Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

Write a story that includes the phrase “It’s all fun and games…”

Posted in Dialogue on Apr 12, 2024

Submissions are closed

Make sure you don't miss our next contest by creating your free Reedsy account.

Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook

Or use an email address:

Why not check out our active contest?

✍️ 55 stories

Losing a Face

Submitted to Contest #246

Ellie rocked slowly on her chair, arms wrapped around her raised knees. She stared at the material of her jeans, muttering in an attempt to comfort herself. “It's okay, it's okay. You're in the middle of nowhere. No-one's going to introduce themselves out here. You know the postman, and Hope's coming over later. It's okay, it's okay.” A knock on the door. She froze. No. It couldn't be anyone new. There was no-one within miles of her. It must be Ned, the postman. She brushed her auburn hair out of her face. Breathing slowly, she stood up, and...

14 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

Until It’s Not

Submitted to Contest #246

I didn’t mean for it to happen. It was an accident. I’m not a bad kid…not really. I get decent grades; I don’t pick on anyone. I mind my own business. Mom works the night shifts for the gas station down the road from our apartment, so I go straight home after soccer practice. Every day I spend the evenings babysitting Charlie and Emma, my baby brother and sister, twins conceived through a few-week relationship Mom had with this man she met when he was buying a pack of cigarettes from her. Needless to say, he didn’t stick around when he found...

14 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

Be Careful What You Wish For

Submitted to Contest #246

I stepped out the front door with Sam, zipping his backpack as he struggled to get his arms in his jacket. He was late for the bus again today. Thankfully it stopped at the entrance to our cul-de-sac a block away. As I watched him sprint down the sidewalk, I saw Nina from next door working on her petunias.  A little early for that isn’t it, I thought to myself glancing at my watch. 7:18 A.M. It was too early for chit chat, so I waved and smiled in her direction before sneaking back inside.  I walked past Nina’s house yesterday afte...

13 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Diversity!

Submitted to Contest #246

There he lay, naked as the day he was born to the planet. In all that hot, searing sunshine, a veil of flies surrounded his remains. As the red dust hung over the thirsty drought season of Old Hometown, the local policeman gazed at the ex-husband ,sleeping forever in the gutter by the road.Roscoe pushed back his policing hat, wondering at the barbed wire fence of the front garden. He leaned down and examined the stiff, and the inadequate plastic Band Aids that barely covered the body's blistered genitalia. Roscoe hauled up this incriminatin...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Girl in the Well

Submitted to Contest #246

It's all fun and games until it's not anymore. Two girls, ages twelve and fourteen, were playing in the backyard of the abandoned house down the street. The house had been vacant for years; the owners had died and never had the chance to put it up for sale. The roof had fallen apart and windows shattered due to age and harsh weather. The city hadn't bothered to try and clean it up and resell it. No one had ever been inside since then, but the backyard was a hotspot for the kids. The backyard consisted of a stone patio, with the weeds growing...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Blue Glass and Captain Malcolm Monet, October 21st of 1948

Submitted to Contest #246

Icy blue waves battered the white hull of the M.M.S. Monet with an unpleasant disposition, warning its three passengers of an impending storm. Malcolm Monet manned the helm with the same cold, stalwart expertise that he had brought into thousands of similar expeditions. The fishing ship obeyed his commands with minimal fuss, its sputtering engine obeying the repairs that safe harbor had only three days prior wrought. The cold northern seas that surrounded Birbour, the destination of Malcolm’s two enigmatic passengers, were tumultuous this ti...

12 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

The Sanguinarian

Submitted to Contest #246

Billie kept her distance from her brother, Jack, as one always should when their he is moments away from sinking his teeth into a fresh body. It wasn’t just the principle, as one should always respect others’ space when feeding. Really, it was the practicalities of it all - the blood splashing, ripping, so on and so forth... Jack was just a very messy eater. His table manners hadn’t improved since he'd left the cot, and Billie was wearing her brand-new chunky leather cleats. Unfortunately, she knew that as soon as her brother sunk his teeth ...

12 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

The Soul

Submitted to Contest #246

Adonis, named for the winter he was born in, was playing in the dry dusty brook. He was small of frame, but strong of voice, Adonis was known for his boisterous attitude. Many attributed it to his father, a soldier that spent years at home while injured rubbing off on his son in the process. Unfortunately for the boy, war never rests, and his father just left again recently, and if it bothered the boy it was certainly hard to tell. He grabbed one of the river rocks and studied it. The weeks of no water showed as dirt was caked on it. His fat...

12 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Game of Life

Submitted to Contest #246

                               The Game of Life         It’s all fun and games until Hedy pulls the trigger and everyone realizes the gun isn’t just a prop because it certainly doesn’t sound like one and, besides, Lloyd hits the ground way too fast for it to be anything but suddenly and very real. “Quit playing, Lloyd,” Hedy says, even though she’s pret...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The Break-In

Submitted to Contest #246

‘There’s no-one around so let’s sit here on the swings and look at the plans. It’s all fun and games unless they catch you at it.’ Tim and Lawson plotted together in the empty children’s playground. It was 7pm on cold July night, and Tim shivered.They had decided that they would start stealing bigger items. Until now they had limited their robberies to department stores.‘I know the old bird has a big furry cat, and there’s a decent sized cat door in the back entrance. If we unscrewed it, you could easily climb through, unlock the back door, ...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Homecoming

Submitted to Contest #246

It was the day before the Homecoming football game. All week long, momentum had been building towards the big day. In a small town like Cedar Grove, things like Homecoming held great sway. The whole town participated. Earlier in the week, perky high school students decorated the windows of the storefronts facing Main Street. They used a special kind of frosted paint to paint the glass in bright colors. We’re #1! Go team go! Beat the Raiders! The students fervently hoped their strident messages would bring about victory. Whatever the game’s o...

11 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

A Tale of More Woe

Submitted to Contest #246

The sky opened up as Theo hurried down the sidewalk. He chastised himself for not having an umbrella. Turning up his collar, he quickened his pace. Not only was he late for rehearsal, but he was going to be soaked as well. At least he had his lines memorized, well most of his lines memorized. Theo was hoping he would be able to bluff his way through the lines he didn’t know. He turned a corner and the theatre loomed up in front of him. A magnificent structure built sometime in the early 1900’s, the theatre had lost most of its former grandeu...

11 likes 3 comments 3
Read story

It's All Fun And Games

Submitted to Contest #246

Something about a joke I like!”, she smiled. It hadn’t been six months since it began each day better than the next and now she had to question everything. The concert wasn’t designed to be a big time production but it had far exceeded all expectations. Everyone had a great time. It was a warm spring day and just as the glowing sun faded into the coming darkness beautiful music and voices filled the glade. It was one of those perfect moments in time neither of them wanted to end. Ronnie was a great guy and Sherri knew how lucky she was to ha...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

The monster within

Submitted to Contest #246

“And you dare to call that a song? Come on!” shouted the huntsman, emphasizing the admonition by throwing a dagger to the battered man sitting on a chair, the sole survivor of the tavern furniture, which has been crushed or simply overturned here and there around the room.  The wretch target couldn’t help but gasping as the point of the blade stub the wooden wall behind his shoulder, joining a crowd of companions already violently settled down.  “That was close” thought the hostage, giving birth to a sigh of relief.  “Don’t ge...

11 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Hide and Seek

Submitted to Contest #246

Trigger warning: Themes of illness and death. On the fifth round of Hide and Seek, that’s when Eddy found it—a secret room at the end of a long, sloped closet. The closet was in the room where five-year-old Eddy and his six-year-old sister Carli shared a bunk bed. If you only looked in the closet, dark and jumbled, you couldn’t see the room. But Darkness was there all along, waiting.The four Manderley children were running out of good places to hide. Ten-year-old Adam was It now, and Eddy was in a panic—that’s why he clambered over boots and...

11 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Set your story in a playground: two characters are having a serious conversation while on the seesaw/in the jungle gym/on the swings.

Angst – 82 stories

Write a story about someone participating in a seemingly innocent game that suddenly takes a turn.

Dark – 62 stories

Write a story about someone who takes a joke way too far.

Character – 26 stories

Write about a character who treats everything like a game and struggles to be serious when they most need to, or vice versa.

Character – 17 stories

How to Write a Novel

Join Tom Bromley for a writing master class and finish your first draft in 3 months. Learn more →

How to Write a Novel