National Teen Read Week was October
7th – 13th. To celebrate, the Magee Library again asked
for original short stories based on this year’s theme, It’s Written in the
Stars. Students at Magee High School were encouraged to participate through
their English class. Entries submitted were judged on originality and
enjoyment. The winning entry was titled, The
Galactic Runaway, by Preston Grim.
Preston is a tenth grader at Magee
High School. The 15-year-old is new to the area as he and his family moved to
Magee this past summer. Preston enjoys writing and got ideas for his story by
talking with his friend. He entered the contest in his English class taught by
Pam Rodgers.
The Magee Library would like to
thank all the teens that submitted stories, the English teachers at Magee High
School for their support, and the Magee Courier and MageeNews.com for
publishing the winning story.
Written in
the stars: The Galactic Runaway
It was an unusually starry night in Austin, Texas. 16
year old, Brett Ellis, is up late playing Fortnite with his friends. Breo glow under his bed. He puts his hand under the bed, and
he starts to pull out a medium-sized metal orb. The orb is about the size and
weight of a soccer ball. The orb starts to hiss again, and then
"POP!" The orb opens. Once all the smoke clears from the orb, Brett
passes-out, fore he had just seen an Alien.
tt's parents went out of town the other night, leaving him home alone with his dog, Chelsea. Brett finally decides to call it a night and heads upstairs to his room. When he steps in his room, he sees glass all over the floor. He instantly thinks there is another person in the house, and he isn't wrong, but it's not a person.
He starts to hear a "hiss," but it wasn't from an animal. It sounded more like it was from a machine. He looks and sees something starting tBrett woke up thinking he just had a weird dream. He stnads up
and looks on his bed to see a small alien sleeping in his bed. He yells, and
his dog, Chelsea, runs up and jumps on the Alien. The Alien wakes up, and
screams with a loud pitch. Once the alien stops screaming, Brett pulls out a
baseball bat and starts to swing at the alien.
"Wait, Wait, Wait,"
yells the Alien. "Let me explain myself."
Brett is amazed by the fact an Alien is speaking
fluent English. He lowers the bat, but doesn't put it down.
"My name is Notserp, I am from the planet
Ippississim. I'm just running away from home, because I am tired of my father's
stupid rules. I encountered troubles with my ship while trying to make out of
the universe and crashed into the Milky Way Galaxy, again. We have about 2 days
before my father comes to bring me back home. I hope he doesn't do what he did
last time. " 
"What happened last
time?" asked Brett.
"Well, last time I crashed into planet Earth, I
crashed into Antarctica, and let's just say it wasn't always barren."
explained Notserp.
Brett thought of all his friends
and family and decided to help Notserp find his ship. He packed his stuff and
brought food and water for himself and Chelsea. "So, where are we going
first?" Brett asked.
"Well, according to my calculations, my ship
landed at the coordinates 30.50904 0 N, 97.67722 0 E,"
said Notserp.
Brett pulls out his phone to type in the coordinates. Notserp
climbed in Brett's backpack and caught a bus. The coordinates brought Brett to
the city of Round Rock, Texas. Notserp had said the ship had auto-landed in the
middle of Cedar Ridge High School's courtyard. When they arrived, the school
was shut down by the U.S Government. Notserp and Brett thought of many
different ways to get the ship back. By the time they were done strategizing, it
was night time. Brett decided to call a friend he knew in the area, and they
were able to spend the night at his friend's house.
When he arrived to his friend's house, he was kind
of nervous about telling him why he was talking to his backpack. When he finally
summonded the courage to do so, someone started banging on the door to the
house.
"FBI OPEN UP," screamed the FBI officer
just before he knocked down the door leading in a swarm of officers. Brett
grabbed his bag and jumped out the back window. He starts running as fast as he
could. He wasn't thinking of anything else; he just ran.
Meanwhile in Austin, Texas, Brett's parents arrived back home
from their vacation. They call his name asking him to come downstairs. There is
no reply. His parents go upstairs to see a broken window, and there son, gone.
Brett finally stops running after realizing Chelsea is hungry
and tired. His phone starts buzzing; it's his parents calling. He answers the
phone and tells his parents he spent the night at Brandon's house. When they
asked about the broken window, he just told them some kids were throwing around
a baseball. His parents believed his story. He hung up the phone and opened up
the bag only to find homework. He had grabbed the wrong bag. He instantly
thinks everything is over. He gives up, and waits for an alien invasion to
happen.
The FBI had taken Notserp and started to analyze him.
Notserp's father was only hours away.
Brett uses the rest of his money to buy a bus ticket back to
Austin. His parents are glad to see him, but he tells them what's about to
happen. They think he is just speaking nonsense. Then a few hours later the
news came on...a massive UFO was entering Earth's orbit.
As Notserp's father's ship enters Earth's orbit,
Notserp's father prepares the ice beam. As he prepares to destroy Texas, a loud
"clunk" was heard outside the ship. The ship's screen says identified
ship in loading dock. It was Notserp's ship.
A little while earlier in Round Rock, Texas, Notserp
had escaped from the FBI, and had gone straight to the school. He assumed since
so many FBI officers were at Brandon's House that only a few would be at the
school guarding his ship. He was right. Stealing his ship back, he flew
straight to his father's ship.
Notserp's father still mad was still bound and
determined to fire the ice beam and make Texas a barren state of ice. Notserp
tried to run over to his father before he could do it, but he was too late.
Brett and Chelsea are outside playing. He looks up
into the sky and sees a white beam. Coming right towards Austin, Texas..
Brett gasps
as he woke up, startled from the wildest dream ever. Chelsea jumps on his bed
trying to get him to come outside. He goes to open the door, and when he opens
it, he sees snow and ice everywhere. In the middle of summer.
