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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#198: Teacher’s Pet

Whether it was the one who taught you a valuable skill, encouraged you to strive for better, or simply put a band-aid on your grazed knee, there must be at least one teacher you’ll always remember. They’re a constant presence in our childhoods, and, when you’re only small, teachers can seem like larger-than-life characters; the source of all knowledge. It’s little wonder that they feature so often in our stories and our imaginations.

Teaching is a difficult and complicated calling. As in any profession, alongside the above-and-beyonders are also those who should never have become teachers, or who have become jaded. Perhaps your own experiences with a teacher of this kind, one who failed to believe in their students when they needed them the most, clipped your wings, or drove you to work even harder in life. Either way, let's use this week to draw from these formative experiences and write about the people who taught us things, or ought to have.

This week's prompts

Write a story about an unconventional teacher.

High School – 57 stories

Start your story with somebody getting called to the principal’s office.

Middle School – 40 stories

Write about a school trip that takes a turn for the unexpected.

Kids – 15 stories

Write a short story about a teacher or mentor figure who recognizes hidden (or magical!) potential in someone and helps them cultivate it.

Narrative – 46 stories

Write a story that contains the phrase “Okay class! Pop quiz.”

Teens – 24 stories

Stories

“The Amber Alert” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #198

Of all the school trips I was ever on, this one was the worst. Everything went wrong. It started with not all the permission forms coming back and got steadily worse from there. The school secretary had to phone three parents.Now if it was up to me, I would never bother to call. Leave them at school! Wouldn’t this be the perfect opportunity to teach children and even their parents that not being responsible has consequences? But no, we had to wait, the bus driver fuming while the secretary called three parents, first calling at hom...

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“The Cursed Pop Quiz” by Claire Cooper

Submitted to Contest #198

Something about my history teacher Mr. Vavilov has always creeped me out. The enormous dark rings under his eyes and the slight tremor in his voice don’t help matters. On the first day of class when he called roll, he paused before saying my name. Not long enough for anyone else to notice but just long enough to give me chills. As he lectured about the Civil War, I kept getting that prickly feeling of being watched. When I looked up from my notes, his eyes would flick away quickly enough to make me question myself. The people I told about it...

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“Queen Lila” by Abigail Geurts

Submitted to Contest #198

The trip to King Arthur Park was a yearly treat for the fourth graders of St. Olga Elementary. Lila had been looking forward to it since her brother had gone two years before. Two years felt like a long time for someone so young. It had felt like a long time to her family too, as they had to hear her excited rambling more often than anyone else. It wasn’t often that the kids got to go on field trips. The school district didn’t have a lot of money to spend on things like that, and all of the money they managed to raise usually went to buildi...

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“Dark Lash ” by M B

Submitted to Contest #198

“I’m afraid there’s nothing I can do,” Principle Rania declared serenely.The elf woman gazed at Yvette from behind her desk. Like most elves she hardly looked her age, with long, dark, pinned-back hair and luscious pale skin. ...Not bad for someone over six hundred.Yvette looked crestfallen. “But Ms. Rania, I never meant to displace the school champion! I don’t even want to be the magic champion.”Rania sighed. “It’s far too late for that now Yvette. You fought him and defeated him, thus he was shown to be unworthy. Whether you want it or not...

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“Your Reputation Precedes You” by Kelita Sim

Submitted to Contest #198

The headteacher doesn't look up from his desk. He has a MacBook on his left, and a cup painted with watercolour cats on his right. He stabs at the keyboard, one key at a time, staring intently into the screen behind a pair of bug-eyed spectacles. He slurps the tepid tea and stabs, slurps and stabs, then curses quietly when the computer lets out its own explicit at his data entry misstep.His visitor watches him from the opposite end of the room, hidden in the shade of a banana leaf plant, her brown eyes taking him in, in all his senior splend...

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“The Drum Poem” by Will Oyowe

Submitted to Contest #198

“He has the fever; by sundown, he will be dead.” Romiissi watched her donkey, close to death. Drum in hand. This misfortune threatened to undo months of careful planning. The creature that had served her and her brother Serimga well for four months on the pilgrimage way lay on the floor, head down, eyes wide of exhaustion. Romiisii paced up and down around it in panic. Where is he? She thought. Her brother Serimga had yet to return. He had gone into the town, the town the caravan stopped for the day, to restock...

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“Right, Wrong, and Innocent.” by Skylar De La Cruz

Submitted to Contest #198

Mara: Mara was in the middle of a math test when she got the call from the principal's office. As expected, she knew exactly what she was being summoned for. Her fight with the trendy twins, Autumn and Summer, had echoed down the hallway and stirred quite a commotion. She had been utterly rude to the twins, and it was all because of that one person: Jonah. Jonah is the cute blonde eighth grader who basically can do anything, from computer science to music to even co-directing a musical. Mara wanted him to be HER boyfriend, not Summer's....

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“Adrenaline ” by Chelly Jo Welch

Submitted to Contest #198

“Okay, class. Pop quiz.” The professor clapped his hands as silently as he could, speaking the words barely over a whisper as he turned to face us. There were only ten of us here, in the small hunting platform affixed in the canopy. The platform was octagonal in shape, leaving an opening in the center for us to peer down to the bottom of the forest. There were windows along the side as well, for us to keep a steady watch of the goings on in the forest around us. “Who can tell me what the Balthra feeds on?”...

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“English Required” by Linda Lovendahl

Submitted to Contest #198

His ball playing had tripled the attendance to high school games over the past four years. Everyone wanted to see his talents as the best slugger and runner. He proved he was a big league contender year after year. The audience cheered every time he flipped his bat at the opponents after a home run. Teachers granted superior grades when his winning charm set them up for the best seats. That’s why it was hard to stuff the counselor’s pale pink notice deep into his breast shirt pocket. Pink notices were warnings. He tapped it flat, not w...

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“Non Compos Mentor: Tinkering Part 4” by Martin Ross

Submitted to Contest #198

"What is the fundamental difference between the natural and the supernatural? What is the essential characteristic of magic?" George R. Price "Science and the Supernatural," Science, August 26, 1955 2014 “Feel better?” Reynolds growled lazily, sipping noisily at his Viente Americano. Danzer considered, settling in with his Grande Kona as he glanced absently at the cadaverous panhandler at the nearby junction of Baseline and Val Vista, where Mesa met Gilbert in a torrent of mid-morning traffic. Reynolds had suppressed a smirk as Danzer ...

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“Houd” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #198

“Okay, class! Pop quiz.”My grade three and four class were too smart for that!“Yeah right! Uh-huh, wake me up when it is over! Dumb Teacher move, gangway, I’m outta here!” all my students said, some skipping words or saying other things I only heard about later.“But seriously! Everything off your desks. EQAO practice test, today, not tomorrow. Time to show me how smart you are…Jimmy, sit down, please…Carter, where is your pencil case…Stop playing with that…Three Two One!!!!”SILENCE“Thank you. Celia, you, and someone you choose. Start when yo...

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“Who Does Everything Right?” by Joe Smallwood

Submitted to Contest #198

“If Jesus was born, lived, and died in our time, would a church be built on his birthplace?” Half the class was asleep, the other half texting. It was always Emma.“No, Mr. Emerson, We’d set up a special containment facility, temporarily, then preserve everything, just as it was.” She looked at Oliver, Noah, or any of the boys. A reaction, anything at all was needed. One boy stirred, not the one she hoped for.“Yeah, preserve the cow, the dirty straw, pigs being pigs…” piped up Jonah.Everyone laughed, even Mr. Emerson, though if you looked clo...

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“WWMJD (What Would Mrs. J Do?)” by Jennifer Fremon

Submitted to Contest #198

Trigger warning: Contains references to substance abuse and violence.Its funny how you don’t ever really appreciate things until you no longer have them, until they are gone. We were 16. What 16 year old appreciates anything really?I remember there was this one morning, I must have gotten a total of like 3 hours sleep the night before. I show up for first period like I have just crossed the finish line at the NYC marathon, all breathless and sweaty and full of teenage drama. I slide into my seat just as the final bell rings and lay my head d...

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“The Substitute Teacher” by April Mattson

Submitted to Contest #198

It was a foggy November day when a car maneuvered its way into an empty parking spot, seeking cover underneath a maple tree, which only a few days before had been a fiery red; for weeks had burnished, torch-like, but faded now, having shed its glory, a creature shaking loose its scales. The morning was busy- buses gasping open its doors, students emerging: feet sluggish, heads down, fingers swiping and tapping, smiling and giggling. An old man walked purposefully through the front doors, went directly to the front office and ...

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“The Academy of Erebos” by Kang Lee

Submitted to Contest #198

I stood gawking at the palace that defiantly stood amidst the swirling snowstorm. Barren, naked trees flanked the palace on all sides, creating a radial pattern that spiralled outwards towards the property wall. A lone dirt path pierced through the middle of the forest, meandering from the front gates to the foreboding palace. The Academy of Erebos was renowned for transforming juvenile drug traffickers into graduates of the most prestigious universities from all corners of the world. That was precisely why I discovered myself ...

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$250

Prize money

182

Contest entries

105

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - May 19, 2023 EST

Won by Zack Powell 🏆

Title: Multiple Choice

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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