Eighth grader demonstrates skill and artistry with Indian Dancing

By Courtney Golden

Peacock eighth grader, Puja Dave, participates in a unique and beautiful sport, Indian dancing. Puja began dancing about six years ago, and plans to continue until she is married, or maybe even afterwards; or, until her friends also decide not to continue.

When interviewed, Puja admitted that she especially likes dancing with the boys. The costumes and songs are what makes the dancing so much fun. Her costumes usually consist of long skirts with tops in different sizes, ranging from very short to very long. Puja said that her favorite dance is one that she performed at her cousin’s wedding reception, Mandi Laga Ka Rhukna.

Indian dancing does have a few competitions, but Puja doe not follow a strict practice schedule. Rather, she usually practices when her friends come over.

Caray is gone but not forgotten

By Tania Banach

Cubs broadcaster Harry Caray died on Wednesday, February 18, 1998, in California. He had suffered a heart attack a few days earlier. Caray was a week away from his eighty-fourth birthday.

Wrigley Field was not Harry's original home field. Harry broadcast St. Louis Cardinals games for over twenty years, until 1968. In 1970, Caray came to Chicago to broadcast the White Sox games. According to Caray, however, Wrigley Field was his true home. He led the Cubs broadcast since 1981.

Everyone in Chicago knows Harry's three famous lines: "Holy Cow," "Cubs Win," and "It could be, it maybe, it is." Caray was most famous, however, for singing "Take Me Out To The Ball Game" during the seventh inning stretch.

Caray was an orphan, and he knew what it was like to be alone in the world. In the 1980s, he established a charity for orphans. The Cubs have planned several tributes to Caray, including a Beanie Baby game featuring his favorite baby, Daisy the cow, and a poem in his memory.

Caution: This story is unsuitible for those who sympathize with Killer Mimes, and for some plants and household appliances. Also, if you wear stripes with polka dots, you might want to take it somewhere else.

Mr. Moose and the Killer Mime

by Zareena Javed

"Ahh, you’re a fine piece of work," Mr. Moose said to himself as he peered at his reflection in the mirror. And a fine piece of work he was. Mr. Moose was very meticulous when it came to his appearance, especially tonight, as he was headed to a party at the home of his good friend Wally the Mime.

"Honey, are you done primping yet, we have to get there on time!" Exclaimed his wife, Ms. Dog.

"I’m coming I’m coming!" They climbed into the Moose mobile and off they went. When they got to the party, they organized a group game of Monopoly. That’s where it all began…

" I WANT TO BE THE THIMBLE!!!!" Wally furiously pantomimed.

" If you’re the thimble, you’re going to have to pry it from my cold, dead fingers! Answer me gosh darnit!" Mr. Moose answered angrily, " Did you hear me, I said ‘ANSWER ME!’" But it was too late, Wally was trapped in an invisible box, out of plain old spite.

"Well I’m leaving," Mr. Moose said indignantly. He and Ms. Dog left.

One Week Later…

"Ring ring," went the phone, Mr. Moose picked it up,

"Yellow!" (Don’t you hate it when people answer the phone like that?)

"I’m watching you Moose boy!" Then, a few days after that, the doorbell rang and on the front step was noneother than Wally, by the way, his new name is now The Killer Mime.

" I warned you Mr. Moose, now you shall pay," he pantomimed. Then out of the bushes popped out his sinful Uncle Larry, who was dressed in a bee costume.

" Aren’t you glad to see your uncle? Why don’t you have some…FLOWERS! Ahahahahahahaha!" He laughed evilly.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Mr. Moose shrieked in horror. Uncle Larry was one of the only people who knew about Mr. Moose’s one weakness, his pollen allergy! It was like cryptonite to him. The wicked Uncle Larry waved the flowers in his face as he violently sneezed. Suddenly Ms. Dog pulled into the driveway, home from her PTA meeting, and heaved her purse, which just happened to have a bowling ball in it, at Wally, the Killer Mime’s head. It knocked him to the ground.

"Eeheheheheheheheheehe! You’ll never stop me now!" screeched Mr. Moose joyfully. They ran off, but not without warning him they’d be back. Then, one day, Mr. Moose stepped out of the house for a stroll, and that is when he saw it, they had murdered Lenny, his chia pet. Mr. Moose couldn’t take it any more, he decided to punish them. He knew that the punishment he thought up was a really cruel, but oh well.

"Wally, I’m sorry," he said,"Maybe you and Larry can come over and play Monopoly, you can be the thimble."

"Sure, I would like that, let me just make sure that its not Larry’s night to play Bunco."

"Ding dong," rang the doorbell. Mr. Moose welcomed Wally and Larry and just as they had finished their hot cocoa, they began to feel drowsy.

"Heheheheheheehehehehehe! Now you will get what you deserve!" he bound their hands, and dargged them into the closet, which just happened to be soudproof, he proceeded to play his Hanson CD AS LOUD AS HE COULD!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Mimes were hurt or maimed during the making of this story.

The Photographer

By Amber Stoesser

It was a rather nice day for mid-December. The sun was shining, a sort of glassy stillness filled the air, and the temperature was warm for 22 degrees. I was sitting on the porch of my dad's house reading when I heard the phone ring.

"Hello," I said as I picked up the receiver.

"Hey Cat, it's me Megan."

"Oh hey, Meg. Whatchya up to?"

"Oh nothin' much. I was wondering if you want to go to the mall or something today. We can use my sister's car if you want."

"My dad's out at a job right now and I'm stranded, but I'm sure it will be okay."

"Sounds good, but what should we do?"

"Hmmm... Ah... Let's go to the movies. There's supposed to be this movie with a really hot guy in it, and it looks really good."

"Oooh, sounds good," Megan said in a hilarious tone of voice that made me laugh hysterically. "What?!?"

"Nothing," I stammered between giggles. After I had somewhat controlled myself I said, "It was just the way you said that! It was hilarious!"

"Oh, okay. What time does the movie start?"

"Ummm, I dunno. Let me go check," I got up from my perch on the counter to go find the newspaper. "Hey Hera," I said as I found the cat on top of the newspaper. "You gotta move hon." I searched through the sections of the newspaper until I found the entire section devoted to entertainment. Picking out the theatre and the movie, I walked back to the phone. "Alrighty then. The next movie starts at 1:30 and judging by the time it should work out just fine. All things considering, I'm still in my pajamas." It was Meg's turn to laugh.

"Wow, so am I! Anyway, I'll pick you up at 1:00 and that should give us enough time to get there."

"I'll see you at one then."

"Okay, see ya then," Megan said.

"Yup, see ya. Bye." I replied as I hung up the phone. I went to the banana stand and picked one off. As I pealed the banana something pink caught the corner of my eye. There, on the door was a post-it-note. "I'll betchya money that that's a note for Dad from Rich," I muttered to myself as I walked towards the door. My dad's boss often left notes for my dad when he forgot things so we made him some extra keys. The note wasn't a surprise but I scanned the note anyway. I picked up the phone and dialed my dad's cell phone number.

"Hello," said my dad from who-knows-where.

"Guess what?"

"What did I forget this time?" Dad asked as I fiddled with the little paper.

"Oh, you just forgot the note Rich left you about the game and rink changes."

"Great. Give me the addresses please," Dad replied as he sighed.

"Ready? Okay. The first rink is on twenty second and Moore; that's called Meeler Stadium. The other one is on Ninth and Buck Road; it's called the Geneva Center. You gotta shoot the Devils and the Skaters at three, the red Mini-mites, or something like that, at 5:30. Those games are at Meeler Stadium. The Stinger-Wings game is at eight at the Geneva Center, then oh boy, the High School Championship game at 10:00. Have fun. You're not gonna be home for a while now are you?"

"No. Why don't you do something with Megan?"

"I was planning to go to the movies with her and then have a sleep over, is that okay?"

"Sure, I guess. As long as you don't destroy the house. No parties!"

"Okay," I said dejectedly.

"Bye."

"See ya." After I hung up the phone I went upstairs and took a shower and got ready to go.

An hour later I was sitting on the couch watching TV. I was petting my cat Hera when I realized Zeus, the dog, was outside.

"Sorry Hera, I've gotta let Zeus in," I said as picked up the black cat with violet eyes and set her on the floor. I walked to the door, whistled. "Zeus! Come here!" I yelled as a shrill border collie bark filled the air. "Come on Zeus!" Finally there was a flash of black and white as Zeus bounded through the door. "Were you chasing rabbits again?" I asked the dog as he looked up at me and wagged his tail. "Yeah, you know you were. Don't give that 'I'm an innocent little dog' routine. It's not going to work this time."

Just as I was about to give the dog a nonsense lecture, a car horn honked outside. "You be good," I said when Hera walked in the room. "Don't pick on the rabbit." I picked up my coat and walked to the '88 Topaz. I opened the door and sat down. "I know that one day I'll come home and Zeus will be lying on the floor bloated and Aphrodite and Hera will be gone," I stated.

Megan laughed as she pulled out onto the country road, and said, "You're probably right. Either that or you'll come home and none of them will be there and your dad will be all smug."

"He really doesn't hate them. It's just a front he puts up," I replied defensively. "My dad's not going to be back till late and he said you could sleep-over. How about it?"

"Cool. Did he say anything about parties?"

"He said that we can't have them. And besides, I don't feel like going through all that work setting it up." We sat in silence for a while until we came to the next stop light where Meg turned on the radio. It was a song that we both liked so we pumped up the volume and sang at the top of our lungs. When it came to the last verse the D.J. came on with an important announcement:

"I have just been informed that Scott Delanie, The District Attorney, has just been found murdered in his lakeside mansion. He was found this morning by his wife and daughter when they arrived home from a Girl Scout outing. Nothing was stolen except for a Polaroid Camera and a few soccer pictures of their daughter. The police say that there are no suspects as of yet, and those of you living by the lake and surrounding forest area should lock your doors and not let anyone in. Now back to our regular music."

"Oh my God!" I whispered. "I sold those pictures to them last year. They only live a mile away from my house!"

"Calm down. There's no reason to get panicked, yet. Besides, he'll never come over here."

"That's probably what they thought," I retorted harshly. I pulled my auburn hair from my pony tail and started to twirl my hair. "What would someone want with just a Polaroid camera and some soccer pictures?" I thought absently, totally zoning everything out.

"Cat, Cat!" Meg yelled at me.

"Hmm, what?"

"We're here!"

"Oh yeah."

"Come on, we're gonna miss the movie!"

* * * *

On the ride home we stopped at Megan's house to pick up her stuff and drop off the car.

"I hope my dad's okay," I said as we walked up the hill to my house.

"He'll be fine. Stop obsessing over that killer guy, could ya!" Meg replied flatly.

"I'm sorry, you're right."

"I'm always right." We both started laughing as we reached my house at the top of the hill. We walked to the door and just out of habit turned the knob to see if it was open.

"That's weird," I said and shrugged my shoulders.

"What's weird?"

"The door's unlocked and I know I locked it."

"That is weird," Meg agreed as we walked into the house. Zeus came up to us with his tail between his legs. "What's wrong with him?"

"Oh, he probably just peed on the rug or something," I replied, dismissing it. We walked to the answering machine and I pushed play.

"Saturday, December 14, 1:44 p.m.: Hi, this is Rich. I was wondering if you got my message about the game changes. Sorry to be getting it to you so late like that. Anyway, I was wondering if Catherine could work in the lab tomorrow with the juvenile delinquents. Okay? See ya then, bye."

"Who's are the 'juvenile deliquents?'" Meg asked.

"Oh, that's just Will, Chris and Buddy."

"Why do they call them the 'juvenile deliquents?'"

"You know old people. They're always stereotyping."

"Saturday, 2:13 p.m.: Hey Cat, this is Dave. I wanted to know if you got the pictures I left for you on the table. Sorry if I left the door open. Bye. End of messages."

"Who's Dave?" Megan wondered out loud.

Quite stunned I replied, "I seriously don't know."

"Cat, you'd better look at this," Megan whispered from the table. I turned to see what she was looking at, and there, on the table right where "Dave" said they would be were, were six Polaroid pictures of my house.

"Oh my God! Get me the phone!" I dialed the Beara residence so fast it wasn't funny. "Buddy, is this your idea of a sick joke!" I screamed into the phone as a very startled Buddy answered the phone.

"What are you talking about?"

"You know, the Polaroid pictures of my house!"

"I don't own a Polaroid camera."

"Then which one of your friends is named "Dave" and knew about the Delanie murder? Which one of them broke into my house and left bizarre pictures and messages? Huh? Tell me!"

"Calm down! I don't know anyone named Dave, but I'm coming over there right now. I don't want you to be there all by yourself," Buddy told me.

"You don't have to. I'll be okay, plus my friend Megan's here with me," I said quite offended by his gesture, yet touched all the same.

"Are you sure you'll be okay? You know if anything weird happens to you just call me. I'll come right over. Call me, 'kay?"

"I'll be fine and I promise. It was probably just my brother playing a joke on me or something. It might have been Zack, though. He loves to torment me."

"What are co-workers for? But seriously, if you get into trouble, call me."

"Okay, I will. Thanks."

"No problem."

"Bye," I put down the phone and turned to Megan. Her usually dark face was pale. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, why would they go and do that to you? And how would they know?"

"Oh, it was probably on TV and other radio stations and they still make fun of me for drooling over this football player named Dave last year. That's probably what it was. Buddy was just playing along," I half assured Meg and myself at the same time. I didn't buy it. "What time is it?"

"Four o'clock."

"Great! Jamz77 will be on AOL."

"I haven't talked to him in a while." We started to walk out of the kitchen into the living room where we stopped dead in our tracks. There, littered all over the living room were the pictures that I had sold to Olivia Delanie.

"Get the phone, Cat. I don't care if Buddy wants us to call him, we're calling the police!" Megan yelled.

"It's just someone's sick idea of a joke. I'm calling Buddy ," I went and called Buddy. "He's going to be here in ten minutes."

TO BE CONTINUED...