Manni

Chris Johnson (CJ 2K) recentaly became one of 6 running backs in NFL history to rush for more than 2000 yards in a single season. Chris Was born in Orlando, Florida on 1985, September 23. He went to Olympia High School in Orlando and was on the football team there until he broke his leg his senior year. Chris was also a track star, finishing second in the 2004 Florida 4A state championships behind 2008 Olympic bronze medalist Walter Dix in his senior year. Chris went to East Carolinia University in 2004. In his First year of college at ECU, Chris, was on the conference USA All-Freshmen squad as a running back at the end of the season. Chris also broke 8 school records as a freshmen. He finished the season ranked 24th on all purpose yards in the nation. Through out his college carear Chris was mostly known for breaking school records, most receptions for a running back, most all purpose yards and many others. In his last year in college ECU went to the Hawai'i Bowl and Chris set an NCAA FBS record of 408 yards and two scores. Chris Johnson was drafted in the first rounf 24th overall. At the combine he registered a 4.24-second time, which basically assured him a spot in the first round and tied the all-time mark set by Rondel Melendez, a wide reciever from Eastern Kentucky, in 1999—the first year the combine used electronic timers. This time was the fastest ever recorded for a running back. Johnson was also fourth highest among running backs in the vertical jump with a 35-inch jump. His 10-foot, 10-inch broad jump was third best among the running backs. Chris Johnson was drafted by the Tennessee Titans in 2008, on July 26, he signed a five-year, $12 million contract with $7 million guaranteed. Chris was the was the highest pick coming from ECU since 1992. Him adn Chad Johnson will race to Haita and loser will give there Pro-Bowl salary to Haiti victims. Also Chris will race Usain Bolt the fastest man on earth. Man he likes races!!

New Story! His-Fic! Down!
**__What is the historical setting for this story?__** I set this story in the fall of 1775 in the North Atlantic Ocean, at the beginning of the American Revolution. The American Revolution was a war between the American colonists and the British army. The American colonists wanted to declare independence from Britain because Britain had lots of unfair laws. During the American Revolution, the British army offered freedom to any slaves willing to fight on the British side. In the fall of 1775, the governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, collected several hundred escaped slaves and formed the Ethiopian Regiment. However, the group of freed slaves failed because smallpox killed so many of them.


 * __What is true in this story?__** It is true that Lord Dunmore gave freedom to slaves if they fought on his side. It's also true that smallpox killed alot of the slaves because they had to be so close together. It's true that the black soldiers were quartered and trained on ships, and that the blacks were separated from the white officers. It's true that Lord Dunmore had entertainment on his ship and that fancy parties and dances were held.


 * __What is fictional in this story?__** Mushad is a fictional character also all of the other main characters in the story besides Lord Dunmore.

__This story is the first chapter of a novel in which you will get to know some of the main characters. Also, the problem.__ __“Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation (1775)”__ **__http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aah/lord-dunmore-s-proclamation-1775__** “Dunmore’s Proclamation” [] “What is smallpox?” http://kidshealth.org/kid/health_problems/infection/smallpox.html
 * __If you want to read MORE about these topics, I used these sources for my story:__**

“And now, ladies and gentlemen, I will juggle Lord Dunmore's entire set of china plates!” Mushad listened for the gasp, then watched the wealthy white ladies pull on the gentlemen's sleeves. "Oh, now, no worries, ladies!"The ship's dining room was silent. All eyes were on Mushad, which is exactly what he loved. Mushad is an entertainer for Lord Dunmore. He does all sort of stuff, juggling, making up stupid jokes, blowing fire out of his mouth, which later his mouth burns and one of his lungs collapse, one that he is very good at is, "Food Eating", boy, all the ladies are discusted at the end but the men challeneged! The ship is shaky, moving up and down cause of the waves from the ocean. Mushad feels the waves, he thinks to himself. "Hummm they have never been this strong!" Mushad doesn't want everyone to tell Lord Dunmore that he didn't perform, so he goes ahead and performs for all the wealthy white folks. He is so confident in himself that he isn't afraid. "One plate, two, three plates, five, six, seven plates. Seven plates everybody!" Mushad is very confident in the beggining then the ship takes a crazy tilt, Mushad loses his balance, almost dropping the plates. Mushad balnce's out again, gaining his confidence back. The ship starts to move fast and crazy, up and down side to side. Mushad drops all of Lord Dunmore China plates! "You stupid Negro!" One of the wealthy white men yelled out. All the white folks start yelling, calling Mushad a dumb Negro. Lord Dunmore comes down out of his room, with all these women fowolling. Lord Dunmore says. "What is all this fuss about!" "That stupid Negro dropped all of the plates nearly cutting my foot off!" "Is that true!" "Yes, but Lord The ship it was Moving and..." "Lets feed him to the fish!"

He wakes up breathing like a furious lion. It is the middle of the night, still long time till sunrise. When he wakes he jumps up yelling "No, No!!!" Waking up Ajani. Ajani gets up grabs Mushad, takes him outside almost throwing him off the ship, Ajani yells. "Shut up, shut up! No one likes you and your killing your self even more when you wake up with those stupid dreams of yours! If it happens again i will cut all ten of your fingers off, and make you eat them!" Ajani was the leader of his tribe back in Africa. He didnt like anyone, and he didnt trust anyone either. Everyone respected him, people would die for. One of the slaveholders in Virginia waned to kill Ajani reason being that since all the other slaves respected Ajani so much that they would die for him. The slave holder was just scared of losing all of his slaves. Ajani was a big man with the size and strength to fight a lion and win. He is smart, but, Ajani just doesn't like showing it. He respects anyone that shows him respect, he protects them too. But Ajani just doesn't like Mushad not one bit.

"Hey Mushad since you be hanging lots wit them white folks, why don't you just go and dip your self in white paint so u can become one them for good." "Yeah, Mushad, you aint any good for us. All you do is make us look bad!" "Well guys i do what Dunmore tells me. Just like he will to you!" "Cant you guys just leave me alone!"

"Mushad!... Mushad! Mushad wake up, Lord Dunmore wants you!!" "What am i telling you guys! Your becoming Dunmores dog!" Said Ajani "Oh, like you never were!" Mushad Said.

Mushad gets up, nearly falling on Ajani. Mushad puts his green, white, red and yellow entertainer clothes on.The guard escorts Mushad outside. Mushad says "You know I can walk by myself right?" in a annoeyd voice. "Yeah, but I just want to look busy." Mushad can see the little brown boat that he rides in almost everyday, it rocks violently, water splashing inside, he can see Belle, another freed African, having a really tough time paddling the little boat. When it finally arrives Mushad gets in nervously. Belle greets Mushad like always,but this time it felt like Belle was hiding something. A sudden wave came over both of them knocking them out. They fall into the water, a passing whale knocks them back to life. A guard jumps in the water like a dog chasing a stick. Mushad and Belle get put onto Lord Dunmore's ship of royalty. The guard says"Stupid negros we cant have you guys dying on us cause then we will have to work!" They looked at him in disgust. Belle whispered to Mushad saying that he had his chance if it wasn't for the stupid fat whale.The guard escorts Mushad to Lord Dunmore. Mushad knocks on Dunmores bedroom door. Lord Dunmores bed looks like a baby's bed except much bigger. He has fruit scattered all over the place, and chocolate.

"Yeah who is it?" "It's me sir, Mushad. Uhm you called me over." "Oh, Mushad, come in! So have you heard about a decease called smallpox?" "Yes, of course! Its deadly! Why?" "Well some of the other "PEOPLE" have it!" "What, who is it!" "Well Belle has it...I think. Im also pretty sure that more people in your guy's ship might have it as well." "BELLE?!" "Yes, and just for your own good i want you to stay with me for now on, well just until they go away." "When will i start to?" "Starting now! Do you not want to?" "No, i do, i do! Its just that i need to get all my stuff from the ship." "All right then. Hey you, guard call that sick Belle over, tell him that i need to talk to him."

When Mushad leaves Belle enters. Mushad see's the sadness in Belle's eyes, and the fear.

WHERE THIS IS GOING: -- HE GOES BACK TO SLEEP ON THE SHIP FOR THE FREE BLACKS -- EVERYONE'S GIVING HIM A HARD TIME
 * SHOW THE OTHER SLAVES NOT LIKING HIM
 * SHOW THE OTHER BLACKS STARTING TO GET SICK (WITH SMALLPOX)
 * HE DOESN'T GET SICK
 * MAYBE THE OHTER BLACKS THINK HE'S GOT SOME MAGIC PROTECTION
 * LOTS OF THEM DIE
 * HE KEEPS ENTERTAINING -- BUT CHANGES AND DECIDES TO QUIT HIS JOB AND HAVE MORE PRIDE IN HIMSELF

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000105 EndHTML:0000010233 StartFragment:0000002292 EndFragment:0000010197 **In Gerry’s Footsteps** By Manni Guillen

My big brother Gerry jiggles the keys to his truck in one hand as he walks through the door of our family's restaurant, El Zarape. When I see him, I deliver some chips and salsa to some customers and then I go over to greet Gerry. "What's up?" I ask him, looking down at him. He's sitting at a table now, waiting for the tacos Uncle Julio is making for him. "Can you tell him not to put any onions in?" My brother's not around as much as I am, so he's kind of shy about talking to my uncle. But as I walk back to tell my uncle, I think about my brother -- I think about how growing up with Gerry has shaped me into who I am. I've been sharing a room with my brother, who is older than me by 7 years, since I was 8 and he was 15. We stopped rooming just last year... sadly. You might think that that would have horrible but I kind of liked it. We stayed up till like 12 watching either "Talladega Nights", "Good Will Hunting ", "Saw", or any other movie that went with our moods, or sometimes we would just play some good old "Madden". You probably would think that since he was older that he would have had to be really responsible... but he wasn't! He would leave his clothes scattered on the floor, and he would never pick them up till I started getting mad at him. I can see us – Gerry standing in the doorway, yelling... "Hey, set up Madden!" "Kay, I got home field!" "Don't matter! Ready to lose!" I remember when Gerry would get back from working (cleaning a church) and he would yell that out. We both had created football teams for this ”Madden” game, his was named the "Spartans" and mine was named the "Crimson Bears". We would have all created players on our team, too, like "The Punisher", "Wee Man", "Speedy Gonzales", "Superman", "The Hulk", "Sonic", "John Cena", "George Bush" and any other weird names or people we could think of. He would always beat me by like 30 or 20 points... except that one time when I scored a last minute touchdown on him and he turned off the Xbox! Man, was I heated. I almost broke our bathroom door cause I was so mad! He turned it off when I was winning; I had never been winning before except that one time, that one time he turned it off! I'm starting to get mad just thinking back to it and it was years ago! Memories like this remind me of all the good times my brother Gerry and I have had together. Even the times I was mad seem like good times now. I've followed in Gerry's footsteps -- mostly because I play football. I remember watching one of his games. He was in 8th grade, and I was probably 7. He played on the Chargers. They were going against the Cougars, a big fast team. The game kicked off. It was raining, it was windy, but he never quit. At halftime, Gerry and a family friend, Evan, came over to where we were sitting to get some water. Gerry, breathing hard, was saying--"Hey. Ma, did you see me almost get # 21" "Yes, mijo, almost, next time make sure you make up for it!" I sit there next to my mom and stare at my bro, and I ask myself how he could be so tired but be having so much fun? After that season, he never played again, even though he was Captain of the Special Team, Wide Receiver, safety, he never played again… I wondered why. I wondered all the way until 6th grade, when I had been playing Juneau Youth Football League (JYFL) for a year.

What I discovered that year about my brother Gerry has helped shape the decisions I make. Here’s the story: my JYFL team had lost every game except when we went over to play Sitka, where we won by like 14 points. I had gotten in a fight with some kid on the other team. He was this big nasty lineman that ate babies. He kept face-masking everybody on my team and he would punch some of us in the gut. After one play he got off of the ground and he pushed me. I have a short temper when it comes to that kind of stuff, so I pushed him back. He took off his helmet and I was about to throw a punch when a ref came on the field and pried us apart. My coach wasn’t mad at me, because he said I was doing it to defend our team. However, when I got home from Sitka, I thought to ask my mom why Gerry had stopped playing football. She said that he didn’t like to hurt people. I didn’t say anything in disbelief. I knew my brother – he was someone who wasn’t scared of anyone or anything. I don’t think he would care if he hurt somebody. Unlike Gerry, I’ve kept playing football. I found out later that the //real// reason he quit the team was that he was out late at Bullwinkle’s and didn’t come home until midnight. In the morning, my dad told him he wasn’t going to Sitka for the game. My bro started crying but my dad didn’t care. He never went, and he never went trip football practice again cause he didn’t want the team to hate him. That’s why he never played again. I thought he should have kept playing, so I guess this is one way I haven’t followed in his footsteps. My big brother Gerry has shaped who I am in many ways. We share so many memories together, which means he’s shaped what I like to do with my time and what I think is funny. However, he’s made choices I wouldn’t make. But when I see him walk in the door of our restaurant, I feel sad because he’s not around much anymore. I think about all the other times we’ve had fun. I’m glad he’s my brother. Hey, Gerry: “SET UP MADDEN!”