaimed.
"No need to worry, we'll just try it again with the shiny side up this time," answered Mark. Starfire smiled weakly and followed Mark to her enlarger.
After Photography, the four campers made their way to their next activity. Everyone was happy, except for Starfire.
"What's wrong, Star?" asked Terra, seeing the distress on her bestfriend's face.
"It's nothing," she said, staring at her feet. She could tell they didn't believe her.
"It's just that... I messed up in Photography!" she exclaimed.
"Well, it was your first class, you can't expect to be a pro right away," said Beast Boy. He knew how Starfire was when she got something wrong in her new country. It made her feel like a stupid foreigner.
"Mark must think I'm terribly stupid," said Starfire.
"Mark doesn't think that. And even if he did, he's wrong, 'cause you are one of the smartest people I know," said Robin, putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. He saw Terra and Beast Boy raise their eyebrows at him. He looked at them questionably.
"Do you really mean that, Robin?" asked Starfire, looking up at him.
"Of course I do," said Robin, smiling at her. He saw Beast Boy stuff his fist into his mouth, as though trying to stifle a laugh. He tried to ignore him and enjoy Starfire's now smiling face.