I am very happy to present to you this months writing and art challenge winners. All of those who submitted work were challenged in their creativity, which is our goal. Now I present to you the first winners of this challenge. For the artists, the challenge was to create a fictional story board using colored pencils; this was specifically for BHS and WAKAPA students. BMS students were allowed to roam freely in their creativity, out of request of the art teacher. The writers in turn, were challenged to create a fictional short story with only a short amount of words. The winners received a $25 gift card from Pizza Planet and will be able to earn the end of the year challenge scholarship.

*No BMS Student submitted a short story.

BHS January Art Winner: Elizabeth Overturf (10th Grade)

BMS January Art Winner: Giianni Faught (6th Grade)

BHS January Writer Winner: Ardice Fogelsong (12th Grade)

*Raw showcase of writers entry.

Viking Fondue

Sometimes Inga found herself actually listening to her clients as she worked quietly. The woman in front of her had mousy-brown hair that Inga carefully combed and snipped. The woman babbled incessantly, mostly comparing herself to her sister. The woman left pauses between complaints, as if to wait for Inga to reassure her, and tell her that, “Oh, no. You don’t talk too much,” or “Your sister can’t be more popular than you,” but Inga wasn’t really the comforting type.

When Inga decided that she finally had enough of the babbling woman, and was satisfied with the straight cut, she notified the woman by swooping her chair around mid-rant. The woman did not smile, but simply said,

“Good enough.”

The woman paid and left. Suzanne came over to Inga.

“What a rude woman” Suzanne commented. “She yaks your ear off and then ‘Good enough’? I mean really, what is her deal?”

“I’ve learned not to take these things to heart” Inga said.

“Better for ya” Suzanne replied. “We should probably clean up. It’s six.”

Inga washed and sanitized their instruments while Suzanne swept the last of the clients’ hair off of the floor. Inga took a taxi home, as usual. She waved at Suzanne as she rode away on her bike in the rain. Inga grazed through a fashion magazine on the drive home. At one point, the cab driver half-leaned over to notify her.

“Don’t freak out lady, but there appears to be a food truck following us.”

Inga peered around only for a moment to see the “VIKING FONDUE” bus behind them turn a corner.

“Well. They’re not following us anymore” Inga said.

When the driver dropped her off, he told her to be careful out there. Inga hung up her rain parka in her quiet apartment. “Are you home Philip?” Philip did not reply, but she found him in front of the television entwined in the news.

An echoing clang came out of the kitchen, so Inga went to investigate. Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary, so Inga started cleaning and cutting some potatoes for dinner.

SLAP! A hand clasped over her mouth.

“Do not call for help,” a female voice whispered.

Inga froze.

“Listen to me carefully. You are going to think I am crazy, but you need to listen. The Völva, do you know who they are?” The female questioned.

“Völva? Like the stories my mother told me when I was a child? Yes, what about them?” Inga replied

“You have the blood of the chosen,” the voice whispered. “They are going to tempt you to go with them to the dimension of the spirits. They will offer you power and wisdom, but you must not go with them. They want you to join them and be a Völva, and you will die an early death as my sister did. I am going to go now, but I cannot allow you to see my face, so I am going to tranquilize you.”

Before Inga could protest, she felt a pinch and everything went black.

When Inga woke, Philip was startled above her.

“I thought you were dead,” her roommate said through a pant. “I’m fine. I just fainted.”

“Are you sure you’re okay?” asked Philip.

“Yeah. Go to bed,” replied Inga.

Philip went to bed, but Inga but could not bring herself to sleep, so she decided to sit in a living room chair and decipher what that woman was trying to tell her. Was she crazy? A knock came at the door. It was eleven o’clock. “Could it be the police?” Inga thought to herself.

Two Soaking wet women stood before her looking very uncomfortable. One woman had curly dark hair and broad shoulders. The other woman was very short, and had very small facial features.

“Can I help you?” Asked Inga.

“We need to speak with you” answered the shorter woman. “Can we come in?”

Inga hesitated. “You’re not going to believe this, but someone just broke into to my house, and warned me that Völva are coming to initiate me, and then she tranquilized me. You don’t by any chance know anything about this do you?”

“Actually, we do. Please let us explain.”

It could be that the tranquilizer had not worn off enough yet, or that Inga was too shocked to think rationally, but she thought she would give these to women a chance to make sense of everything to her.

The women took off their wellies and parkas.

“Please whisper,” Inga requested. “My roommate is sleeping.”

“I am Gunhild and this is Runa. We want to help you. We know that you have been struggling to make ends-meet.”

“Wait, What? How do you know that?” Inga aksed.

“We have a proposition to make to you.” Gunhild said.

“Get out of my house.” Inga demanded.

“We can bring back your husband” Runa blurted out. Gunhild elbowed Runa.

Inga paused. If what the woman from earlier said was true, and these women could bring her husband back, Inga was willing to sacrifice some of the length of her life.

“How?” Inga asked. The women smiled at each other. They held their hands and grabbed Inga’s and began chanting. Inga saw the room stretch and with it her limbs and organs began to twist. Then, everything snapped back into place. She was in her house. It appeared to be morning. Oscar emerged into the sunlight that peeked in through the window. Inga lunged to hug him.

“Inga why are you dressed for work?” Oscar looked up from the hug. “Inga, who are those women?”

“Oh my gosh, you’re real!” Inga sighed into her husband’s arms.

Then the room began to twist again, and then snap back again, and Inga, Runa, and Gunhild were back in the hallway of Inga’s apartment.

“So back to that proposition,” said Gunhild.

“If you join us in our rituals, you can see your husband whenever you like,” offered Gunhild.

“You can do a lot more than that,” Runa interjected.

“I’ll do anything you want. Give me my husband back,” Inga begged. The women looked at each other and smiled.

*Click on the images below to view on a larger scale.

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