The school garden grows science

You've probably seen the school garden if you've ever ventured around the back of F Building. It's a garden that the science teachers, Sara Dixon and Pam Halstead are in charge of. All of the students in the AP Biology course get their own plot in the garden to work on.

What had been previously been planted in the garden before this year's AP Bio class started working were tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, and assorted herbs such as rosemary. Claire S., a junior in the AP Bio class reported that the class has already planted an apple tree, and are in the process of planting celery, artichoke, red and yellow beets, and herbs like basil, thyme, oregano, and parsley. The class is also planning to plant winter vegetables like green beans.

When asked what her hopes for the garden were, Claire replied with, "I hope we can provide fresh herbs and veggies for the culinary arts classes and school cafeteria, and help make the student body healthier."

In response to the question of what her favorite parts of the class and garden were, Claire said that, "Gardening is one of my favorite things, so it's really cool to be able to do it as a part of a class, especially an AP class." Senior Kieran S. said, "I love our little baby sprouts and planting them, and I can't wait for them to get big!"

Codi O. is a senior in the Fortuna High Marching Band.

Stephen King's Pet Sematery still a classic

Stephen King is a prominent figure in the horror and fantasy genres, and is a New York Times’ bestselling novelist. Some of his most popular works include The Shining, Carrie, and IT, and many of these works have been adapted into movies. King was born in Portland, Maine on September 21, 1947. He studied at the University of Maine, and later became a teacher while he began to establish himself as a writer. He has sold more than 350 million copies of his books worldwide, and has had them adapted into many successful movies.

King’s first novel, Carrie, was released in 1973 and became a huge success one year after being published. The novel tells the story of a teenaged girl who gets revenge on her peers. Another well known novel that King released was The Shining which was adapted into a movie in 1980 that stars Jack Nicholson and Shelley Duvall. In the novel the protagonist, Jack Torrance, and his family are trapped in a hotel that brings Jack to insanity from the dark past and isolated location of the hotel.

Pet Sematary begins with a family who moves to a house that is next to a highway frequented by speeding trucks. Louis Creed, the father and doctor, becomes good friends with his neighbor Jud Crandall and his wife. Jud takes Louis’ family on a hike to the town’s pet cemetery one day, which triggers bad memories and heated arguments between Louis and his wife, Rachel. After Louis has a traumatic experience with a patient in the hospital he begins to have nightmares about the cemetery. When his daughter’s favorite cat, Church, gets hit by a truck on the highway, Jud takes Louis to an ancient Micmac burial ground to bury him. The burial ground begins to bring horrors into his lives when they use the burial ground’s powers for the wrong reasons.

King uses a very consistent writing style that is present in all of his works. He describes the natural world in disturbing ways with things like “Dead fields under a November sky, scattered rose petals brown and turning up at the edges, empty pools scummed with algae, rot, decomposition, dust...” He also uses many existential themes in his books to add to the horror of what is already happening in the story and asks things like “...the most terrifying question of all may be just how much horror the human mind can stand and still maintain a wakeful, staring, unrelenting sanity.” In Pet Sematary one major theme is the acceptance of death, especially in Louis’ daughter Ellie, “Death was a vague idea; the Pet Sematary was real. In the texture of those rude markers were truths which even a child’s hands could feel.”

Anyone who is a fan of horror novels should consider reading this book. The book is dark and disturbing and full of the topic of death if you’re into that. Anyone who is a fan of other Stephen King novels should definitely consider reading this book as well, because it is similar to his other books.

Senior Codi likes his cat and reading.

New Theater Class at Fortuna High is full of drama

One of the newest courses being offered at Fortuna High this year is the theater class. Jared Ourique, the teacher of the new course, reported that there are thirty-four students enrolled in the class this year, which is a fairly large number of students. When asked how he managed to get the class to happen, Ourique said that he just asked students if they would be interested in taking the course and enough of them were interested.

Ourique explained that his love for theater came from his old classes in theater when he was in high school. He said that “Theater made me what I am,” and that it gave him the confidence to speak in front of others along with the friends he found there.

The class started off with improv in the beginning of the year, and they are currently researching different styles of theater. Ourique hopes to eventually have the class writing their own scripts, doing improv skits, and having performances open to the public. The place where class takes location is very fluid as well, as the class moves from C 4-5, the theater, and Ourique's normal classroom depending on what the class needs for that day.

Codi Oswald is a senior at Fortuna High in the Modes of Writing class. He is part of the Fortuna High Marching Band.