Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Directory
Contests
Magazine
FAQ

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

Posted in Middle School on May 12, 2023

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?

✍️ 39 stories

Simon Said; Show Me Red

Submitted to Contest #198

“I’m Simon, you have to do what I say,” said the blonde boy who could barely make eye contact over the principal's desk.“Simon Simple, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately but you have to stop this. What happened to Erik. What he did. He said you told him to.”“He had to do what I say.” Simon smiled. Little teeth that didn't fill his mouth were white squares with gaps between. Two blue eyes were anything but remorseful as his face creased around the grin.“Simon-” the principal in his faded suit jacket and trousers started but was cut of...

45 likes 57 comments 57
Read story

Tell Me Why I Don’t Like Memoirs

Submitted to Contest #198

Damon, a ghostwriter, finished the editing of yet another memoir he had written for a successful business person. Someone who climbed the corporate ladder and managed to become CEO of a large company, for a few years. And then, reading between the lines (Damon was good at that), the CEO was let go for underperformance. In interviews, the CEO was pleasant, if dully conventional. The type of man women want to marry, and then not talk to their friends about much afterwards.Damon’s draft title for these sorts of memoirs was invariably, Tale...

37 likes 42 comments 42
Read story

A Brush With History

Shortlisted for Contest #198 ⭐️

      It was a bitter winter that year, 1954. The coldest that century, they said, and fifteen-year-old Ernie Remsen was freezing; the layers of sweaters underneath his blue cotton mechanic’s jacket, a “Texaco” patch on the breast, couldn’t keep out the chill. Sal was the name embroidered over the left pocket. Ernie didn’t know Sal but was grateful he’d donated it to the church rummage sale. It was almost better than nothing.            Still, Ernie had stol...

32 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

The Boy in the Bumble Bee Shirt

Shortlisted for Contest #198 ⭐️

   Jamie Landry had been called to the principal’s office. Which meant that his mother, Charlene Landry, had to leave her job in the middle of the day to attend as well. Which meant Charlene was pissing off all her co-workers at the Java Quick drive thru again.    When she got to the school, Jamie was pacing outside the principal’s office. He was stroking his hair behind an ear, quietly talking to himself, and patting his belly. He was wearing his favorite yellow and black striped shirt that Charlene had dressed...

30 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Mr. Headmaster, Sir

Submitted to Contest #198

Knock, then enter, close the door, and wait to be addressed. That was Mr. Harold Llewellyn-Smith’s protocol rule whenever a boy was called to the headmaster’s office. Whether he was already punishing me for my truancy by ignoring me or just relishing his position as the head of the school, it was lost on my fourteen-year-old brain. I knew what the upcoming punishment had in store for me, so I quietly and fidgetily tried desperately to come up with a reason for him not to go through with it. The minutes dragged on as Llewellyn-Smith continued...

27 likes 17 comments 17
Read story

The Crossing Guard

Submitted to Contest #198

“***** *****, please come to the principal’s office.” When you are young, it is possible to believe that adults are there for you; that they are aware of what is best for you; that they are doing the right thing. I thought so for a very long time, all through the great disappointment that was my father, his replacement who could not stand even in his shadow as an example worth following, and many other figures in my life who were always lacking in some way. My moment of discovery came in the most innocent manner and I still recall what it wa...

24 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

What You're Going to Say Next

Submitted to Contest #198

Principal Alonzo called Stephen Shy into her office at 11:04 on a Tuesday morning to discuss why using robots to write term papers is unacceptable. Stephen walked into her office seemingly unconcerned about why he had been summoned. Most of the sixth graders walked in sheepish--even anxious. Seventh graders tended to walk in providing a kind of false confidence that would fall away as soon as Principal Alonzo picked up the phone and interrupted their parents at work. The eighth graders were the best at appearing calm, but a raised voice an...

22 likes 11 comments 11
Read story

Carnival

Submitted to Contest #198

Principal Wallace was standing with his back to the door, leafing through folders in the top drawer of one of his filing cabinets, when she entered the office, quiet as a mouse, stealthy as a ninja, gentle as the wind, despite her size. She smirked as she crossed from the door to the busy-but-organised desk, softly and swiftly like she was floating, and drew to a halt there, wondering how long it would take for him to notice she’d arrived. The window next to him was open and bright summer sunlight was streaming into the room along with ...

18 likes 5 comments 5
Read story

The Paddling

Submitted to Contest #198

To declare my reinvented self, I decided Firestone Park Elementary School would be the site to appropriate a rebellion against authority. There was no question about the target, a classroom coterie of prim and proper girls, each pretty in her own right but at times collectively snippy. To cultivate my new rogue image, I joined a biker gang of sorts. We fired up fantasy motorcycles one afternoon and rumbled across the playground. On accident, I crashed into Beth Marshall, who shoved me back.I fled the scene, my arms extended, fists wrapp...

17 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

It Was Written in the Cards

Submitted to Contest #198

“Lo? What are you doing here?” Lobelia Woods raised her eyes and saw her dorm mate Tawny Skillson approaching the bench. They were in Mrs. Bodie’s Animism class together and Tawny was popular with their classmates after dubbing their professor “Bodie the Toadie”. Lobelia had laughed too, not just because of the squat woman’s round shape and broad mouth but the fact that she taught a class on channeling animal guides and working with familiars. But that wasn’t the reason Lobelia was sitting on the old, rickety bench in front of the Headmi...

15 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Meh and Bleh

Submitted to Contest #198

Meh and Bleh( Language) It was as certain as the sun rising in the east or old man Parker’s dog barking at the moon. Every first day of school for Mr. Livingston’s thirty-two years of teaching 6th Grade at Lincoln Elementary would begin the same way. The students stood at their desks, recited their names, and gave a brief description of their families, their pets, likes and dislikes, and any hobbies. He believed it was a beneficial exercise for both himself and all the students.Mr. Livingston thought he was seeing double- two boys, iden...

15 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Your Reputation Precedes You

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...

13 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Right, Wrong, and Innocent.

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....

13 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Smoke and Mirrors

Submitted to Contest #198

“Miss Saphyre Williams, come to the office, please.” The entire class looked up to where the voice boomed over the loudspeaker, then they all looked at her. The girl with blue hair tried to shrink in her chair, until the teacher dismissed her. “Saphyre - take your books and head down.” He knew she wouldn’t be returning. Saphyre stood and picked up her books. She sauntered toward the door, sending a glare of daggers to Miss Popular in the front row, feigning taking a puff from an imagined cigarette and blew the pretend smoke in Saphyre’s d...

13 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Are You There God? It’s Me, Pearl

Submitted to Contest #198

I hurried behind Ms. Woodall, unrolling my skirt as I rushed to keep up with her, not wanting to get in trouble for my skirt, or legs, being too short. Could they reprimand me for being too short? At this point I felt as if anything and everything would be on trial, and I didn’t have a chance in hell of getting out of here alive. Ms. Woodall slapped my book on her hip as she stomped towards the principal’s office, over and over like she was whipping herself,  as if she could knock loose all the words and sentences they deemed irrehens...

12 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

🌟 Similar prompts

Write a story about an unconventional teacher.

High School – 57 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

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