THE "HIC"ups by Matteo

Last year I got the hiccups. It was on a Sunday. I was just reading a book when I felt a sort of burping feeling, it went away and I waited for a minute, then I started reading again. Five minutes later, the feeling came back and I made a loud "HIC" noise. I knew I had the Hiccups and that they would last for a while like they usually do. I kept reading until it started really getting on my nerves. I got up and got a glass and filled it up with water, I leaned down and drank some water from the far side of the glass, I waited a while but I still had the hiccups, so I tried again but it still didn't work. I told my mom and my sister (who had been listening) started teasing me (don't ask me why). I tried everything to get rid of them, I drank water upside down, (again) I ate sugar, my sister tried scaring me but that just made them worse. A few hours later, my dad got home and I told him about the hiccups and he made me try everything again, but, you guessed it, it didn't work. I went to bed hoping that I wouldn't have them in the morning. When I woke up in the morning I didn't feel them, so I yelled, YAY I DON'T HAVE THE "HIC!"ups anymore, shoot. I was really mad and it made me want to not go out side because it was so frustrating. I had to try everything again but it still didn't work. It was the longest time any hiccups had lasted. I tried every thing again, and again, and again but it still didn't work, at that moment I thought "SOS I have the Hiccups". I had to go school that day, it was very frustrating because whenever the teacher called on me I would hiccup in the middle of the answer. When I got home and my mom asked me how my day was I replied "terrHIble"

"Why?" she asked.

"Because of my hiccups" I replied sullenly.

"Well try everything again" my mom replied. So that's exactly what I did. It didn't work so I went to bed hoping that I wouldn't have the hiccups in the morning. 

That morning when I woke up I got out of bed and got ready for school. I was eating breakfast when my sister said
"Matteo you don't have the hiccups anymore!"

King of Coincidence

Of all the things that have been a coincidence, there is probably none more than the following that happens to me. 1) On eight-day intervals, something unlucky happens to me. 2) On four-month intervals, something unlucky also happens to me. 3) On Mondays, something lucky happens to me. Mix any of the preceding together, and you get mega mayhem. Mix the first two together (which happens every two and two-thirds years) and someone will probably get injured. Before I start my explanation for that, I have to tell you my first story.
In my original SOS, I get amnesia, and drown in a pool four feet deep when I was just under two years old. It is definitely a coincidence that the following happened: It started on a perfect summer day, at baseball practice. I was taking my warm-ups in left field. It sounded simple; Sam Emblidge threw the ball to me, I threw it to him, he threw it to Hayden, Hayden threw it back, and everything repeated. This day happened to be the one at my four-month and eight-day intervals, so I was scared out of my wits. But, nothing odd happened. Finally, coach Nick called us in. He told us all our positions for practice. Then he started hitting balls. On a screaming grounder that had raced past Tommy, our third baseman, I ran after the ball. I missed it and ran into the fence.

No big deal. I just shook it off. That had happened to me many times. Right after that, he hit a low line drive just to my right. I ran after it, and dove but somehow my glove fell off of my hand! What could I do? While I was still in the air, I somehow managed to dodge the flying ball, but I wasn't over yet. I hit the ground hard, and I got the wind knocked out of me as I went skidding along the grass. I rammed into the fence and that was how I stopped.

Yes, I was the "crash-test dummy" for the team. I'd been hit by 10 pitches all for the team. I'd gotten popped five times, just for the team. I'd taken 23 hard dives into second base, just for the team. So after taking that hit, I should have felt absolutely normal. But something still stung. The pinky finger on my right hand, to be exact. That stinging is why I had to go to the hospital the following day and get and x-ray. The test looked like I was all fine, but the doctor said that I'd broken the pinky finger on my right hand.

Exactly four months after the day, I was playing fall ball. Everything was going fine. Garrett, our leadoff hitter, stepped into the batter's box for the first pitch of the game. "Play ball," the ump said, and the game was officially underway. Garrett struck out on five pitches. I took my warm up swings and stepped into the righty's batter's box to face Harrison Brewer, the lefty from my soccer team. The first pitch was high and I laid off. "Ball one," the ump. The second pitch was right down the middle. I took a mighty, home run swing and just barely made contact. Well, made contact is the wrong word. The ball hit off the handle of my bat and, in a blur, bounced off my helmet and hit me in the privates. I was wearing a cup, but that only dampened the impact. I blacked out for the first time since I was two, and a wail of pain came out of my mouth as I fell to the ground.

When I woke up, I spat the dirt out of my mouth. Everyone was helping me. "I wish I had called, 'S.O.S.'," I said. Everyone except me laughed. I got back in the box and just spat everything out of my mouth and later, walked. In that "coincidental" game, by the way, I went 1-for-3 with a walk, two Ks(strikeouts), and a triple. So I learned a big lesson: even the worst of S.O.S.s are just purely coincidental.

SOS!

SOS. Sometimes I just want to yell that out so the whole entire world can here me. One of those times would be when I was skiing with my dad and brother in Lake Tahoe. We were skiing down a run called the mountain run. It was called that because it went all the way down one of the mountains where there were a bunch of other runs. But there was one problem. there were two ways to go. Why was that a problem? Well because, on accident, I went a different way than my dad and brother. At first I thought they were following me, but realized they weren't when they called my name. I looked around and saw them going down the other way. I quickly thought about any way I might be able to get to where they were, but found out that it was a dumb idea because there were two fences between me and them. They told me to meet them at the bottom. I wasn't so sure about the idea, but I decided to give it a shot. It was going to be challenging though because there were some parts of the run that were difficult for me. And I was worried about getting stuck, or even possibly injured. That would be a drag. Luckily, I was pretty good at doing most of it though. Anyway, I was doing surprisingly well at the start. When I finally got too the challenging part, I stopped to catch my breath. I then realized that I didn't have time to catch my breath and decided to get it over with. Though it was probably equivalent to a black diamond, I ended up getting past it with no problems at all. But it was no time to give myself a pat on the back. I quickly went down the rest of the run.
When I got to the bottom I looked around for my dad and brother. They were nowhere to be seen. I was getting desperate. I looked harder. It was hard to look for him though, because there were so many other people. Eventually, after a lot of bad luck searching, I predicted that they were still going down the run. I hoped my prediction was right. If it wasn't... I wouldn't want to think about what would happen then. Right when I was about to give up all hope of finding him, I saw him expertly skiing towards me. Any doubts I had of finding him before hand were gone. I ran over and hugged him. Then I asked him why it took him so long to get to the bottom. He said that when he was in the middle of the run, a snow boarder ran into him and he fell over. He also said that since my brother was on a snow board, and snow boards don't go very fast on flat parts, it took them a while because there were lots of flat parts on the run. Overall, I was very thankful to be back with my dad and brother.

I AlMOST HAD TO GO TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM! SOS!

"I'm so excited!" I said. Today was the day if one of my High School Musical plays! You see, I had been doing this play, High School Musical, and today was the day of one of the REAL shows! "This is so intense! I thought, "Let's double check my costumes." 

"Audrey! You need to have lunch before the show!” My mom shouted from upstairs.

"Coming!" I shouted back. I ran up the stairs. "What should I have?" I asked.

"Anything. Lyndsey and Jason are having bagels, why don't you cut yourself one?" my mom replied.

Jason is my brother and Lyndsey's my obnoxious older sister. "Okay," I shrugged. "But what if I cut my-" I started saying. But my mom cut me off

"Honey, hurry up, you don't want to be late! I'll be down stairs if you need me." She had said. I sighed and got out the bagel bag. Lets see. What do we have here? Whole wheat, blueberry, or plain? Eneeny-meeny-minny-moe. Blueberry. I thought. I got out a white plate and put my bagel on it. Then I got out a silver, clean, and sharp knife. Sigh. Whenever I cut bagels there always uneven. I thought. I grasped the knife in my right hand and the bagel in the other. I was holding it correctly, the right way-the way my dad told me how. I took a deep breath. Okay Audrey, don’t mess it up. I thought. I took the knife and cut. The bagel was going uneven. Shoot! Then my left index finger slipped of the bagel and right in front of the knife's path. The blade cut my finger-not all the way, though.

"Ahh!" I ran to the other counter and grabbed a paper towel. I wrapped it around my finger. The thing was, I didn't cry. At all. I was just shocked, really shocked.

"What happened?" My sister asked from the table.

"I just cut my finger" I replied, looking at the blood seeping through the paper towel. I folded the towel over again on my cut. The blood went right through. Wow I thought its really bleeding. I ran downstairs to my Mom. I could hear my sister and brother's feet following me down the stairs. Tap-tap-tap.

"Mommy!" I yelled.

"What, honey?" she said.

"Look!" I showed her my left finger wrapped in the tissue.

"What happened?" she said.

"I was cutting my bagel and my finger slipped and then I accidentally cut my finger!" I wailed.

I moaned. Now it was starting to hurt. My mom got out the cleaning foam and told me to take the paper towel of. She sprayed on the foam and dabbed it with a napkin. Then she took a fabric knuckle band-aid and put it on. She took another band-aid, a regular one this time, and put it over the cut and knuckle band-aid. Lastly, she put the bandage tape over the band-aids.

"There, how does it feel?" my mom asked.

"Well, okay" I said, now it was really, really hurting. My eyes started filling up with tears.

"You're going to be okay, Audrey, just settle down, and have some lunch" She kissed my forehead. She started walking away when-

"WAIT! Can you cut the rest of my bagel?" I asked politely. My mom smiled.

"Of course" she said. We went upstairs and my mom cut my bagel. Perfectly. I ate my bagel happily.

"Get in the car!" mom said to my sister and me.

"Shot-Gun!" My sister yelled. She jumped into the front seat and slammed the door in my face. I jumped into the back. My mom started the car. We pulled out of the driveway and started down the street.

"Wow. Mom, it really hurts. And it’s really deep." I said.

"Well" my mom stopped the car right in front of my neighbor's house. "John's house is right there, remember he's a fire-fighter so he probably has some stuff to help your finger. "Or, if we go to the emergency room, you'll miss your play" she said. She looked back at me.

"I want to do my play,” I confessed, finally.

The play turned out perfectly, even with a cut finger. But me, my mom, and the rest of my family all remember the day I cut my finger. We all remember it so well; we went out and bought a bagel cutter. But I still think it’s weird that I didn't cry I was just stunned. I also remember the feeling of when the sharp blade cut through my finger, sharp and shiny.

The cut also left a tiny, light scar, right across my left index finger. Every time I look at the scar, I remember the sharp, shiny blade cut through my finger.

S.O.S

The day it all happened was picture day, the day where every girl must look her very best because it will be in the school year book forever! But for boys- not so much. That day me and my friends Nicole, Natalie, and Audrey went out to practice our skit for something called PPC's and we walked over to a table and sat down and practiced, now this doesn't sound important or s.o.s like yet but it Will come, be patient, well after we dd rehearsing I got up and a while later I was informed I had sat in a load of bird poop lets just say I panicked, thats what I did I went up to the office to ask what to do OK I know that the person who takes pictures wont take pictures in that part but you now its embarrassing! And the Secretary said " try calling your mom she can bring a new dress because the bird poop will only come of in a full wash" so I called my mom and she didn't awnser on the phone or cell phone . I basically went crazy at this and got her to write a note to the teacher about why I was late for class, it turned otu I wasn't late at all, whenever I ask for a note i turn out not to be late, its crazy. I managed to walk in a weird angle into the class so nobody would notice then i sat down only thinking about what happened. After a while Lily, a friend of mine said I could borrow her jacket ( LIFE SAVER!!!) so once I had it on around my waste I felt more safe as long as nobody takes it of or asks all the who, what, where, why, and how of why I have the jacket on. When we had to line up for the pictures I felt a tiny bit more worried. I watched as the women closest to me take pictures of my classmates asking them questions so the picture would look more natural as if the person was talking to you and you managed to get a picture. There was also another woman taking pictures who I knew well so I wanted her more. As I waited and watched both women do ther work I made a plan for if whoever I got asked me to take of my jacket. A couple of minutes later I was asked to sit with the person who I wanted a bit less because I didn't know her as well and I sat under a small canopy on I think it was a fake tree stump, but it felt real, back to the point. When I sat down she asked me to take of my jacket PLAN TIME! I took f the jacket from around my waste, there was nobody behind me so I made sure I walked straight forward so nobody could see behind me, in the canopy that I wanted to go to more somebody could of seen me. I didn't look behind me anyway, and it wasn't very likely, they were meant to be looking at the person taking the picture so it was like an 80% chance that would happen. I put it down on a bench and sat back down, walking backwards to yet still cover up the bird poop. I sat down on the maybe fake tree stump and answered her questions, well question. "Puppies or kittens?" she said.

"Both" I said, not wanting to be mean to cute kittens or puppies. After m picture was taken I walked the same angle forward and put the jacket around my waist to go to break. After break I continued wearing the jacket that Lily said I should give back to her at the end of the day. When my mom picked me up I told her the whole story and added that I couldn't give the jacket back to Lily because she had already left. You may think this is not S.O.S material, but to me it was a crazy day, and it deserved this!

S.O.S

The day it all happened was picture day, the day where every girl must look her very best because it will be in the school year book forever! But for boys- not so much. That day me and my friends Nicole, Natalie, and Audrey went out to practice our skit for something called PPC's and we walked over to a table and sat down and practiced, now this doesn't sound important or s.o.s like yet but it Will come, be patient, well after we dd rehearsing I got up and a while later I was informed I had sat in a load of bird poop lets just say I panicked, thats what I did I went up to the office to ask what to do OK I know that the person who takes pictures wont take pictures in that part but you now its embarrassing! And the Secretary said " try calling your mom she can bring a new dress because the bird poop will only come of in a full wash" so I called my mom and she didn't awnser on the phone or cell phone . I basically went crazy at this and got her to write a note to the teacher about why I was late for class, it turned otu I wasn't late at all, whenever I ask for a note i turn out not to be late, its crazy. I managed to walk in a weird angle into the class so nobody would notice then i sat down only thinking about what happened. After a while Lily, a friend of mine said I could borrow her jacket ( LIFE SAVER!!!) so once I had it on around my waste I felt more safe as long as nobody takes it of or asks all the who, what, where, why, and how of why I have the jacket on. When we had to line up for the pictures I felt a tiny bit more worried. I watched as the women closest to me take pictures of my classmates asking them questions so the picture would look more natural as if the person was talking to you and you managed to get a picture. There was also another woman taking pictures who I knew well so I wanted her more. As I waited and watched both women do ther work I made a plan for if whoever I got asked me to take of my jacket. A couple of minutes later I was asked to sit with the person who I wanted a bit less because I didn't know her as well and I sat under a small canopy on I think it was a fake tree stump, but it felt real, back to the point. When I sat down she asked me to take of my jacket PLAN TIME! I took f the jacket from around my waste, there was nobody behind me so I made sure I walked straight forward so nobody could see behind me, in the canopy that I wanted to go to more somebody could of seen me. I didn't look behind me anyway, and it wasn't very likely, they were meant to be looking at the person taking the picture so it was like an 80% chance that would happen. I put it down on a bench and sat back down, walking backwards to yet still cover up the bird poop. I sat down on the maybe fake tree stump and answered her questions, well question. "Puppies or kittens?" she said.

"Both" I said, not wanting to be mean to cute kittens or puppies. After m picture was taken I walked the same angle forward and put the jacket around my waist to go to break. After break I continued wearing the jacket that Lily said I should give back to her at the end of the day. When my mom picked me up I told her the whole story and added that I couldn't give the jacket back to Lily because she had already left. You may think this is not S.O.S material, but to me it was a crazy day, and it deserved this!

S.O.S

The day it all happened was picture day, the day where every girl must look her very best because it will be in the school year book forever! But for boys- not so much. That day me and my friends Nicole, Natalie, and Audrey went out to practice our skit for something called PPC's and we walked over to a table and sat down and practiced, now this doesn't sound important or s.o.s like yet but it Will come, be patient, well after we dd rehearsing I got up and a while later I was informed I had sat in a load of bird poop lets just say I panicked, thats what I did I went up to the office to ask what to do OK I know that the person who takes pictures wont take pictures in that part but you now its embarrassing! And the Secretary said " try calling your mom she can bring a new dress because the bird poop will only come of in a full wash" so I called my mom and she didn't awnser on the phone or cell phone . I basically went crazy at this and got her to write a note to the teacher about why I was late for class, it turned otu I wasn't late at all, whenever I ask for a note i turn out not to be late, its crazy. I managed to walk in a weird angle into the class so nobody would notice then i sat down only thinking about what happened. After a while Lily, a friend of mine said I could borrow her jacket ( LIFE SAVER!!!) so once I had it on around my waste I felt more safe as long as nobody takes it of or asks all the who, what, where, why, and how of why I have the jacket on. When we had to line up for the pictures I felt a tiny bit more worried. I watched as the women closest to me take pictures of my classmates asking them questions so the picture would look more natural as if the person was talking to you and you managed to get a picture. There was also another woman taking pictures who I knew well so I wanted her more. As I waited and watched both women do ther work I made a plan for if whoever I got asked me to take of my jacket. A couple of minutes later I was asked to sit with the person who I wanted a bit less because I didn't know her as well and I sat under a small canopy on I think it was a fake tree stump, but it felt real, back to the point. When I sat down she asked me to take of my jacket PLAN TIME! I took f the jacket from around my waste, there was nobody behind me so I made sure I walked straight forward so nobody could see behind me, in the canopy that I wanted to go to more somebody could of seen me. I didn't look behind me anyway, and it wasn't very likely, they were meant to be looking at the person taking the picture so it was like an 80% chance that would happen. I put it down on a bench and sat back down, walking backwards to yet still cover up the bird poop. I sat down on the maybe fake tree stump and answered her questions, well question. "Puppies or kittens?" she said.

"Both" I said, not wanting to be mean to cute kittens or puppies. After m picture was taken I walked the same angle forward and put the jacket around my waist to go to break. After break I continued wearing the jacket that Lily said I should give back to her at the end of the day. When my mom picked me up I told her the whole story and added that I couldn't give the jacket back to Lily because she had already left. You may think this is not S.O.S material, but to me it was a crazy day, and it deserved this!

What Do We Do?! SOS

One day when I was up in Tahoe celebrating one of my best friends, Lily's, 9th birthday. It had taken about six and a half hours to get up, because of all the traffic. You could even get out of the car and walk around. We had been listening to The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe. Lily's little sister Maia slept most of the time, and half the time Lily and I were hysterically laughing. We had finally arrived at the house that we were staying at. It was a beautiful wood two story house. Lily, Maia and I ran inside. It had felt so refreshing to feel the breeze and see the white shimmering snow on the ground. Our room had a big bed in it, though I had wished for bunk beds I still was quite happy with it. My parents room had a giant loft in it that we decided would be our secret hideout from Maia, it wasn't that hard for her to find us in. After we had checked out all the rooms we agreed to have a snowball fight. The snow was SO cold when you got hit so we went inside to get mittens. Then went back out again and made snow angles.

That night we had my favorite dinner ever, but I didn't know that then, SLOPPY JOE'S! I still have the stain on the long johns that I was wearing that night. After dinner Lily, Maia and I tried to go to sleep but each of us only got about three hours of sleep that night.

The next day we ate our breakfast, got ready to go out skiing, then headed out for Homewood. Maia had to go to lessons and she was really disappointed about it but knew that she would end up losing the fight and left with Dave, Lily and Maia's dad. When he had gotten back we all put on our skiing/snowboarding gear. Lily and I had finished before anybody else.

"Since you guys are done you can start heading up the onto the chairlift" My dad Gregg had told us.

"Don't forget to wait for us at the map near the ski patrol cabin" Dave added.

"We won't" Lily promised.

"Thanks" I said with a bit cheer.

We headed for the line that lead to the chairlift. After about three minutes it was our turn to get on. We scooted over to the red line and sat down we it. "I am SO excited to go down this run. It has been long year since I last went skiing." I announced.
We kept talking about things, until we saw, abot 100 yards up this place that looked like you get off. Then we saw that it kept on going after that. We stared panicing. It was a Huge ski resort and we didn't know if our parents wanted us to get off their or keep going. Then we got so scared we started to have tears coming down our cheeks.

"Where do we go" Lily cried

"I don't know" I said.  We kept on thinking what to do. Then all of sudden we heard a noise. It sounded like sombody calling

"Haley... Lily."  We looked behind us. Their was my dad. I had a big sigh in relief. Now I knew everything was okay. We ended up getting off at the second stop, and then my mom Stacey told us that that wasn't even a place that you could get off at. That day I went down a lot of fun routes including a black diamond. Which I went down all by myself, that is really good for the age that I was at. But this is a whole different story to tell.