I wrote this story in 8th grade (im in 10th now). Mrs. Walters had it published in a collection of stories and poems written by kids in the school district. I felt so special. Actually, i first came up with the idea of this in 6th grade cause my class was competing in a nation wide science fiction writing contest for the re-release of the star wars movies or something. I won for the school, but didn't get any farther than city. I don't have the original copy of that though. Enough rambling, here's the story!

Earth
by Stephanie (aka Sailor MJBR)

Ali Carrington walked out of her school. She sadly glanced at the row of busses. The one she rode stuck out like a sore thumb. It was still on wheels. All of the other ones were hovering busses with the little blue lights underneath; Ali especially liked the blue lights. She sighed and stepped aboard the noisy bus.
This was not only the oldest bus, but the one with the most kids. She sat down in seat 15, next to her best friend, Marion Jones. As soon as she sat down, Marion started chattering. “They had to shock my locker open today. I was stuck. And once it was opened, all my stuff fell out! How embarrassing. And it fell out just as Tim Watson was walking by. I can’t-”
She stopped talking when the boys in front of them turned around and aimed fake laser guns at them.
“Freeze Martian scum!”
Ali grabbed her notebook and hit one of their heads.
“Hey, you die for that,” his friend said angrily.
Ali rolled her eyes and unenthusiastically said, “Go ahead,” The boy pulled the trigger letting whistles and lights go off. Marion sadly shook her head.
When the bus stopped in front of Ali’s house Marion said to her, “I’ll call you,”
As Ali walked down the sidewalk towards her house, she felt the ground begin to shake. “Uh-oh,” she
said slowly and calmly. She dropped her bag and ran to a nearby flagpole to grab onto. She saw a flash in
the eastern sky. The ground shook even more, and Ali could not keep her footing on the shaky ground.
She fell to the ground, Ali tried to break her fall with her hands. They got all scratched. Ali’s mind was on
something else, though. “That one was too close,” She grabbed her bag, and headed towards the blast.
There were already people sorting through the rubble of the store that was three blocks away. “Stupid
Martians,” she muttered.
For years, the planet she was on was at war with the planet Mars. Most of the battle was on Mars, but
sometimes their planet was hit by a Martian missile. Ali never thought a missile would hit so close to
home. If their planet only had an Orb. An Orb would end all life on a planet. All of the Orbs and their
technology was on the heavily guarded planet of Wexion. The Wexions only used the Orbs to protect
themselves in a war, and never gave one to another planet. Ali stood there thinking about ways she could
get an Orb as people all around her rushed to the ruins to try and help the people trapped inside.
The next day on the bus, Ali had an idea. “Marion, I know something we can do after school today,”
“What?”
Ali wasn’t sure if she should say this, “Let’s go to the Martian headquarters,”
“What!?” Marion exclaimed, eyes wide open.
“We’ll rent a ship and go up there,”
“Well, I don’t know,”
“Please? Please, Please, Please, Please, Please?”
“OK, but I know I’m going to regret this.”
“Yes! We can meet at your house after school,” She said, not noticing that the school they had just
pulled up to was a pile of rubble.
“No school!” someone yelled. The driver turned the bus around and took the kids home. Ali got off at
Marion’s stop.
“OK, we go downtown, rent a ship, stay in the Martian space center for a minute. Right?” Marion was
worried.
“Marion, we can’t learn Martian secrets in one minute!” Ali said and started walking towards the
downtown area.
“Martian secrets?” Marion asked before she took of after Ali.
After renting a ship and heading into space, Ali worked on the password to open the parking hatch on
the space station. It was surprisingly simple: Mars. They pulled into the station and abandoned the ship as
soon as they landed. Ali and Marion wandered around for a while before finding a room with a keypad
lock. “All the good rooms are locked,” Ali explained. She pressed a few buttons.
“Access denied.” an electronic voice said. Ali pressed a few more buttons. “Access denied.” It said
again.
“Try ‘Mars’,” Marion suggested. Ali pressed 4 buttons and the door unlocked. She slowly opened it.
Inside the room was a giant machine with lights and buttons everywhere. “Ali, do you know what this is?”
Marion asked nervously.
“No, what?”
“This is where they launch missiles from,”
“Well, let’s de-activate them!” Ali exclaimed. She looked at the list of coordinates and pressed the
delete button to cancel all the missile launches. When she was done, they heard someone coming. The two
ducked behind a large trash bin. Two Martians began talking in their own language.
Ali and Marion knew what they were saying because they had taken ‘Martian’ as their foreign language.
“I’m sorry sir. The coordinates seem to have deleted themselves.”
“Well, get than back as soon as possible. And once you do, triple the firing speed.”
“Triple!? But, sir, we might loose power on the station.”
“I don’t care. I want the planet flattened in 5 days so that we can blow it up.”
The younger man sighed and said. “Yes, sir.” And they both left the room.
The two girls stepped out of their hiding place. ‘Marion, did you hear that?”
“They’re going to blow up our planet!!”

Officer Williamson laughed. “That’s very funny, girls. No way can the Martians have something
powerful enough to blow up an entire planet. A moon maybe...but not a planet.”
“Oh, well, goodbye.” Ali said, disappointed. She and Marion left the police station. “No one will believe
us!”
Marion thought for a while. The only person who even thought the Martians would do something this
crazy, was called crazy himself. He was fired from his job at the space station because of his outrageous
ideas. It was a bad loss too, because he came up with some great ideas that helped their nation become
advanced in space travel. Some people even said that he had obtained the secret of building Orbs, but
didn’t share the information. Eventually, Marion said, “I know someone who might. Come on!”

“You believe us, don’t you, Dad?” Marion asked her father. Ali trusted Marion’s dad; she had known
him since she was a baby.
“I told those guys at the space station that this would happen. But they didn’t believe me then, and they
don’t believe you now. Of course, who would believe the daughter of a crazy man! Ha, ha, ha.” Mr. Jones
set down his newspaper and stood up. “I want to show you something.” He led the girls to the basement.
Mr. Jones walked to the fuse box, flipped a few switches and pressed a button. A part of the wall opened
up, revealing a tunnel. The three of them walked through the tunnel and down many steps before they
reached a large room. In the middle of the room was a spaceship. “I built this. There’s a planet not too far
away that is very similar to ours. We can go there.”
“What about my family?” Ali asked.
“We’ll bring them too. Now go home and pack.”

“Ali, is this another one of your stories?” Her mom asked.
“Mom! This is true, just ask Marion! Check the ship rental place, they’ll tell you I was there. Please
believe me.”
Her little brother Matt came parading into the room yelling, “Ali’s going crazy! Ali’s going crazy! Too
much time around the crazy space-man’s daughter! Ali’s going crazy!”
“I’m not going crazy! And Marion’s dad isn’t crazy, either.”
“It’s ‘EITHER’, crazy lady!” Matt yelled with a different pronouncement.
“Not crazy, either!” Ali retaliated with her pronunciation.
“Crazy, either!”
“Not crazy, either!!”
Their mom interrupted. “You’re both right. I mean wrong. Oh, Ali, Matt, go pack, we’re going on a
trip.”

The next morning, Ali’s father was driving to the Jones’ place with his wife, daughter, a screaming
maniac with a toy gun shooting pretend Martians, and a dozen bags and boxes.
Mr. Jones. was turning things on in the secret room while Marion packed things into the ship. “Whoa,
can we blast Martians with this thing?”
“Actually, I had another plan,” Mr. Jones said, sorting through a box. “We will be passing Mars on our
way, so I thought we’d drop this thing on it.” In his hand was an Orb. Everyone gasped.
“Where in heaven’s name did you get that?”
“I lived on Wexion for a couple of years. I worked with their space equipment, when I came across
this.” Then he changed the subject, as if there was a bad story about it. “There’s something I’d like you to
know about this planet. Their in the age of exploration, so we’ll have to live primitively.”
“You mean, space exploration?” Matt asked.
“No, exploration of their own planet.” Everyone groaned. “Well, it’s better than being Martian dust,”
and everyone had to agree.
An hour later, they were all ready and blasting into space. They flew for about a week before the impact
from the blast hit the ship. During the space-quake, Matt fell and broke his arm.
Then they came to Mars. The red planet was alive and busy. They couldn’t land to drop the Orb, so they
put it in one of the only 2 missiles they had and sent it down. And eventually, after months of traveling,
they arrived at their destination.
“Hey, Dad?” Marion asked.
“Yeah?”
“What’s the name of this planet?”
“Earth”

They spun downwards and landed off the coast of North Carolina. They landed on the island of
Roanoke in what we would call the year 1589. The crash killed all English settlers on the island. After
removing all their supplies, they dumped the ship in the ocean. Soon, the Croatian Indians came to see
what caused the bright light and loud noise.

THE END