(Josie Sayz: I am working on planning my Arcturus High series, and I came
across stories that I wrote, with a friend, when I was 13 years old and I
re-wrote when I was 16 years old. The series was called 'AMSND' as it began with a modern day twist on Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream'. This is nothing like how I write now, nor am
I basing my Arcturus High series around these stories, really. I thought it
would be a bit of fun to share it.)
A Magic School’s New
Dream
It was Monday morning
at Crooked Burrow School. Four friends, Shada, Samantha, Larissa and Bonnie,
went upstairs to look at their Year’s Year Board, to see if there were any new
notices. They reached their board (the Year Seven Board). “Oh no, a Valentine’s
Day dance,” sighed Samantha with frustration. “That’s all we need.”
“And
what’s wrong with that?” asked Bonnie curiously.
“Just
because you have a crush on Louis doesn’t mean he’s gonna ask you to the
dance,” Samantha warned Bonnie before she got carried away. Louis was a popular
boy in Year Eight (so he was a year older than Bonnie) but she was still madly
in love with him.
“At
least you three will get someone to dance with, you three are all pretty,”
sulked Larissa.
“Who
says you’re not?” Shada asked concernedly.
“No
one,” Larissa sighed. “But no one likes me because I have a horrible hair
colour.”
“Laz,
stop being so stupid! No one cares what colour your hair is,” Shada replied
angrily.
“You
guys have to say that, you’re my friends,” snapped Larissa. “They might as well
write a book called ‘No-one Likes a Ginger Baby’ and get it over with.”
“Stop
it!” ordered Samantha. “Now come on Shada, let’s go if you want to check your
flute lesson.”
“Alright,
see you two later,” Shada called to Larissa and Bonnie, as she and Samantha
skipped down the corridor.
Meanwhile
upstairs in Music, Robin was trying to explain to Lyra his exciting news.
“Lyra, you know how Bert, the Ninarian, a year older than me, is the most
amazing magician at Crooked Burrow School,” Robin began. Lyra nodded. “Well
he’s giving me this week, Valentine’s week, to prove that I am worthy enough of
being a great magician too and allowed to hang around with him and his
beautiful girlfriend Ariel.”
“Wow!”
gasped Lyra excitedly.
“Bert
wants me to use my purple stitched ball and the perfect love potion to make as
many lovely couples as I can for the dance on Friday. He’s in charge of the
dance and wants there to be lots of happy couples,” Robin told her. “But you
know how I only like to use my magic to help along love, not make a completely
impossible relationship work,” Robin sighed sadly. “This is going to be hard.”
“I know
I’m only a Se’enarian, but I’ll help,” Lyra smiled. A Se’enarian was a person
who used magic and was in Year Seven. “If you want me to, that is.”
“Well…
Bert did say that if I had someone help me then they could hang around with him
too…” Robin began.
“So let
me guess, you’re going to ask my stupid cousin Luke,” Lyra sulked.
“He is my best friend – but no. I was going
to ask you. After all you know as much about magic as I do…and we already make
a good team…”
“Yey!”
Lyra cheered. “I’d love to.”
A few
moments away were Toby, Luke, Aidan and Louis. Luke and Louis were both
Itarians (who were in Year Eight and used magic) and Toby and Aidan were both
Se’enarians. They were hanging around at the top of the Music staircase. As
Louis and Aidan made their way down the stairs up came Shada and Samantha. “Hi
Toby!” Shada smiled as she passed him. Toby smiled back, and then quickly
turned to Luke.
“Luke,
don’t hate me…but…you know how we promised that we’d go to the dance as a
group, you, me, Aidan and Louis well… I was kind of thinking of asking Shada.
She gave me a nice ‘hi’ so I’m thinking that she forgot about the time when I
dropped that bowl of soup on her lap at lunch and is willing to give me a
second chance,” Toby babbled.
Luke
glared at him. “But you said –” Luke stared to whine.
“I
know, but,” Toby sighed. “No, you’re right, it was a stupid idea. I already
promised you.”
“I’m
being dumb,” confessed Luke. “If you like Shada then you should ask her to the
dance, don’t let me stop you.”
“Thanks
Luke, you’re the best,” grinned Toby.
“I
know,” Luke smiled to himself. Toby smiled and rolled his eyes.
Robin
and Lyra could see that Toby was about to ask Shada to the dance, but they
could also see that Shada was too shy to say ‘yes’. So they poured a mixture of
magic Frandadis juices together to make a love potion, poured it onto Robin’s
purple hand stitched ball and waited for the right moment. Frandadis was an
island where lots of different and unusual trees and plants grew. From these
trees and plants grew special fruits, called Frandadis fruits. The juices from
these fruits, when mixed together formed magical spells. Crooked Burrow School
had specialised in magic since the school was founded around 90 years ago. The
Science department ordered in boxes of these fruits in order to help students
make magic spells. Since then the magic had slowly died down due to
untrustworthy students and concerned parents, so only a small minority of
pupils still used magic and they called themselves Arians. Mr. Foote, a popular
Science teacher whom taught most of the Arians Science, stored the magical
fruits. Robin and Lyra were really good at magic and with Bert’s advice were
able to master high level spells that acted deeply with the target.
Samantha
had now gone and Shada was on her own. Toby nervously approached her, with Luke
a couple of steps behind him. “Shada, I –” Toby began as he tumbled to the
floor, because he had trodden on his untied shoelace. But it was too late,
Robin had already aimed his ball to hit Shada, this meant that the first person
she saw she would fall in love with. Luke rushed over to Toby to see if he was
okay.
“Come
on Toby, you can still ask Shada if she wants to go to the dance with –” Luke
began.
“I’d
love to go to the dance with you Luke,” smiled Shada looking straight up at
Luke.
“Wait!”
Luke froze. “I didn’t mean –” Toby stood up and ran away from Luke before Luke
had the chance to tell Shada ‘no’. Robin and Lyra just looked at each other
worriedly and ran to hide in the second Music practice room.
At
lunch Robin and Lyra decided that they were going to try and match up another
pair for the school dance. This pair was Bonnie and Louis. Bonnie had left the
table in the canteen, where her friends, Shada, Samantha and Larissa, were and
she was now on Louis’ table, flirting with him, as she did every Monday at
lunchtime. Robin and Lyra had mixed up another love potion and were ready to
aim the ball. Suddenly, Samantha skipped over to the table where Bonnie and
Louis were. As Samantha was about to ask Bonnie if she could borrow twenty
pence to buy a chocolate bar from the vending machine Robin threw his purple
stitched ball hitting Louis on the head. Louis rubbed his head and looked up.
“S…S…Samantha…will you go to the dance with me?” Louis asked.
“No…not
really…” Samantha spoke rather slowly and confused.
“Well
why don’t you think about it?” Louis told her and then he and his friends
walked off to the playground.
“Sam,
you, you, you boy stealer!” shrieked Bonnie.
“Bonnie
I didn’t do anything. Louis’ never spoke to me before, I’ve never spoke to him,
he’s never even acknowledged my existence before. I don’t even know how he
knows my name,” Samantha explained.
“Yeah
right, har, har,” Bonnie exclaimed tearfully. “All this time you were just
pretending to be my friend, so when the chance came you could steal Louis away
from me!” Samantha also became upset because she hadn’t wanted Louis to ask her
to the dance or Bonnie to fall out with her.
Bert
the Ninarian (a Year Nine student who used magic) was one of Crooked Burrow
School’s best magicians. He was sitting upstairs in the third Music practice
room with his girlfriend Ariel (an Itarian), who he often taught new magic
tricks and spells that he had discovered to. She had become interested in the
art of magic since she had met Bert. Ariel was staring out of the Music
practice room window and into the playground. “What are you looking at?” Bert
asked.
“No
one,” Ariel replied blushing slightly.
Bert
became angry. “So you’re looking at someone, who is it?” he demanded.
“No
one!” insisted Ariel.
Bert
stood up from where he was sitting and went over to the window. He peered
outside. “ROBIN?! Robin?!” Bert raged, “You were fantasizing over Robin weren’t
you? Weren’t you?”
“Stop
yelling at me,” Ariel cried. Bert clenched his fists and shoved his hands in
his pockets.
“I hate
you,” he mumbled, turning away from her.
“What?”
gasped Ariel in shock.
“Get
out!” he yelled, “Get out!” Ariel grabbed her planner and pencil case and ran
out of the Music practice room as fast as she could.
It was
now the end of the day. Samantha and Larissa were walking past the Music
staircase on their way out of school. “Hey Aidan,” Samantha called as her and
Larissa walked past the Music staircase (Aidan was a very good friend of
theirs. He was also Samantha’s next-door neighbour).
“What?”
he replied.
“Didn’t
you hear? The Arian meeting’s cancelled,” she told him. “Bert had an argument
with his girlfriend, Ariel, and cancelled the meeting.”
“So do
you wanna come with us to the park?” Larissa asked thoughtfully.
“Sure,”
he replied. “You’ll never believe what my day’s been like…” They walked past
the Drama Studio on their way out.
In the
Drama Studio rehearsals for a school play were taking place. Dannie, Drake,
Jay, Drew, Nicky, Tim and Tiny Tim (who were all in Year Seven) were rehearsing
the play that they were going to perform in the Main Hall on the day of the
Valentine’s dance. It was a
Shakespearian favourite of their head teacher’s, ‘Romeo and Juliet’. “I know
what we should do,” Dannie announced.
“What?”
they all sighed, because they knew how ridiculous Dannie’s ideas often were.
“Don’t
say I have to kiss Tim, cos that’s too yuck. It’s bad enough I have to marry
him,” Tiny Tim explained, who was playing Juliet.
“No. I
was thinking that we could modernise it and make it a gay couple, after all you
two are boys,” Dannie explained. Drew glared evilly at Dannie.
“You do
know that in Shakespearian times guys would have to play the girl’s roles. And
Mr. Duncan wouldn’t be too happy if we ruined his favourite play. I can’t
afford another detention or my Mum will stop me from having guitar lessons,”
Drew warned Dannie.
“Yeah,
you do need the lessons,” Jay joked, making the guys all laugh.
“You
guys are the worst,” Drew sulked. He picked up his bag that he had shoved down
on the floor and was about to leave the Drama Studio.
“Drew,
Jay was only kiddin’, you don’t have to go,” Drake told him. “Now come on,
let’s try that scene once more – sensibly this time.” The boys re-began the
scene that they were working on and were trying not to laugh. Suddenly the door
opened.
“Guys,
its Ariel,” Nicky whispered hyperly, secretly pointing towards Ariel. The boys
all stopped and turned to face Ariel as she came in.
“How’s
the play coming on, boys?” Ariel asked sweetly.
“Fine,”
Nicky smiled as he stepped backwards. He bumped into the table which Tim was
standing next to and knocked over two cups of Frandadis juices all over Tim’s
hand. These Frandadis juices had been left there by Gertrude. She was
Second-Best Ninarian and had been in the Drama Studio last lesson, where she
absentmindedly left the two cups of magical juices on the table, which she was
planning to take with her to the Arian meeting when she was told it was
cancelled. After hearing of the cancellation of the meeting she had forgotten
about the juices, leaving them to sit alone on the table. Tim picked his pen
up, and the power of the magical juices on his hand forced the ink in the pen
to ooze out. As he brought his hand up to his face to scratch it he didn’t
notice the ink and rubbed his face. All of a sudden his face began to deform.
All of the boys became scared and ran out, leaving Tim and Ariel (who was
currently giggling at Tim’s clumsiness) alone in the Drama Studio.
On the
way out of the Drama Studio Dannie ran into Bert, Robin and Lyra and explained
to them what had happened to Tim to see if they could help him. Bert thought
that this would be the perfect opportunity for revenge against Ariel. He would
make Ariel fall in love with the most hideous boy in the world – at this point
– Tim (now that his face was deformed). That would be getting her back for
staring out of the window at Robin during lunch. So Bert ordered Robin and Lyra
to mix up another love potion and aim it at Ariel, so that she would fall in
love with Tim, but not notice his deformed face. Robin and Lyra did as they
were told. Instantly Ariel fell in love with Tim. “Now,” Bert began. “The final
touch. I shall make a spell to keep Tim’s face that way for a few days, just to
humiliate Ariel in front of the whole school.” Robin and Lyra did not want
anything more to do with Bert and his spell, so they ran away to the nearby
park.
Now at
the park Aidan, Samantha and Larissa were relaxing on the grass after a long
day of schoolwork. “I’m just going to get a drink,” Aidan told them. “Do you
two want one?” he asked as he stood up.
“Yes
please,” Larissa replied looking up from the book she was writing a story in.
“Me
too, please,” Samantha added leaning back against her bag. Aidan left the girls
and went to the corner shop that was just a few shops away from the park. As
Aidan went inside out came Bonnie, who approached the girls in the park. Bonnie
sat down beside Larissa.
“Laz, I
should warn you that if you’re not careful Sam the boy stealer will steal Aidan
away from you,” Bonnie informed her. Larissa and Samantha laughed.
“Bonnie
don’t be silly,” giggled Larissa, “Samantha would never do that because she’s
my best friend and Aidan’s just a friend too.”
“I
still wouldn’t trust her if I were you,” Bonnie sighed rolling her eyes.
Samantha
stood up. “Laz,” Samantha began, laughing. “Do you trust me to help Aidan carry
the drinks back over here?” She could see that Aidan was on his way back over
to the girls, so she decided to go over and help him. Robin and Lyra were also
in now the park. They were practising throwing the purple ball at a target.
Robin wanted to hit a rather large tree, but as he threw his ball Aidan had
just stepped in the way. Then Aidan instantly fell in love with...
“Samantha…I
was just wondering…” hesitated Aidan. “Would you go to the dance with me?”
“Huh?”
Samantha said confusedly as she walked with Aidan back to Larissa and Bonnie.
Suddenly Louis, who had been walking home through the park, ran over to the
group.
“Oy!
Aidan! I’m taking Samantha to the dance,” Louis snapped.
“No,
I’m taking her,” Aidan shouted back.
“But
Aidan, we were going as a group, you, me and Larissa,” Samantha reminded Aidan.
“Larissa?”
puzzled Aidan in disgust.
“What?”
cried Larissa.
“I
didn’t think you cared,” Bonnie said to Larissa.
“I
don’t… I mean I didn’t…okay…I do,” sobbed Larissa.
“I’m
taking Samantha to the dance!” shouted Louis.
“No,
I’m takin’ her,” Aidan shouted back. Larissa looked at Samantha and cried. She
grabbed her jacket and bag and ran off.
“Larissa,
wait!” Samantha called out as she chased after her.
“Samantha,
wait!” Louis and Aidan shouted as the chased after Samantha. Robin looked
worriedly at Lyra.
“How
did that happen?” Lyra asked confusedly. “We didn’t use magic.”
“I
reckon there must have been a little magic still left on the ball… maybe it
reacted with Aidan when I accidentally hit him. I am in so much trouble,” realised Robin.
“Will
Bert be mad?” Lyra asked concernedly.
It was
now Tuesday morning. Larissa sat alone in the school canteen. She could hear
Dannie, Drake, Jay, Drew, Nicky and Tiny Tim laughing and joking about Tim’s
face – it was still distorted. Larissa put her head in her hands and sighed
sadly. Just then Toby came and joined her. “Larissa, I just want you to know
that what’s happening between you, Samantha and Aidan is going on between me,
Luke and Shada, so I know how you’re feeling,” Toby explained to her.
“So you
realise that you have a crush on Aidan but Samantha stole him off you,” snapped
Larissa, folding her arms.
“No,
not exactly. But Luke explained to me that it’s not his fault Shada likes him,
so maybe Samantha had nothing to do with Aidan liking her either,” he told her.
Larissa unfolded her arms slowly, looked up at Toby and forced a smile.
“Maybe,”
she sighed.
After
lunch Dannie, Drake, Jay, Drew, Nicky and Tiny Tim were in the Drama Studio
trying to plan costumes for their play. They only had three more days left
until their big show. Tim wasn’t with them; he was with Ariel, who had just
begun her lunch break. “I think we should wear modern type clothes, so it’s
Modern Romeo and Juliet,” Dannie suggested.
“I
think Tiny Tim should wear a mini skirt,” Drake suggested.
“No
way!” yelled Tiny Tim, “I ain’t wearin’ no skirt.”
“Double
negative,” Drew sang.
“What?”
said Tiny Tim.
“Double
negative – that’s when you use two negative words and that makes your sentence
positive – like in Maths. Which means you just said you want to wear a skirt,”
Drew began to snigger.
“Do
not!” snapped Tiny Tim sulking.
“How
d’you know that?” Nicky asked amazed that Drew was so smart.
“I
overheard those two brain boxes in your form talkin’ ‘bout it the other day,”
Drew explained to Nicky.
“That
doesn’t help us work out what to wear though, does it?” Jay said feeling
frustrated. The boys started writing down ideas and drawing pictures for
costumes that they could wear. The Drama Studio that they were in wasn’t very
inspiring. The walls were black and the carpet was dark green with chewing gum
squished into it. The note boards remained scarred with staple scars from old
notices. Tiny Tim scanned the room for an idea as to what to wear. He walked
over to the head of the Drama department’s office and peered inside.
“Guys…”
Tiny Tim announced.
Ariel
was having an amazing time at lunch. She was sitting with her best friend Elly,
who was in her year, and Tim. Elly was disgusted by Tim’s face. She could tell
that it had deformed and had gathered that he hadn’t paid attention to the rule
about not touching your face with Frandadis juices if you have ink on them
because they could deform your face. Elly guessed that Tim had had an immature
idea of touching his face to see if the warning was true. Ariel felt as if her
best friend was giving her funny looks about being with Tim, but as far as she
could tell Tim was the most handsome boy in school. Lots of people were
laughing at her. Bert had snuck out of lesson to see whether his spell on Ariel
was working. He sniggered to himself as he saw the strange faces people pulled
as they saw Ariel eating lunch with Tim and his deformed face.
The
remainder of the day continued almost as normal, and then came the end of the
day. As Luke made his way up to Music to meet up with his friends he met Shada,
who was coming down the stairs from her Humanities lesson. Luke stopped her and
began explaining to her what had happened the other day when she said that she
would go to the dance with him. “Shada…” Luke began. “What if I told you that a
really cool guy liked you and wanted to go to the dance with you, but he was
too scared to tell you?”
“Luke,
don’t be silly. I do like you, and we are going to the dance together,” Shada
smiled hugging Luke, then waved ‘good-bye’ to him and continued her way down
the stairs. Toby had been standing behind Luke the whole time and when Luke
turned around to see Shada walking down the stairs he was met by an evil
scowling Toby.
“Ah!”
Luke jumped when he saw Toby. “What were you doing behind me like that?”
“Me?
What was that all about with you and my
future girlfriend?” raged Toby.
“It was
a mistake! I never meant it to sound like that-” Luke cried.
“Mistake?
You’re a mistake,” Toby snapped, pushing past him and storming off.
As
Toby reached the top of the Music department stairs he bumped into sad
Samantha. He noticed a tear in her eye and asked her what was wrong. “Bonnie
and Larissa aren’t my friends anymore all because of two stupid boys,” Samantha
sobbed, “Why won’t they believe me? Well Bonnie is bossy and blames everything
on me anyway, but Larissa’s my best friend and should believe me when I tell
her that I had nothing to do with Aidan liking me.”
“But
sometimes you can just tell that –” Toby stated in an angry tone.
“But if
you’re best friends with someone, shouldn’t they believe you when you tell them
the truth, because they’re your best friend and should know that you’re not
going to lie to them?” Samantha explained tearfully.
“That’s
good advice,” Toby began to smile. “Very good…” He started thinking.
Samantha sniffed and
looked towards Toby. “Do you wanna go to the dance with me?” Samantha asked
Toby hopefully.
Toby nodded. “But just
as friends, right?” Toby asked. Samantha giggled and nodded.
The
rest of the week continued with arguments and people not talking to each other.
It was now Friday evening and the school dance would soon be taking place, as
well as the Romeo and Juliet play. The school dance was forming in the Hall,
while the play was building on the stage. Toby and Samantha walked over to
Larissa who was standing alone. “Laz, Sam never wanted what happened to
happen,” Toby told her.
“Huh?”
replied Larissa.
“I’m
sorry Lazzie! I had absolutely nothing to do with Aidan liking me, or Louis. I
honestly have no idea why they both won’t leave me alone,” sobbed Samantha.
“Please
be friends,” Toby begged.
“Okay,”
Larissa smiled, “I forgive you Sammy, and I’m sorry I didn’t believe you
before,” she apologised, giving Samantha a hug. Toby smiled at the group
friendship and joined in the hug.
“Toby,”
giggled Larissa.
“What?”
he replied. “I don’t get group hugs, because of Luke and stuff,” he complained.
Samantha looked around the hall and spotted Luke, alone.
“Go on
Toby. Now’s your chance. Go and tell Luke what you told me,” Samantha told him.
Larissa and Samantha began talking as Toby made his way over to Luke.
Robin
and Lyra were also at the dance and were now trying to fix the problems that
they had caused. “Robin, maybe you should try and forget about what Bert’ll
think when you throw the ball; don’t worry about pleasing him,” suggested Lyra.
“Just think about how happy the couple will be once they’re together.”
“Okay…”
Robin began to think. Then he noticed Toby and Luke. Toby had just finished
apologising to Luke for falling out with him over Shada.
“Now
Toby,” Luke instructed. “Go ask Shada to dance.”
“What?
Why would she want to dance with me?” Toby asked feeling confused.
“Just
do it,” Luke insisted. As Toby made his way over to Shada Robin threw his
little purple hand stitched ball and aimed it at Shada. It hit her on the head
and she instantly looked up.
“Erm
Shada…” Toby hesitated.
“I’ll
dance with you Toby, that is if you want too,” Shada shyly said.
“Yeah,
I’d love to,” Toby replied leading Shada off to dance. Toby gave a quick
thumbs-up to Luke and continued dancing with Shada.
Everyone
was hyper from dancing. Larissa and Samantha got up from sitting down to dance.
As they did Louis and Aidan ran up to her. Samantha put her hand up to bring
the boys to a halt. The boys sadly walked away to the comfort of the benches in
the far corner of the Hall.
Almost
everyone was dancing. Bert wasn’t just in charge of Magic, but also a really
good DJ. While a long song was playing he quickly stepped away from the DJ-ing
area to talk with Ariel. “Enjoying your dance?” Bert asked Ariel, who was
dancing with Tim.
“Yes,
why?” she replied. Just then Bert sprinkled a dash of magical juices over
Ariel’s head. “ARGH!” she screamed when she looked up at Tim. Bert had
sprinkled an anti-love spell on Ariel. She now saw Tim for who he was, an ugly,
immature, deformed boy. Then she looked up at Bert.
“Bert,
I’m so sorry we ever broke up,” Ariel cried on Bert’s shoulder. “Will you ever
forgive me?” she pleaded.
“Of
course I do,” Bert smiled at her, rubbing his hand comfortingly on her
shoulder.
Robin
and Lyra noticed that Larissa was now alone at the refreshment stand. Aidan
wasn’t too far behind her. “Come on Robin, you’ve done great so far. Aidan’s
our next target,” Lyra instructed. Robin nodded and observed Aidan’s actions.
Lyra threw Robin’s ball in the air slightly and Robin kicked it like a
football. It hit Aidan on the head.
“Hey
Larissa, wanna dance?” Aidan asked her, holding out his hand for Larissa to
take.
“But I
thought you –” Larissa babbled, and then walked off to dance with Aidan.
Samantha noticed that Aidan and Larissa were finally together and smiled to
herself.
“Robin,
you are the best, these couples are so cool,” Lyra giggled happily.
“Now
for Louis,” Robin said, setting himself up for his grand finale. Bonnie had
purposely walked past Louis to try and get his attention. She was very
overdressed wearing something that looked like a prom dress, whereas everyone
else was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt. Robin spotted a perfect chance to
fire the magical ball. It shot in the air and whacked Louis’ drink right out of
his hand.
“Hey,
Bonnie, did you happen to notice –” Louis began to ask about his drink.
“I’d
love to dance with you, Louis,” Bonnie cheered.
“But I
don’t wanna…” Louis tried to tell her.
“DANCE!”
ordered Bonnie.
“Okay,”
replied Louis, who felt quite scared of Bonnie and also felt left out because
he had no one to dance with. Lyra, who was watching, began to snigger at what
had just happened.
Dannie
and Drake stood up on the stage and gathered everyone in the hall’s attention.
“Hello everybody,” hesitated Dannie.
“If
everyone would like to grab a seat from the side we will soon begin,” Drake
announced. Bert turned the Music off and aimed the spotlights on the stage.
Everyone started gathering chairs and taking their seats. Luke went over to the
refreshment stand and tried to steal a cake, so Samantha took him by the hand
and made him sit next to her, which he didn’t mind. “Everybody,” Tiny Tim said.
“We will now begin…”
- Josie -
