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Set your story within a window of opportunity, when a character finally has the chance to do something.

Posted in Middle School on Oct 25, 2022

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✍️ 143 stories

The Women In The Windows

Submitted to Contest #97

OK. After the end of my 3rd marriage, I promised myself I’d never get caught up in another emotionally intimate relationship with anyone ever again. I believe that was back in 1999. So, fast-forward to 2020 while in the midst of a Coronavirus lockdown, as I returned to my desk with my microwave reheated mug of coffee, I did something I probably shouldn’t have done; I acknowledged with a nod and two other gestures the presence of a neighbor from across the street. Sure, the simple act of a nod of recognition, the lamely celebratory raising of...

139 likes 84 comments 84
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Ginevran Hospitality

Submitted to Contest #97

Stars fell across the night darkened skies of Ginevra, just as the industrious folk along the equator awoke from the heat of the midday Sun, such a show in the sky, a rare treat leading up to an important holiday. Mati was the last to wake among her roommates, as was expected of her, they knew her after all. That didn’t change the enormity of her friend’s behavior. Her friend was having a conniption, she hadn’t known at first why. Her friend who was on most days a fairly happy person, was livid as a result of her cousin’s failure to proc...

76 likes 10 comments 10
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The Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Submitted to Contest #97

If you ask any normal person, they would tell you that making a chocolate chip cookie is fairly easy. Simple ingredients, simple instructions, simple cookie. But if you’re a people pleaser, like me, then you would argue the opposite. Because the thing about chocolate chip cookies is that everyone likes them a different way. And even though I believe that baking these cookies is a stress inducing process that will likely lead to me spending way too long contemplating how long I should put them in the oven, or whether or not they’re fully bake...

73 likes 17 comments 17
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"My job interview went well..."

Submitted to Contest #97

Even though the hall was decorated with expensive and exquisite taste, it was a cold shelter. I guess warmth comes with the atmosphere, not with the place; it’s like living in a mansion, but not a home. All job applicants were quiet and counting seconds while looking at either the detailed ceiling or their polished shoes. A job interview shouldn’t be like attending a funeral but an opportunity to meet people. I guess it’s like shopping at the local market, going to school, attending church, or walking your dog. Everyone was anxious but on...

71 likes 6 comments 6
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Staircase of Fleeting Dreams

Submitted to Contest #97

Most people thought to avoid the stairs, they said the steps went on forever. An endless string of creaking boards, spiraling up the tower like a fraying strand of dna. One step forward feels like a thousand steps backward, climbing this eternal tower. It’s quite a view, standing prominent in the center of town; visible even from my cabin perched on the sloping hills in the distance. Back straight and head held high, never flinching as bombs rained down upon us. The stone feels frozen under my touch as I run a single finger along the an...

67 likes 70 comments 70
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Him

Submitted to Contest #97

When I first met my husband, I thought: Him. He is the one that I want.We met at an after-school English program in Asia. It was my first day of my new job and I fell in love as soon as the elevator doors opened. He was nothing much to look at--at 23, he was already balding and his stomach was a bit soft--but as George shook my hand and looked directly into my eyes, I just knew. In the beginning of our relationship, it was his confidence that attracted me to him. Also, it didn't hurt one bit that he had a perfect, neatly-clipped British acce...

64 likes 34 comments 34
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sweltering

R E

Submitted to Contest #97

CW: sexual harassment The tension that morning was palpable. It was in the air, hanging overhead like the summer sun; unrelenting and angry and pushing you forward no matter how lazily you wanted to stroll. It demanded movement, and yet, that movement made you dizzy.That’s how it felt waking up. Gasping for air, sticky with sweat. Needed to move.  The cold shower offered the briefest relief, but I was hot by the time I hiked up my work skirt.The cold coffee just made my insides burn with anxiety, stomach jumbling with the...

54 likes 7 comments 7
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The Unfortunate Pair

Submitted to Contest #97

TW: Horror, seizure-like behavior, blood, and gore.The eighth grade school day was sweltering hot, and James was fast asleep on his desk. Even in sleep, he muttered unintelligibly, fingers twitching and brow furrowing. His teacher didn’t bother to wake him, fearing the behavior that would surely ensue. James was a strange child, and was often the victim of relentless bullying and teasing. The mutterings grew louder, until some of his fellow classmates shot him nervous sideways glances. He had been diagnosed with Schizophrenia at a very young...

32 likes 14 comments 14
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Help Me, Help You

Submitted to Contest #97

Dear Child, When was the last time you closed your eyes? When was the last time you fell into a deep slumber the second your head hit the pillow? You wish that you could say last night. That all of your troubles melted away as you drifted off to a comfortable sleep. Where you dreamed of paradise. A place that you felt safe and content, where nothing would dare bother you, worry you, hurt you. To put it simply and in one broad word, you dreamed of heaven.  But I can not let that happen. You see, it is my job to force you to face yo...

30 likes 2 comments 2
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Cops and Robbers

Submitted to Contest #97

TW Violence   The last time I was locked in a trunk, my buddy Tommy and me were playing cops and robbers. Mom was mad as hell. She said, “People die in trunks for God's sake. You could roast to death in there! You’re eleven years old, Lukie. You should be smarter than that." The brakes screech and I push my knees down to keep from slamming into the trunk’s wall but I end up turned over anyway. There’s another sound underneath me and the car starts moving again, I roll back over dirt and broken bits of car frame. ...

24 likes 21 comments 21
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Her First Sunset

Submitted to Contest #97

You don’t know what it feels like when every morning looks the same. When you grow up not knowing what the sun or the sky looks like, not being able to differentiate blue from red. Evylin knew what it felt like because she couldn’t see, she was blind from birth, but she didn’t mind much because her mother was always patient with her. Her father, not so much. He didn’t want a “dysfunctional” child in his home so he tried to get rid of her many times. The first time he left her, Evylin was five and he told her that they were going to the pla...

22 likes 2 comments 2
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The Ruse

Submitted to Contest #97

TW: abuse, slavery Juliana was only four when Mama sat her down and had the talk. To a four-year-old mind, the things Mama described sounded like a fairy tale, a terrifying one. Yet, the things Mama told her about obedience to masters, never speaking back, and deference to white people began to explain things she couldn’t help observing on Belle Grove Plantation. Years later, she still remembered every single word Mama had said, and it was those words that kept her alive.   Belle Grove’s farm manager, Cyrus, was meaner than a cornered a...

20 likes 2 comments 2
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Bounty

Submitted to Contest #97

Nostalgia. Nostalgia. Who among us, boys, did not dream of a heroic profession in a distant childhood. Become an astronaut, a pilot, a football player? Other times, other manners. Most people choose a portfolio of bankers, financiers, managers, at the worst, officials or politicians. Yes. But someone, admit it, dreamed of being a pirate, huh? To step, so to speak, on a pirate path, to lift "Merry Roger," to shoot from cannons of the main calibre on a royal flagman ... Pistols and machetes - ready? Surrender your vessel, or you're going to di...

20 likes 2 comments 2
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The Desert Flower Mansion

Submitted to Contest #97

TW: killing, suffocation A few nights ago—in a certain village in Cambridge, England—a movie about a father and a son going on a trip played in local television. My wife, Arianne, was with me the whole time. It was a good tearjerker. I wasn’t sure why I was moved but I was and it made me feel terribly sad. That same night, I remembered the penetrating grief I felt when I lost my only son. We never went on a trip together. We never even engaged in casual conversation since he never got the chance to learn how. He didn’t make it a year old. Ar...

19 likes 10 comments 10
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The Katapies Experiment; Part 9

Submitted to Contest #97

Tsuni      It was chaos in the morning. The Messengers were tied up in weird fishing net things screaming at the top of their lungs, and the Summoners and Mages were panicking and trying to fight back. The thing was, no one knew what we were fighting against. There was a fancy carriage that looked oddly similar to the one that had brought us to Disarus in the first place.       Even though everyone was trying to get away, we knew...

19 likes 3 comments 3
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