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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

#86: Springtime Flowers

March 21st may be considered the first day of Spring by many, but Mother Nature doesn't always agree. Depending on where you live, the daffodils could be showing their sunny faces or still hibernating under frozen soil.

For me, it’s usually a mix. Here you can be wearing shorts one day and shoveling snow the next, but one thing is consistent: as soon as the weather warms up, I’m bursting outside to gulp down that fresh air and watch the world come back to life. This week, regardless of what the weather actually holds, let’s celebrate the season of rebirth and renewal. After all, in our imaginations the sun can always be shining and the birds can always be chirping!

This week's prompts

Set your story at a park during a spring festival.

Spring – 82 stories

Write about a character coming out of a long hibernation (either literal or metaphorical).

Spring – 158 stories

Write a fairy tale about someone who can communicate with woodland creatures.

Kids – 168 stories

Start your story with one character pointing out the first sign of spring to another.

Spring – 107 stories

Write a story where flowers play a central role.

Spring – 278 stories

Stories

“Finding Faith” by Angel Elle

Submitted to Contest #86

She glanced at her cell phone for only a moment with the faintest hint of nostalgia on the corners of her lips, but with a fierce fire in her eyes. She spoke not a word, but continued teaching without skipping a beat. The students were none the wiser for the slight intrusion that otherwise went unnoticed. Children have much grander things to trifle over. It wasn’t until much later that day, after the children were gone and the classroom was filled only with the sounds of birds muffled through the thin-paned glass windows, that...

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“The Thing” by Lani Lane

Submitted to Contest #86

The first thing that struck Charles was the sound.Thump. Thump. Thump.Charles strained his ears. Was he sleeping? Dreaming? Thoughts swirled around his head in a groggy haze. His eyelids weighed a million pounds.Thump. Thump. Thump.He twitched, his mind struggling to catch up with his ears.Thump. Thump. Thump.Then the noise began to change.Thu-dump. Thu-dump. Thu-dump.Charles groaned. Was it...getting faster? Louder? THU-DUMP. THU-DUMP. THU-DUMP. What hit Charles next was the feel of dirt cocooned around his body. He shifted and th...

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“Elegance” by Danisha Plummer

Submitted to Contest #86

Just like every other day, Elegance volunteered to go into the woodlands to fetch the plants that are needed by her parents as ingredients to create medicines and perfumes. Elegance was more excited than every other day as today marks the beginning of the spring season. This is the most loved season by the villagers as they receive perfumes of different fragrances due to the variety of flowers available. Elegance was never a fan of the woodlands, she was one who would have rather to stay home or do daily deliveries. This new behavi...

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“The Ugly Flower” by Aisa M

Submitted to Contest #86

Not because you named your child after a flower already meant she would be as delicate, pretty, and as fragrant as the flower she was named after. It could be otherwise.Jinta would be seen every day in front of her flower shop. Her face would be a frown, her rich dark eyebrows a V-shape above her huge crooked nose. She was a strange sight amidst the beautiful flowers surrounding her. Toddlers would cry when they see her. Bigger kids would shoot her with pellet guns from behind and run away when she looks back at them with an angry face. Wome...

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“Floral Eyes” by Lemon Layton

Submitted to Contest #86

“The flowers are really pretty,” a customer commented while walking by the counter. Loir nodded as she bundled up the last of her orders with a bright pink ribbon. February was always the busiest time for the shop, but that just meant more time that she could work. She sucked in a breath as she pricked her finger on one of the thorns that the white rose had. She wiped her bleeding finger on her pants as she set the bouquet down. Stretching, she grabbed her phone from her pocket, turning on the display. No new messages. Not unusual. She sighe...

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“Hades” by Cassandra Durnin

Submitted to Contest #86

The time could not possibly move quick enough. Every day dragged on, and on, and on. No sun, no light, nothing but the agony of the Pit and the same movement of shades passing by. Things were so unchangingly monotone, and it made him wonder how he’d ever gotten by without knowing anything else. How had he stayed under, twisting steel and bone into an empire? How had he not known what lay above him, just over the red-hot fury of the earth’s core? It occurred to him that he had known, he just never did anything about it. The very thought ma...

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“Painted Ladies ” by Angelina Jeong

Submitted to Contest #86

"Oh gosh!" I groaned as the tour bus roared into my neighborhood. Spring. It was here but it brought the tourists with it. Every year, this was how I knew spring was here. The beautiful yellow flowers were blooming along the walls of the houses and hummingbirds were flying and sucking the nectar out of the red flowers from the bush. The trees were blooming with green leaves. I live in the pale yellow house in San Francisco. This city, more precisely, my neighborhood, gets no privacy. When I mean that, I mean zero privacy. I know that my ne...

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“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Elizabeth Inkim

Submitted to Contest #86

In a field of poppies, I lie in wait. Blinking the warm afternoon sun out of my eyes, a stray breeze kisses a shiver into my skin. In the dawning of spring, I twirl a leaf between my fingers, one of many; it is emerald and bold. Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold. From my leatherbound notebook, I pull out a pressed carnation. Its pink petals are sun-soaked and radiant. There is no place else in the world I would rather be―only there is, with her.I am a child dancing in the greenhouse. My father, one of the Mavis Country Es...

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“Pixie Sticks” by Story Time

Submitted to Contest #86

I didn’t hear about it until Dela told me, but you have to take everything she says with a grain of salt. That’s what my Father says about my Uncle, because my Uncle owes my Father money, but my Father says he’s never going to get it back, because my Uncle can’t stay away from the racetrack, but he gave him the money anyway, because my Uncle is my Mother’s brother and when my Uncle shows up crying once a month, my Mother starts crying, and my Father can’t stand hearing grown-ups cry, or anybody cry, really, but he never has to put up with th...

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“Bella and the Beasts” by Deborah Mercer

Submitted to Contest #86

There was once a young woman called Bella, who appeared to all intents and purposes to be a very ordinary and normal young woman, which of course does not mean that she was a boring or uninteresting one. She was the kind of woman described by her workmates as “very pleasant” and had a couple of acceptable quirks, like collecting anything to do with rabbits, though she had not had a pet rabbit since she was a little girl, and like having a taste for unusual earrings, though she was generally quite a sober dresser. She was extremely taken with...

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“Babies and Mushrooms” by Trina Ann Pion 🍀🌹🍀

Submitted to Contest #86

A young woman named Tessa dreamed of being a princess, not one locked in a tower, or sitting on a throne in a castle, but one who lived in the forest, ruling over a tiny kingdom she called home, where she’d grow vegetables, care for the foliage surrounding her ten-acre property, and raise a beautiful family. Most of all, Tessa wanted babies—lots and lots of babies. While her head was filled with wishes and dreams, her reality was more of a nightmare. Tessa was known in town as a girl from the ghetto with not a penny to her name or anyo...

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“The Shepherd and the Sorceress” by Valerie June

Submitted to Contest #86

“Concord, Socks, Prince, Dolly, Lady, Raven. Raven!” a boy hollered, “Oh, where is that creature! When I find her she’s gonna get it from me.” He curses under his breath and prepares to wake up the rest of his flock of sheep with his wooden cane.“Wake up Dolly, we need to find Raven. She’s gone missing again.”The boy hears no reply from Dolly, but he knows that once the rest of his flock are awake she would follow.He grabs a leather and brass cow bell that lays abandoned on the wilting grass with the letters A V E etched into it. Years ...

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“Seasons” by Inkstained Introvert

Submitted to Contest #86

Summer slammed the refrigerator door shut with her foot and rushed into the living room. “Okay, this’s the plan, boys.” “I’m right here,” Winter muttered neglectedly. Either Summer didn’t hear her, or she was just choosing to ignore the comment; but she continued, “We have two frozen waffles, an inordinate amount of condiments, three quarts of milk, for some reason, and something green and fuzzy on the bottom of the freezer that looks like ancient spinach.” “Wonder who that was from,” Winter said. “Spring! For the love! Take c...

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“Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Genus, Species” by Kendall Defoe

Submitted to Contest #86

He found his gloves, hat, knee pads and tools, so he was ready to get to work. The garden was still thawing out with large patches of snow melting in the fresh sunlight and water draining out in the pipes and gutters he had built when he moved in. The sun kept things going in these times. The heat was growing in his back and head, sweat forming a small river; a wet animal feeling was heading down his spine, and the damp earth providing some cooling and chilling climate for his work.“Uncle Dave?”He turned on his knees, seeing his ne...

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“The Storm Flowers” by Howard Halsall

Submitted to Contest #86

I woke up to the sound of an almighty crash on the roof above my head. It was dark in my attic bedroom, but I remember narrowing my eyes and straining my ears. There’s another loud crack. It’s a metallic impact that can only be a car. An alarm sounds down in the street. I hear two distant warning shouts. There’s a second heavy thud overhead, followed by a tsunami of explosions. I can’t hear individual impacts as they are lost in the deluge. I scramble out of bed, stumble to the window and draw back the curtains. Apple-sized hailstones a...

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$50

Prize money

797

Contest entries

0

Stories

Ended on 23:59 - Mar 26, 2021 EST

Won by Scott Skinner 🏆

Title: Flowering Walrus

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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