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The Cutout

Cutouts (on top)

Negative space drawings (located underneath)

Reflection

1. Negative space is blank, unused space surrounding an object.

2. In my stool drawing, I found negative space by coloring in the drawing, and leaving the rest of the paper blank.

3. It helps an artist to see in negtive space because there is nothing blocking the view of the object.

Don’t Touch

JEFF’S PROPERTY

BY JEFF

WRITEN BY JEFF

Hey,

Alright let’s get this straight. As I stated in my previous journal, I mentioned all the bullshit I had to go through. The girl I’m in love with played me in front of the whole class, not to mention her jerk-face boyfriend keeps pushing me. One day, I’m going to be rich, and they’ll regret everything they ever did to me.

Anyways, before I get too emotional on you, this journal has one purpose, and one purpose only: to please my mother. I went to a therapist recently because my mom thought I was depressed and all that, which I tried to deny, but she wasn’t having that. Pam, the therapist, suggested that I write everything that I’m feeling, and how my day went, and what exactly what went on.

At first i was like “yeah, definitely, it sounds like a plan” out loud to Pam, but really in my head I was like “man, fuck that”. Turns out my mom was thinking quite the opposite, because right when  we left Pam’s office, she drove me right to dollar tree to get a journal. Now, i’m actually kind of used to writing in a book. Its quite comforting since I have no one else to talk to, that actually understands what I go through. My first journal I filled in so much, I had to wrap it up with a rubber band because it was bursting with loose papers every time I dared to open it. I just decided to get a new one, so my mom gave me the money for it.

Oh, and lets get another thing straight: I’m going to be rich one day. When that day comes, I can sell this journal for money, and become even MORE richer. Please, hold the applause. Anyways, Let me tell you a little about myself, since my other journal is so old you probably can’t interpret anything. Hi, I’m Jeff (as you probably guessed from the cover). I’m 16, I love Nutella, cocoa butter, old school Dell computers, and Forensic Analysis. Yes, i’m weird- I get that numerous times throughout the day. Which I still don’t understand., because I don’t do anything to anyone. Why can’t anyone mind their business? The world may never know.  I also forgot to mention something very imperative: something happened, something big. I don’t know the full story, because my mother still thinks i’m still too young” to know, but I think I understand it enough. From my experiments, observations, and knowledge, there was a bombing. I’m not talking about the soda bombs that the immature “Jocks” put in the nerd’s locker numerous times throughout the school year. I;m talking about an atomic bomb. It was huge. The burnt imprint is still on the sidewalk, one whole decade later.  It left a big mess, and killed thousands. America never told us who it was, and why they did it-but thats nothing new. The government never tells us anything. When it all happened in the year of 2051, thats when things started to go wrong. The air was polluted, the smell of gas and chemicals was everywhere, and people went homeless. Most people’s homes were abolished, or should I say blown to smithereens.  Everything was gone. Pets, food, homes, people, clothes-everything. We slowly recovered by the little amount of grants and stamps that the government gave everyone in my area, called Aksala. My father had the cutest little shop where he sold bait for the river that flowed in our little town. Sadly, it died along with him. My mother and I are doing alright now, just struggling to get through each and everyday. The smell of gas and chemicals is still int he air however, and it annoys me so much.  Anyways, I’m going to bed early to night. It’s been a rough day. I have all this homework I don’t feel like doing, and it’s all due tomorrow (see, i’m no totally a nerd). So goodnight, whoever is listening...

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey,

I’ve been working my ass off for this stupid A that i should’ve gotten the previous quarters in history class. I love history, I do my journals, yet I still always get a B. Its not even a low B, its literally an 89.9%. Yeah, I know, its ridiculous. Anyways, that pretty much ruined my day. I’ve just  been so stressed out. Not to mention that Aya (the girl i’m madly in love with and give up my heart, limb, and both eyeballs for), just walked by me in the hallway today. Its not like she says hi to me anyways, because who would. Forget it, lets forget about this sad talk, let just change the subject. I have this really big pond in the back of my house, which all this old gunk and stuff from all the oils and chemicals the government collected from the bombing incident. It stinks, like i’m always complaining about. The creepiest thing happened though. I keep forgetting my new keys that my mom got made just for me on my dresser, so I just go in through the back door whenever I leave them, since the back door is always opened. I hop the fence, and fall into a glob of mud, or whatever it was. I brush it off the gooey brown dirt off of my new pants, then look up to the weirdest thing. Yes, a thing. I’m not sure if I was just seeing things, but it looked like a head. Thats when I started running, because stuff like that creeps me the heck out. When I got into the house, I had to take a second to catch my breathe, i’m not much of a track star. I shouted “MOM” to see if she was home. No response,which I expected. I went right into the shower-I couldn’t take the smell of that dirt on me. I turned on the water to the perfect temperature, not too hot, not too cold. I start to think about what I saw, trying to decide if I was going crazy or not. I came to a conclusion: I must’ve bumped my head onto the ground when I fell of the fence to quickly. So i just went with that for the rest of the night. I’m satisfied with that conclusion, because now I can finally go to sleep, since I have to wake early for school, anyways. Which I should do now-so goodnight, whomever.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Hey,

Today was just like regular day, except a couple of things. Okay, let me explain a little bit. I took a deep breath. It smelled of gas and chemicals. It's just that stupid smell that still never went away. You get used to it though (well not me, my mother has).

Anyways, as I was saying, today was really weird. As I was coming from that hell hole you call a school, I saw something very peculiar (and yes, that was one of my ten dollar vocabulary words I had to study for Miss Pahomav's class this week). There's this small pond behind my house that was really cute before all the chemicals and waste got into it, and made it all green and muggy. As I walked past it something glowed in the water. It looked like two glow in the dark eyeballs that my friends would by from five-below to scare me. HOwever, I could tell this wasn't a prank.  could've sworn I saw them blink too. That was creepiest part though. I mean, I just brushed it off and walked away, saying to myself "that school lunch must be having some sort of side effect on me", thinking I was just seeing things. Hopefully I don't see nothing creepy like that again.

Once again, i have another essay to write, I men, do they ever give us students a break? its almost spring break. goodness. So on that note, I should probably start my essay, which shouldn’t be THAT  hard since i practically write an essay everyday. So goodnight, stranger.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Jeff here,

Okay so  it happened again guys ("guys" refers to whomever cares and finds my diary in the future one day when i'm already filthy rich), I saw it again. It actually came up too. It was REALLY weird. Only the head I think. Because it looked like it had really bad weave on top of its head, so I could tell it was girl thing. Maybe I really am going crazy. Or is it just the school lunch? Or maybe its a ghost? I have no idea, but I really need to start bringing my keys, because I'm really getting tired of hopping my fence, only to walk past the pond with that creepy thing in it.

P.s: that essay was not easy, AT ALL. I went to bed at 5 in the morning. 5 IN THE MORNING.

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

TO WHOEVER:

Alright, I know i’m not crazy, because it actually came out of the swamp/pond/puddle thing thats behind my house, and let me tell you this thing is strange. First, it looks like a glob of mud. Its got a fat person’s figure, with mud on top of it. Basically like a sloppy joe burger. Now, before you think this is one of those boy meets robots type stories- its not. I’m not gonna so indulged into this thing, because I honestly am creeped out, and its me. I threw a stick at it, to see if it would like explode or something. But instead it just blinked again. I figured if it handle a stick, it could handle me (the stupidest concept you will ever hear in your life, yes I know.) The thing that gets me is that it actually moved its mouth. It’s weird. As weird as it might though, it’s still cool. I’m tempted to run  a couple of test on  the thing, but i’m scared how it would react. Will it eat me? will it knock my lights out? We’ll never know. Or will we...? Goodnight, brave world.

Jeff Again,

Okay, I found out something about it: I have no idea what IT is. Okay, okay, I found out a couple of things however. Running some text on the sample I got from it, I came up with a couple of theories. It has some type of critical mass of fissionable material, because it needed to create a chain reaction in the atomic bomb, for it to explode. Isotopes such as  uranium-235 and plutonium-239 were later found in my experiments. Both of these ingredients were both used in the atomic bomb, which makes sense because the glob and chemical was all goes right into the pond/swamp/puddle type thing in the back of my house, which might be the reason why this THING is in my backyard. Yes, I am pretty genius you could say, but what bothers me is how does it move its mouth? What makes it-IT? After doing some research, i found a couple of other interesting facts. For one, there is nothing else like it. There have been no other reports in newspaper, youtube, not even nerd.org is there ANYTHING about a glob monster made from mixed chemicals. So you could say this is an amazing finding, and that i could become famous for this. Actually, while writing this, I just realized how rich I could become from just this glob monster! I could by my own house, my own dell company- or rather all the Nutella I want! That would be real nice.

But would that okay though? All this sounds so nice, but i’m not sure this is going to be the best choice. I mean after I call whoever I have to call, every  FBI agent and police officer would invade my house 24/7, and I don’t think my mom could handle that much in invasion and stress- especially since what happened to do Dad. She’s just been backed up on work so much so thats he can pay for all the bills, which I respect about her, so I won’t call I guess. That Nutella would’ve been nice though. Just for my mom though, which is amazing because i’m actually being considerate. Since that’s all I have to say for now, Ill just go to bed, goodnight- and let the force be with you.

_____________________________________________________________________

Hey,

Its the middle of the night, and i’m terrified. I heard some noise outside and looked out the window. Its the glob monster again ( yes, i’m calling it that now). ow, you’re probably wondering why i’m writing this right now, when I’m terrified, when I should be calling the cops or something. “Man, this kid is obsessed with this journal”- well you’re wrong. Its my stress reliever, and like I said before I gotta record almost everything I think in this book for when I’m famous. Anyways, lets get to the point.

I woke up to this vrooom-vrooom-vroom noise. Not like a motorcycle, but like a glowing sound,kind of like how a bee’s trailing sound he leaves behind him when he quickly flies right past you. Yeah, it was creepy. so i went outside, but instead of going right down the stairs, I jumped out of the window. I must say, it was quite painful but it was worth it. I went towards the glowing green light, and as I suspected-it was it. I don’t know what it is with me and sticks, but I always throw them at things. after I there basically a half of a tree branch at it, it shifted. It was like it didn’t feel the branch. In fact, it was like jell-o. I’m not scared of it anymore, its just more creepier than scary.

After it shifted, it kept making those weird noises. “Vrooom-vrooom”. I went closer, quietly, steadily, trying not to disturb it. Of course I slept on a couple of crunchy crunchy leaves and sticks, so I wasn’t as quiet as I thought. I shifted from side to side, disturbed by its surroundings.

I’m Face to “face” with the Glob Monster.

It continues t glow. It continues to make the “vroooom” noise. I hold my hand out, just like the scene in ET, where he touches the alien. I poke it. Worst decision ever made.

It start to grow silver blades as scales. Scales so sharp, it splits my upper part of my finger open. Blood dripping, I move back suddenly.  It starts to make the “Vrrroooom-vroooom” noise louder, and faster. “VROOOM-VROOOMVROOMVROOM”. I moves back, one step at a time. Now, you would think that a normal person would run for their lives, but I tried to make clear before, I’m not that normal. I watch it as it starts spinning, instead of swaying. It starts spinning faster, and faster, and faster- till I’m so dizzy i feel like fainting. It starts levitating , going up slowly, but surely. It’s about 8ft in the air-still spinning faster and faster.

It stops.

Now. Im. Scared.

I started to walk back faster, and faster, until I was basically behind the big bush in my mother’s garden, peeping through the leaves of it. I start shaking, this anxious feeling in my stomach.

Okay let’s stop here:

If someone finds this, please tell my mom I love her. I really do, and I didn’t say anything just for her. I’m really not ready to die, and so far, i’m going out of my mind right now. I’m probably sweating blood right now, thats how scared and nervous I am. So, uh, yeah- just tell her I love her.

Okay, let’s carry on now:

I’m basically shaking the bush right now, but as I watch the Glob monster frozen in time, I touch myself just to make sure he didn’t freeze me too. Good, i’m okay, i’m still here, for now.

It starts to sway once again.

Swaying so smoothly, like hands at a Jazz festival.

It starts to bring apart.

The globs start to scatter everywhere- in random places. Now at first I thought it was going to create mini minions, and starts to attack the earth, and take over everything-but thats just me being worried I guess. Instead, it started to spell “Alaska”. I wondered what it that meant. I mean, its 2067, what is that supposed even mean?

I stays there., jiggling on the ground like freshly poured Jell-O.  I stand up, to see it closer, and its still moving a little. Once again i throw a stick at it, and surprisingly it doesn’t move. I look back at my house to see if my mom woke up, which she didn’t thankfully. I look back.

Nothing is there. I think is sunk into the ground while I was looking,because little part were slowly disappearing into the grass. I just stood there. Silently , waiting for something to happen. Nothing else happened. I waited for another twenty minutes. I hear the crickets, as the leaves ruffle into the air. I start heading back in.

As I open the door, I hear the “vroom” nose, but when I looked back, there was nothing there. I ignore it, and go back into my house, up the stairs, in my bed. I really am kind of proud of myself though. These past few days have been really weird, but i’ve changed a little. I’ve learned to be considerate, and I appreciate things a little ore-such as my my finger (which I need to get fixed). But most importantly, I went ahead and did something out of the ordinary, just like my my dad told me to do. I mean I guess that’s good and all. But what confuses me is what actually happened, and what this means for me. What does “Alaska” actually mean? All their questions, and no answers. Oh well, I’m going to bed, now, because just reading this over gives me a headache. Goodnight, Dad.

_____________________________________________________________________

Wassup,

I haven’t seen anything yet. Not a glob of mess, not a sound- absolutely nothing. Honestly, I’m glad. I don’t want to creeped anymore than I already have. So whenever I forget my key, I hop the fence as usual. I then go to the pond. Nothing is moving, it just still smells of gas and chemicals. It never went away. I wish it went away with the glob monster actually, that would be so nice.

  I always thought I had a great life. Never taking anything for granted, I was so humble. Just looking at my life you would think that I got everything I wanted. That I was set for life. However my family worked for everything we had. Born Jonathan Miles Harris, I am now 16 years old. I have black hair, I am 5 feet 6 inches. I am Milano male(Which is african american and Caucasian), With a heavy accent. I have reddish brown eyes, crooked smile, and I am 150 pounds. Who ever finds this short book will know what really happened to me.

    So to whoever saw my story on the news I disappeared when I was 13, and reappeared on my 16th birthday. From where I was I saw everything that happened when I was taken. Everyone tried to blame my parents for me coming up missing. Because my mother was a former drug smuggler for the black market people believed that she was the cause. Others came up with the theory that because my father was a powerful district attorney. He received death threats from people relating to the inmates, some people theorized that I was taken because of him.

    Breaking down the two theories was the job of the police and detectives, but It was impossible. My mothers past was filled with too many colorful people, and if this was a result of her past we could never know. My fathers was a smidge better, however still was a lost cause. After trying to ensure just for about a good 3 months the police gave up and left my parents with a huge burden.  

    When I was took by “this creature” I was scared for my life. I blinked about a good 130 times to try and see if it was a dream. I pinched myself over and over again, and I prayed continuously. I just wanted to be back in my room making a beat or in the gym. Really I would have preferred to be anywhere but here. I couldn’t stand being in this dark moving vehicle’s trunk. I remember what happened when I was abducted.

    It was a saturday, and I was walking to Acme to get snacks for the movie night my friends and I were about to have. While standing at the netflix box I was tapped and grabbed. Trying to put up a fight against 4 grown individuals was like a turtle trying to escape 4 different wildcats. After successfully getting my eyes and mouth covered I was shoved forcefully into a vehicle. After that I felt a heavy thump hit my leg, which were the snack that I just purchased. A feminine voice said eat these if you want to be partially satisfied during the trip.

    After being in this surprisingly roomy trunk, being tossed my fulfilling snacks, and not hurt during my kidnapping I had a feeling I wasn’t really in danger. Every so often I would hear the same voice ask me was I okay. I would answer yes, but can someone please explain. She would reply the same way each time all in due time. You’ll be caught up in all the confusion shortly sweety. I just knew from her tone that I wasn’t in immediate danger. After driving in a trunk for days, and only having the trunk be aired out once, we arrived in an open field in pennsylvania.

    As the 4 humans get out the car, I hear them speaking a different language.  When they spoke it was almost if they were devising a plan. I tried to listen to see if there were words I knew. After listening for about 40 seconds my thoughts became jumbled. I was so confused and went into a stage if mind where my eyes were completely shut, I couldn't move, but I was conscious.

    After being in this stage for about an hour, I woke up on a spaceship of some kind. Scared to death I yelled and tried to move. I couldn't move because I was strapped down. My throat was closing because the amount of air I had, I wasn't able to breathe. I felt like I was being suffocated, or the driest price of bread on earth. My airway was closing up and at a not soothing pace.

    2 people walked into the room and saw me struggling. One just stood there in amazement, while the other was a girl my age. She recited the words from the trunk and I went into the same stage. As I was laying there I felt a sense of relief as if a new adaptation was given to me. I was able to breathe in space now. As I woke up I remembered feeling safe again.

    However I realized that no person should be able to breathe in space. So many questions formalized in my mind. Why me? What are these things? What do they want with me? I wanted answers and I wanted them now. As I started to look around again the setting I was I'm started to adapt to my room. I start to pinch myself and blink again. Nothing happened I was still in this room.

    As Boredom started to rise, I start to interact with the things in my room. I went to play my game, everything on my play-station was the same. To pass the time for a while that's what I did. And every-time I got hungry I went to my mini fridge and got something to eat. I figured that if I stayed there I would get answers out of someone. After a good 6 hours of playing play station it got a knock at my door. It was the girl who saved me when my lungs collapsed.

    When she came in the room was dead silent for about 10 minutes. We both had awkward looks on our faces. Both of us wanting to say something. Until she says you must be confused. I reply kind of, but thanks for saving my life. I start to ask he about why I got here, and question what’s going on. She responded saying she doesn’t really know. We spend a little while talking and she ask me is she pretty? I respond saying yes she is very beautiful. She starts to cry and say that its been a while since she heard that. I ask her why she said that? She starts to tell me about her and her boyfriends latest break up. Conflicted with listening to this girl I just met, and figuring out where I am, I choose to listen to her.

    After talking for a while she ask can she show me around the space-ship. I tell her I am pretty tired, but I would love for her to show me around tomorrow morning. She exits my room and I cannot fall asleep for a while. I just keep replaying all the incidents that went down in the past couple of days. I try to comprehend everything, and even try to use my cellphone. None of that even worked. I was stranded somewhere else, and didn’t even know where I was. I still felt safe though I felt like I would be understood and taken care of. Around 5 o’clock I fall asleep and wake up 3 hours later. I feel really refreshed, and really hungry.

    As I wipe the sleep from my eyes I wake up to the same feminine voice saying goodmorning. I respond hey where am I? She tells me this time “you are better off here”. I say well can atleast tell me why I am here. She says that will be revealed in time.  She hands me a plate of my favorite breakfast, and the remote for my T.V. I thank her. As she walks out she says don’t worry you are safe here. I eat my breakfast and watch the new episode of my favorite show. Then a question arises in my mind how is my favorite show on, and i’m not on earth. As my favorite show is playing I recall what happened during the last episode. As the episode ends, the girl who I now know as jacell walks in.

    I start to get dressed and while i’m taking off my pajama bottoms she stares intensely at me. I know what she wants, but I quickly get dressed. We leave my room and go to explore the spaceship. We go to every area of the spaceship, we look at every attraction and place to eat possible. As we start to be around each other for this extended period of time we both get more comfortable talking, joking and having fun. As we are walking back to my room she grabs my hand. We continue to walk though. It's only when I got to my room she kisses my lips. I felt it coming though, but I was still surprised.

    As the weeks turn to months I am still on this spaceship. Everyone knows me, and pays more attention to me rather then when I was in Philly. I guess you can start to say I love it here. Me and Jacell are in a relationship now. I get to be free as in rules wise, and everyone likes me. In these past months I've had a blast, only things is I miss the people who loved me on earth. As time continues to pass I wonder "will I ever get to go back?" "Do they still think about me?" "What's happening now?". Questions clutter my mind on a daily.

    A years goes by, everything here is good. I still miss the earth but I love being here. I love my new friends, I love that if I go back to earth I can say that I breathed in earth without equipment. I love that I was made into a big issue, I love this spaceship as a whole though. I'm torn between my home and my new home. As I sit and contemplate all these things, I remember that even if I wanted to leave I can't. Then a thought comes to make the best of what I have here.

    Jacell comes and we walk through the park for a little bit. Then we go to the town hall. As we arrive I see all the lights off. I start to piece things together. We seen nobody on our walk, lights off, and I've been here for a year. I assumed it was a party. Unsure I didn't say anything to Jacell. I just walked in after her and as she turn on the lights everybody on the space ship jumped out at me from all angles. I was still surprised and I knew what it was. The party was great, they really knew how to make me feel special and welcomed. As I left the party everybody handed me gifts and I just loved that night.

As me and Jacell left arms full we walked back to my room. As I placed my gifts down, she pushed me onto my bed. Things from there got a little X-rated. I enjoyed her company that night. My one year on the spaceship was better than all my years on earth. As Jacell left in the morning, I got dressed. I'm starting a new engineering class. I still wanted to make music and play basketball, but I wanted to learn too. I get to my class and immediately felt welcomed. We were starting to make transporters.

    As a few more months passed Jacell and I moved into together. This was one of the best decisions I made. We got to be together way more. She would go to her job, and I would go to school. As time passed I became a better engineer. I was too of my class. When graduation came I gave the best speech of my life. Jacell and the lady from before were there clapping and screaming the loudest for me. After graduation I went out to dinner with the two of them.

    A few years have passed, and now I'm a engineer. I own my own company. I do my own things, and I own a house now. I moved out of the room and me and Jacell own a house. I gave fixed the spaceship so many times. Every time I help out, they give me new equipment. On my day off, I had some uranium. Looking at my first project, I replace me small stick of uranium, with a full stick of uranium. By multiplying the magnitude of the travel, this should be able to get me anywhere and back. My plan is to go back to earth and then come back. I tell Jacell my plans, and she says "if that's what you want to do." She tells me not to do it today. I respect her wishes. I wait a week before I leave. During that week I was shunned, and just by myself. I didn't understand it, and just felt disrespected. As I left, I kissed Jacell goodbye. And kissed the ladies cheek and got into the teleporter. As I touched down I wrote these words. "It feels great to be home." I spend a good minute looking at where I'm at. As my chest starts to hurt briefly. I feel as though