Wingspan

Starting April 26, Overlook is back to full capacity...but with a catch. While all students have been invited back from the Hybrid Model, COVID-19 remains a concern and both mask wearing and social distancing continues to be enforced. As the school year begins to round into the final turn, please be mindful of these ongoing efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 in our building. However, enjoy the fact that the school is looking more "normal" and that together we will get through the end of the year happy and healthy.

By Josh LeGrand

On March 20, 2021, a new season began: Spring! In this article, I will explain the science behind spring and ancient ways people recognized the equinoxes. Let’s begin!

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary an equinox is “either of the two points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic”. Let me simplify that for you. Astronomers like to imagine a mental sphere where the heavens are projected like a huge planetarium. This is called the Celestial Sphere, which has an equator that aligns with Earth’s equator. An equinox occurs when the Sun crosses the celestial equator, giving the day and night about the same length. In the spring the equinox is known as the vernal equinox, and in the fall it is known as the autumnal equinox.

In ancient times, the equinoxes were recognized by civilizations like the Mayans. When light from the sun shines on El Castillo, a ziggurat in the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza, it creates shadows that look like a writhing snake. This occurs because the ziggurat was built along cardinal axes (plural form of axis).

I hope you enjoy the warm weather and sunshine of spring!

By Josh LeGrand

On April 4, 2021, people around the world celebrated Easter! To some people, Easter is about candy and Easter egg hunts, but to many religious people, Easter is a lot more than that. In this article, I’ll explain the history and origins of Easter.

Easter is a tradition that dates back to the second century, when it was first celebrated, but it might go back even further! According to one popular theory, early Christians adopted Easter from a Pagan festival celebrating Eostre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring and fertility. The goddess consorted with a hare, which some say started the stories of the Easter Bunny, but there isn’t enough evidence to support that theory. The reason that Christians observe Easter is to honor the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Did you know that the Easter Bunny isn’t the only animal associated with Easter? A cuckoo delivers the eggs in Switzerland, and children wait for the Easter Stork, Fox, Chick, or Rooster in parts of Germany. How about Easter eggs? During Lent, a time of fasting associated with the Catholic church, people are not allowed to eat foods such as eggs, meat, and cheese. It became a treat to eat them again at Easter. Painting eggs for Easter is one of the oldest Easter traditions.

Now for the best part: the candy! Let’s start with some stats: candy makers in the United States make approximately 91 million chocolate bunnies around Easter time each year, along with some 16 billion jelly beans! Jelly beans were invented in the 1600s, and weren’t an Easter tradition until the 1930s, when merchants pointed out how much they looked like eggs! Today, more candy is sold on Easter than any other holiday.

I hope you enjoyed reading about the history and traditions of Easter!

By:Stella Deschenes

So I will be talking about April Vacation and ways to be safe while still having fun. So by the time you guys see this, April vacation will be over but I hope everyone had a great time! So there is not much to do as the pandemic continues, but here are a couple ideas. Go out to a restaurant as most restaurants are open but with restrictions. I would recommend wearing your mask while not eating or drinking anything, for safety purposes. Then ALWAYS sanitize your hands!

Have a movie day perhaps. Maybe just relax and treat yourself. Another idea is to catch up on what's going on in the world right now. Watch the news just for 10 minutes or so. Try a new hobby (Google really helps here), but I will give you a couple suggestions: knitting, drawing, gardening, writing, reading, dancing, and Overlook even has some new sports.

I also wanted to add that as this year's Wingspan is coming to a close and I wanted to thank our consistent readers. Our staff work really hard to give you a good Wingspan at the end of the month so thank you all so much. As always thank you for reading!

By Karl Sargent

Chapter X

Thomas suddenly found himself in a stone brick building, in a small room with no windows. He awoke on the floor of the room. There was a wooden door to the right, attached to the wall with metal, and nothing else. He stood up slowly, walked to the door, and opened it. He found himself in a medieval stone church, with a table in the center and stained glass windows all around. A woman sat at the table. She turned around. “Thomas Reed,” she said. “If you don’t know already, I’m Inge. Don’t worry, I won’t kill you.”

“Then why are you here?” Thomas asked.

“To tell you something. To give you a warning. Be careful, Thomas. Because I heard about Harvey’s death. I knew I might be next. I sent those four to Italy as a trap. And you fell right in.” She stood up, and began to walk towards the door. As she left, Thomas followed her, to see where she was going. After she shut the door, Thomas could hear her say to someone, “When he leaves, capture him. Bring him to my base in Dublin, in the sewers. In the year 2010.”

Thomas backed up. He instantly saw the windows nearby. He walked to one, and saw that there was a hinge on it. It looked like it had been recently put in. He opened the window, and stepped out onto a field, overlooking a village. “She must be in Dublin. She didn't even take my Time-Jumper. Something’s definitely fishy here. She would have taken this.” He set in Dublin, in 2010. He walked through to hopefully defeat Inge.

He arrived on a city street, busy with buisnesspeople, residents and tourists. He looked for a sewer grate, but had no luck. He walked into a building on his left. It was a large building. He walked towards the elevators, and no one stopped him. As he got on, he noticed that one of the buttons was for the basement. He pressed the button, as the sewers might be down there. As he reached the basement, there was a hatch that was to the sewers. He pulled it, and stepped down. “This is so gross,” He commented to himself. He heard someone walking towards him, and expected an Eonian soldier. It was, and Thomas hid at the corner. When the guard turned, Thomas punched him in the face, knocking him out. Thomas took his weapons, as well as a keycard to what he assumed was the base. He walked down the sewers, hallway after hallway. At last, he saw a door. He ran up to the door, and tapped the keycard against the reader to the left of the door.

The door unlocked, and he opened it. Waiting for him was a guard at the doorstep, with a phaserifle. “He’s at this entrance!,” the guard shouted.The guard hit Thomas with the back of his phaserifle, and Thomas fell back, unconscious.

Thomas awoke on the lower deck of a ship, with handcuffs around his hands. A soldier stood guard near him, but he got up, and hit the guard over the head. The guard was knocked unconscious. He took the guard’s phasepistol, and aimed it at the cord of the handcuffs. “I should set it to a non-fatal setting,” Thomas said. He set it to the stun setting, aimed it at the cord, and shot. Tohis relief, the cord broke, and he could move his arms freely. He stole the guard’s Time-Jumper, because they had stolen his when moving him.

There were no other guards on the lower deck, so Thomas walked up the stairs adjacent to were he previously was. The door had a window, and he looked out to see Inge, and three other guards. It was very dark and pouring. They were in the middle of the open ocean. He set the phasepistol to a high setting, kicked the door open, and shot two of the guards immediatly. This instantly faded into dust. He shot at the third, missed, and the guard lunged backward, right into Inge. Inge, next to the edge, tipped over the railing, and fell in. “No!,” She said, as she plummeted out of the boat. Thomas then shot the third guard. His mission had been completed. He grabbed the Time-Jumper, and it slipped, and fell over the railing.

“Oh, no, “ Thomas said as he found himself trapped at sea.

By Olivia Fuller

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