"why are you here?" is a simple question. You can tell because the verb "you are" has been inverted. You would hear it in direct speech. "why you are here" is a statement. However, you can also hear it in indirect speech. Examples: 'Why are you here?' she asked. My mum shouted at me, 'why are you here?' I heard a faint voice saying, 'why are you here?' The reason why you are here is to help us. Why you are here is not an easy question to answer. Who knows why you are here!

"single thought": one thought; he could only think about one thing; at that point in time, there was only one thing he was thinking about

"Name of the boy's mother - Julia - that slipped, once, through Adrian's mind": the "single thought" he had was Julia, and Julia is the name of a boy's mum. "slipped, once, through Adrian's mind" means that the thought of the name went through his head very quickly; he thought about the name Julia for a second before it went away again

"thunder spat out": literally, 'spat out' is the past tense of spit out, e.g. to spit out some food if you don't like it. Here it is used as an image of the thunder being very forceful and violent, giving one short, sharp burst of sound

1. is perfect! 2. sounds ok but (personally) I'd change "buddies" to something like "mates" or "friends". "buddies" is a bit of a weird word to use. 3. I would change to "When I was a freshman, I won the championship, which gave me a great sense of achievement" hope this helps!

"hind legs" means back legs. For example: "a bear standing on its hind legs" means a bear standing on its two back legs. "roaring" means for an animal to let out a loud shout or cry; the sound a lion makes when it shouts. for example: "the lion roared"