Aleksi Buhler The clowns I don't know why I looked up but when I did I saw him there. He stood against my window. His forehead rested against the glass. His eyes were still and light and he smiled a lipstick-red cartoonish grin. He just stood there at my window, watching me. My parents were asleep upstairs, my brother was in his crib, and I couldn't move. I froze and my eyes were stuck on him, I was to scared to look away. He looked past me through the glass. His smile never moved, but he put a hand up and slowly slid it down the glass. He was just standing there with his matted orange hair and bleached white skin. Suddenly my phone went off, the loud noise frightened me. I took a quick glance at my phone and when I looked back up at the window he was gone. With a quaky voice I answered the phone "Hello?". The only response I got was a giggle from a low raspy voice. I got scared and hurried to hang it up. Not long after the lights started flickering and I heard running down the hall, outside of my door. The lights shut off and it was silent. After 5 minuets of the darkness the lights were back on. I hid under my blanket, not knowing what to do. I peeked out of the sheets and saw scarlet red blood dripping down my door, spelling out my name. As I was looking at my door someone bursted into the room. It was the clown from my window. He just stood there at my door smiling his creepy smile. I got goosebumps just looking at him. He stood there staring at me for a couple of minuets but it felt like forever. Then he came at me, laughing a low raspy giggle just like the one on the phone. I know I couldn't do anything to stop him, but I still tried to fight back. The clown put a cloth bag over my head. He then did the same to the rest of my family. He made us walk to his vehicle and he drove us to a building. He lead us to a room and took off all of the bags. He made us all sit down and he stared at us. He looked like he was choosing one of us. He walked to the door as if he was leaving, and told me to follow. He took me to another room in the building, it was bigger than the other one and it was full of desks and kids my age to fill them. He had me sit and he left. Another clown walked in and handed everyone a stack of papers. He explained to us that there is six hundred questions and we have six minuets to finish. It was basically impossible, but I still tried my best. I thought I was doing good, but then I heard the alarm go off, I only finished one hundred thirty six questions. They grabbed my arms and threw me in a room. One of the walls was a glass window. My family was in a room just like mine, across from me. I watched as a clown cranked a wheel. I saw my family gasping for air. Once there was no pulse on all of their bodies, the clowns did the same to me. Normally this is where I woke up from the nightmare gasping for air and feeling failure, but this time was different, this time I never woke up, this time it never ended, just repeated time after time.
Students Choice Reflection 1. List one thing you've learned from writing this paper that you can apply to other writing assignments. What will that look like?
Answer: I learned that adding more detail to a story pulls people in more, and for a scary story it can make it scarier.
2. Identify a specific revision you were asked to make and explain why (this can be at any stage of the writing process). How did you revise? What did you learn?
Answer: The story I wrote had to be at least two pages long and the first time I wrote it, it was one and a half pages. I added more detail to make it a longer story.
3. What are the conventions of a Students Choice and how did you meet those in this assignment?
Answer: I had to have a story, poem, or anything else completely written by me. I wrote this story all on my own.
4. Given more time to work on this assignment, how would you improve it?
Answer: I would have added more information about my characters in the story, and a background.
5. What is one thing you're proud of in this paper?
Answer: I'm proud of how it turned out and that people actually thought it was a scary story.