The short story column will be a place where students engage in storytelling and practice creative writing skills. We hope these stories inspire other writer in the YWLA community to reach out and contact us about getting their story published in the news.
The True Tale of Sarah:
By: Lorena Cantellop
As the chilly fall weather blew across town, the group of six girls, Tara, Mabelle, Mandy, Hannah, Daisy, and the new student Raquel were all sitting in the courtyard for lunch. As they had their usual questionable lunch conversations, Mabelle brought up the schools famous ghost tale that went by the name, Sarah.
"Hey guys, did you hear the newest Sarah story?" said Mabelle.
Raquel, being new, didn’t know who this "Sarah" was, so she asked,"Who's Sarah?"
All the other girls gasped with disbelief as they realized that for some inexplicable reason, they hadn't told Raquel the popular rumors. Mandy, who never shied away from raising her voice, started off saying,"Oh my goodness! We need to catch you up! You know how this school used to be Horace Mann Middle School? Well there are rumors that there was a girl named Sarah at Horace Mann that died somehow and she now haunts the school. The thing is no one knows how she died and some people even believe she was buried some place in the school."
"I've heard all the stories but I haven't heard of the places people think she's been buried," Mabelle says.
Tara immediately spoke up.
“Well… I’ve heard of three possibilities about where she could be. Some people think she's buried in the shed in the back of the school, others think she's under the stage in the auditorium, and others are convinced she is in the boiler room under the cafeteria."
"Those are all really different places. How do they come up with these rumors?" Raquel asked.
"I don't know but rumors travel fast so there could be different places that we just misinterpreted." Tara answered.
"That's true." Raquel replies.
"Oh!" Daisy interrupted. "I can’t believe I almost forgot. I did hear about the new Sarah story."
"Wait! Who creates the stories about Sarah?" Raquel asks doubtfully.
"Oh. No one makes up stories about Sarah. People just talk about the creepy experiences that happen at school and we say that it was Sarah," answers Tara.
"Hey wait. I haven't heard the new story yet. I wanna hear." Mandy replies.
"Oh right sorry," Mabelle answers. "Well in Mrs. Hartman's room, while the kids were all discussing their chapter notes a helmet that was on the big black shelf, fell down even though no one was touching it. So they all freaked out."
"Woah! That is kinda weird," replies Tara.
"Yeah," Raquel replies. "Do y’all have any other stories?"
"Oh of course!" Daisy exclaimed. "We have plenty! Oh but my favorite is when one girl said she was alone in the bathroom one time but she heard taps on the stall doors and a faint sound of crying."
"Woah. Who was the girl?" Raquel asked.
"Not sure," Daisy answered. "Word travels too fast to know that much. But it doesn’t matter, there are other stories to get to."
"Oh right. I have a story," Hannah adds. "One time in Ms. Clark-Rankins room, the lights suddenly shut off and the lights on the opposite side of the room suddenly turned on. No one was near them so people think Sarah shut off the lights and activated the motion sensor ones when she moved."
"This is way weird," Raquel adds.
The bunch was eager to hear more, but instead the bell rang signaling their haunting storytelling over.
"Awe man. There are so many more stories to tell." Mandy complains.
"Don't worry. We can talk more tomorrow during lunch," Raquel said. "See you girls later. Bye."