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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story about an underdog, or somebody making a comeback.

Posted in Character on Jun 21, 2024

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✍️ 42 stories

“Hot dogs or legs?” by Masha Kurbatova

Submitted to Contest #256

I was only 13, so no one believed me about the bats.  Mom said, “Sara, bats don't live in trees. Don't be silly.” I knew she was objectively wrong. Wikipedia said so. And a whole colony nested in the crepe myrtle outside my window. At night, skeletal branches tapped the glass, bending under the bats’ weight. Their green eyes glowed through the bug screen. They watched me. I couldn’t sleep. I was in ninth grade, much too old to recruit parents in the fight against night terrors. So for a week, no sleep, just me tucked stiff, sore, unmovi...

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“Building confidence” by Jeffrey McDonald

Submitted to Contest #256

The lights from Jeff’s garage are a beacon in the night to the errand bovine roaming the pitch-black pastures surrounding his rural home in Johnson County, Texas. Staccato sounds of an impact wrench spill out in the dark vast emptiness startling a curious coyote camouflaged by a patch of prickly pear cactus and tall dry grass. Curses echo into the night, as exhaustion battles an ever-ending desire to fulfill a dream he has had since youth, and his first time seeing a drag car fly by at the local track. He was hooked instantly, while other yo...

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“The School Fight” by Jack Bennett Sr.

Submitted to Contest #256

The School Yard Fight   At twelve years old I was not the smallest kid in the class, but pretty darn close. My name is Willy Wallace and the guy I managed to avoid for the entire school year was Peter Dombrowski. He was big, tough and a bully. So here it was, 1962, and the last day of school before a two-month summer holiday, and I had been challenged, or rather ordered, to meet Peter at recess behind third base for a fist fight.   All because I didn’t keep my poise when he messed my hair while in line. I ...

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“River-water represents my heart” by Kelly Jones

Submitted to Contest #256

Kai dressed herself in dark solid colours, styled in straight lines, with one or two points of decoration. Her tanned, plump, freckled face was cosmetic-free, just a light oil massaged in after showers. Two dark-brown combs held back wavy, shoulder-length, salt-and-pepper hair, through which a tiny false diamond glittered in a lobe.She held a black gel pen still for a few moments, then wrote:月亮不代表我的心[The moon does not represent my heart.]Older women often fall through society's cracks. They're too slow, quiet, dull, wrinkly and apathetic fro...

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“The Myth of the Golden Domes” by James Ott

Submitted to Contest #256

                               A SHORT STORY                                  The Myth of the Golden Domes                   &n...

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“Shoe-per Star” by Terrie Stevens

Submitted to Contest #256

Calling me an athletic supporter wouldn’t be too farfetched. However, I could have been a prime athlete if I lived with anyone else. Silver threads sparkled in the sunlight, woven into the fabric of my aqua-tinted nylon skin. Down my side, a neon green streak signified my maker. An emerald-colored rubber sole bled into dark blue cleats below me, my engineering and materials explicitly manufactured to be the best for playing soccer. Alone, I relaxed on the floor and relished my time off. A short distance from me, lurking beneath th...

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“The 497th Santa” by Tempest Phoenix Smith

Submitted to Contest #256

Mabel patted her hair, fingered underneath the back, then switched the hairdryer off and set it down on the dresser. Silence rushed in. She put one hand on the wall to steady herself and bent over to turn off the mains before unplugging the gadget. She would let it cool down before putting it back in the drawer later today.When she stood up, she was eye level with one of the teddies perched on the long shelf above her daughter’s bed. She tried to read some message in those glass amber eyes, felt she might get some insight, maybe one word to ...

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“The Olympian You Are” by Jessica Argyle

Submitted to Contest #256

By the time I noticed the missing lamp, half the contents of the house were gone. If she hated her life so much, why did she want reminders? But DeAnna was frugal and in the end, it’s the little things that give you away; the habits. The blue blanket was one of the early things to go. She claimed the dog got sick on it. You don’t want to know, she said, so I assumed she trashed it. Then the down pillows were replaced by foam. I made a fuss about it and she actually brought one back after I went on a hunt for it, looking under the bed, in the...

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“My Blinking Friend” by S.G. Williams

Submitted to Contest #256

“Nothing last time, so something this time,” he thought to himself. Everyone sooner or later falls out of the rhythm of their game, or job, or hobby. Life gets busy, work complicates things, and people still need to sleep. Though he relied more on coffee these days than a good night of sleep. Everyone knows that this isn’t good or healthy, and he still did it anyway. “I bet this wouldn’t be as hard if I were sleeping right, maybe five hours of sleep a night isn’t good. Doable, but not good.” Thank God for the standing desk that with the coff...

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“Kat and Dog” by Karen Duffell-Canham

Submitted to Contest #256

KAT AND DOG  This, their first tandem Iron Man 21km race, was their debut run for the new athletics club. The two girls had joined the club at the same time. They were the ‘new girls’ together. They wore the green and gold with pride. No pressure then thought Kat! The athletics club was a wonderful social experience, full of camaraderie and good humor. Everyone was so supportive of the two girl's efforts in this race. They had made a whole community of new friends. Michelle, her partner, had had a leg injury a ...

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“Tommy's Stop” by Joseph Hawke

Submitted to Contest #256

This is a true story. Tom, my high school friend and teammate, and I, despite interruptions over the course of forty years, now in our mid-fifties, remain connected to one another.  We went to Concord High School in Wilmington Delaware, where we also attended the same church, Holy Child, less than a mile from the high school. Tom, even though he played no instrument and his singing was off-key, was also in our church music group, the SIGN of Peace. I was the group’s drummer. SIGN stood for Singing in God's Name. It was started by a guy ...

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“THE GIRL WITH THE IRON WILL” by Melinda Madrigal

Submitted to Contest #256

I want to tell you a story about bravery and courage. I want to tell you a story about a girl who never gave up. Who never quit. I want to tell you a story about me. Vanessa Sanchez, track star. My story begins two years ago in the town of Brookhaven. I was a girl who loved to run. Day and night I would be running. Nothing could stop me not even my parents. I would run to the store, to school, to my friends house. I would run through the neighborhood. Running was freeing. Running was exhilarating. Running was my passion. I took my love for r...

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“Virgil and the Pogo Stick” by T Wilson

Submitted to Contest #256

The Selective Living in Later Years Trailer Park doesn’t cater to the plaid-clad, pants pulled up to your ribcage crowd. It boasts that a carefully chosen selection committee painstakingly picks each resident based on criteria preferred by the social elite--hand-picked, well-bred neighbor after neighbor. To this day, nobody is quite sure how Virgil and Hester O’Brian made the cut. Nevertheless, they are denizens of the aluminum paradise where rock gardens prevail, and awnings are a must.Hester and Virgil, who had recently celebrated 45 years...

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“As the mace falls” by Omar A

Submitted to Contest #256

Trigger warning: Physical Violence and implied sexual violence The bone cracked under the weight of the mace and the sound could be heard across the stadium. Victor's shin bone had just shattered, his brain going into panic mode as he let out an anguished scream. But Victor didn't have time to think, his opponent had raised the mace again, it was bathed in the light of the red sun creating a ring of fire as the mace blocked the light. Without much time to think Victor grit his teeth and rolled over a second before the mace swung down and str...

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“Journey to Andromeda” by Elise Gerner

Submitted to Contest #256

“Man, this is bad.” “Yeah, it’s terrible.”“I can’t believe people used to watch this stuff.” I glance over at Laia’s face, catching her gaze and we both burst out laughing, rolling around on my tiny bed. “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” she gasps, exaggeratedly brushing a tear from her eye. “What kind of title is that anyway?”“I don’t know, but it’s hilarious.  Two hundred years ago, people actually thought this was good,” I say, playing with a lock of her jet-black hair. Laia flashes me that grin of hers that I love so much and ...

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🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story in the stands at a major sporting event.

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