“A huge heat wave is coming our way!” yelled the TV announcer.
       “Uhh!” Ali complained. Ali’s parents were in the kitchen cooking dinner. “Turn off the stove!” screamed Ali. Ali had lots of heat waves in her life. They were usually minor. She knew what electronics to turn off and what to do to stay cool. 
      “It’s ok sweet heart; we know” said her parents. Sometimes Ali got annoyed.  They didn’t express her worry in the heat waves. Heat waves in Anthill Ville were extreme and many people would sometimes die. You would think people would take this seriously but people didn’t. 
       “It’s coming.  It will hit in about ten minutes,” said the TV guy. Ten minutes, Ali thought about it, but that’s too soon. She would not get to go her friend’s house. In her head she tried to come up with ways to get to her friend’s house but they turned out in disaster. She didn’t notice the time creeping up on her.  Only 2 minutes left till the heat wave.
      Flash!  A huge big light shined. All Ali could hear was the people screaming it made her cry. It was so hot that the tears on her face dried up instantly. It was a sad sight to see mothers not being able to find their children. Then the next flash blocked out all the sight that was even there.
      Ali woke up about two hours later from the huge light. She knew that because her watch was still working. She looked around but everything was destroyed. She couldn’t find her parents. She looked around the rubble. She couldn’t find them.
	She decided that she would walk to the Anthill Theater where lots of her friends would hang out. So, she ran to the dusty street. When Ali got to the theatre no one was there. She didn’t know where they were. She searched through the rubble and she found her friend Lauren. Lauren started coughing and Ali was scared she couldn’t breathe. She finally stopped coughing and told her the story of how she got buried under that entire rubble. And about how she was so scared.
	Ali decided that she would go to the Anthill hospital. Nobody was there and she didn’t know what to do! She was scared. What was she supposed to do?  She had only been in minor heat waves and she didn’t know what to do in a major heat wave.
	She began to search everywhere- the school, the ice-skate rink, the park, the police station.  There was nothing there. She and her friend knew only one thing to do. In school, if there was ever a huge heat wave, they were supposed to go to the next town. That was Ant Village.  They would have to make the trip alone.
      ‘’I’m tired,” Ali complained.
 	“Stop complaining!  It’s getting us nowhere!  We are ten minutes from where we started from,” yelled Lauren
      “Can’t we stop? asked Ali.
       “What do you think where not even halfway? Maybe if we find a grown-up they will help us,” said Lauren.
       “Sure, anything so we don’t have to sleep on the ground’’, replied Ali.
       Ali and Lauren came up to a house along the water. The sun was just setting and the water sparkled. It’s so beautiful thought Ali. When they knocked on the door, a little boy came out. He was so dirty and looked like he hadn’t had a bath in ages. 
      “Sorry my mom’s not home,” said the little boy. 
      “When will she be back? Lauren asked. 
      “Never,” replied the little boy.  “I live here alone.”
       “No mom or dad to tuck you in or cook for you?” asked Ali. 
      “No,” he said sadly. 
      “Would you like to come with us to Ant Village? asked Lauren.
       “Ummmm, ok,” said the boy.
	The next thing the two girls knew they were under a tree with the boy asleep in Lauren’s lap. 
      “You know,” said Ali. “I like this. No parents to tell us what to do, where to go.”
       “I don’t know, Ali. We need parents.  They teach us things we can’t teach ourselves.”
        “I can!” Ali said, sounding offended. 
      “Well, ok,” Lauren responded. Let’s get some sleep. We will need our rest.  It takes a long time to get to Ant Village and it’s taking longer than I expected.”
      “Fine,” Ali said. Then they went to sleep.
	“Yeeeeehawwwwww!!” shouted a noise off in the distance. 
      “One more hour mom,” Ali complained in her sleep.
       “Quack, Quack,” came a noise. 
      “Howdy, Pardner,” said a cowboy.
       “Howdy yourself,” Lauren said. 
      “This ‘ere is my pet duck, Lucy,” he said. “Oh,  and my name is Carl!”
“Well, hi!  I don’t know if my parents would approve of my talking to a cowboy,” said Ali. “I ain’t a cowboy! He shouted. 
 “Ok,” said Ali.
      “Are you looking for the Fountain of Truth?” asked the cowboy. 
      “Not really,” said Ali. 
“Well lookie here, Lucy, we’ve got a couple of liar on our hands.  Everyone is looking to go to the Fountain of Truth, what makes you guys any different?” inquired the cowboy.
       “Well we’re looking for our parents.”
       “Hey!  I know! I’ll take you to them.”
       “You know where they are? She asked.
       “Well, Lucy, should we take them?” asked the cowboy. 
      “Quack,” said Lucy (that means yes).
	So Lucy, Carl, Lauren, and Ali set off. But what Lauren and Ali didn’t know was that Carl wasn’t taking them to their parents. He was taking them to the Fountain of Truth. For the myth went like this:  in an old town west of the parrot trees there is a fountain. To unlock the fountain of truth, and to see your future, you need pure ones. The pure ones are young and they travel in two. You might not notice them but they are true. When you get to the fountain with the pure ones, you will need their hair dumped into the fountain and you’ll see your future.
	Also, what the cowboy didn’t know was they were not quite yet the pure ones. They have to learn that they need patience with everyone and that some people want to help you but not until you let them. If they don’t figure out their powers when their sixteenth birthday rolls around they will lose them forever.
	“I’m tired”, complained Ali.
       So Lauren said, “Well, don’t you think we should stop, Carl?”
       “Whooo!  No way! We are making ground. We’ll get you two misses to the fountain in no time. Uh, I mean, your parents.”
       “That’s a pretty big mistake,” Lauren said. 
      “Yeah, I agree.  If he said something like I’ll get you to your parents, that different.  And considering we just got done talking about a fountain… It seems to me, Lauren, that he might be taking us to the fountain. “
      “Uh, Missies! I can explain!”
       Then they burst out laughing. “Huh? Like we thought he wouldn’t take us to our parents. Wait! Where is the boy? asked Lauren.
       “I don’t know, Lauren,” replied Ali, anxiously.
       “Well, we have to find him,”  Ali said, annoyed. 
      “Uh, well little Missies. Let’s forget about him. You don’t even know him,” Carl tried convincing the girls.
      “No,  come on!  We have to go back,” said the girls.
      “No! I will not let you!”  cried the cowboy.” Tie ‘em up, Lucy.
       “Ahhhhhh! yelled the girls.  “Help usssssss!!”
	When nighttime rolled around, the girls were tied to a tree. 
      “We were in a heat wave; almost starved to death; lost a child; and now we’re stuck with this weirdo! proclaimed Ali.
       “Hey! Stop talking! exclaimed Carl.
       “You can’t boss me around,” says Ali. 
“Well you are tied to a tree. I think I have the upper hand on you, girl,” he said proudly. “Ahhhhhh!  See!?  This is what I’m talking about!  Grown-ups are so pathetic!  I want them to vanish off the face of the earth!”
“Well let’s just focus on how to get out of here,” says Lauren, trying to sound mischievous. The both fell asleep wondering how they had gotten into this mess? 
	 When they woke up they were being pulled in a wagon. Where did the horse come from, they wondered aloud.
       “I stole it,” Carl said. 
	When they got to the fountain, Ali and Lauren were amazed!  Wow! It was so cool. They passed under a bridge that was lit up everywhere. When they got to the fountain, the cowboy pulled out some scissors. 
      “What are you doing with those? asked Ali.
       “I need your hair, “he replied nonchalantly.
       “Hey, please, I’m trying to grow it out!”
       “Who cares?”
      “Well I do!”
      Then he cut Ali’s hair to her chin. “Hey!  You cut off almost a foot of hair.”
      Now it was Lauren‘s turn. He also cut her hair to her chin. 
      “Now I can sell it,” he claimed. 
      “Well, Lauren, if my parents were here they would help us. I guess they were just trying to help me before and now they’re gone!  If I was patient, they could have prevented this,” cried Ali.
        “Yeah, I agree,” replied Lauren.  Just then their hair started to grow and they noticed the cowboy had disappeared.  Their hair turned a golden color. Hey what trickery is this, they thought.  Then everyone started running.
	“What happened? I don’t know what we should do!  Uhh!!  Go to Antville?”
       “Ya. Let’s do that!”
       So Ali and Lauren set off. 
      “Well what should we talk about? I’m just scared the cowboy will come back,” said Ali, nervously.
 “Don’t worry, Ali.  We will get to Antville.  Suddenly the birds stopped squawking. “What’s going on?” they both screamed together. Then they fell to the ground and fell asleep. When they woke up, they were in the clutches of the fireflies soldiers.
 “Hey! What are you two doing snooping around our territory?” they asked.
  “Uh, we’re lost. We’re going to Antville and we came here instead of going through the forest,” answered Lauren.
  “Well you guys should have known not to come here.”
 “We never were told.”
  “Well I think you’re lying.”
  “Why does everyone think we’re lying?”
   Then the firefly soldier left and they fell back to sleep. When they woke up, they were in the forest.
  “Which way?” yelled Ali. 
 “Uh come on this way.  At least we’re not with the soldiers.  They were rude. Well let’s head north.”
  “Which way is north, Lauren?”
  “Well the moss grows on the east side of the trees…. Ok that’s not true but that doesn’t help us. I wish it was night,” said Lauren. They sat under a tree and fell asleep again.
	 It was the morning when they finally awoke. 
       “Now that I think of it, we had quite a clever adventure!  Yeah, Ali, I bet no one can say they’ve been to the Fountain of Truth, tied to trees, captured by the fireflies soldier and thrown in the woods!”
      Then they burst out laughing.  
      “We had a good adventure, now how do we get home? wondered Ali.
      “Let’s walk this way,” guessed Lauren.
	 After walking for about an hour Lauren spoke up. 
      “It’s getting hot,” she panted. 
      “Yeah. I just want to go home. You know this was only supposed to take four days but it’s been about two weeks. It’s gone that quickly,” Ali replied.
      Then again they ran into trouble.
	“Not again! What is going on?” they said.
 	“Stop right there!” they heard.  They were standing in front of a giant spider. 
      “Hi!  I’m Arachnid the Spider.”
       “Ahhhhhh!” they screamed. They started running and the spider pursued.
       “Hey!  Remember when I said I disliked spiders back at home, Lauren?”
“ Yeah.”
“Well I really dislike them now!!” 
 Ali and Lauren ran down a large hill in a high speed chase. Then Ali tripped and tumbled. 
“Ahhhhhh!!” Ali screamed Lauren.  Then they both ran into a wall. It turns out that the wall was part of Ant village. They ran in and found all their neighbors and family and everyone she saw before the heat wave.
	“Mom! Dad!” they both screamed. 
      “Girls!” their parents scolded.  “Don’t ever leave us again! We thought we never would see you again.”  They were all so happy. 
      “Mom and Dad, we’ll tell the whole story.”  Lauren began from the first second of the heat wave. “Once upon a time there was this girl named Ali……….”
	While they listened to the story, all the ants of Ant Village and all of Anthill Ville were so happy to have them back. And remember, if those mean humans shine a magnifying glass on your town make sure you’re ready for anything. And I mean anything.  Ali’s mom screamed, “There’s another heat wave coming our way!”
 “Coming, Mom!” yelled Ali.  And never leave your parents!
	


Heat Wave, 6-8,p1