Once upon a time there was a family of five living in Ireland. There was a mother, a father, and three children. There were two girls and a boy. The girls' names were Mindy and Liz. Liz was short for Elizabeth. Mindy was eight, and Liz was seven. The boy was nine. His name was Devin.

The family had just moved into a new house, and they were building a new deck too. On Saturday, like all other Saturdays, Mindy and Liz went under the deck to play tea party. Mindy went inside to get the tea set.

Liz was just sitting there waiting when she saw something green jump out of the corner of her eye. She thought it was probably a frog so she forgot about it. A couple of seconds later she saw it jump again, but four times in a row this time. So she started looking around.

In the corner by the wall, she saw something. It was so small, but Liz could see little things moving around. They weren't ants, because ants are black, and these things were green. Liz was going to get a magnifying glass when Mindy came back.

Liz immediately told Mindy there was some kind of little green things in the corner, but Mindy said, "Sure," sarcastically, and they started playing tea party.

The next day when Mindy was shopping with their mother, Liz went back under the deck with a magnifying glass. She looked close. Why, they were little green people!! But what kind of people were that little? Were they leprechauns? It was March, and in five days it was St. Patrick's Day.

After Mindy got home, Liz dragged her under the deck to show her the little people, or leprechauns. Mindy was so surprised! She couldn't believe her eyes. "Yesterday I thought you were joking," Mindy told Liz. But Liz wasn't! They tried to tell Devin, but he said he didn't care about their foolish games.

That day, Mindy and Liz went to the library. They looked all over and even asked the librarian to help them find a book on "Leprechauns", a nonfiction book. When they were walking home, Liz tripped over something. It was a little book. It was just as big as playing cards. Liz picked it up. There were no words on the front or the back. They opened it up and read a sentence. "They're little green people, they go all about, they'll hide and surprise you without a doubt." "What a funny book", said Mindy. Well, they still took it home. They thought maybe Devin would know what it meant. Well, Devin didn't know and didn't care. Mindy and Liz opened the little book once again to read more. "That's funny," they said. There was nothing more on that page except that little poem like sentence. They turned the page. On this page it said, "They'll stay at your house all cozy and warm; till St. Patrick's Day they will soon say so long." Mindy flipped through the book. There was nothing else on any other page.

Well, what did this mean? Was it a clue? Were the little green people really leprechauns? They didn't know. Finally it was St. Patrick's Day. At midnight, Mindy and Liz got their magnifying glasses and went outside under the deck. They had the little book in their hands and they were watching the little leprechaun village. At precisely twelve o'clock the book, all of the leprechauns, and their village disappeared.

One year later:

It was Saturday and Mindy and Liz went under the deck to play tea party. Mindy went to get the tea set when Liz saw something green jump out of the corner of her eye!!

The Magic Sucker

By Melissa Fier

Once upon a time there was a little town in Maryland. Maryland was a very peaceful place, and so was the little town. Everyday after school, all of the kids from the town went to the candy store. This store wasn't any ordinary candy store, because it had every little piece of candy you can ever dream of!

There was a very friendly woman that worked at the candy store. Her name was Mrs. Philipps. Mrs. Philipps knew all the children in the neighborhood. Brittany was one of the children that she knew. Brittany was a very petite girl, but very sweet and well-mannered. Another kid that she knew was Brittany's little brother, Ryan. Ryan loved playing cowboys and indians, and he always carried a blue water gun everywhere he went, and if he saw anybody, he'd squirt them.

The next girl was Stephanie. Stephanie was basically a rich snob!! She always had to have everything her way. Every time she entered the candy store she had to have her chauffer open the door for her. If not, she would walk off mad, stomping her feet, and then tell her dad. Then there was Tiffany. Tiffany was very sweet and well mannered. Every time a kid or kids that Mrs. Philipps knew entered the candy store they would get a free piece of candy. There had been a sucker that had been lost for ten years, and if you found it you would get $5,000.00! One day all the kids found out and started looking for evidence.

When they were looking for evidence, they found the sucker! When they found the sucker they went straight to Mrs. Philipps and asked how it was used, but Mrs. Philipps just stood there in great excitement and said, "I found it!" Then she went to the phone and called up the Maryland State Candy Factory. She talked to them for about ten minutes then hung up. At that very moment she put all of the kids into her truck and drove them all to the candy factory. When they got there, Mrs. Philipps told all of the kids what the magical sucker did. She said that if you lick the sucker you could have one wish. Brittany was the first to wish. She wished for the best tea set in the world. The next kid was Ryan. Ryan wished for the best water gun. Stephanie wished for the best dress. Tiffany wished for a best friend.

When they all wished for something, Mrs. Philipps gave the workers the sucker, and the workers gave her the money. Mrs. Philipps had found out that the candy factory was closing down, and she decided to save it. All of the kids pitched in. When they saved the factory some of the kids worked at the factory and made the good candy, while some of them worked at the store and sold the good candy!

Dead Cats

By Liana Piero

Once upon a time there were a couple of cats that were wandering around the neighborhood. The cats' names are Alley Cat, Revold, and Slider. These are all very happy cats.

One day the cats were wandering through an alley with lots of cats and trash cans filled with tuna fish. Of course they like tuna, (they're cats!). Some of the cats were kittens; big and small cats. The cats had a wonderful time eating all of the tuna.

After a couple of days Slider started to walk slowly and wouldn't eat any of his food. In about twenty-four hours Slider dropped dead. This was very painful to his family and friends.

About three days later Alley Cat would not play with any of her toys. All she would do is sleep in her bed and would not get up to play. In less than three days Alley Cat died. Of course this was hard for her family.

Revold now didn't have any more friends to play with, because they were all dead. This weird thing didn't happen to Revold at all, but this started to happen to all of the cats in the neighborhood.

No one knew what was going on with these poor cats. The neighborhood of cats decides that they must try to do something. Everyone decides to hire a detective. The detective's name is Amanda Marie Alexandra.

The very first thing she does is go to all of the houses with cats. She looks for clues like certain chemicals in the house. She took samples like cat food, cat hair, and poop. Almost everyone in the allotment thought Amanda was weird.

In about two days Amanda had the results. She had the people and what was wrong all figured out. It turned out that a group of people called "The Cat Killers" didn't like cats, so they were trying to kill all of the cats. What was wrong was the tuna in the trash cans was poisonous. This group had done lots of crimes before. Those guys were arrested for life.

It also turned out that they had the most expensive detective on the whole continent. It cost one thousand, two hundred - sixty dollars. But it wasn't too bad because everyone only had to pay twenty-one dollars each family.

Revold made new friends. He even made five kittens of his own. Revold lived happily ever after. Everyone else is doing great!