Volume 1, Issue 1
October 2015
The Spooky Issue
TigerTracks
WRITING
*
ART
*
COMICS
SOUTHWESTERN MIDDLE SCHOOL
S p o o k y
SOUTHWESTERN
MIDDLE
SCHOOL

Mamie Oatis,
Principal

Abigail Boyce,
Assistant Principle

Kristina Wiseman,
Assistant Principle,

Cameron Robinson,
Principal Intern

David Finkle,
Journalism
sponsor, editor
I N S I D E T H I S
I S S U E :
Spooky Story Winners
1
Call for Submissions
1
Picture This! Winners
2
The Kidnapping!
3
Facing Fear Essays
4
S t o r y
Our 2015 Spooky Story
Contest had quite a few
entries, but two stood out
as the winners, and here
they are!
“It’s True!” by Timindia
Williams
ONE Halloween night my
mom and I were giving
out candy to kids. Then I
left with my friends and
we went trick or treating.
“Bloody Mary’s coming
for you!” yelled Tae.
“Shut up!” shouted
Pam. “No one is afraid of
you.”
As we began to walk in
the graveyard, there was a
women in a long, white
dress with long, black hair
with her back to us, just
standing there.
“Hello, I yelled. “Are
you okay?” She stood
C a l l
Tiger Tracks is not a school
newspaper; it’s more of a creative showcase magazine. We
will feature Picture This! winners from our school-wide
contest, as well as pieces written by Journalism Club members and Creative Writing
Class members.
What we’d like to do is also
c o n t e s t
there, still saying nothing.
As we made our way out
of the grave yard, the
streets were silent, as if
aliens had come and abducted everyone. There
was no one at all on the
streets, so we walked
home.
As I approached the
door, I could see my mom
in the window. “Hi,
Mom!” I said.
“Hey, honey, how was
it? Fun?”
“I guess. Well, I’ll be in
my room, Mom.”
“Okay, dear,” said my
mom. I stepped into my
room, and as I looked out
my window, I saw a
woman standing there on
the lawn. The woman
from the grave yard.
“AAAAHHHH!!!” I
screamed. My mom ran in
f o r
w i n n e r s
and yelled, “What’s
wrong?”
“There was a woman
outside the window!” My
mom looked out the window. No one was there.
As my mom left, I thought
about what I’d seen. I
couldn’t sleep, so I called
my friends and they didn’t answer, so I hung up. I
turned around, and
found the words, “I WILL
GET YOU” spray painted
on the wall above my bed.
I screamed and ran downstairs to tell my mom, and
she came upstairs, but
nothing was there. I think
you’re hallucinating,” my
mom said. “You’re just
being paranoid.” She
tucked me into bed.
(Continued on page 3)
s u b m i s s i o n s
offer student writing in a variety of topics and genres
(including ones written in your
Language Arts classes): essays
on a variety of topics, fiction
pieces, poetry, sequential art
(comic strips) and black and
white art work. The Journalism
Club has editorial control over
which pieces are selected for
publication. This issue is obviously short on art and comics.
Help us fix that!
To submit a piece for Tiger
Tracks, please have it placed in
Mr. Finkle’s mailbox, share it
with him on Office 365 (Finkle,
David L) or ask your teacher to
email it to me.
P a g e
2
T i g e r T r a ck s
P I C T U R E
Sept. 11 Winners
Topic Sentence: The student’s backpack was
messy.
Word picture: Bob was on
the hunt for his favorite
pencil in his red-and-bluestriped backpack, which
was filled with crumpled
balls of paper, ripped up
homework, and an open
red pencil box overflowing with Crayola markers
and crayons. – Trinity
Loeffler
Word picture: Ty walked
Southwestern
Middle School’s
Picture This!
Contest is a
quick, simple
writing contest
that encourages
students to write
using vivid
details—details
a reader can
picture. So far
this year, we
have had
winners for 4
contests:
Sept. 29 Winners
Topic Sentence:
The roller coaster
was scary.
Word picture: The
roller coaster stood
so tall I could swear
it was lost in the
clouds—hills and
loops and sharp
turns showing why
its riders were
screaming so fretfully. – Tyler Zanoni
T H I S
into the classroom, and
when he unzipped his
backpack, old paper, seven books, three binders,
and a whole heap of potato chip bags and candy
wrappers flooded out as if
it was lava coming out of
a volcano. – Avantae Williams
Word picture: The student’s backpack had
ripped pieces of white
paper, bent library books,
a bunch of composition
notebooks, broken pencils,
and black ink covering the
pink interior. – Samantha
Word picture: The wind is
screaming past my ears,
the French toast with bacon I had with breakfast is
slowly climbing up my
esophagus, and all I can do
is stay seated in this lightning-fast prison. – Antonio
Ruiz-Tennyson
Word picture: As I walk
up, the screams of helpless
victims come into earshot;
the wood creaks, the cart
wobbles, and the intercom
comes on, saying, “We are
not responsible for any
loss of spines.” - Cecelia
Klos
October 5 Winners
Topic Sentence: The storm
was scary.
Word Picture: I slowly
crawled out from under
my bed to peak out my
window, thinking that the
storm was over, but I
thought wrong; while liking strikes shot down from
the sky every four seconds,
followed by loud booms of
thunderclaps, tons of rain
and hail fell from the sky. –
Trinity Loeffler
T h e
S p o o k y
W I N N E R S !
Parsons
Word picture: As he held
it on his lap, he attempted
to seal his cluttered bag,
but was then faced with
the realization that the
seams on it had just given
way, and piles of last
year’s papers, markers,
money, four books, unused and full notebooks,
gym clothes, track shoes,
and even an umbrella clattered to the floor. – Allie
Cogswell
Word Picture: As I hid in
the closet I heard a loud
bang and jumped; the
thunder in the background
sounded like a giant’s footsteps getting closer and
closer. – Noah Evans
Word Picture: The dark
clouds fill the sky, making
it look like it’s nighttime
rather than the afternoon;
lightning strikes from my
bedroom window blind
me and thunder sends my
dog running to the corner.
–Marcos Alquilara
October 22nd Winners:
Topic Sentence: The old
house looked creepy.
Word Picture: The black
curtains flowed in the
harsh wind as the dark red
shutters creaked back and
forth; the welcome mat
was torn to shreds. – Samantha Parsons
Word Picture: The old gray
house on my block was 20
years old and had vines
growing on it and dead
grass surrounding it; even
though it was uninhabited,
The student’s backpack was
messy...
you could occasionally see
the top floor curtain move.
– Anna Monotte
Word Picture: The floor
groaned when the slightest
pressure was placed upon
it; the three children sneaking in the house got the
chills as a brisk wind
seeped in, biting their skin.
–Karson Latchaw
Picture
This!
V o l u m e
1 ,
I ss u e
1
P a g e
S p o o k y
(Continued from page 1) I went to
sleep for a bit, but then I heard a
noise in the dead of the night.
I woke up.
The words “NOW I’VE GOT
YOU” were scrawled across my
closet door in red.
And the woman was standing
there, right in my room.
“The Crazy Man’s Cabin” by Anthony Horsley
There once was a crazy old man that
lived in the woods. He had no family or friends. He lived alone in a
small cabin. Kids always entered the
S t o r i e s
c o n t i n u e d
woods and never returned. People
said the woods were dangerous.
One day a kid named Billy “BB”
Boldus decided to try to prove to
everyone wrong by entering the
woods. BB entered the woods and
soon came to a small cabin. What he
saw made his blood freeze. In front
of the cabin were statues— statues
of the kids that were missing. BB felt
a needle poke his shoulder. Billy
turned around and saw the crazy
old man.
#1— Christina Hagan
She woke up shivering,
feeling like she was turning
blue. She felt around with
her tightly bound hands
and felt shapes, objects
around her, objects that
were soft and hard. A whiff
of something smacked her
in the face and made her
gag. It smelled like something… raw. Now she decided to try to figure out
where she was. She tried
standing up, but that idea
was shot down. Her head
hit against something only
There once was a crazy old man
that lived in the woods. He had no
family. He had one friend.
His newest statue.
“What did you do to me?” BB
screamed.
“I’m adding you to my collection,”
W r i t i n g E x e r c i s e :
K i d n a p p i n g
“The kidnapping “is a fiction-writing exercise that
works with point of view
and sensory detail. A character awakens, blindfolded,
bound and gagged, and
must figure out where he or
she is. Can you figure out
where these characters are?
(Answers are on page 4.)
the old man answered. BB felt himself freezing. He looked down and
saw him body had turned to stone.
The last face BB made was a face of
pure horror. And then it froze that
way.
a couple feet above her, as
if she was in some kind of
box. She fell back and realized she was laying in little
mountains of ice. Suddenly
she heard them coming.
One loud pop of an opening latch, and she rolled
down on the floor.
“Easy, there,” she heard a
voice say. They were taking
off her blindfold, and she
was disgusted at what she
had been laying in. She
knew where she was.
#2— Julissa George
Maria awoke to the sound
of chains—chains being
pulled over something. She
tried to move her limbs,
only to end up falling on
her right side in pain. Her
hands were tied to her ankles. She tried to open her
eyes, but it did no good; she
was blindfolded. She want-
t h e
ed to yell for help, but she
was gagged with some metallic –tasting rough cloth.
The smell of some kind of
food wafted up to her nose.
What was it… corn dogs, of
all things? She tried to ignore the feeling of the rope
biting into the delicate skin
of her wrist and ankles as
she tried to focus on the
sound of screaming coming
from a short distance away.
Once again trying to focus
on the noise, she heard
more screams, and realized
they were joyful—screams
of fun.
She knew where she was.
#3—Tyler Zanoni
When he awoke, he immediately knew wasn’t at
home. (Continued on page
4)
“I woke up,
blindfolded,
bound and
gagged. I
tried to
figure out
where I
was.”
3
W r i t i n g
E x e r c i s e : t h e
K i d n a p p i n g
( C o n t i n u e d )
(Continued from page 3)
What he fell asleep on– his soft, warm bed
– was now missing, replaced by a damp
floor and splintery wall he was stiffly
propped up against. The ropes on his
wrists, his ankles, were tied so tight, it left
searing pain on his skin as they dug into
his flesh. He tried not to panic when he
finally noted his eyes were covered, not an
ounce of light passing through the cloth. It
had to be pitch black. The stench that filled
the air, harsh and sickeningly salty, had
him willing the contents of his stomach
down. If he threw up, it would just get
caught in the dirty cloth the gagged him.
He felt drool oozing down his chin and he
hoped he could stop the tears that threatened to spill from his eyes. It might be
dreadfully quiet, but he wasn’t alone, and
he didn’t want to look weak in front of his
captors. The churning in his gut was only
made worse by the way the ground
seemed to rock ever-so-slightly, forcing his
body to sway back and forth, has back
sliding against the walls. He could feel
himself collecting splinters. He couldn’t
decide what noise he would rather hear—
the terrifying sound of his captors entering
the room? Or would he rather deal with
the agonizing silence that filled it now?
Why, the only other sounds besides his
own labored breathing was the irritating
creaking that filled the room every time it
rocked. Not to mention the mockingly
peaceful sound of tired waves occasionally
crashing against the walls around him
Then he froze, and his efforts to remain
calm crumbled. He realized where he was.
Facing Fear: essays about fear
and its causes
Our 6th graders have been studying a thematic unit on Facing Fear.
Two students in Mrs. Howell Lee’s
class have written essays about fear
that appeared on her classes blog:
“Sharks” by S.W.
Slightly edited by Lauren Howell
You’re swimming in the beach. All
of the sudden you see a big grey
shiny fin gleaming in the water.
Your first reaction is yell, “OMG!”,
swim and scream! But why? The
author of “Why People Are So
Afraid of Sharks?” Elizabeth Palermo, states, “People are afraid of
sharks and I don’t know why.”
Well I will tell you why.
Would you like to get
chewed up by a shark? Many of
you have probably said no. Well
the author of the article, Elizabeth
Palermo states that people are terrified of sharks because “getting eaten by one would be a really crummy way to die.” She is correct. I
mean, would you really like to get
eaten by one? Elizabeth also states
in one of her articles that, “Sharks
pose a risk to humans.” She also
explains that they can, “gruesomely
eat you alive.” I would not like to
be dinner for a shark. Especially
when you never knew they were
coming, and that leads me to my
next point.
A man named “Ropiek”
said in this article that, “A shark
lurking under water where you
can’t see it, and then all of the sudden you’re a goner.” This is quite a
scary fact, especially when you
don’t know it’s coming. Would you
like to not know that a 3,000 pound
killer is beneath your feet ready to
eat you alive?
Here are some ways you
can stop a grueling accident to happen and be a shark’s dinner. You
can stay alert and watch your life
guard. You can also make sure
you’re aware of your surroundings
around you. Make sure you don’t
put your life in a s...well, teeth.
“Fear” by M.R. Slightly edited by
Lauren Howell Lee
Have you ever thought,
what causes fear? Or why you get
scared in the dark? Well, fear is a
complicated thing. Today we will
learn about the fears we have and
what causes them.
There are so many articles
about causes fear. In the article, “Factoring Fear: What Scares Us
and Why,” the author Lou Dzierzak
states, “Fear is the response to immediate stimuli.” This means that
fear is when your brain responds in
a way to show that you are scared.
It is the empty feeling in your gut,
the racing of your heart, your palms
sweating and the nervousness.
Those are some effects that happen
when you are scared.
Also, there are some articles
that talk about the brain and what
parts in the brain cause fear. In the
same article, Dzierzak states, “The
reaction to fear inducing stimuli
shows up in the amygdala.” This
shows that the amygdala is a small
piece of your brain that stores your
fear. The amygdala is the first response to threatening stimuli. There
is also a change of blood flow to the
amygdala.
Fear is a complicated thing.
The whole article, “Factoring Fear:
What Scares Us and Why,”is about
what fear is. It tells us why we are
scared of things. It’s also about what
causes our fear and what does the
amygdala do to the brain. The
whole challenge is to understand
fear.
Solutions to the “Kidnappings”:
#1—In a meat cooler in the back of a
Supermarket
#2—In a food concession stand at the fair
#3—On a boat out at sea