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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#128: Tea Time

Did you know that January is National Hot Tea Month? Tea is a wonderfully diverse beverage that’s enjoyed in many different ways all over the world. It can be a soothing drink, a social drink, and has even sparked conflicts (think the Boston Tea Party, or the First Opium War).

Inspired by the history and cultural significance of this beverage, here are the prompts for this week’s contest:

This week's prompts

Start your story with someone making a cup of tea — either for themself or for someone else.

Fluff – 171 stories

Set your story in a tea house.

Spring – 36 stories

Write a story about a tea party that your character is reluctant to go to.

Summer – 44 stories

Write about a character who’s dying to “spill the tea” (gossip) about something.

Fluff – 21 stories

Write a story about a conflict that breaks out over something ordinary (like tea, perhaps).

High School – 26 stories

Stories

“Tea Time” by Jonathan Poole

Submitted to Contest #128

A shrill whistle came from the kitchen; the kettle was ready. “Are you sure you want to do this?” asked Nancy. She looked at Tim, eyes filled with concern, but her face full of understanding. “Yes, I’m sure,” said Tim. “Okay,” Nancy said, “I’ll be right here. She took Tim’s hand in her own and let out a resolved sigh as she settled into her chair. The two were seated at a round table, situated in the living room of a run-down apartment. The front door was to Tim’s back, and across the table from him was an entryway that...

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“Vintage Oak Barrel ” by Pashmina Bys

Submitted to Contest #128

Melissa started the electric tea kettle. Washing the clay from her hands and forearms knowing the pot on her wheel will have to wait. This ceramic potter needed some time. She pulled out the souvenir bag of Vintage Oak Barrel Aged Pu Erh of tea. Oh, what memories she thought. The tenmoku ceramic mug she just finished firing which seemed like the perfect tea cup for a morning like today. There were may ceramic projects and orders waiting but now seemed like a time for tea and thoughts that were spinning through her head.&nbs...

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“Signing the contract off with a tea” by Dorothy Anibasa

Submitted to Contest #128

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing across the black door. I lost all concentration, until, “Two teaspoons Laura!” My little sister Amanda gently tapped my arm, trying to get my attention. “Huh!” I turned towards her abruptly, causing the jar of sugar to slide off the table and shattered to pieces on the ground. I just nearly flooded my Father’s tea with too much sugar and now broken glass all over the floor? “Goodness!” Amanda backed away immediately but blood was already gushing out from her left toe. “No, no, no, oh my God!” I gasped ru...

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“Edited Perspective” by Allyson Jamison

Submitted to Contest #128

My spoon clanked against the sides of my cup as I stirred it around and around. I watched as the peppermint tea swirled in sync without really seeing anything at all. My mind told me what to do but my heart wasn't in it. I set the spoon on the counter beside my cup and lifted the steaming mug to my lips, taking a long drink from it. The flavor that I usually loved was tasteless on my tongue. I set the cup back down in defeat. My ears were attuned once again to the deafening noise around me. It seemed the entire extended family had c...

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“A Spot of Tea” by William Sattelmeyer

Submitted to Contest #128

“Spot o’ tea, Vicar?” “You have got to be kidding me,” Gilly said. “That is how you’re going to open our screenplay?” Darnel Miller glared at his writing partner over his tablet; Gilford—Gilly—Simmons sprawled in the chair opposite Darnel’s desk, tapping his teeth with a pencil. “What’s wrong with it?” Darnel groused. “It immediately sets up the scene—England, probably the moors or some such moody location, fog or mists or what have you—and that it’s a mystery.” “And I suppose the protagonist is the local priest.” Darnel made a rude nois...

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“Graceland” by VJ Hamilton

Submitted to Contest #128

Darkness was falling as Benjamin Caesar Smith tramped from the Dunfield train station to his mother’s cottage on the village outskirts. Ignoring the pangs of a headache that had traveled with him all day, he scuffed his shoes on the faded welcome mat, careful to remove all visible mud and dead leaf fragments. He rang the doorbell. The door flew open and—“Hellohowareyou!” kiss, kiss, achoo!—Florence scarcely welcomed him before she sprinted away to tend to the shrieking tea-kettle. He left his shoes, heels pushed against the wall, on the mat ...

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“An unexpected guest ” by Ariel Searcy

Submitted to Contest #128

A little quaint diner sits nestled along the treeline of the rich evergreen forest of West Virginia, standing in defiance against the kudzu slowly wrapping it's suffocating arms around the sickly green exterior. The soul occupant, a young Diane Henderson, stands behind the counter in her white apron and baby blue flair dress. All of the customers have since gone home, leaving her to her nightly ritual of hot tea and reading before it's time to lock up and go home herself. Diane places a tea kettle on the stove, her back against the b...

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“Mint Leaf” by Marama Campbell

Submitted to Contest #128

Tim pressed the cold brim of the mug to his lips and breathed in the fresh scent of mint leaves. He felt the flicker of the warm smell light up the darkest parts of his body and ease the heaviness in his mind. As he drew the mug away from his mouth, he peered down inside at the tea bag as it swelled in the water. Under the quiver of the campfire it almost looked like a heart. The pulses of the leaves against the filter paper mimicked the plus of a steady heartbeat. The fire before him danced in ribbons of red across his face, the a...

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“Granny's Porch” by Elissa Ravencrest

Submitted to Contest #128

“Remember, always stir clockwise. You don’t want to bring any unwanted negative energy your way!” The words of Callista’s late grandmother rang through her head as she made her morning cup of tea. What a crazy old bat. Callista thought, shaking her head. That didn’t stop her unconscious mind from stirring clockwise anyway. Old habits die hard and all that. She stopped stirring, placed her used spoon in the sink, and made her way to the front porch. She passed her grandmother's old curio cabinet containing all the weird knick knacks sh...

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“Tea for Two” by Broken Glass Pony

Submitted to Contest #128

Her frail hands lift up the tea kettle the same way she’s done every morning for forty-seven years since they wed. She carefully fills two delicate tea cups painted with birds. She carries both cups of tea and gracefully walks to the veranda lined with blossoming flowers. One is for her, and the other is for her love.“Here you go dear.” she says while placing his tea on a small bistro table as she sits across from him. He’s looking in the distance as if deep in thought. They would always observe the birds and wildlif...

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“Brewing War ” by Freya Inkwell

Submitted to Contest #128

Mag Well. The city of the gods and goddesses; our paradise. Even in her mental thoughts, that last word felt bitter, and Airmed sighs heavily as she stares out the floor-to-ceiling window overlooking the ancient city. Bitter or not, she knows her choice, if she so chooses to continue with her plan, would destroy what peace this place has brought her kind, and there are many here she cares deeply for. Does she really want to be the cause of their pain when it is in her nature to heal? The unmuffled pitter patter of rain and...

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“Long lost brother” by Wayne Steele

Submitted to Contest #128

Writer's note: I accidentally submitted the story to the wrong category it should be. Write a story about a character reluctant to go to a tea party “I’ve always been a failure in the family, “I say to myself solemnly as I lay in bed. Everyone one always says David is nothing more than a loser and will always be a failure.” A letter was written as if it was from the queen herself, saying: “Dear David, I know it’s been a while since we talked last, but I was wondering if you could come to my tea party. It won’t be big, just a few people ...

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“Leo And The Tea House” by A. Nic

Submitted to Contest #128

Warning: Some expletives Saturday morning is Leo’s favorite one of the week. Not only is he able to sleep in until nine thirty in the morning--because elementary school is rough on him, making him wake up at seven--but he’s also able to amble around his father’s tea house. It’s a quaint little shack. Leo never knows how he manages to get there. He just walks out of the house, plops into the backseat of his dad’s Ford f150, and feels the vibrations of the engine as they pass through a forest of spiny trees. Today, however, was going to p...

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“Death In A Teahouse” by Ramsey Emerson

Submitted to Contest #128

From her passenger side window, Anne would imagine the windmills were giant steel orchids standing tall above flat fields. The silence in their car was now the new normal. No radio or laughter, only the monotonous noise of wheels rolling over imperfections in the asphalt. Both she and her husband, Bill, were sunken deep in their melancholic thoughts. It was the same trip for several months now, but this time they would make another stop. Life needed to get back on track. Six months before, their daughter had been rushed to a hospital, only...

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“Sadie's Tea Party” by Lynn Tabor

Submitted to Contest #128

Write a story about a tea party that your character is reluctant to go to. A tea party? What the hell! It sounded so pretentious, but there it was, the invitation sitting in the middle of my little wooden writing desk. The illustration on the front of the card was so ornate and girly and did not speak to my minimalist nature. It had come in yesterday’s mail and I instantly scoffed at it when I pulled it out of the lavender-scented envelope. It was from a woman I had just met in a coffee shop. Somehow we ...

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$250

Prize money

298

Contest entries

160

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Jan 14, 2022 EST

Won by Jay Wayne 🏆

Title: my fellow passerine

Submissions must be between 1,000 - 3,000 words and will be approved and published on Reedsy Prompts within 7 days of the contest closing.

Read the full terms & conditions or check out the FAQ if you have any questions!

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