ConjuRings Creative Writing Magazine Of St. Louis College of Pharmacy Twenty-fourth Annual Issue, Volume II Spring 2016 Editor: Haseeb Wajid Faculty Advisor: Dr. Marilyn Fontane Front and Back Cover Art: Nicole Eng My front cover is entitled, "Feeding Ideas" because the one large lightbulb being dragged by the girl represents all of the essays, poems, and stories written by STLCOP's students. The head growing from the ground is supposed to be the reader of the magazine who "digests" the literary works by interpreting the underlying themes within each writing piece. The back cover is representative of this notion as the rays coming out of the head suggests enlightenment and satisfaction from the exchange of students' ideas with each other. Nicole Eng Table of Contents Title Author Page Little Red Riding Hood: Afreen Ziauddin 1 Chocolate Afreen Ziauddin 3 My Artistic Brother Afreen Ziauddin 4 Rat Attack Xi Wang 5 Invasion Xi Wang 5 Please Stop Michelle Chicoineau 5 No rest for the Whiskered Michelle Chicoineau 5 An Ode to Creature Samantha Nguyen 6 Kwansaba Justin Xu 6 Good Day Justin Xu 6 Helpful Justin Xu 7 Dramatic Monologue Steffi Thomas 7 Snow Bethany Meyer 8 Accepting my Acceptance to Taylor Win 8 Hogwarts Nature Suzie Chen 10 Wind and Water Suzie Chen 10 The Betrayal Jordan Welch 11 Stride Jessy Hoelscher 12 The Night Jon Weisner 12 A Day for the Ages Jon Weisner 13 All Day Kelly Ko 13 Instant Ramen Ha Ram Jeong 13 Nightmare at the Beach Ha Ram Jeong 14 “Beasts” Trey Weishaar 14 Memory Poem Trey Weishaar 15 “Trouble erupting” Trey Weishaar 15 The Drum Taylor Craig 16 Grand Canyon Jamie Wattananimitgul 16 Beach Jamie Wattananimitgul 16 Love Jamie Wattananimitgul 16 Racecar Casey Moore 16 Derek’s Realization Haseeb Wajid 17 The Seven Stages of STLCOP Bobby Varghese 18 Finito Bobby Varghese 18 Seven John Hunter 18 It Feels Like Yesterday John Hunter 18 Scooby Doo Blake Stigall 19 Fire, man Blake Stigall 19 Home Blake Stigall 20 When the Sun Rises Justin Vadukumcherry 21 Clues Justin Vadukumcherry 22 Haiku Justin Vadukumcherry 21 STLCOP Finals Jessiu Um 22 What a Day Ben Um 22 Plumber Sarah Cohen-Smith 22 Beauty Sarah Cohen-Smith 22 Haiku Sarah Cohen-Smith 22 The Liberating Photo Ryan SooHoo 23 The Marquee Club Ryan SooHoo 24 The Cursed Hand Tyler Giebelhausen 26 Steak Tyler Giebelhausen 27 Elementary Memory Vy Trinh 28 All About Colors Vy Trinh 28 Red High Heel Katrina Trentham 29 I Love Shopping Serah Cyriac 29 The Card Kelsey Toler 30 Twilight Kelsey Toler 30 Poetry Bethany Stallo 30 Cinquain Josh Siu 31 A Poetic Rant Sasha Singh 31 Want RJ Shaw 32 The Lost Jacket RJ Shaw 32 Haiku Kayla Gray 34 Englyn Kayla Gray 34 Finals Nirali Ragha 34 Diamante Sagar Patel 34 Writing Mena Khalid 34 In You Mena Khalid 35 Gratitude Sakina Saaduddin 35 The Hike from Hell Brittney McGlasson 36 River Flows In You Brittan Rosch 36 Comet’s Knowledge Brittan Rosch 36 Iced Tea Steven Phan 38 Ping-Pong Steven Phan 38 The Wedding After Party Andre Harvey 39 The Zoo Ashley Roberts 40 Arrow Ashley Roberts 40 Roses are Red… Sreemathi Palanisamy 41 Silly Love Shin Hyun Park 41 Loneliness Shin Hyun Park 41 Long Time After Shin Hyun Park 42 Love and War Sam Rhee 42 Poetic Justice Sam Rhee 42 Inspired by Whitman Nancy Quan 43 Inspired by Frost Nancy Quan 43 Across the Globe Razan Rajab 44 Faithful Friends Todd Pieper 45 Kong: The Untold Story Steven Pham 47 War has Changed Steven Pham 48 Poetic Justice for a Nazi Steven Pham 49 Starting the Day Drew Pentland 49 Cold Drew Pentland 50 Smiley Face Drew Pentland 50 One in the Same Michelle Albert 50 Layla and Agatha Michelle Albert 51 Cupcake Sam Badwan 52 Raindrops Sam Badwan 52 He Who Must Not Be Named Niveda Baalasubramaniyan 52 The Deathly Hallows Niveda Baalasubramaniyan 52 Memory Niveda Baalasubramaniyan 53 Strange Collin Benbrook 53 Project World Peace Collin Benbrook 54 Guitar Collin Benbrook 54 Aquatic Nymph to Dragonfly Collin Benbrook 55 White but Not Wonderland Caity Blankenship 55 You Say Ellie Breaux 56 The Young Artist Ellie Breaux 56 Muffin Ellie Breaux 56 Childhood Adventures Samantha Bryant 57 The Casino Tyler Giebelhausen, Sheri 57 Chau, Alyssa Farbak, Rachel Ghazarian No. 63 Nana Byun 59 The Magician, Book Nana Byun 60 Wild, Raindrop, Pain Nana Byun 60 Summer Break Jasmine Carpenter 61 After School Adventure Rachel Ghazarian, Tyler 61 Giebelhausen, Sheri Chau, Alyssa Farbak Do Not Count Sheri Chau 64 Spotlight Sheri Chau 64 Titanic Sheri Chau 65 Creative Writing Class Suzie Chen, Serah Cyriac, 65 Taylor Win, Niveda Baalasubramaniyan Deep Talk Jerry Hu 68 Poetic Justice Daniel Hemann 68 Stargaze, Dog’s Bark Alyssa Farbak 69 Filling for the Ill Alyssa Farbak 70 Frank Alyssa Farbak 70 Trapped on a Music Box Steven (V for Victory) Kramer 71 My Verse Kunhee Lee 72 The Tree Abigail Jacobs 72 Fruits of the Spirit Abigail Jacobs 72 Flipping the Script Abigail Jacobs 73 Lily in Candyland Rachel Ghazarian 74 Music Justin Jacob 75 Guitar Justin Jacob 75 Dilemma Justin Jacob 76 Rollercoaster Elizabeth Lemma 77 Summer and School Daniel McGraw 77 Englyn Daniel McGraw 77 Does It Matter? Casey Moore 78 The Wildlife Biologist’s… Kelsi Moua 78 “Silly Sally” Kelsi Moua 79 Lost Veronica Ann LaBoube 80 My Window Brenda Kim 80 Calm after the Storm Brenda Kim 80 Need a Lawnmower? Brenda Kim 81 Layla Richard Ngo-Lam, Nancy 81 Quan, Brenda Kim, Justin Jacob, Drew Pentland My Run Abbey Meers 84 College Jenny Patel 85 Fat Chance at Living Richard Ngo-Lam 85 Harry Potter…Kwansaba Richard Ngo-Lam 85 Barack Obama … Republicans Richard Ngo-Lam 86 Flu shot Steven Pham 86 The Pod Justin Vaducumcherry, Bobby 87 Varghese, Afreen Ziauddin, Blake Stigall, Vi Trinh Memory: 16 Taylor Win 89 You Are… Vruti Patel 90 Best Friend Kushbu Patel 90 Being with You is All I Need Kushbu Patel 90 The Pyramid Mena Kahled, Kunhee Lee, 91 Casey Moore, Kelsey Moua, John Hunter Monster Haseeb Wajid 92 Stories and Poem by Afreen Ziauddin Little Red Riding Hood: The Real Story This is the story of Little Red Riding Hood. Not the cute one many have always heard since they were in diapers. This is the real story, told by me, Robin. I am the true Little Red Riding Hood, though I am anything but little. Here’s what really happened. From my perspective, in other words, the truth. Here it goes. But before I begin, get yourself some popcorn, beef jerky, the leftover soup from last night--whatever it is that you want to eat, because this is going to be an entertaining one indeed. So the starting of the story that you’ve always heard is true. Little girl goes off to her frail and dying grandmother’s house in the middle of No Man’s Woods to deliver some food. Because her old frail and so-called dying grandmother couldn’t use her wrinkly hands and call up Jimmy John’s for some freaky fast delivery. I mean, why do you think there’s a Jimmy John’s to begin with? And mind you, Granny is anything but frail and dying. She is the heart of the devil. Why do you think she’s living in the woods? Because her stubborn and so called “frail”-self had decided to leave against Mama’s pleads. Said she couldn’t stand our house. She wanted more privacy. She hated being bossed around by others telling her what to eat, when to do this, do that. Well, what did she expect? She’s getting old. And that nurse we hired didn’t come cheap. Well, somehow Granny got her things and decided to buy this super creepy cottage (I like to call it the house made of straw since that thing looked like it could break in two seconds). No wonder she got it for less than a hundred bucks. Speaking of which, that woman used my hard earned money from working at the bakery two doors down to buy that stupid house. Who does that? Anyway, Mama (from the goodness that remains in her pure and angelic soul despite the satanic heart of her mother) requested that I deliver a bowl of soup (or was it noodles?) to my frail and dying grandmother for whom my levels of resentment could go as far as the ex-planet Pluto. I reluctantly agreed. I could use a break before I would binge on season two of Game of Thrones on Netflix. I was about to walk right out of the house when Mama stopped me. “Little lady, where do you think you’re going?” I was tempted to tell her I was about to cross over the bridge to Hell and feed the Devil but stopped myself because if I didn’t, I would probably get a huge slap in the face. I composed myself in a polite fashion before I spoke “Off to Granny’s house, Mama.” “Not like that, you’re not.” She said with her hands firmly placed on her hips. Who was I meeting, Obama or Granny? I was wearing sweat pants and a sweatshirt, for Pete’s sake! But Mama insisted that I wear something nicer. She pulled out that hideous red hood poncho thing and handed it to me. It was Mama’s latest invention. She designed clothes in her free time (most of which I didn’t like but pretended to like since she was my mother).