CHAPTER FOUR, wood

    Inside the letter was a note. It read:

 We have been running our gold business

for over 200 years but never have we found

anything like this. The markings we found

on the gold are from Spain and are over

500 years old. Inside the gold we found a

green slush that has never been identified

before. Even though it was not gold we still

added $100 to your price. Your gold was only

1 square inch but is still VERY expensive.

We have  kept it in a very secure safe so it

will never get stolen. Thank you!   
Behind the note was their check. "Kaden! Our gold was worth nine hundred and fifty-eight dollars!"

    "Le'me see!", Kaden grabbed the check out of his hand. "Are you seriouse? Whoa! It is! James, were rich! We can't tell any one about this. If anyone hears they will try to steal it."

    "I can't even tell Hermit?"

    "Nope, not even Hermit."

    "OK." James growned. "But, from now on you have to be nice to me. Deal?"

    "It's a deal."

    "How are we going to keep it from my mom? I don't own anything big enough to put all the stuff we will buy in."
    "We could bring it to a far away secret area where no one has ever been!"

    "Were just kids. Think real Kaden."
    "Or... we could build a tree house!"

*          *          *

    James and Kaden rolled out a big sheet of paper and put it on a desk. They started thinking of how the tree house should be built. Their idea was to make it look like a mansion. It would have three stories, some secret passage ways for the fun of it, a fireman poll to climb from one story to the next, and a deck on the top with a telescope for lookout. This project will be very expensive and may already take away 900 dollars.
    After they were done planning the tree houses construction, James went to a shop that sold wood and came back home. The wood was extremely expensive and already took 9 hundred and twenty-three dollars away from their amount.
    "We can't work on the tree house today because my mom gets home at 5 o'clock. It's already 4: 30. Lets start it tomorrow.
    After that, James and Kaden worked on the tree house everyday for two months. It was finally finished. And as they planned - it did look like a mansion.
    James and Kaden needed more gold for buying stuff so they went back to the trap door they fell in. The light they had seen before was back on. How does it know when where coming?, James thought. When they arrived, the trap door was already open from last time they came. The light turned off as soon as James started to climb down the ladder. Kaden followed behind.
    As soon as Kaden touched the ground he went strait for the gold. This time he picked up a bigger piece.
    "Pretty soon we will be the richest kids in the world!", Boozer said excitedly. "Even Bill Gates will bow down to us. You know how awesome this will be?"
    "I know!" James yelled. "Think of the things we could buy! Imagine us grooving down the highway in a Ferrari Enzo"
    "Blings hanging down our neck."
    "Playing baseball with the prose."
    "Living in a real mans-"
    DONG!
    "Did you hear that this time?" James whispered sounding scared.
    "Ya. I think it came strait from that openning over there. But who cares? Nothing matters when gold is in our hands!"
    Kaden went back over to the pile of gold and started digging through. He wanted to to find something  extra interesting inside of it.
    "Hey, James! Look what I found!" Kaden yelled while pulling out a gold crown, but James didn't answer. In fact, he wasn't even in the room.... He must have sneaked into the opening while Kaden wasn't looking.
    "James? James! I told you not to go over there! Come back right now! James, answer me!"
    Kaden went into the opening and saw James laying on the ground unconscious. "James, wake up!", Kaden slapped him in the face twice before screaming in his ear "James! What happened to you! Wake up!" Kaden shook his head, depressed, and looked up. Huge, green feet entered his field of view. And even higher than that was its body, green and odd shaped. This thing was definitely an alien.
    And then Kaden fainted.

copyright date 2010

CHAPTER THREE: bright and shiney

    "James! Look at this! You wont believe it!" Kaden shouted in James ear while he was still recovering from the fall. James opened his eyes and looked around. Joy started to fill his face.
    "Oh my god! We found gold!" There the gold was, shining brightly. They dance around and shouted in rejoice. They even hugged each other. They stopped shouting and realized who they were holding on to. They both backed away from each other. They were both thinking, awkward! Then they started to dance around again.
    "Oh wait! How is it... shining?", James said. "How is there light in this room? There must be a light source." James and Kaden looked around for a light source. There was a single light on the ceiling. "That's... impossible. This light has probably been running for thousands of years!" They both looked at it in wonder.
    Kaden stuck his hand out to touch it.
    "Don't touch! It's probably really hot." James warned. Kaden kept on moving his hand toward the light. He touched it and jumped back.
    "It's-It's cold!"
    "No way!" James reached his hands out and touched it also. "That's amazing. Only 90% of normal lights energy is used in light. The other 10% is used in heat. In this light 100% of its energy is used in light so it can't burn. No one has ever found a filament that could power this."
    "Maby it's powered by dinosaur skin."
    "No. That would have to be millions of years ago. This is only a couple thousand of years... if that."
    "Forget the light, lets think about the gold.", Kaden said. They both had almost forgotten.
    They both picked up a piece of gold and looked at it. "I think its real", Kaden said.
    Were no professional. We know who ever used to own this is smart. It could easily be a fake. Lets take this to a gold tester.
    "How do we find our way back?" James asked.
    "I found a compass in the pile of gold"
    A dong was sounded in the distance. "Did you hear that?", James wondered.
    "Hear what?"
    "It sounded like a dong. Right behind that corner over there", James pointed his finger at an opening in the wall at the far side of the room.
    "You didn't hear anything! Its just your imagination!"
    "Don't you just want to look?!"
    "Look.", Kaden grabbed James shirt to keep him from running into the opening. "Lets take the gold, test it, and we'll all be happy!"
    Kaden took the compass out of the gold pile. "Your house is West from here.", said Kaden. "Lets get going." Kaden took a chunk of gold and started climbing a ladder that leaded out of the trap door that they fell through. James followed him up. When James got to the middle he stopped, looked back at the opening with wonder of what was in it, and started to climb all the way up.
    They made it back to the house without any problems.
    When they entered the house, Kaden put the piece of gold down. "What do we do with it?", Kaden wondered.
    "There aren't any gold testers in town but there must be on the Internet.", James suggested.
    They both went to the computer. James wiggled the mouse to turn it on and clicked the 'Internet Explore' button. The mouse moved over to the 'Google Search'. James typed in: '#1 best gold tester in the world', then clicked 'enter'. Google came up with 65.5 million results. The first result was called: Gold - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The second was called: RS Mizar Premium Gold, Diamond and Moissanite Testing Kit. James clicked that. In it was a lot of things about the gold testers and how they work. James clicked a button called: 'test your gold now!' James had to type in there address and print the companies address so they could mail it. The shipping cost $10.
    James and Kaden found a box, put the gold in it, rapped it up with tape, put the mailing address on it, and road there bikes to the mailing station.
    James and Kaden couldn't wait to see if it was real. They checked there mail every day till it came.
    The envelope was very neat looking. It was painted gold and had silver-painted letters. They quickly opened it up and looked inside.

copy write date 2010

CHAPTER TWO: a horse kills a kingdom

    James put his book down and went to the door. Like he thought, Hermit was there.

    "Just on time!” James exclaimed while letting him in and closing the door. Hermit looked at the clock. It said 4:30.
    "Let me get out the chess board". The chessboard and the pieces were made of polished glass. It was very expensive and fragile. James carefully put the pieces on the chessboard in correct order.
    The game was slow. Not a word came threw anyone’s mouth. It took from 2-5 minutes to move one piece. At the end, Hermit moved his knight and said, "Check mate!" withed a smile.
    "Urge. You always win!"
    "I know. That’s because I'm smarter than you."
    "Well, Its time for you to go home now. I have to walk my neighbors’ dog in ten minutes.
    "OK, Bye!"
    "Bye!"
    Hermit walked threw the door and waved good-bye again then closed the door. As soon as he left James went to get a dog leash and shoes. Then, he ran outside to his neighbors’ house and knocked on the door. An old Lady opened the door. "I’m ready to walk your dog".
    "OK, I'll get Toby", she said (Toby is the dogs name). A big Golden Retriever came threw the door and Toby climbed down the front porch steps. James grabbed his collar and attached the leash.
    "Bye!" James waved.
    Instead of the owner-saying bye she just gave a kind smile without showing any teeth. Toby walked calmly with James. When they were out of the owner’s sight, the dog started to run at full speed. James yanked forward and started to run with Toby. James could only keep his grip of Toby's leash for a short period of time. Toby started to run faster and faster. James tried to keep up with him but he couldn't. Toby was already 20 feet in head of him.
    With immense speed, Toby quickly jumped over a wooden fence that James could not see through. James stopped and looked at the fence, took a quick breath, and grabbed onto the top. James used his legs to push himself up the fence. He managed to get one leg over but to his surprise, Toby jumped back over the fence, running the opposite toward the owner’s house. James sighed and jumped back down from the fence. He started running toward Toby. He was at leased 50 feet away.
     James ran as fast as he could till he found Toby sitting at the spot he first took off running. James caught his breath, grabbed the leash, and walked toward the owner’s house.
    Toby barked to let the owner know they were there. She opened the door and James said in a rush, "ma'am! I swear! Every time I walk that dog he runs off when we get out of your sight! That dog hates me!"
    "But why would such a nice dog like this do such a thing like that?" Toby lay on the ground and rolled over with his belly up. "Look at him! Isn't he just cute? You would never do a thing like that would you?" she asked the dog. The owner kneeled down and gave Toby a belly rub. "Now stop whining", she said to James.


The next day came and James went to school. James had many of books in his hands. They piled up to shoulder height, which made it difficult because he couldn’t balance them with his chin. He walked slowly through the halls, balancing them in his arms. He looked down at his books every once in a while to check if they were steady. While looking down at his books he turning around a corner, bumped into someone, and all the books shattered all over the person he bumped into. Hitting hard enough to make him have a bruise. He looked down at the books and saw them scattered around the floor. He looked up to see whom he hit. It was Kaden.
    "Hey, four eyes! Watch where you're going!" James could see the anger in Kaden's face. An encore of people chanted, "Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!"
    Kaden took the first swing at James face. James ducked. Kaden swung at James chin, giving him an uppercut. James fell to the floor with his back on the ground all beaten up.
   Kaden knelt down and grabbed James by the neck. Kaden put his fist in the air and said, "watch," he punched him in the face, "where," he punched him in the face again, "you're," and again, "going!”
    His arm got stuck in the air. They both looked up to see what it was caught on. It was Mrs. Humbird. She caught his arm right in the air.
    "What are you doing?!” Mrs. Humbird said. Kaden didn't respond. "Say sorry!"
    "I'm sorry Mrs. Humbird."
    "Not to me, him!"
    "I'm sorry James," he groaned.
    "That will give you an automatic 'step four'!" 'Step four' gets you suspended. Mrs. Humbird grabbed Kaden and took him to the office. Kaden struggled to get out but Mrs. Teacher was too strong.
    "And everyone go to class!” Mrs. Humbird shouted back at the kids that were watching Kaden and James fight.
    Everyone scurried to there classes.
    It was nice having Kaden out of his classes. No more getting yelled at.
    First period ended quickly. James got an A on all of his papers he turned in. When the 'five-minute-break bell' rang, everyone in the class quickly rushed to the door.
    There was a big population of kids in the halls. More and more people crowded the halls every second. For some reason people were staring at James. Is there something wrong with my face? James thought.
    James went to the bathroom to look into the mirrors. His face was bloody from the fight with Kaden. He had a bloody nose, black eye, bloody chin, and his left cheek was bruised. The back of his head had a big bump. He needed to get to the nurse.
    James walked out of the bathroom. As he headed toward the nurse's office, Jessica looked at him and said, "What happened to your face? Oh ya, Kaden beat you up? Why didn't you fight back? Oh ya, 'cus your a wimp?!" Jessica pushed him back. All her friends laughed. "And by the way, I'm not interested in you." James ran away almost in tears.
    James got to the nurse's office. The nurse looked at his face and said, "Oh my! What happened to your face?"
    "Kaden hit me."
    "Oh yes! I heard about that. I'm glad you came to the nurse."
    The nurse wet a washcloth and washed off his face. Then, she got a block of blue ice and put it on the back of his head where the he had the bump.
    "Do you want to go home?” the nurse asked.
    "I guess."
    James called home and his mom answered.
    "Hello."
    "Hi Mom, I got beat up."
    "Are you alright?"
    "Of coarse not, Mom." Why do moms always ask the most obvious questions in the world? James thought.
    "OK. I'll pick you up."
    James's mom came to his school to pick him up. James walked out to the car, opened the door and jumped in.
    "Oh, my God! How did this happen!"
    "I bumped into Kaden."
    "Hmmm. I guess anything can make him mad. It was an accident, right?"
    "Ya."
    "And he just blames it on you and decides to get in a fight."
    They made it to the house and went inside. James went strait to his leather couch and read 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid'. It was only 8:45 am. At 10:00 am. James' mom went to work. At 4:40 James put his book down.
    Why isn't Hermit here yet? He was supposed to be here 10 minutes ago! James went to the front window and looked outside. Where is he?
    James went to the kitchen and got out some food. When he was half way done the doorbell rang. Usually he knocks on the door not ring the doorbell. Something fishy is going on.
    James went to the door and opened it. It was Kaden. "Surprise!” Kaden yelled.
    "How did you find my house, and where's Hermit?” James asked.
    "I saw him coming this way, so I asked him where he was going and he said your house. I asked where your house was and he told me. Finally, I told him to go back to his house so he did."
     Kaden let himself inside.
     "Kaden! Get out of my house!"
     "Make me."
    Kaden found 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' on the couches and picked it up. He pulled a permanent marker out of his pocket and crossed out the author's name and replaced with James's. "Hey! That's a school library book!” James shouted.
    "Good! Then everyone will see it!” Kaden laughed. “Hey, aren't we right next to the sand dunes? I thought I saw that steel wall when I came to your house. Lets check it out!"
    "No! You can’t go over there! It's too dangerous!"
    "Well, then you'll come with me…." Kaden grabbed James by the shirt and dragged him toward the back door. James struggled to get out, but Kaden was too strong. Kaden dragged him to the gate in the steel wall and opened it.
    They looked off into the distance and saw a light. "I've never seen that before." James admitted.
    "Check it out. Lets follow it!"
    They followed it for a long time and the closer they got to the light, the stronger the wind was and more sand filled the air. The both squinted to see the light. By now they could hardly see each other but they were getting closer. James looked back at his house. It was completely invisible. James looked back. The light was gone, and so was Kaden. "Kaden! Kaden! Where are you?” James shouted. This was the first time James had shouted for Kadens help. James took two steps, and fell.

copy write date 2010

CHAPTER ONE- sea in the sand

    James gripped his baseball tight in his hands. Standing in his back yard, he took in a deep breath, threw it straight in air, swung the bat, and missed. Everything he did, he knew was a fail. Things just didn't turn out the he wanted then to. So he fell to the ground, curled into a tight ball, and let the world fade from his mind. All he wanted to think of was the bad things of his life.
    “Why do I have to be such a loser,” James thought, “and a geek?” He stood up, taking his ball and bat in hand. “I only have one friend. And who is he? A geek… Just like me” Throwing the ball in the air again, he thought, why can’t I be someone special? Then, with out even thinking to aim for the ball, he swung. The bat made a loud clacking sound, hitting its target. He looked up and saw that he had finally succeeded. It flew high in the air; farther than he had imagined.
    It felt good for a while, till it all went wrong again. A giant steel wall, twenty feet high, stood at the borders of his back yard. Behind it was nothing but cursed dunes that piled over like a dessert monster. Its winds blew at fierce miles that could knock over anything in its path.
    The gate was there to stop it from taking over everything else that lived near the dunes. Without the wall, his house would have been wrecked years ago, and his ball just landed behind it.
    Crap, I better not lose that ball, James thought and openned the gate.
    As soon as it peeped open it felt like the whole world was filled with sand. It rushed in his face, forcing him to close his eyes. Every step felt like he was moving a truck. He put a foot in the sand and already felt himself sinking in.
    These sand dunes weren't like any ordinary sand dunes. These ones had to have be cursed by some crazy monster that had no respect for anyone in the world. You see, wind doesn't just happen to be in places like this for no reason. Something has to cause it. It could be just a coincidence but scientists say it had to do with the heating of the sand and difference in temperatures but James thinks that's just a bunch of baloney.
    Many things have been lost in the sand dunes. If you put something in them they will eventually get pulled under. He doesn't get how that works either.
    James cracked his eyes open a tad bit so he he could see but not enough to where it splintered his eyes. He had glasses which protected his eyes a little bit but it also caused him to have to wipe them off every few seconds.
    James looked on the ground for the ball but didn't see it any where. It had already sunken into the sand.
    James opened the gate to his back yard and walked into his house. He slumped into his nice leather couch and pondered over everything the had happened lately... imaginary or not. He looked up to see his mom coming down stairs with loads of laundry.
    James took a deep breath and said," Mom, I lost my baseball in the sand dunes".
    “You know, you should be more careful around those dunes," his mom said like it was a punishment.
    "Ya, sure," James said without caring.


In the morning, school arrived. He reluctantly packed his supplies and put them in his backpack. He rode the bus to school every week except for the few times he ran late.
    He arrived at his middle school and waited inside for his one and only friend, Hermit. Hermit was not his real name. He's been called that ever since he was little because of his high pitched croky voice that is extreamly annoying. Hermit has never been bothered by his nick name. He is actually proud of it because  he doesn't know that its a bad thing to have a voice like his. He almost always looks at the bright side of things and is a little too proud of himself considering how different he is.
     Hermit entered the door quickly locating James; together they walked to their first class. As they walked James could only look at one thing, or rather person, Jessica. He stared long and hard as she passed. It was like nothing else was there. Just him and her, until a fist pounded into his stomach, which made him realize what was around him.
     "Stop staring!” Hermit hissed. "Listen, I know you like her but you're NEVER GOING TO GET A DATE!"
    "Quiet down!" James looked around to make sure no one was listening.
    "I will talk as loud as I want. Now, try thinking about something valuable in life,” Hermit beamed a smile like a crescent moon “Like chess!”
    "Really Hermit? There are better things than that. Why don't you try getting out of your obsession?"
    "Hey, you like the game too!"
    "Ya, but I'm not obsessed like you are."
    James arrived to class and plopped down in his assigned seat. Mr. Fragens, the teacher, came in and said, "Everyone, I am giving you a test. Finish it QUIETLY."
    “Why do they always yell the word quietly?” James pondered, trying to keep his thoughts on at least something school related, rather than on the girl he’d prefer to be thinking about.
    Mr. Fragens handed out the exam to all the kids and James started writing. Five minutes into the test, something started poking his back. James twisted around to find that Kaden, one of his worst enemies, was tapping him with the lead of his pencil.
    "Stop Kaden," James muttered and turned back around. Turning, James went back to work. Within seconds Boozer continued poking. James' hand shot up in the air like a speeding bullet.
    "Yes James?" Mr. Fragens asked.
    "Kaden keeps jabbing me with his pencil and won’t stop!"
    "Well, did you ask him to stop?" His teacher said sounding bored.
    "Yes."
    Mr. Fragens sighed. "Kaden, go sit by the wall and don't look back." Kaden cooperated with the punishment.
    James went back to work, as did the rest of the class. James finished the last problem and turned his paper in to the pile at the front of the room.
    The between-class bell rang, and everyone rushed to the door. His second class he shared with both Hermit and Jessica. James had horrible grades in this class because for one thing he all ways passed notes to Hermit, and on top of that he couldn’t keep his eyes off Jessica. He sat down in his chair and got out a piece of paper.
    James wrote: "Remember, chess club at 4:00. Don't forget to come to my house!" James folded the note and handed it to Hermit.
    Mrs. Teacher came around to pass out corrected papers. Noticing, Hermit quickly hid the scrap in his desk. James looked at his grade, he got a C. Hermit got a B. Hermit looked over at James’ grade and laughed, "That’s what happens when you fantasize about girls."
    "Psht. I can do what I want!" James countered, and inclined his head to look at Jessica. Jessica had big, attractive blue eyes and blond hair that looked nicely combed, long, and shiney. She dressed with expensive clothes that were very popular and had a perfect tan. Her smile was cute and shone very glamorousely every time she laughed.
    Jessica saw James staring at her. Her smile was brought up again as she took out a piece of paper and began writing a secret note.
    “Is Jessica really starting to like me?” James thought, his pulse quickened with anticipation. Then, Jessica crumpled up the piece of paper and threw it at James face. Hermit snorted with laughter and Jessica quickly turned around like nothing happened.
    "Did you just throw that at James face?!" Mrs. Teacher more stated than asked "Go to 'step one'!" “Step one” was the same discipline Boozer took in first period. Jessica shot James a death glare as she passed on her way to the back of the room.
    James looked at the piece of paper Jessica thrown at him and picked it up off the ground. Unrolling it, all he saw were an abundance of squiggly lines going up and down. “So much for Jessica liking me” James thought.
    The bell rang signaling that it was time for lunch. The rest of the day was normal, nothing interesting happened. He slowly meander home on his bike only to find his mom in the kitchen and his dad down stairs working on the computer. She asked him everyday the same question, "How was your day at school, Sweety?". He replied like always and said fine. Then she asked her following questions that he was prepared for, "What did you guys do?". Again the usual answer came pouring out of his mouth as slow as molasses.
    "Nothing." He climbed up the stairs and closed the door waiting for Hermit to show up.
    James read a book, bored, until Hermit knocked on his door for chess club.

copy write date 2010