all there is to it is skill

Ok, first day of 6th grade, I walk in I see the teacher everybody has been talking about, Mrs.G.

She likes to criticize kids all the time. (especially me) Just the other day I walked in the classroom when we had free dress and the first response I hear is not “Good Morning, how are you Branson.” no definitely not that, its more like, “What are you wearing! What is this! You look like you are about to go get the newspaper! Geez even Katie does not look that bad.” “Love you to” I said. The fun part is we are all joking with each other, she just gives me a hard time :). She gives this weekly Vocabulary test because she is a English teacher and to my surprise I have not got under a 110 yet (she gives us these bonus questions that we can score extra points on). Before the vocab test we have to make 20 vocab cards and the words are college level and on the vocab card you have to write a sentence using the word in the sentence, a reminder, a picture, and a definition. We read a novel every chance we get and she makes it fun by like if the book says, “He ran at her with the spear.” she will say, “That is when a pocket RPG (rocket propelled grenade) comes in handy.” She has a humor just perfect for 6th graders. She calls it adventures in Gonzoland. We call her 3 names Mrs.Gonzalez, Mrs.G, holy mother gonzo, Gea. I know that she is an adventure at all times.

“11 years. Single. Still Running Strong.” -John Bollman

Another swing and miss! I gotta hit this one over… swish. Nothing. No hits for the last about 7 or 8 at-bats. You’re probably thinking, “Ouch - no hits for seven at bats in a row.”  Yep, ouch.

It was about 4 months ago that I didn’t make contact with the ball at all. When you don’t make contact with the ball for a while you are in a slump. I had been riding in my grandma’s car the day before and we were talking about my “hitting issues.” She said to let God do the work. I thought of a Bible verse about hitting and relying on God. I thought of Psalm 121: “I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the lord, the maker of heaven and earth.”

Ok, two strikes on me, rely on God and make contact. Ping! Ping is all I needed to hear from that sweet smooth bat. Not swish, not swish. “No stinkin’ way!” I heard from my dug-out as I was passing first base. That is when I knew it was gone. Yep - gone. Over the fence.

Was it me. NO. I think you know who it was.

RRRRRRRRR,RRRRRRRRRR,RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR… “We have got to get Pop’s F-150 out here to pull us out.” said my dad. We were stuck on a slate of ice, and very close to our destination. I was playing my dad’s iPad while we were stuck trying to get up the slanted road. We were going to New Mexico for Christmas, but we were stuck only a little distance from my grandpa’s house. We had to get a chain and he pulled us up with his F-150. We got inside and I think I passed out cold on the floor I was so tired.

I woke up in the morning and got my snowsuit on. 4-Wheeler! When I put my eye on that Yamaha 4-wheel drive, I got straight on and pulled her out of the garage. Foster (my cousin) and Hudson got on the Snow-Scoot and took off for the field. My grandma and grandpa’s house is 47 acres with a pond, and they own 4 lodges. 3 are for guests and 1 big one for them. We rode the 4-Wheeler and the Snow-Scoot all day. The next day, my grandpa called Foster, Hudson, and I in to open an early Christmas present. An X-Box Kinect! We played on it all day. There was Air Force 4, Kinect Adventures, Kinect Sports, Cabellas, and much more.

The next day me and my dad went fishing. Oh, forgot to tell you… THERE WAS NO SNOW!!!!! We brought the Texas weather with us. As I was saying… Me and my dad went fishing. There was a thin layer of ice. In the middle of the pond but not bad. I was reeling in my line when all the sudden… “Ugh” there was a tug on my line. It was a monster fish. Finally I got her in. She was a 20-inch Rainbow Trout. We were going to eat her but I remembered that any food my grandma or grandpa cook is going to be better that a trout. My aunt wanted Hudson, Foster, and I to go to her house. When we got there we got to know we were making duct tape wallets.They are really easy to make. I made them for my Dad, Mom, Grandpa, and two sisters. When it came for the day to leave everybody was really sad, but we will always remember that week up in New Mexico for Christmas.

I got the best suprise in the world… I got to go to Oshkosh. When we were flying up to Oshkosh in my grandpas home-built 15 year old veri eazy I got 2 hours of stick time on the way up! When we were flying around and about to land there were three dots on the runway, we landed on the middle dot. There were sooo many people there. A lot of people were asking my grandpa about his plane. We went to meet my grandpa’s friend from work. We were staying in a collage dorm. It wasn’t the prettiest thing in the world. It was really cramped and we had two random people living with us. I really didin’t like it. When we got to the bottom of the campus we met there with Lee (my grampas friend) and we had breakfast. When we were riding there Cappy (my grandpa, mom’s dad) was telling me what to expect on the car ride there. When we got inside we saw airplanes flying over us. People were getting their tickets. Soooo many people were there. It was amazing! First, Cappy took me to all the 1960 1950 cars. That was awesome. Then we got to go to the air-show. We stood by Cap’s eazy and watched the show. There were sooo many aerobatics there. When the day was done we all went home to the places we were staying. We had to get some rest and wait till the next day. Ok, good morning Oshkosh! The next day we went to four big places were you can shop. The first one there were so many things that I wanted. There was this awesome flight simulator. And I, ACED it! I’m trying not to brag but I was better than all the kids. I could do rolls and loops and everything. In the second barn like shopping center there was another simulator. This one had fighter pilots and you could shoot. I didn’t do so well on this one… I did a suicide bomb into one of the planes. At the third place I stopped at a sprint place were they had wifi… didn’t work out so well. I asked this collage kid what was wrong with the wifi. He said there were so many people using it, it wasn’t useable any more. Then another guy came up and he looked like he was about 43. I said can I buy that case for my I-touch. He said sure. 20$ kid. I don’t have it on me right now. Then no case it is. What?! My grandpa is coming in like… 5 minutes. Shoo Shoo, go. Ok you don’t just say shoo shoo, to a 10 year old kid. Geez… give a kid a break. You don’t talk up all this #@*& to an adult! I’m gonna sue you for saying that in my presence! What ya gonna sue me for. I’m gonna sue you for… cursing in front of me. Oh I’ll give you some more of this @$*# junk! I’m out, you win old man. Ooooo, I wouldn’t of just done that. said the collage kid. Then, I sprint for my life. When we went home that day Cappy wanted to drive around a little. There was a big lake that Cap said had melted from an Ice Berg. If any one out-there likes Al Gore… no hard feelings. Well Cappy had said the lake melted from an Ice Berg. Lee said “how did this melt? Did Al Gore show up?” I said “No, I think all he had to do was sit on it.” And man did I laugh hard! When we got back to the dorm I wasn’t happy, as usual. But still I got good sleep and was good to go in the morning. The third day Cappy was all exited that we get to go to a speech that Burt Rutan is doing. When we got in we went to the speech and, it was so so. I mean, I only understood half of it. Then we went to go look at the world war one airplanes. They were really cool. Then we went to the place where they keep all the bombers. We took a look inside a B-17. It had so may 50-calabers and the bombs were almost as big as the M.O.A.B (mother of all bombs). After we were done we went to the last stop of the week. We went back to where all those really cool cars were. All there was there was Model T. The Model T is my grandpas favorite type of car. Just as they were all leaving the last guy there cranked the handle of his car and started it up. He pulled a lever and it went… MOOOOO… it scared the HECK out of me!!! Everybody was laughing so hard. That is defently what to expect in Oshkosh.

Sunday morning we left for New Mexico. My grandma and grandpa own a really big lodge and some guest houses up there. He owns a big pond at the bottom of his 47 acer lot. We like to catch crawdads and big trout. The ride up there was great! It takes about 12 hours from Texas and we stop in Amarillo at my dads collage roomate’s house. They have 3 daughters one 11 one 9 and one 3. When we finally got there my grandma and grandpa were sitting on there swing, waiting for us. When we hopped out of the car and unloaded all our stuff I went straight to my grandpa’s ranger. I memorized a poem and my grandpa said I would get a big prize if I memorized that poem. So when I told him that poem he said that I could get my prize on wednesday. So on wednesday I got to go fishing with my uncle, brother, cousin, dad and grandpa on Eagle Nest lake. We caught… I think 11 trout and 3 perch. We had all the trout for dinner, and the perch… we threw them away. All the girls the next day including my mom, grandma, aunt, sisters and my other cousin all went to Santa Fe. My dad went back to Fort Worth the next day to get some work done. So my brother, cousin and I all stayed with my grandpa for 3 days. We had a ball we went hunting, drove his 4 wheeler and ranger! We had a blast. When it was time to go home everybody was sad. My sisters weren’t my cousin was coming back to Fort Worth to do Music Camp at Christ Chapel with us. The ride back went by pretty fast. Only my sister vomited. When we got back home everybody was happy to see us. Of course my dog Yukon was. Well can’t wait till this winter!

This book, Kavik the wolf dog, is an amazing story about a 15 year old boy trying to have Kavik as a pet. Kavik had won the north american sled dog race. A man named George C. Hunter had bought it from another man named Charlie one eye. When Kavik was being shipped over to Washington the plane he was in had crashed. When Andy was checking his traps he found the plane and the almost dead, Kavik. Andy took Kavik home with him and he called a doctor the second he got home. When Kavik heals Andy takes Kavik to town with him. The neighborhood dogs get out and start chasing Kavik. You would think Kavik would go right ahead and kill these muts, but no. Kavik had lost his courage when he was in the plane wreck. Will Kavik get his courage back or stay like this forever. So why don’t you read for 30 mins with your family each night for a week and listen to the amazing story about, Kavik the Wolf Dog.

It was Tuesday, when the doctor said when I was going to get my stiches out. So at 5:00 in the afternoon I went to the hospital to see when I got my stiches out. My dad met me there when my mom pulled up in the driveway. Every body said Hi, then my mom left me with my dad. We went into the small room in the hospital. My dad said the doctor we were meeting was doctor Faran. The nurse came in and said, “My gosh! He is a miniature blond Corbin!” (Corbin is my dad.) My dad was laughing out loud, and I was smiling holding in laughter. When she told me and my dad I could play baseball the next day, I was overjoyed. Then Dr.Faran talked to my dad what needed to happen with the doctors and their salary. 

The next day I had my first game that I was going to play with my stiches in. When I got there my team was in awe when they saw me walk down the sidewalk. “Branson how did you do it? Branson can you really play?!” My team said all at the same time. A guy on the team that we were facing said, “Is Branson really playing with a stiched-up foot?!” The softball team asked the same thing to me. “Oh Branson, are you really playing with a stiched-up foot? Oh Branson, Oh Branson, Oh Branson.” “Will everybody just be quiet!?” I asked wanting to scream. Dead silence, expect for the coaches pitching balls the the players. “Thank you.” I said putting on my batting gloves.

When I was done with batting practice me and Wyatt Allsup were warming up throwing the baseball. Westen Mulqueen asked me if I could go get the catchers gear. My coach overheard what Westen said, so he said, “You go get your catchers gear for two reasons, Branson and Wyatt are playing catch, and you actually have a foot that you can run on.” Coach told me to warm up my pitching. As I finished my warm up pitches the lead hitter came to bat. Raligh Castor. “Okay pitcher, you go.” said the umpire. First pitch… Oh, drilled Raligh in the back. “Hey it’s okay Branson.” says Wyatt Allsup. “Now he can’t cream it to center.” Wyatt said shrugging his shoulders. “Yeah.” I said laughing. “That’s a good way to look at it.”

The accident happened on Friday, May 14. I was eating breakfast while sitting on a 3ft wooden bar stool when my brother randomly laid his head down on my lap. I grabbed him by the neck and pulled him up. He got really ticked off and pulled my shirt. The bar stool tipped and I fell, trying to brace myself while falling. I struggled to get up with a puddle of blood encircling me. I felt a very, very sharp pain in my pinkie toe. Looking down, I saw a cut half an inch, to my bone. I started screaming while Hudson looked down in astonishment at my toe. He ran upstairs and hid in a corner of a room.

Cappy came over and told me to relax so that I would not feel as much pain. I wanted to freak-out and scream, but I eventualy calmed down. Daboo said we were going to go meet my dad at the hospital. My dad has worked at the JPS hospital for three years. He isn’t a doctor, he is the CEO of the doctors group at JPS. So when we met him there, we went to the ER and the doctors were diciding if they were going to give me stitches. After the X-ray and after that they said they were going to have to give me stitches. I was very emotional, when they pulled out a three-inch sirenge, that was only the needle. I wanted to pass-out so I didn’t have to see it. They numbed the surface of my toe and jabbed the needle in my toe. The sirenge numbed the inside of my toe. Then they started to sew the stiches in. I really can’t tell you about that part because it is a little disturbing. After they gave me a little foot brace I got in the car and went to Gingas Grill.

His heart was pounding. He was sure he had seen the doorknob turn.

“Mom?” Jack asked. All he heard was footsteps coming down the hall. Jack skidded quietly to his room upstairs. Jack was frozen solid in terror. He scrambled for his pocket knife. Just then he heard banging on his bedroom door. He thought, “How could I be so stupid to not lock the door?”

He heard one man whispering, “Before we send him we have got to ask him where it is.”

“Okay,” said the other man. The moment later the door broke down. They were both in black suits. One had a machine gun. The other had a shotgun. One man was white, one was black. The black man grabbed him by the collar and said, “Kid, stay still or this will be your last night.” While the white man was digging through all of his drawers, the white man asked, “Kid where is the chip?”

“What chip?” asked Jack in a shaky voice.

The white man answered, “The one your dad gave you for your 12th birthday.”

“I threw it away.” Jack lied.

“Let’s send him. He isn’t giving us any help.”

“Send me where?” Jack asked?

“Of course!” The white man went over to Jack’s thermostat and twisted it a couple times. Then part of the wall slid out. The white man took out the piece of the wall. It had a computer chip in it. Just then a blue van pulled up in the drive-way. “MOM!” Jack screamed. She came running up to his room. “Mom, these two men are about to kill me!” Jack said.

The white man said, “Sarah?”

Sarah (Jack’s mom) asked, “Bill?”

“Okay there is no time for this!!!” the black man said.

“Dad, is that you?” Jack asked.

“Yes.” Bill said in a sad tone.

“Why did you go dad?! Why did you leave me here for mom to take care of?!!” Jack screamed.

“I….I…I am sorry Jack, I did it to keep you safe.” Bill said.

“From what, murders?!” Jack asked harshly.

“No, monsters. Like you.” Bill said with his tone still sad.

Jack calmed down a little. “Okay but, what monster am I?” Jack asked.

“The worst of all, a Flameo.” Bill said.

“Ok just send me where you want,” Jack said trying to hold back tears.

“Mars, all the Flameos live there. Say bye to your mom.” Bill said. “James is the ship ready?” Bill asked. 

“Yeah.” James (black man) said. 

“James, put the computer chip in.” Bill said.

“Set.” James said.

“5,4,3,2,1 lift off.” James said.

“There goes my Jack.” Sarah said.

“Our Jack.” Bill said.

“Why did you have to send him Bill, he was only 13?!” Sarah asked crying.

“I scanned him and he would have destroyed the world in 4 days.” Bill said.

“Another reason is, there is one more to destroy.” Bill said.

“And if they combined as one, the world would be destroyed.” Bill said. Just then the wall broke down. 

“Flameo.” Bill whispered.

“GET DOWN!” James screamed.

Fwoosh. A huge line of flame went right above their heads.

“Man that was close!” James said.

“Yeah, if you get any closer you will catch fire and disintegrate in 2 seconds.” Bill said.

“Get in Jack’s room! NOW!” Bill screamed.

“Crud.” James said as a ball of flame and gas came straight toward his face.

“What the heck are you doing?!” Bill asked loudly.

“Calling the fire department!” James said very nervous.

“Put down the phone, stupid!” Bill said as he slammed the door.

“Jack’s walls are fireproof, so the Flameo can’t get in.” Sarah said. 

“Yeah but they aren’t collapseproof, are they?” James asked struggling, while he was pushing the door.”

“Go get the hose in the front lawn.” Sarah said.

How am I going to do that?!” James asked with his face bright red still struggling with the door.

“The window.” Bill said as he took hold of the door.

James jumped through the window with the glass breaking behind him.

“So just me and you now.” Sarah said in a sweet and soft tone.

“Yeah, I guess.” Bill said with his face turning red from partly Sarah, and partly holding the door tight.

“SO NOT TIME FOR THIS!” James said getting the hose ready from down below.

Two minutes later James yelled, “Have you ever took a swim flameo? I don’t think so!”

Just then, the tempature got 30degrees lower.

“I am so beast!” James yelled.

“Humble James, humble.” Bill said.