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Write a story about an unlikely group (or pair) of friends.

Posted in Middle School on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 43 stories

How to Win a Game of Chess Without Really Trying

Winner of Contest #149 🏆

Disclaimer: There is no easy way to win a game of chess. But that’s only if by “winning” you mean hunting down your opponent’s king until he is gasping for air in a solitary corner, his vision fading into the black and white static of the board as your opponent (John, Meera, or Jeremy) commits seppuku by resignation. Only gradually will you return to the hard seats and smudged tabletops of your school’s B-grade lunch counter. You'll blink in a daze at the face of your opponent who, you must remember, is your friend in real life.If it’s John,...

215 likes 139 comments 139
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Reasons to Be Thankful

Submitted to Contest #149

The first thing I notice when I poke my head in the university's Indigenous Peoples' Appreciation Club is that there are only two members, one guy and one girl. The second thing I notice is that neither is Indigenous.They sit at adjacent desks in the corner of the classroom. The girl, whose platinum hair is brighter than the overhead lighting, poses for a selfie, closing one eye and flashing a peace sign Nixon-style. The guy preoccupies himself with a game of Pokémon Go, swiping violently at his phone screen and cursing his rotten luck. Rows...

46 likes 41 comments 41
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Second Chance, Third Strike

Submitted to Contest #149

Prisons have a unique smell—a curious cross between perspiration and despair. Debbie noticed it each time she came to visit Seth. It’s a little like blindness, she contemplated as the guard led her to the visitation room. Debbie had heard how people who had lost their sight would marvel at how their other senses became heightened. It must be like that with freedom, too, she reasoned. Her eyes darted around, noticing every crack and stain on the drab walls as she passed through the locked doors and dingy corridors. Even though Debbie was...

37 likes 51 comments 51
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The Hooded Stranger

Submitted to Contest #149

"Are you sure you'll be okay by yourself Mom?" twelve year old Mitchell said as he tossed the oversized black duffel bag into the bed of his Dad's truck. "Mitchell, I'm 42 years old. If I'm not okay by myself for three days at my age, something is really wrong.""Awe, Mom," fourteen year old Matthew said as he leaned down to kiss my cheek, "We know you'll be okay but we can worry about you anyway."My husband Justin walked out the door in his usual hurried manner when he's preparing to leave for a trip. "What are you boys waiting on? Get ...

36 likes 23 comments 23
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The Shark and the Remora

Submitted to Contest #149

The Shark and the RemoraThere are certain entities in life that would not do well alone. Apples need trees, rivers need riverbanks, Montana needed Rice, and Stockton needed Malone. Joey needed Frank. Or was it that Frank needed Joey? I guess we’ll find out.“We’ve got new neighbors, Frank. It’s a young woman and her ten year old son. She’s very nice. I didn’t meet the boy. He’s in school. Her name is Susan Clark, and her boy’s name is Joey.”“Just the two of them?”“Yes. She’s from here, but she married a guy from South Carolina. They just got ...

15 likes 9 comments 9
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Golden Invitation

Submitted to Contest #149

“Babe!” The girl in the red dress waves her hands to Kevin. Kevin turns around to look back at me. “Can I ever meet you again?” I let out a faint smile and shake my head. “I don’t think you can. I am leaving. My wish has been fulfilled, after all.” A wish to tie up the loose ends since I died abruptly.  Yes, taking the stress away from my head by giving a clear break in our relationship, removing the sadness from my heart by seeing you still in contact with my parents despite what happened between us. A wish to meet the love o...

15 likes 7 comments 7
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Drinking with Death or: My Friend Josh, Whose Occupation is the End

Submitted to Contest #149

Usually, when your average moron plummets from a warehouse catwalk into a dumpster full of sharp objects, he can think of only one thing to say:“AAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!”But not me.I fall under the category of abnormal moron.A moron for two reasons. One, because only a moron would traverse a rickety indoor bridge with an expensive camera to capture footage of an industrial warehouse against his better judgment. And two, because I was falling towards a dumpster stocked with pointy things.Abnormal because somehow, in a pocket of air, while kicking t...

15 likes 25 comments 25
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Derek

Submitted to Contest #149

Derek was snoring when I crept in into his bedroom a bit before 8 am. His sandy hair had tousled itself into one big cowlick. His eyelids clamped shut, fighting to keep the day at a distance.  “I’m going to look at your sketchbook, ready or not,” I announced loud enough for him to stir. He had sat past midnight on the floor in his room, scribbling on 15 by 15 sheets of paper. The oversized tablet and one black pencil laid on the floor next to his bed. He always refused to sit at a table. He drew, watched movies, and ate on the floor...

13 likes 6 comments 6
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We Would Be Rivals

Submitted to Contest #149

Humid heat makes the lush grass of summer waver in the sunlight, and the close air makes me pant. However hard I try, I do not sleep as much as the lions. Instead, I lie awake, listening. No breeze stirs the sparse leaves on the umbrella thorn tree above us. No matter how hot it is, lions always have to be touching each other while they sleep. This touching can range anywhere from one tail touching another to an entire body draped over another. Fine for lions-their bodies can take a lot–but dangerous for a spotted hyena like me. I am mu...

13 likes 208 comments 208
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Monster of Business Administration

Submitted to Contest #149

I became aware of the silence, and a thick blanket of dread came over me. I lay in my bed, in the space between being asleep and awake, eyes closed against the darkness. Click. Click. It started softly, like the sound a mouse makes running across a floor. I wanted to go back to sleep and pretend I didn’t hear it. Click. Click. Click-click. Then a scuffling sound, as if an unwieldy bag of rocks was being pushed out of the closet. More clicks, more scuffling. I could feel sweat on my forehead. Click. Click. Click. Louder and undeni...

13 likes 12 comments 12
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The Venice Writing Workshop

Submitted to Contest #149

Congratulations! Your first book got published. That writing workshop was memorable. Ten aspiring writers met every Monday. Sitting at a round table, sharing feedback about your stories. There was another incentive; the best author from the workshop would win a publishing deal. But you never thought that your path to publishing would walk this murderous way. You all met at a historical, two-floor building in Venice, California. An idyllic garden with sunflowers, fruit trees, and native flora surrounded the building. You thought this was th...

12 likes 8 comments 8
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Memorabiliac

Submitted to Contest #149

(Content warning: Strong Language)The London Underground heaved with bodies as Poppy chased a train departing for Soho in her pink stilettos. A strobing fluorescence washed over the entire station before the lights cut out completely.Snap Poppy caught her heel in the gap between two platform edges. Her knees buckled and she lurched forward, looking for a pair of shoulders to grab onto.*Craig was being lulled into submission by the queue of sheeple when ten fingernails gouged through his duster jacker into his trapezius. Not fond of...

12 likes 17 comments 17
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Boyhood: Danger, Sugar, Baseball & Kindness

Submitted to Contest #149

Tommy has a vivid imagination. Around the age of three, like most children, he began to explore the world of pretend. He liked to race cardboard boxes down the hallway, which in his mind bared the likes of Motor Speedway alongside Lightning McQueen. Jumping out of window sills and off coffee tables he was parachuting off of buildings to come to the rescue in Adventure Bay with the Paw Patrol. With each passing year this imaginative child withdrew a little more from socializing with other children as the world of pretending only got bigger an...

11 likes 4 comments 4
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The Doll House

Submitted to Contest #149

Stephen Graham leaned on his handlebars, staring at his watch and fighting the compulsion to turn his bike around and race home. In bed by 8:30 PM. Even in the summer, his parents permitted no exceptions. As the seconds ticked away, the knot in his stomach cinched down so hard that it hunched him over. His fingers went weak. He wanted to vomit.  Alone in the twilight, on a newly paved street tucked in the back of a working-class subdivision, Stephen watched 8:30 come and go, and the winding tension… evaporated.  He was late. ...

11 likes 0 comments 0
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The Lonely Farmer

Submitted to Contest #149

The Lonely FarmerOne breezy day, a lonely farmer who was tending to his cows in his barn happened to find a nest of barn owls. These creatures were rather shy and gentle compared to other birds of their feather. When the farmer started poking around, he had accidentally spooked the parents. They prepared to flee from the scene leaving behind their eggs, but the farmer pleaded for their stay as he is dreading what will become of their young. And so they stay. Surprised by this, the farmer holds a puzzled expression. He was a cyclops and unlik...

11 likes 6 comments 6
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