The 360 West Project

even if I tried my hardest

threw the ball farthest

held that note the longest

I’d still be dead to you

even if I did everything right

helped you out that one, cold night

stood up for you in that brutal fight

I’d still be dead to you

even if I was homeless

hopeless

worthless

I’d still be dead to you

People. People in the back of my head. Screaming. Screaming at me. Calling my name and telling me what to do. There are little people inside my head, crawling around and demanding my obedience. They reach through my eyes and pull back my lids, peer through the empty wholes where my eyes used to be and take a look at the world around me. They tear me apart; inside out, outside in. I used to try to fight them, use all of my energy just to make them stop. Scream at the top of my lungs to try to drown out the voices. But I became exhausted; they sucked out all of my energy and made me weak. I bend to their every will, I carry out their commands. My mind is not my own. There is no democracy in my brain; I have no say or no right to an opinion. My opinion doesn’t matter in a dictatorship.

They speak all at once, some quiet… just like a whisper in the wind; others, practically bang on my eardrums. I can’t tell which thoughts are real, or if I have ever even had one single thought of my own.

I sit back and wonder what silence is. I have never experienced even a second of it. Is it calm like and autumn leaf falling gently on a lake, sending little ripples dancing across the water. Or is it suffocating? Would the silence be as loud as the voices, or maybe even louder? Gasping for air, but it is too thick to swallow, drenched in silence. Cascading over me like a rogue wave, swallowing me and drowning me in silence.

I like the people in my head. Any company is good company. Without them… there would be no me.

His mind was full of stars, his brain was the crescent of the moon. He wasn’t like others, people that had half a brain, filled only with trash. Aiden had a calmness about him; the type of calm that most people admire. But when he spoke… god when he spoke, he spoke the universe.

His voice was soft and flowed gently out of his lips like the Milky Way. When he spoke it was like the whole world stopped. The earth took a break from spinning and orbiting, and just listened to Aiden’s sweet syrupy voice. It was like he had the whole world, the solar system, and the people in it, on puppet strings. With the slightest flick of the wrist he could manipulate them however he wanted. After all, he was the puppet master.

He was one of those people that you could stare at for hours, and never get bored. He was mesmerizing. His features were soft, smooth, and almost angelic. He had the moon in his eyes. Looking into them just for a second would have you hooked in a second with no escape from his trance. His eyes were his greatest feature, followed by his lips; the soft curve of the bottom, and the traced outline of the top. Perfect. He was perfect. Pure perfection.

But Aiden was a closed book. Actually, it was as if the pages didn’t even exist. Blank. No words to read. No way to understand. It was impossible to understand him, there was nothing to look at through his eyes. But he understood everyone else. Read them like an open book. It was like he could look into your eyes and see your soul. Peer into your own book and read carefully though the pages. There were no secret you hold hide within the pages, because he read between the lines. He saw right through the mask that we put on to hide our true identities, hide our emotions, our fears, our truth. But he never judged. Never spoke of the things he knew. He just knew.

By Kquiyani She was beautiful elegant but was mean she looked down on everyone and her name was zhahara. She had everything. She loved to pick on less pretty girls one day. Vahra a little girl asked Zhahara what she saw when she looked in the mirror. Zhahara screamed and yelled fo r the guards to take the girl away. Zhahara ran in her room closed the door and grabbed a mirror. She was beautiful elegant and very amazing looking, but she was displeased with herself. Zhahara saw that she was very ugly inside. She touched the mirror and then her face. She began to run, threw the door open and ran, she found Vahra’s house she bang on the door and begged the girl to make her beautiful on the inside. The girl told her to go far away from Congo, Africa and find the girls grandmother and so Zhahara did. She found the girl’s grandmother and was very impolite to the elderly woman. The elderly lady began to speak, she said, “Grab a mirror.’’ Zhahara did. ‘’Now,’’ said the elderly. ‘’What you do or say on the out, affects your in take this to heart.’’ Zhahara looked in the mirror and cried, ‘’Go Zhahara,‘’ said the elderly lady. ‘’You know exactly what must be done .‘’ Zhahara leaped up and traveled at a steady pace back to Congo. She ran to Vahra’s house found Vahra and said, “I am jealous of you. ‘’ Vahra slowly replied, ‘’But why?‘’ “Because your beautiful inside and out.” Vahra hugged Zhahara and from then on they helped each other with beauties from inside and out.

By Sarah

She’s blended in, almost invisible

They pass her by like time

No one knowing she’s incredible

She struggles with the signs

Hoping that one day they’ll see her

At night she comes out

Screaming at her torture

Eventually, she thinks, it’ll come and end her

It echoes back

Saying she belongs to it

Keeping her slave to the never-ending suspense

She wants to come out

Wanting someone to save her

But no one ever does

She wants to end

She then finds the other ones

The ones who are blended

She sees herself in them

And tries to save them

As she speaks to the invisible

She doesn’t seem to notice

Her master is slowly fading

She’s becoming like the others

It tries to come back

But its echoes are disappearing

Finding someone else

To tear their whole being

By Trey

Here I am chained to this pole; my whole life of fun is over. I’m the coolest car around here, I been to Pimp my ride, I have candy paint and all I’m the real deal. The teens love me I take them where they wanna go all they have to do is pay for the gas. They like to blast the music and let my trunk bang and turn on the hydraulics. I’m fly I know. Last night was crazy I was driving my homie Lil Skeeter to the mall and this other car beside me and tried to stunt on me. He asked if I wanted to race; fly as I am I couldn’t say no so I said it’s whatever. We went to an empty street and took off, I lost. My whole ego was messed up and so was Lil Skeeter, he told me don’t even bother taking him to the mall just take him home. I was cool with it but I had to stop by AutoZone for a drink. I took him home and just went to sleep. I woke up this morning and my rims were gone, they spray painted me and all that, so now I’m just ugly. But I mean I’m a be back soon because I’m a convertible 6 and I’m 2 real for this.

By Ryan

In the middle of a war a man is running away from the enemy. The enemy is ruthless and cunning but the army man runs and runs he trips over rocks branches and wrappers hides in fox holes trenches with empty boxes lying in there with the smell of dried marshmallows an rotten Twinkies some were probably some of his own Twinkies he had maybe some he ate and had a good memory of but he doesn’t have time to think of this right now the enemy followed his tracks and are gaining on him his heart is beating they get closer he starts to shake there 20 feet away now he notices a Twinkie gun loaded on the ground 10 feet away now he grabs it and starts shooting away the enemy he gets all that follow he sits there quite and still thinking of all that he got with no remorse it makes him sick but that’s the price of Twinkie war he’s sad and hungry so he grabs the Twinkie from his helmet and unwraps it with his muddy hands that have takes a bites it for the first time he it feels good it feels like freedom to relax and enjoy the little things in life.

By JaVaughn

One rainy November day, Scott stood outside of his girlfriend’s house. Afraid of what he may walk in on. Scared to tell the truth, afraid of what he’s been hiding for all those years. Creeping slowly to the old wooden porch, finally he reaches the door… Entering a home filled with friends and family but, not for Scott. Skye, Scott’s soon to be wife had moved on, feeling lonely with Scott gone off at war, she couldn’t take it. Scott came in not surprised by what he sees. “Skye” he says I have something to say. “What is that” she replied. “Don’t ask Don’t tell” he says as he walks back the car..

By Javaughn

In the dark with my friends doing regular Saturday night things in the woods that teens do Suddenly snap goes a branch then a whistle and a rusty laugh The sounds of the voices getting closer Daniel found an old double barrel in the woods terrified very terrified of what he hears so he cocked back the weapon on the mysterious scary person…. But little did we know that mysterious person was my beloved dog…. That night was horror that night was grief that was the night that Daisy left me….

“It took us a while to complete this. Huh, Ed?” Asks a man pulling rope while beads of sweat roll down his face.
“Yea Frank, It was hard to locate the pieces. We even had to create new ones since some of the others we either seriously damaged or lost or even completely destroyed.” Ed Replies.
“Yea….I’m so glad we were able to fix these ruins.”
“True that, we even had to scare off thieves who would try to take advantage of how the ruins were and make the damage even worse…I would hate to fix it up again.”
Frank pats Ed on the Shoulder.
“Well,…just be glad were almost done. Soon this place will be good as new. We even used more protective materials this time.”
Ed nods
“Yeah.”