Red looked across the prairie. He didn't see anything concerning. He wondered why Texas Joe had hollered like that. Texas Joe turned to him. The ghost that Texas Joe had just seen was gone. Texas Joe swatted at the air. Now he felt crazy. "You have to believe me, Red. It was just here," said Texas Joe. Red scowled at him in disbelief. "What was just here, Joe?" he asked. Red was angry with Texas Joe for disturbing his sleep for no apparent reason.

Jeremiah squinted from the sun. He was thinking about the game. They could have won. He could have won the game for them. All he needed to do was catch the ball, but he didn't. He dropped it. His coach talked to him. "Jeremiah, we had a great season. Nobody's perfect. Look at me. Ha ha," he said. Jeremiah smiled at the coach, but he couldn't forgive himself so easily.

Suzie applied the lipstick to her lips. She had never done this before. She smacked her lips like she had seen other women do in the movies and looked in the mirror. She felt unsure about what she saw. She turned to her friend Donna and asked, "How do I look?" Donna gasped and said, "You look breathtaking, Suzie." Suzie smiled. She was grateful for these words, even though she didn't believe them.

April opened the escape hatch. She was afraid to jump, but she realized that the airship was sinking. She looked at Vince, who was strapping on his parachute. Vince locked eyes with her and then he realized the error in his conduct. "I'm sorry, April. That was ungentlemanly of me. Let me help you with yours." He proceeded to attach the other parachute to April's back. This made him feel a little better.

The bell rang. "Oh no! I'm going to be late for science! I've got to go," said Cassie to her friend Tom. Tom rolled his eyes and said, "Little Miss Perfect can't be late." This upset Cassie. She hated when people gave her a hard time for trying to do the right thing, especially Tom. "Quiet you," she said while swinging at Tom with her folder. He narrowly dodged the strike and said, "Be careful now. Attacking another student is a level two offense." Then he smiled a big, cheesy grin at her.

"You already told me that story," said Shanice. She looked genuinely disappointed. I laughed awkwardly. "Sorry," I said, "I didn't mean to bore you with a rerun." I tried to laugh it off but she just wouldn't let it go. "Don't you even consider your listener before you tell a story?" she inquired acerbically. This caught me off guard. I replied, "I'm just trying to keep you entertained, Shanice." I pleaded. She smacked me down with another sharp comment, "Yeah, well, you should try harder."

Pete didn't feel like doing homework. He felt like playing baseball. He grabbed his mitt off the shelf and began to fantasize about being out in the field. His fantasy was interrupted shortly by the opening of his bedroom door. It was his mom. She started to yell, "Pete, you're not failing baseball class! You're failing math class! You need to study. Put the mitt away!" Pete put the mitt away, but he didn't know the first thing about studying math.

Penny pedaled her bike as quickly as she could, but she couldn't seem to build up enough speed. She started rolling down the hill. "I can't do it," she thought to herself. Her friend Melissa was riding behind her. "Keep trying! Stand up on your pedals. You can do it!" Melissa shouted. Penny decided to take her advice. She stood up on the pedals and put all of her weight into the climb. She started going up the hill. This made Penny very happy. "Thanks Melissa!" she said as she got to the top of the hill. Melissa smiled and said, "What are friends for?"

The sun was rising. Ivan saw the light piercing through the drawn curtains in his bedroom and knew that he would have to get up soon. He hadn't been sleeping for the last hour. He had been thinking about the future. He nudged his wife Nadia. Nadia came to slowly. She smiled, still thinking about the pleasant dream that she had been having, until she looked at Ivan's face. She could tell that something was wrong.

The green ooze dripped slowly down the steps. We didn't have a Geiger counter with us, but if we had, I bet that it would have been beeping. I noticed Chris moving toward the ooze and said, "Chris, don't!" but it was too late. Chris dipped the front part of his shoe in the ooze and the ooze burned the sole off his shoe instantly. Then it melted his sock, and then it began to go to work on his foot. Vanessa began licking her lips. "I wonder what it tastes like," she said. I screamed, "No Vanessa! Don't!"

Carrie and Kylie giggled. Neither of them knew what they had just found. They thought that they had discovered a cool looking rock. They had no idea that they were holding a real life dinosaur egg. This surprise would dawn on them later, when they brought the egg home. Carrie was using the egg as a paperweight, so she kept the egg under her desk lamp. But this egg would soon hatch, and Carrie and Kylie were about to have the adventure of a lifetime.