Christmas Time Around the Neighborhood

Back when I was the 6th Grade I sent a piece of my writing to the Children's Magazine

HIGHLIGHTS FOR CHILDREN

Here is that story I summited for actual publication so long ago along with the letters sent to me by the pulisher.

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My Writes

The new Mark Steven Wilson Series

CHRISTMAS TIME AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD

by Mark Steven Wilson

CHAPTER 1 -ICE FOLLIES
Ding-a-ling-a-ling, the school bell rang. School was finally out for the weekend. The buses left eight minutes later, after everyone had boarded the bus. The bus finally got to my bus stop, where I had to walk almost a mile home.
Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mark Steven Wilson and I live on South Street in Wenham, Massachusetts. I am thirteen years old, in the seventh grade and am sort of small for my age, but my mother says that some day I’ll shoot up like a tree. My very special talents are acting, writing and swimming. I think I should stop talking about me now, because I am getting clobbered with snowballs.
It had been snowing on and off for over a week now. Looking up I could see that it had started snowing like feathers, and I could feel the snowballs coming at me again.
"Whoops, here comes Dennis and his dog, Ping-Pong.". Ping-Pong always meets Dennis at the us stop, hoping he has a dog biscuit for him. We Soon got to the bend in the road. "Yipes" I slipped on the ice and started sliding, down towards Ben. Ben started to rum but fell in tie process and I went spinning down after him. He made a sharp turn and went into his driveway, sending me into a snow bank. Dennis laughed so hard when he saw this, that he stepped on his dog's tail. Then he fell down in the same snow bank, just as I got out of it. "Looks like we get the last laugh," I said.
"Very funny", Dennis yelled. Soon I got to my house, where my dog greeted me. I went in and said hello to Irene. Irene is a little old lady, who used to live across the street from us, but she is old now and can no longer take care of herself so she lives with us. Then I made myself a little snack. .Suddenly the doorbell rang. It was Harley, Dennis and Clara. "Do you want to come out?" they asked. "Sure", I said. I went and got my snowsuit on and then got out my sled, because I saw they were dragging their sleds behind them. I told Irene I would be outside sledding.  
 CHAPTER TWO.
MOVE OVER DENNIS -HERE'S REGGIE THE MENACE
Harley and I started making a jump. We soon finished the .jump -it didn't take that long. My mother came home just about that time.
Later I was sliding down on my Super-Tuber, when all of a sudden I leaped off my Super-Tuber, gasping. The elementary school children had arrived. I wasn’t gasping just because e the elementary kids were there, but because of one particular little imp, called Reggie. Reggie was your normal, ordinary, friendly, neighborhood menace, who threw rocks, spit, broke windows, and hit cats and dogs with his toy light saber. I could sit here all day telling about his many exploits, but we can't spend our whole story telling about Reggie, now, can we?
"I want to go on that Super Tuber." Reggie yelled, as he dashed down the hill towards me. In the process, he knocked little Christopher, Clara's four year old brother, down, causing Reggie to fall on his own sled, sending him speeding down the hill. I leaped towards Reggie and knocked him off. Then he started throwing snowballs at me .
"Hey, why are you throwing snowballs at me, Reggie?" I yelled.
"Cuz you pushed me over, that's why."
"I did it for your own good. You shouldn’t have knocked Christopher down."
"Well, O.K." He then started running back up the hill, until he tripped over the jump. He got up and started whipping snowballs towards Harley, who was standing next to the jump.
"Hey! Stop throwing snowballs at me, you little whimp"
"I’m not throwing them at you, stupid -I’m throwing them at that big bump in the road."
"Oh my gosh 1" Harley said.
"Can we go sledding now?" Dennis and Craig complained. "Be' patient, be -patient." Harley yelled back.
"How can we be patient when you have to get the jump rebuilt?" Craig yelled.
"Say -what !" Harley said, as he turned around.
"Oh, no t" a chorus sounded. Reggie was on the ground, pounding and kicking the jump to pieces.
"You tripped me, you bump", Reggie yelled.
"Cut it out -cut it out, Reggie. That's our jump you're wreaking" I cried.
"It made me trip."
"Now you go up and apologize to Christopher and stop ruining our jump " said Clara.
"O.K.", said Reggie. Soon we were making the jump again.
"Hurry up with the jump." everyone shouted.
"Pipe down, will you?" said Harley. "The jump will be finished before you can say Reggie is a nuisance'."
"I'm not a newspaper." said Reggie, misunderstanding Harley. Leana started to go down, because she was so impatient, but she 5topped when she realized it would be finished sooner or much later. Just at that moment, however, Craig decided to push her down, and did. She ran right over Harley and me.
" Idiots, what are you trying to do?” You could have hurt us ."
"I'm sorry." Craig said.
"Sorry, is that all you have to say, Craig?" I replied. ,
"You to buy Leana a new sled -it got ruined when it ran over you:" said Craig.
"Why, I ought to " started Harley. We soon discussed the matter and everything was straightened out.
Harley decided Craig needed punishment, so picked up a snowball and hucked it at him. Craig in turn picked one up and threw it at Harley. Harley ducked and it hit Goldie, Clara's eight year old sister, in the face, knocking her, down, and also knocking down Clara's six year old sister, Dolly.
"This means war" shouted Clara. Soon it became an all out war, with snowballs flying allover the place.
"Mark, come on in for supper." I heard my mother shout.
"Mom! Come here for a minute first." I sputtered as a snowball bounced ,off my head.
"What do you want, Mark?" my mother asked, as she walked towards the top of the hill.
'Splatt... "I was testing my snowball and wanted to try it on a grownup."
My mother just stood there with a grin on her face. I ran into the house ahead of my mother, who had' a snowball in her hand, all set to let me have it. Thanks to my speedy feet 'I dashed :into the house ahead of the snowball.
  CHAPTER 3
THE HAUNTED TOY FACTORY
Later on in the evening I was looking at the paper, When my father came over to me. "Get on your coat, Mark, we're going out."
"Where to, Dad? ".
"It's a surprise."
My mother came with US too. We got to Ben's house, where Ben and his younger brother, Chad, came with us .Soon we were at the surprise place, which was "Santa's Haunted Toy Factory". It was similar to the haunted house at Halloween, but this was a haunted toy factory in winter. Ben, Chad, and I went through, while my parents waited outside. We had a blast. It was pretty scary, but we enjoyed it.
The first 'room we went into had a blizzard and an Abdominal Snowman. It wouldn't have been bad, but the Abdominal Snowman grabbed me as I went by and boy, did I give him something in return a good sock in the head.
"That should unfreeze his brain." said Ben..
We then had to cross a maze of candy canes, where we had to watch out for toy soldiers standing guard. When we rot out of that one we got free candy canes.
We then got on a small train. We went around what looked like giant Christmas tree, with ghosts scaring us along the way.
Then we saw a Christmas Carol scene, with Ebenezer Scrooge looking in the window of Bob Cratchet's house, with the ghost of the future.
Next we went down the Haunted Hill on a twisting slide. We landed in a jumping-jack box, which contained an air mattress.
Next we saw someone dressed up as Boba-Fett, standing next to a frozen Han So1o.
Then we went into the last room, which was where elves swung back and forth, trying to smatter us with snowballs. They let you throw snowballs back at them too. When an elf was hit, he fell off, into a pile of soft cotton snow.
Wow -when we came out, were we shaken up. Then Santa wanted to know if we wanted to go down the bob-sled run. We sure did want to go down -and we did. ' We soon arrived at the bottom of the hill, where the parking lot was, and there were people dressed as elves, greeting everyone.
We left for home, dropping Ben and Chad off at their house, and soon afterwards arrived at our own house, feeling certain that there would be no more scary hauntings that night


CHAPTER 4.
JUMPING FOR JOY
The next day, Saturday, arrived. I had finished watching cartoons. The snow was pretty deep outside our house. It was high enough for me to jump off our roof .
"Mom, can I jump off our roof? " I asked.
"I guess so, but It II stand outside and watch." answered my mother.
I ran upstairs to my room and got my snow gear on. Then I opened my bedroom window and got out onto the roof. I looked before I leaped. I had just leaped when I spied Kevin walking up. Kevin was an eight year old boy who only came around on weekends .
"Hey, Mark, what you doing7" yelled Kevin. By t1hts time I had landed in the snow bank I had planned to jump in.
"I’m jumping off the roof." I replied. “'Mom, can Kevin do it too, if he wants to?"
"Well, I guess just once." I led Kevin up to my room and we jumped off together. Then my mother said "That's enough for now." (By this time my mother was getting pretty nervous, as well as pretty cold). My mother wanted me to show Kevin what was in the back yard.
"Oh yeah! I forgot about that." I said..
"Neato", Kevin said, when he saw it. There was a snow bank that went right over my fence. We went over it and then we saw another snow bank on the other side. Down below it looked like a hallway. The banking was high, a little over our heads, and then it sloped off. On the other side it sloped off too, but not as sharply. We had fun playing in the snow. My mother let my dog, Taffy, out. Taffy is a nice friendly coward . Usually if she sees someone coming: she runs the other way. She raced all around while we chased after her. She was even scared of the snow bank.  
 CHAPTER 5
FUN AND TROUBLE
Soon all the rest of the kids came. They were the same kids I had been playing with the day before, along with five others, who consisted of Craig's younger brother, Daren, Leana's sister, Linda, who is seven, Reggie's stepbrother, Ronnie, who is eight year's old, and the two teenagers who live around the block named Christina and her good friend, Heather.
"Well people, what do you want to do?" I asked.
"Play with Star War figures.” suggested Kevin.
"Play kickball." Craig said.
"IN THE SNOW? " everybody shouted.
"I know a game we can play." said Heather. Then she told everyone how to play it. It was called "Snow Capture" and was played in teams of four. After she described it the kids all agreed that it sounded like fun and everyone scampered off . It was lots of fun. Soon everybody on my team was captured. I had to free them. Uh oh Three kids started chasing me. I climbed on my fence, where another team's territory was. Whoops t I was trapped. I jumped down ; they didn't get me. I freed my teammates. Then Daren and Christopher tried to get me but didn't, because they were too little. Reggie clobbered me with a snowball. It didn’t count because I was still in their territory. Harly chased me out of his territory.
“Hey” Harley cried, as I decked him with a snowball.
“What’s that I hear?" I said. "It can It be, it can It be.." This was even more horrible than having Reggie. It was Mitchell and Mandy, Dennis’s little brother and sister. They were even worse than Reggie -not by much though. With the three or them combined, no telling what could happen.
"We came up to go sledding with you, Dennis." they said. "We brought Ping. Pong with us."
"Pee-ou- that dog smells." said Reggie, as he threw a snowball at Ping-Pong.
"You don’t throw snowballs at my dog." yelled Mitchell.
"Come over and make something or it." answered Reggie.
"O.K., I will, Stupid." Mitchell and Reggie got into a fight. They also got Christopher and Daren into the fight because they knocked them over.
"Stop this right now! " yelled Clara.
"I’ll tell your father." hollered Goldie. Ping-Pong started to run after them but Dennis held him. Ping-Pong just dragged Dennis into my yard and started looking around, because it looked so mysterious..
"Get that dog out of my yard." I yelled.
"O.K., I'll try." said Dennis. Mitchell started to run away because he was losing the fight. He started running all around my yard, with everyone chasing after him.
All the little kids got caught by Christina, Heather, Harley, and me. Heather and Christina gave the little kids a big lecture with my help, of course.
My mother soon came out and chased Ping-Pong away. She told all the little kids to go home and on second thought, told everyone else to go home too, because she was going Christmas shopping and was going to take me too. (I really think she was trying to get rid of the gang of kids. )
“Well, Mom, that ends a perfect game and cures your frustration towards little kids." I said.  
  
CHAPTER 6
MESSED UP PLANS
Soon it was only ten days before Christmas. I was going to be in the school Christmas plays. They had two plays -"A Christmas Carol" and "The Nativity Story".
I was going to have a lead part in each one and was overjoyed with excitement. It wasn’t t because I had the lead parts in the plays that I was overjoyed, it was because my co-star was a girl I had a crush on, named Susie.
She was to be my leading lady in both plays .Susie always hung around with her good friend , Abby. They both looked sort of pretty.
Soon the show started. The first play was "The Christmas Carol ". The play went well. We soon got into the second play, which was "The, Nativity Story".
When we got to the part where the Three Wise Men went to King Herod, Reggie found out that King Herod wanted to kill Baby Jesus. He gathered all the little kids together and went charging up onto the stage, warning the Three wise Men and attacking King Herod.
"Reggie," I yelled, "What is the meaning of this You ruined Our play. My big scene is coming. I'm glad you didn't ruin that part."
"I'm sorry." Reggie cried. "I got carried away. I thought they were really going to hurt Baby Jesus ."
Then I spoke out loudly. 'Even though this little kid ruined our play, his love for the Baby Jesus should give all of us the true Christmas feeling. Therefore, I'd like. everyone here to give Reggie a great big hand."
The Whole audience clapped with a good feeling in their hearts, especially Reggie and me.  
CHAPTER 7
A STOLEN SLED
It was 'finally Christmas Eve. I had just gotten hone from Midnight Mass and was sitting back thinking of all the fun I had had in the past few weeks. I laid down and closed my eyes. In another part of the neighborhood Santa had arrived at Reggie's house. Reggie was sitting up waiting for Santa.
"How many presents did you bring me, Santa?" he asked, when he spotted Santa. "
“What are you doing up so 1ate Reggie? All little boys and girls are supposed to be fast asleep in their beds at"this hour of night."
“I was waiting up. for you, Santa."
"That's the 300th kid who has done this to me tonight." Santa sighed.
"Well, what did you bring me?"
" I wasn't going to bring you anything because you've been so bad. "
"What" said Reggie“.
"Let me finish telling. you first” 'said Santa. "I thought it "wouldn't be fair," continued Santa, "so I was going to put a little candy cane in your stocking. Since you did that nice thing at the Christmas pageant, however, I'm going to give you some matchbox cars, too."
"What's going on down here?" said Ronny sleepily, as he came down..
"Go back to bed", said Santa," and you too, Reggie...Reggie...where did that Reggie go?" Reggie was on the roof top, looking around on Santa’s sled, driving Santa’s elves crazy. He soon kicked all the elves off the sled and scared the reindeer so that they took off. Ronnie jumped on at the last moment, while Santa started chasing after them. Reggie and Ronnie soon got to my house, where they went into my house with a special key; because we had no chimney. I was coming downstairs about that time.
"What are you doing in my house?" I yelled quietly.
"We're helping Santa", Reggie said.
"We are?" asked Ronnie. Santa came in at that time he had an extra key.
“Reggie took off with my sled.!”, Santa blurted out. We soon straightened the whole mess out and Santa got back in his sled, continuing on his way to deliver toys to all good little boys. Reggie and Ronnie went back home to bed. I got an extra present for being so helpful. It was a giant chocolate bar. I went back, closed my eyes and opened them again. Was that a dream I had just had, or was it real? I saw a bar sitting over on my desk. I sat and wondered, but guess I'll never know.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR SEE YOU IN MY NEXT STORY.