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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#35: Spring in Your Step

In the Northern Hemisphere, the first day of spring began on March 19th. The changing of seasons often brings about a renewed sense of motivation (hence "spring cleaning") and creativity. Indeed, many poems have been written about spring — such as Emily Dickinson's "A Light Exists in Spring" — and authors have long been inspired by the season:

"That is one good thing about this world... There are always sure to be more springs." — L.M. Montgomery

This week, we're also inspired by spring, and so are our prompts.

🥇 Winner

“Spring Queen” by Naomi Coffman

🏆 Winner of Contest #35

The mother had finished the dress just in time. It was green as envy and light as a dream, embroidered with white and pink songbirds wheeling in flight. Phe admired herself in the mirror, twisting her wheat-colored curls into a knot near the base of her skull. Marvelous, she thought, tilting her golden head to catch the evening light. I am marvelous. Her date was waiting patiently at the bottom of the stairs, watching the mother searching desperately for her phone. Looking up, he grinned and bowed deeply. They’d dressed him in a light grey s...

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⭐️ Shortlisted

“Lion Bark Garden” by Zilla Babbitt

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #35

The dogwood trees bent gracefully, their flat layers of bursting fat blossoms arrayed as far as the sky climbed. Lined along the gravel path were the crabapple and pear trees with their juicy green leaves showing off around the apples and pears. Following the path were half-eaten and broken fruits, leathered and wormholed and dripping with juice. The air was cold but the kites didn’t care. They danced high along the tops of the redbud trees, knocking the thick pink flowers to the ground. Chill breezes spun and laughed and swept the paper and...

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“The First Day of Spring” by Amanda Davison

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #35

I wake up to the grating buzz of Craig’s alarm. He rolls over and silences it with a heavy hand before letting sleep reclaim him. Any other morning I would have rolled back over with him and tried to steal an extra ten minutes of shut-eye before the alarm pierced the quiet again, but today I am wide awake. It’s the first day of spring. I marked the date in my calendar with shaking hands during the dead grey of November, when the crisp chill of fall had passed through and robbed the world of colour before fading into the dreary...

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“Bug in the Snow” by Dextyr Adams

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #35

He was a small boy - too small for his age. His lips were chapped from the cold and his nails were filed down from trying to get back into the house. It was no use. She’d locked the door and no matter how loud he cried, she wasn’t going to open it again until she stopped being mad at him. He was a small boy - too small for his age - and he wore clothes that weren’t anywhere near warm enough for the weather. He shivered - then sneezed. Once, twice. He was no good against the cold and so he’d always resented the winter months. During summer, h...

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“Reality Adjacent” by Haley Justino

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #35

I want to befriend the local town witch. Her yard is overgrown with abundant green all the way to the curb and flowers in color combinations I have never seen are just starting to bloom at spring's behest. I was under the impression that the city zoning laws did not allow gardening that close to the street. But maybe she has cast a spell on any poor government lackey that has tried to tell her otherwise. A plump gray cat yawns lazy from its perch on the front step. A painted mural of a third-eyed being contemplates me from inside the sun roo...

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This week's prompts

Before bed, you put your clock ahead one hour for daylight saving time. When you wake up, you realize you've gone forward a lot more than one hour.

Fantasy – 81 stories

Write a story that takes place at a spring dance.

Spring – 89 stories

You made a promise to yourself you'd finally do it on the first day of spring. Today was the day.

Spring – 145 stories

Write a story about someone who finds something interesting peeking out from a melting snowbank.

Winter – 88 stories

Write a story about someone walking through a park on a spring evening, told only through internal monologue.

Character – 141 stories

Stories

“Spring Queen” by Naomi Coffman

🏆 Winner of Contest #35

The mother had finished the dress just in time. It was green as envy and light as a dream, embroidered with white and pink songbirds wheeling in flight. Phe admired herself in the mirror, twisting her wheat-colored curls into a knot near the base of her skull. Marvelous, she thought, tilting her golden head to catch the evening light. I am marvelous. Her date was waiting patiently at the bottom of the stairs, watching the mother searching desperately for her phone. Looking up, he grinned and bowed deeply. They’d dressed him in a light grey s...

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“Spring Breakout” by Laiba M

Submitted to Contest #35

It is very nice out today. Wow, we haven't had a day like this in a really long time. Ahh, the slightly cool breeze feels so good. It's exactly what I needed after being cooped up in my apartment for weeks.This cloth mask is so itchy.Darn it, why isn't that park gate opening! Ugh, wait-finally, there we go.No, Mocha! Stop chasing after those pesky squirrels, you fluffy yet adorably cliche dog! Why must almost every dog like squirrels so much? Aww, it is really cute though.There's the spot where the inhumanely fast runner always stops to take...

160 comments 160

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“Time-lapse” by Miles Gatling

Submitted to Contest #35

Before bed, I put my clock ahead one hour for daylight saving time. When I woke up, I realized I've gone forward a lot more than one hour. The amount of dust that covered my blanket was fucking insane. I checked my phone, dead; checked the clock on the radio, dead. The power must have gone out. Good old Casio soldiered along no matter what, displaying midnight 1st November 2020.I got up, didn't feel anything weird or out of place. The dust really scraped my throat. Fresh crisp air poured inside through the bedroom window. A pitch-black night...

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“Lion Bark Garden” by Zilla Babbitt

⭐️ Shortlisted for Contest #35

The dogwood trees bent gracefully, their flat layers of bursting fat blossoms arrayed as far as the sky climbed. Lined along the gravel path were the crabapple and pear trees with their juicy green leaves showing off around the apples and pears. Following the path were half-eaten and broken fruits, leathered and wormholed and dripping with juice. The air was cold but the kites didn’t care. They danced high along the tops of the redbud trees, knocking the thick pink flowers to the ground. Chill breezes spun and laughed and swept the paper and...

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“The divorce and the fight” by Niveeidha Palani

Submitted to Contest #35

I stormed out furiously out of my best friend, Maya's house and kicked the tiny pebbles on the pavement. We had just bickered harshly about our parents' divorcing. Maya's mother had divorced last year and mine, just last month. Maya told me that 'she had more experience in divorce and she knew better which made me feel downright mad. Who was she to step right into my life?I vehemently kicked a snow bank and I felt something metal tingle across the pavements coated with leaves. Something glinted marvelously over the shine of the dusky sun as ...

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“Imbolc” by Zilla Babbitt

Submitted to Contest #35

High above the lofty rowan trees the wind swayed, lifting fallen pink petals and blue streamers and corpses of lightning bugs. The sky was heavy blue, threads of thin clouds wavering uncertainly across, and beneath, hidden among the marigolds and loamy moss of early spring, lines and crossing pathways of flickering globes lay in a patterned dance. Crowds of people gathered under every tree, every globe, around every burdened table and streaming maypole. The tables overflowed with bursting red fruits and dripping meats and steaming mulled win...

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“No ones judging you” by Yoomi Ari

Submitted to Contest #35

The young woman's celestial eyes shone behind the mask as she placed her delicate hand in his; he placed his hand on her waist and whisked her onto the ballroom floor and they turned and twirled as if they were professionals. Peering back down again, I unlocked my phone for the 1000th time and sighed. Holly was still passed out on the floor looking really uncomfortable, her legs stretched out on another chair. Lindsey was leaving, and sooner or later the room would be empty. Just the dust would flutter through the intoxicati...

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“The Horseback Riding Stroll Through The Park” by Tina Laing

Submitted to Contest #35

"Are you ready to go?" said Tia "We will be leaving soon to gather up the horses from the barn. So make sure you have a sweater and a flashlight in case it gets to dark". Nate packed his things into his backpack and got ready to leave. His Dad is out in the barn gathering up the horses for our walk in the park to watch the sunset. His mother has never been on a horse before and wanted to go horseback riding, and he was very excited too because he has never been on a horse before either. So his babysitter Tia is going to teach them how ...

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“Coated with Silence” by Izzie Q.

Submitted to Contest #35

Mmmmm, that coffee is just what I needed, two sugars, a dash of cinnamon. Plus, it keeps my hands warm from this soft breeze.That sunset...coats my cheeks in the fondest of ways. Its like the sun is admiring me from afar.I really need sunglasses, come to think of it. I will look for some later...and I have to file that habitus, study for the upcoming exam...and I have to-Stop. This is my time to relax. I can think about all that later anyway. Awww, look at Daisy! She's chasing her little friend again, run squirrel run! It just dashed up that...

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“Caution” by Yoomi Ari

Submitted to Contest #35

In twilight my hair was blacker, my skin more olive and my eyes larger. I drew the shawl around her, clasping it tight to my collar bone to ward off the nascent chill. The garish colours of the market had been toned down as if washed gently in a quarry water, everything that little bit more grey. It was better than flying the helicopter but the thrill of being in constant action punctured into my veins like an antidote to depression. However then there was the constant fashion sense of wearing khaki full body, but to live outside the eye of ...

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“When Winter Slept Late” by Phoebe Barr

Submitted to Contest #35

On the day the snow started turning to rivers, Nicki barged into the house at sunset with her hands clamped together, and I knew there was going to be more trouble. I’d been just about to finish my multiplication homework; I was seated at the kitchen table with three problems left. Mother had just gone out the back door to check our basil plants or Nicki would have been seen. “Dina,” she gasped, stumbling toward me. Her hair was a wild, white-blonde cloud around her head, and her shins were soaked with melted snow. “You need to come up...

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“Sobombreeya and Abernathy” by Jubilee Forbess

Submitted to Contest #35

Sobombreeya Johansson and Abernathy Carpoole were best friends, and for a while, that was all there was to it. They went to school together, and talked together, and ate, a lot, together. It was as though all the forces, destinies, and fates in the universe had come together to create the perfect pair, and they had come up with Sobombreeya and Abernathy. Except, they didn’t know that yet, so they were just friends. Come now, as we drop in on the friends on a day that means something much more to both of them. Valentine’s Day. Abernathy...

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“The late job interview” by Tyra Johnson

Submitted to Contest #35

Last night, the rain was pouring heavily beating like a drum on my rooftop.The cold like ice temperature growth rapidly throughout the atmosphere, I felt like a human refrigerator on feet; with the hair on my skin standing straight like a porcupine. I was cold and quivering.I went into my kitchen, put on the kettle as it made the sound shhh! shhh! over and over again, with hot smoke air blowing out from its nose while I buttered a peanut jelly sandwiches. After the hot tea water was finished boiling I made a hot cup of chocolate flavoured te...

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“6025” by Laurentz Baker

Submitted to Contest #35

I fell asleep and woke up four thousand years later? I made a point of setting the alarm on my phone to make sure it would wake me up an hour earlier in the morning due to daylight saving time. The meeting tomorrow was a great opportunity. My book was being turned into a mini-series. I set the phone alarm. No big deal, right? It shouldn’t have been. I woke up an hour early. Mission accomplished. I wouldn’t be late. Good beginning to the spring season. Great! Something had changed though. When I drove the thirty miles into town alm...

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“The Walk I Had” by Vatsal Shrivastava

Submitted to Contest #35

The Walk I HadI was gazing complacently at the vivid blue sky with small pieces of cushion like clouds floating over the horizon with glee and bliss. The lush green trees fluttering soothingly along with the mild, solacing breezes seemed as if they were chortling out and proclaiming with utmost happiness that spring has arrived. The snug temperature outside was just endeavouring to attract every soul sealed in their abodes towards itself. I have always had an imaginative mind- creating things that are not anywhere near veracity and reality, ...

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$50

Prize money

544

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Apr 03, 2020 EST

Won by Naomi Coffman 🏆

Title: Spring Queen

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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