Fly on the Wall
This was a joint project between my English and Biology classes. The idea behind the project was to capture a bug, photograph it during Biology class and then write about it in English class. The story was challenging to write because it had to be written from the bug's perspective. Once completed, the story was quite unique.
In the end, everyone from the team put their stories together and created a published book, now available for purchase on Amazon. If interested, you can buy it by clicking here: tinyurl.com/lfgvebk
What we learned in English:
This is the cover of the book:
In the end, everyone from the team put their stories together and created a published book, now available for purchase on Amazon. If interested, you can buy it by clicking here: tinyurl.com/lfgvebk
What we learned in English:
- Perspective writing
- How to be descriptive
- Point of view
- Narrations
- Incorporating real facts about our bugs into our stories.
This is the cover of the book:
Here is my final story:
A Great Escape
I was greeted with a gust of cool air, as the door to the inside opened. I quickly, and sneakily, flew past the threshold and went straight up towards the ceiling. I found a place where the ceiling met the wall so I could stop and scope out this new place that was so different from the cocoon that housed me just days before. Bright orange and yellow walls surrounded me. The colorful walls seemed to invite me in. Looking around, I was amazed by all of these foreign shapes and textures in this new environment. Tall wooden shelves held paper in all the colors of the rainbow with scribbles on them. What appeared to be white and red grass in a rectangular shape covered part of the floor. White cushy structures holding large, limbed beings were arranged around the patch of strange grass. All of the long-limbed beings seemed to be transfixed by a giant box that had an irresistible light glowing from it and figures moving around in it. I flew toward the attractive light, but loud noises coming from the box vibrated through the air, repelling me. As I flew to escape the vibrations, I noticed the light box was housed in an enormous wooden structure, so tall I couldn’t see where it met the ground. The wooden structure seemed to melt into the floor, as the ground seemed to be made from old trees. Across from the wooden tower was another cushy structure, but this one was covered in purple, which reminded me of flowers.
Back on the wall above the wooden tower, I paused to plan what to do next. I decided to venture further into this new place and to escape the vibrations from the box. I started to inch my six legs along the wall when suddenly, the room went dark. I noticed my passageway was now very narrow. I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place. I realized I was now behind the wooden tower. I cautiously walked through this shadowy crevice, hyper aware of the cobwebs and the hanging dead, decaying insects. I continued through the graveyard, hoping this madness would soon end. I could see the light at the end of the “tunnel” and couldn’t wait to spread my two pairs of wings once again.
As I emerged from the darkness, I landed on what I immediately recognized as a leaf. There were trees inside this new environment! I hesitated momentarily, but then continued along the arched leaf. As I trekked along the leaf to its underside, my world was literally turned upside down. The leaf became my new floor. Looking ahead, I was entering a whole other world: leaves and branches darted out in every direction and there didn’t seem to be an end. I decided that there must be another way to get through here so I stopped and mulled over my options. I turned around and tried to figure out where I wanted to go next—and that’s when I saw it. The most beautiful, brightest, godly light I had ever seen! I couldn’t believe how big it was! I figured—no, I knew that light that I was naturally attracted to was going to be so much more interesting than the tree I was in.
I walked to the edge of the leaf and leaped. I started flapping and felt the cool air as it caught my wings. Each powerful thrust brought me closer and closer to the mystifying light. The light acted as a guide for me. As I headed right into it, for some unexplainable reason, I was able to fly straighter than in any other situation. As I flew towards the celestial light I had time to admire my new, unfamiliar surroundings. The one thing I noticed quite often was all of the trees and plants in containers. I couldn’t understand why, or how, there were so many of them! I also noticed there was a lot of little lights. They were just as mesmerizing as the one I was headed to, but none of them compared in size. As more and more of the little lights came popping up out of nowhere, I started to feel a little hesitant, because the one I was headed toward had giant blades coming out from it.
As I was flying through the air I started to get a little hungry. I noticed that to my right was a small flowery plant. I yearned for the sweet nectar that the vibrant flowers held. The nectar would be such a satisfying meal, and would give me more energy to continue exploring this new place. I decided to take a detour and have a quick meal before I continued on to the light. I leaned right and started my descent to the plant. As my wings rippled through the air I decided what flower to eat from first. One giant flower caught my eye. I turned a bit and landed gracefully on the flower. I crawled to its center and started to suck up the nectar. It was sweet and I instantly felt myself regain some energy. I crawled from flower to flower sucking up as much nectar as I could until I was full. As I was finishing my last flower I started to get eager again about seeing the light.
I moved towards the edge of the flower and started to shake out my wings. I momentarily stopped at the edge of the flower to reassess how high I had to fly to reach the light, and then leaped. My wings blurred behind me as I started the ascent to the brilliant light. I felt so free and satisfied after eating. I had just passed the last branch of the flower tree when it felt like I had just forcefully hit a wall and then was smacked to the ground. My senses and two long antennae were going crazy as they were picking up so many different sensations. Sounds and bright lights were making me dizzy and my body ached like it never had before. I tried to stand up on my legs to figure out where I was, but that proved to be difficult because my head was spinning from the impact of whatever hit me. After a moment, I was able to regain my balance and realized that I was on the floor of the room.
Next, I tried to walk forward but whatever knocked me out of the air, also crushed one of my legs. The pain was excruciating. Since I could no longer walk, I decided I would try to fly. With my head still spinning, I spread open my wings and flew as straight as I could, which was difficult due to the lack of light at this low level. I could feel myself sway side to side as I flew low to the ground. I didn’t have enough energy to get very high. My wings were also flapping slower than usual and could tell I wasn’t going to get very far before I had to rest. As quickly as I could, I continued to fly, only to find myself in yet another sticky situation.
The world around me suddenly went dark and walls closed in around me. It was as though I’d flown into a very small room on the ground--a room within a room. I landed on the side of this strange object. As I looked around me I noticed I was trapped, except for the direction I came in from, which, of course, was being heavily guarded by a wide-eyed, furry creature with whiskers and a tail.
Shocked, I didn't have words to describe my fear. I don't think I had ever been more afraid in my life. And now, stuck in the corner of a five-sided container with only one way out, I wasn't sure how much longer that life would be. I started going through everything in my mind that I could do to escape, but it all ended with me being eaten by the creature. At that point, I really didn't have any better ideas, so I decided to go with the simplest solution: crawling, inch by inch, as secretly as I could, out of the dark container. But the second I moved two legs, the beast’s head twitched in my direction. I was hopeless.
Considering that I couldn't move, I had to think of another way to escape. I could tell the sun was starting to set. That was not good news for me, because the darker it got outside, the more active my attacker seemed to become. I was clearly being hunted and feared that I was about to become a snack for this wild animal. As the day was coming to an end, I became more and more nervous.
The creature’s body started to wiggle and I could tell it was about to pounce. Within mere seconds I would be a goner. Attempting to save myself, I decided to crawl into a corner of this cube and shield myself as best I could with my wings. As I put my plan into action, I saw the furry creature begin to pounce in my direction, and all of the sudden, the whole cube shuddered as my attacker collided with it. It tried to bite me, but failed because I was jammed so far into the corner. Hope began to flicker once again, as I survived the initial attack. The only problem with my plan was that I was still trapped.
Without warning, my assailant once again pounced at the container that boxed me in, and then yet again. I got the idea that he wasn't going to give up this time. Again and again, it tried to claw at me. I could see it all very clearly because I kept my eyes open. Nature favored me with eyes that do not reflect light so the attacker didn’t know my exact location. Then, there was nothing--only silence and stillness. I thought I was out of danger until I heard a thundering noise headed in my direction. It was getting closer and closer until the thing I was enclosed in tumbled heavily to the ground. My whole world was coming down around me and I had no idea what to do next.
As I started to back out of the corner, I noticed that it wasn’t as dark anymore. When I turned my head to quickly look above me, I felt a sharp pain in my dark brown thorax and abdomen. My earlier injury was worse than I thought. Regardless of the pain, I could see the light! Its magical properties were once again drawing me in, but I had to fight it so that I could survive. I put my head back down and was shocked: the dreaded creature was in the container with me!
Quickly, I burrowed myself back into the corner of the container. The beast continued to paw at me. I knew I didn’t have long if I wanted to live, so I had to come up with a plan, now. I decided that I would fly up. I turned around and burrowed the back end of my abdomen into the corner instead of my head and was poised, ready to fly, as soon as the creature looked away. I figured the safest place for me would be the light—because I suspected my wingless attacker couldn’t reach it, and because I really, really wanted to see it.
After what felt like hours of having a staring contest with my opponent, it started to get bored and lose interest in me. It quickly stood up and forcefully swung one of its hind legs up to its ear, and started to scratch it. This was my opportunity to escape and be free. I ran up the side of the container, the creature still preoccupied, and spread my wings and jumped off the container’s lip. I vigorously beat my wings and climbed through the air up toward the light. For a moment, I looked down and saw that my adversary had stopped scratching its ear and was looking down. It noticed I was missing and started to turn its head in every direction to find me. It finally looked up and saw me. Still keen on capturing me, it bent its legs down to the ground, and sprung up as high as it could to try to swipe at me once again. Fortunately, I had already flown too high for him to reach me.
Exhilarated, I kept flying upward to the light. I started to slow down because I knew I was out of harm’s way. Moments later, I approached the light and decided to land on its far side. It was, unequivocally, the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life. In a strange way, the light gave me back my energy and restored my hope. It gave me the confidence that I would somehow make it out of this place alive. I believed it, and just as I was settling down on the light for the night, it went dark. The light somehow turned off. I wanted it so badly to turn back on, but no matter how much I begged, it did not come back on. That angered me! After the day’s tiring tribulations, all I wanted was some relaxation and to be able to bask in the warm glow of the light.
Annoyed with this place, I decided I would make my way back to my bush. I spread my wings and slowly drifted in the air back towards the opening from which I came. In flight, I reflected on the day. Although I escaped death at the paws of my ferocious foe, I was so disappointed about not being able to see the light that attracted me in the first place. I knew I should be grateful to have the opportunity to live my whole life span of 15 sun cycles.
I flew past the tree I encountered at the beginning of my journey, as well as the insect graveyard, and saw the opening to this confusing place of wonder and terror. Unfortunately, the opening was now blocked off, so I had to wait for it to be opened to make it back to my bush on the other side. Exhausted, I flew back into the corner of the orange room, up high and away from the predator. I got comfortable for a watchful night since I sleep during the day. The first chance I got when the opening reappeared, I made my escape to the great outdoors.
I was greeted with a gust of cool air, as the door to the inside opened. I quickly, and sneakily, flew past the threshold and went straight up towards the ceiling. I found a place where the ceiling met the wall so I could stop and scope out this new place that was so different from the cocoon that housed me just days before. Bright orange and yellow walls surrounded me. The colorful walls seemed to invite me in. Looking around, I was amazed by all of these foreign shapes and textures in this new environment. Tall wooden shelves held paper in all the colors of the rainbow with scribbles on them. What appeared to be white and red grass in a rectangular shape covered part of the floor. White cushy structures holding large, limbed beings were arranged around the patch of strange grass. All of the long-limbed beings seemed to be transfixed by a giant box that had an irresistible light glowing from it and figures moving around in it. I flew toward the attractive light, but loud noises coming from the box vibrated through the air, repelling me. As I flew to escape the vibrations, I noticed the light box was housed in an enormous wooden structure, so tall I couldn’t see where it met the ground. The wooden structure seemed to melt into the floor, as the ground seemed to be made from old trees. Across from the wooden tower was another cushy structure, but this one was covered in purple, which reminded me of flowers.
Back on the wall above the wooden tower, I paused to plan what to do next. I decided to venture further into this new place and to escape the vibrations from the box. I started to inch my six legs along the wall when suddenly, the room went dark. I noticed my passageway was now very narrow. I felt like I was between a rock and a hard place. I realized I was now behind the wooden tower. I cautiously walked through this shadowy crevice, hyper aware of the cobwebs and the hanging dead, decaying insects. I continued through the graveyard, hoping this madness would soon end. I could see the light at the end of the “tunnel” and couldn’t wait to spread my two pairs of wings once again.
As I emerged from the darkness, I landed on what I immediately recognized as a leaf. There were trees inside this new environment! I hesitated momentarily, but then continued along the arched leaf. As I trekked along the leaf to its underside, my world was literally turned upside down. The leaf became my new floor. Looking ahead, I was entering a whole other world: leaves and branches darted out in every direction and there didn’t seem to be an end. I decided that there must be another way to get through here so I stopped and mulled over my options. I turned around and tried to figure out where I wanted to go next—and that’s when I saw it. The most beautiful, brightest, godly light I had ever seen! I couldn’t believe how big it was! I figured—no, I knew that light that I was naturally attracted to was going to be so much more interesting than the tree I was in.
I walked to the edge of the leaf and leaped. I started flapping and felt the cool air as it caught my wings. Each powerful thrust brought me closer and closer to the mystifying light. The light acted as a guide for me. As I headed right into it, for some unexplainable reason, I was able to fly straighter than in any other situation. As I flew towards the celestial light I had time to admire my new, unfamiliar surroundings. The one thing I noticed quite often was all of the trees and plants in containers. I couldn’t understand why, or how, there were so many of them! I also noticed there was a lot of little lights. They were just as mesmerizing as the one I was headed to, but none of them compared in size. As more and more of the little lights came popping up out of nowhere, I started to feel a little hesitant, because the one I was headed toward had giant blades coming out from it.
As I was flying through the air I started to get a little hungry. I noticed that to my right was a small flowery plant. I yearned for the sweet nectar that the vibrant flowers held. The nectar would be such a satisfying meal, and would give me more energy to continue exploring this new place. I decided to take a detour and have a quick meal before I continued on to the light. I leaned right and started my descent to the plant. As my wings rippled through the air I decided what flower to eat from first. One giant flower caught my eye. I turned a bit and landed gracefully on the flower. I crawled to its center and started to suck up the nectar. It was sweet and I instantly felt myself regain some energy. I crawled from flower to flower sucking up as much nectar as I could until I was full. As I was finishing my last flower I started to get eager again about seeing the light.
I moved towards the edge of the flower and started to shake out my wings. I momentarily stopped at the edge of the flower to reassess how high I had to fly to reach the light, and then leaped. My wings blurred behind me as I started the ascent to the brilliant light. I felt so free and satisfied after eating. I had just passed the last branch of the flower tree when it felt like I had just forcefully hit a wall and then was smacked to the ground. My senses and two long antennae were going crazy as they were picking up so many different sensations. Sounds and bright lights were making me dizzy and my body ached like it never had before. I tried to stand up on my legs to figure out where I was, but that proved to be difficult because my head was spinning from the impact of whatever hit me. After a moment, I was able to regain my balance and realized that I was on the floor of the room.
Next, I tried to walk forward but whatever knocked me out of the air, also crushed one of my legs. The pain was excruciating. Since I could no longer walk, I decided I would try to fly. With my head still spinning, I spread open my wings and flew as straight as I could, which was difficult due to the lack of light at this low level. I could feel myself sway side to side as I flew low to the ground. I didn’t have enough energy to get very high. My wings were also flapping slower than usual and could tell I wasn’t going to get very far before I had to rest. As quickly as I could, I continued to fly, only to find myself in yet another sticky situation.
The world around me suddenly went dark and walls closed in around me. It was as though I’d flown into a very small room on the ground--a room within a room. I landed on the side of this strange object. As I looked around me I noticed I was trapped, except for the direction I came in from, which, of course, was being heavily guarded by a wide-eyed, furry creature with whiskers and a tail.
Shocked, I didn't have words to describe my fear. I don't think I had ever been more afraid in my life. And now, stuck in the corner of a five-sided container with only one way out, I wasn't sure how much longer that life would be. I started going through everything in my mind that I could do to escape, but it all ended with me being eaten by the creature. At that point, I really didn't have any better ideas, so I decided to go with the simplest solution: crawling, inch by inch, as secretly as I could, out of the dark container. But the second I moved two legs, the beast’s head twitched in my direction. I was hopeless.
Considering that I couldn't move, I had to think of another way to escape. I could tell the sun was starting to set. That was not good news for me, because the darker it got outside, the more active my attacker seemed to become. I was clearly being hunted and feared that I was about to become a snack for this wild animal. As the day was coming to an end, I became more and more nervous.
The creature’s body started to wiggle and I could tell it was about to pounce. Within mere seconds I would be a goner. Attempting to save myself, I decided to crawl into a corner of this cube and shield myself as best I could with my wings. As I put my plan into action, I saw the furry creature begin to pounce in my direction, and all of the sudden, the whole cube shuddered as my attacker collided with it. It tried to bite me, but failed because I was jammed so far into the corner. Hope began to flicker once again, as I survived the initial attack. The only problem with my plan was that I was still trapped.
Without warning, my assailant once again pounced at the container that boxed me in, and then yet again. I got the idea that he wasn't going to give up this time. Again and again, it tried to claw at me. I could see it all very clearly because I kept my eyes open. Nature favored me with eyes that do not reflect light so the attacker didn’t know my exact location. Then, there was nothing--only silence and stillness. I thought I was out of danger until I heard a thundering noise headed in my direction. It was getting closer and closer until the thing I was enclosed in tumbled heavily to the ground. My whole world was coming down around me and I had no idea what to do next.
As I started to back out of the corner, I noticed that it wasn’t as dark anymore. When I turned my head to quickly look above me, I felt a sharp pain in my dark brown thorax and abdomen. My earlier injury was worse than I thought. Regardless of the pain, I could see the light! Its magical properties were once again drawing me in, but I had to fight it so that I could survive. I put my head back down and was shocked: the dreaded creature was in the container with me!
Quickly, I burrowed myself back into the corner of the container. The beast continued to paw at me. I knew I didn’t have long if I wanted to live, so I had to come up with a plan, now. I decided that I would fly up. I turned around and burrowed the back end of my abdomen into the corner instead of my head and was poised, ready to fly, as soon as the creature looked away. I figured the safest place for me would be the light—because I suspected my wingless attacker couldn’t reach it, and because I really, really wanted to see it.
After what felt like hours of having a staring contest with my opponent, it started to get bored and lose interest in me. It quickly stood up and forcefully swung one of its hind legs up to its ear, and started to scratch it. This was my opportunity to escape and be free. I ran up the side of the container, the creature still preoccupied, and spread my wings and jumped off the container’s lip. I vigorously beat my wings and climbed through the air up toward the light. For a moment, I looked down and saw that my adversary had stopped scratching its ear and was looking down. It noticed I was missing and started to turn its head in every direction to find me. It finally looked up and saw me. Still keen on capturing me, it bent its legs down to the ground, and sprung up as high as it could to try to swipe at me once again. Fortunately, I had already flown too high for him to reach me.
Exhilarated, I kept flying upward to the light. I started to slow down because I knew I was out of harm’s way. Moments later, I approached the light and decided to land on its far side. It was, unequivocally, the most amazing thing I had ever seen in my life. In a strange way, the light gave me back my energy and restored my hope. It gave me the confidence that I would somehow make it out of this place alive. I believed it, and just as I was settling down on the light for the night, it went dark. The light somehow turned off. I wanted it so badly to turn back on, but no matter how much I begged, it did not come back on. That angered me! After the day’s tiring tribulations, all I wanted was some relaxation and to be able to bask in the warm glow of the light.
Annoyed with this place, I decided I would make my way back to my bush. I spread my wings and slowly drifted in the air back towards the opening from which I came. In flight, I reflected on the day. Although I escaped death at the paws of my ferocious foe, I was so disappointed about not being able to see the light that attracted me in the first place. I knew I should be grateful to have the opportunity to live my whole life span of 15 sun cycles.
I flew past the tree I encountered at the beginning of my journey, as well as the insect graveyard, and saw the opening to this confusing place of wonder and terror. Unfortunately, the opening was now blocked off, so I had to wait for it to be opened to make it back to my bush on the other side. Exhausted, I flew back into the corner of the orange room, up high and away from the predator. I got comfortable for a watchful night since I sleep during the day. The first chance I got when the opening reappeared, I made my escape to the great outdoors.