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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#139: Growing Up

As March reaches its conclusion and nature comes into full bloom (at least in the Northern hemisphere), it’s a time to reflect on growth. While shoots are emerging and flowers start to bud, it’s inspiring to think how big things flourish from such small beginnings.

This week’s prompts are about just that. Whether your characters have already gone through big changes, or are just beginning them, it’s time to get growing. I’ll see you back here for the next contest, when we’ll all be one week older and, hopefully, one week wiser.

This week's prompts

Write a story that involves a character donating a box of clothes which have been outgrown.

Middle School – 49 stories

Start your story with someone having their height marked on a door frame.

Middle School – 36 stories

Format your story in the style of diary entries.

Middle School – 53 stories

Start your story with the words: “Grow up.”

Angst – 63 stories

Write about a character sowing seeds for the future (literally or figuratively).

Spring – 39 stories

Stories

“What's Mine is Mine” by John Vincent Bahrenburg

Submitted to Contest #139

Although I don’t recognize my hands, I certainly recognize the things they were putting on the counter at the thrift store. I watch as chipped nails, originally a clean sky blue, slowly lay out my past in front of me.The first was the holey band t-shirt. It was clearly once black, but faded with washes, sunlight, and age. My father had given it to me when his beer belly could no longer be contained by its cotton midsection. There were holes in the shoulders and faded stains under the armpits and when I wear it and work up a sweat, dad’s smel...

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“Perfume of the Fabric” by Remy K

Submitted to Contest #139

I breath in deep as the breeze brushes past my face catching the faint scent of campfire, musk, and fryer oil – plaid. I’m brought back immediately to that beautiful spring day as a child, when all the worries of the real world hadn’t caught up to me and life seemed so simple. When the worst thing I could imagine was not being able to go to Grandpa’s because of the extra shift my mother had to pick up to “Pay bills, because that’s not something you have to worry about yet Meg”, she would say. It was always an adventure at Grandpa’s, blanke...

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“Why are all Budgies called Billy?” by Steve Penn

Submitted to Contest #139

“Straight back” she says while she clumsily marks the door jam above my head with her pencil stub. “There, you’re taller than your dad was at your age”. I turn and see the gouges and marks in the glossed white frame. The name ‘Derek age 9’ is just readable as well as Billy and Michael at various ages. Dad is a good inch below my mark and I imagine him standing here as proudly as me, maybe on tip-toes. I take a seat on the old kitchen chair and am studying the light gleaming through the net curtains when I’m drawn to the excited chirping next...

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“Anonymous Helper.” by Crystal Glisson

Submitted to Contest #139

Amelia, look how much you have grown. I say, as I show her the line I had just marked on the door frame. She giggled and jumped up and down. Her curly red hair bounced till it looked like an untamed mess. Her blue eyes shined brightly, as she smiled at me. Her dimples just showing through. She was only four, but some days she acted like a teenager. My Jonathan would have loved to see her grow up. But, fate wouldn’t allow it. He died in a car accident when she was only two. Her red hair had come from him. She didn’t get my brown hair, b...

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“On The Nature of Shrinking” by Jaclyn Ramsey

Submitted to Contest #139

“I told you, Sophie, see? I told you, I’m shrinkin’.” The old man squinted through his spectacles at the fresh tick mark etched into the door frame just half an inch below another measurement mark. Neglected pale-yellow paint chipped away from the walls over the years like the elasticity of his skin, reflecting his age back at him. He shuffled across the room back to his wife’s bedside. “There! Now the proof is on our walls.” Sophie hardly had the energy to give her husband a full grin anymore. She was draped beneath her favorite quilt from...

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“My Friend, My Companion” by Sangeetha Narayan

Submitted to Contest #139

October 18th, 2021 Not sure how to start this. Should I go Dear Diary? It sounds silly but that is exactly what this is going to be. My very own diary, my journal, my thoughts, my life...maybe someday, my memoir. I want to remember this day forever. The day I decided to teach myself to write. Again. Writing makes me feel alive. Just read an article where the author says ...Writers write. Doesn't matter what they write. Just put the pen on paper and keep it moving. Or just keep typing away on a computer or your phone. ...

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“Hey God” by Annette C

Submitted to Contest #139

Good morning God, 03/20/2017 Today is a beautiful day. The sun actually woke me up, lol. Mitzy was lying beside me purring like usual. I think I’m going to wear something to welcome in the spring and pair it with my new Gucci bag. Spring is in the air. Bye, write you later xoxo Good evening God, ...

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“Madabaladun” by Samuel Bowen

Submitted to Contest #139

TW: This is meant to be Lovecraftian Horror. It describes a very unwell state of mind along with the vague elution to drug use/misuse and is written to be disturbing. November 1st If I am honest, there is no starting point that truly began the madness I have seen. Every fiber of my being denies the terrible need to record the events that have taken place, and yet my sanity begs for a fragment of reality to confirm the horror that will forever haunt my memory and mind. No one should know, and yet if not, then my torment is but doubled in aban...

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“Lost in Suburbia” by Alex L

Submitted to Contest #139

Alex Lape(Warning: Contains themes of Teen Pregnancy)Lost in SuburbiaWednesday, August 12 2009Today was my first official day as a Freshman in High School. Everything started off a bit slow, ya know, they dragged all of us down to the auditorium for some boring ass three hour Orientation. It was pretty standard; one of the track coaches Mr. Donkey (and I’m not kidding - that’s his real name) started ranting of about how the school’s so excited to have us, how we were now “part of the family”, and how if we followed the Six Pillars of go...

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“Rae's Diary” by Raizel Michelina

Submitted to Contest #139

8th September 1997 I cannot write much today, but dear Diary, she's here, she's finally here! My darling darling baby was born today. She's perfect, even better than I imagined her. And she smells so good, I can't stop smelling her! I'm still dozy after the anesthesia and my fingers are trembling right now, partly from happiness I guess. Okay, I've gotta go now, Love, Rae 26th December 1997 Yesterday was my baby's first Christmas. Poor kiddo, she still doesn't know what to make of those shiny lights and baubles , but I swear she enjo...

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“Thumbs” by Jae Turngren

Submitted to Contest #139

Friday, March 11, 2022 During today’s Visit They explained their plan. They want me to visit my cousin Paul, remove his thumb, and bring it back to Them. They want me to take off Paul’s thumb. His thumb. I told them I would never do that to Paul but they seemed not to hear me. They just kept explaining how I could wrap a rubber band around it after he was asleep, and if I wrap it tight enough under the joint I could get his thumb to fall off. Why do you want his thumb, I asked Them. We need a Thumb, They said. Paul has two of them. So do y...

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“Grow Up” by Kathryn Gabrielle

Submitted to Contest #139

"Grow Up."Yeah, it's so easy from where you sit to tell me to "Grow Up"! Who do you think you are?I live a charmed life. I have four brothers and two older sisters. I am the baby of the family. I get out of many unpleasant jobs around the house but there are times I want to help out. I am told, "Don't worry about it. You will be able to help when you grow up".We have a few housekeepers to help out my Mom. They usually start cleaning very early in the morning around seven o'clock in the morning. My Mom would share a coffee and conversation wi...

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“"Grow up"” by Anonymous Storyteller

Submitted to Contest #139

15 years-old “Grow up,” my little brother, Danny, mutters angrily as he shakes his head and quickly passes by me to take the remainder of a pizza downstairs to the basement. I flash him a huge grin, attempting to contain a laugh bubbling to the surface. “What?” I say innocently, acting as if I have no idea what he could possibly be talking about. Danny’s upset because I picked all the pepperoni off again; it’s a game I like to play – a comforting routine, even. I somehow have a sixth sense to whenever my...

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“You Read It, You Can Keep It” by Shawn Bailey

Submitted to Contest #139

Grandfather's have an irritating way of dying on you. When we got the phone call from his neighbor, mom cried and dad went silent. Mister-always-has-an-opinion suddenly didn't have one. Death doesn't care if you have an opinion. You can't argue with death. I was Gramp's only granddaughter. I didn't know what to feel. The last time my dad and Gramps talked was three Thanksgivings ago. It wasn't a stupid thing like you see on social media where some kid turns over the table while everybody's still eating. It was my dad and Gramps...

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“Phikelela (Perseverance)” by Chris Holland

Submitted to Contest #139

Sifso lived with his mother and young sister in a one room shack in the sprawling township of over 1000 other dwellings built from anything that came to hand. Salvaged wood, iron sheets, plastic and cardboard. The township was one of hundreds that surrounded the major cities in the country. Sifso and his mother considered themselves lucky to have secured a handkerchief size piece of ground on which to build their small house by paying a levy to the local Usibonda (Headman). There was no title on the land in the informal sections of t...

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$250

Prize money

239

Contest entries

135

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 01, 2022 EST

Won by Alex Sultan 🏆

Title: buried in saipan

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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