After realizing that 4,382 students registered in less than a week to join Downey High School, Angelica Fregoso had the desire to go out there and spread the word about newspaper. She cannot wait to interview new students and write their stories to fit in with the others located in the Legends category.

 

“Nobody in this school really knows each other,” Fregoso said. “I mean there are so many students now, so I believe it is possible to have them get to know one another by getting to read each others’ stories on Downey Legend.”

 

If she is able to promote newspaper to the students, then those students can read stories about others’ lives and view them differently.

 

“Many people, many stories,” Fregoso said, “and when students pass each other without knowing who they're walking by, mainly because of how they dress or how they talk, it's kind of sad, because one can't simply judge a book by its cover.”

 

She knows how it feels to walk past students and not know who they are. During her freshman year, Fregoso moved to Downey High from St. Emydius, a private middle school, that only had about 250 students.

 

“That school was so little,” Fregoso said, “almost everyone knew each other.”

 

During the middle of her sophomore year, former newspaper writer, Akhila Nalamilli, mentioned the Downey Legend newspaper with Fregoso.

 

“Angelica is a very nice girl,” Nalamilli said. “Her writing is amazingly done and a great use for newspaper.”

 

Fregoso's love for writing came to her when she was in first grade; as she started taking tests on The Magic Treehouse: Age of Dinosaurs, she loved the idea of being able to write her own stories and include her own characters and make her own world.

 

It is not really a goal to write those kinds of stories to this day, Fregoso pointed out. Joining newspaper was to become open-minded and to write actual stories of actual people rather than typing fiction.

 

“Although it seemed interesting to write what I want my characters to say and how I want my world to work out,” Fregoso said, “I think it's better to write what real characters say and how their worlds work.”

 

Knowing how she had a flowing passion to accomplish this goal, Norma Fregoso, mother of Angelica, agrees that she can do it.

 

“My daughter has always been a creative writer,” Mrs. Fregoso said. “Ever since she was a young child, she has expressed interest for writing stories.”

 

Fregoso's writing also inspired her friends to improve on various things like essays and CQTs.

 

“Angelica's very passionate and puts all her emotions into her work,” Carolina Marin, Fregoso's best friend said. “Not everyone has the ability to express themselves correctly, and I feel that she is capable of conveying her point thoroughly and emotionally without confusing or misleading the reader.”

 

With much more to experience, Fregoso patiently waits for what stories she will be writing about in newspaper, and to obtain knowledge about the lives of students, teachers, and the citizens of Downey.

The thirst for knowledge was never quite quenched for, junior, Chelsea Mendoza. and a poet in 8^th grade was where her passion for literature began. Not only does Mendoza want to expand her knowledge, but she wishes to use her aptitude in writing to get people to know her.

 

“I love mystery and suspense,” Mendoza said, “anything I have to read twice.”

 

To indulge her passion for mystery and suspense, Mendoza wrote her own horror story imbued with enigmas and apprehensions, one morning in the Downey High School library.

 

“Chelsea’s story is very well descriptive, and has good imagery”, her friend Beatrice Pena said.

 

Mendoza’s passion for books, although originating from Stephen King, has been provoked by other books such as the Hunger Games, the Fault in Our Stars, Paper Towns, Me and Earl, and Mr. Mercedes. She does not like to know the ending of a story, but instead she loves the twists.

“A book is like a portable T.V., but travel size,” Mendoza said. “ I can read about stories that would otherwise be impossible in real life.”

 

Other than books leaving an impressionable mark on Mendoza, there is more to her love of reading. She is able to relate the mystery, and sometimes traumatizing events, that take place in her stories. She claims that the relationship that she shares with her mom is relatable to that of her stories.

 

“If I don’t want to listen to my mom yap all day, I can open up a book and dive into that world,” Mendoza said.

 

Mendoza wishes to use her passion for literature in a career some day. She either wants to be a writer for Teen Vogue or even a journalist for some other publication. She also considers being an author, writing the very books that she loves to read.