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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that begins and ends with someone looking up at the stars.

Posted in Middle School on Oct 28, 2022

Submissions are closed

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✍️ 405 stories

“Thousands and Thousands” by Kevin Roller

Submitted to Contest #51

The stars were in her basement, hung up high. Carolyn stared at them, watched their silent burning, watched with her fingers over her keyboard. Waiting, patient and quiet, for the ghosts.She turned her neck and looked up the stairs. The door was closed. Her daughter had gone to sleep without a fight, mercifully, but Carolyn still eyed the door occasionally. Suspicious. Not willing to complete trust the spurious silence in the house above her. Being an author and a parent didn’t mix sometimes; her daughter had a tendency to open that door dur...

2 comments 2
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“The Girl Who Loved The Stars” by Rose Buckingham

Submitted to Contest #51

There was once a young girl who loved the stars and wanted nothing more than to be able to reach up to the sky and catch one for herself. Every night when the sun went down and the sky was clear, she would stand at her bedroom window and stretch her hand out as far as she could reach, but no matter how far she stretched, or how close the stars seemed to be at the ends of her fingertips, she could never quite touch them.  Maybe, she thought, if I was just a little taller, I’d be able to catch one. And so she went to her little desk and t...

3 comments 3
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“Loose To Choose ” by Harish S

Submitted to Contest #51

10 Spaceman ready 9 8 7 Checking engines 6 Daddy! Shouted my 5-year-old kid, standing on the lawn. I just kept the frying pan on the floor and went to see her. I saw her starring at the stars. Any problem lady!! Can we touch the stars, daddy? A kind of! Who answers a kid “a kind of”, my wife questioned me with mad eyes, having the frying pan. Not now, but we will touch it one day, I said. Yesterday mam told me that stars are too far that we cannot reach it, can you get me a star while returning daddy so that I can show it to my friends. Fi...

2 comments 2
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“A Perfect Night ” by Serena Barile

Submitted to Contest #51

This night is nothing short of perfect. My eyes glide across the sky as I stare at all the beautiful stars. Each one might look similar but in fact they are each unique and individual. The sky is a perfect dark blue to light blue ombré with gorgeous white stars shining within them blending the colors beautifully. Soon my eyes fall to the ground and a smile spreads across my face. The air holds a weird odor but I ignore it because this night is simply too perfect. I laugh as I look over at him. He shifts his gaze from the sky to me and gives ...

4 comments 4
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“Big and Small” by Jane Green

Submitted to Contest #51

Phoebe is lying in the field, her heavy frame compacting the earth and her eyes upturned to heaven. Her thick arm is outstretched, reaching up to the stars. Slowly and deliberately, she traces out the paths of her childhood with a pointed finger. She draws her mother’s round face, two stars for her eyes, shining out of a web of wrinkles. A cluster of stars under a wispy cloud could be her little sister’s tuft of hair. But Betty is ten now, so instead she picks out a little kicking stick figure, booting a pinprick football against the garden ...

3 comments 3
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“Lost” by __Achor __

Submitted to Contest #51

Trillions of Miles above another earth, a band of astronauts push forward into the darkening abyss, traveling deeper and deeper into enemy territory.Above her were stars, stars which shown like golden flickers frozen in time, giving off life to those planets perfectly aligned in orbit. Every other minute, one or two would blot out of existence. All she could do was wonder whether life was lost. Cassie shivered in her cold, cushionless seat, as she looked around at her surroundings in a boorish manner, desperately wanting to be anywhere ...

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“I Hope You're Doing Alright Up There.” by Nico K

Submitted to Contest #51

It’s been months since you’ve gone. I’m writing this at 12:00 am watching the stars unmoving in space. It’s unfair. You’ve left me with nothing but fading memories and broken promises- I guess I’ll have to survive on that limited supply till the end. I think I’ve already began to forget you; jokes, hair tousling in the wind, evergreen eyes. I haven’t forgot your laugh, though. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. It’s been devastating. The world’s noises have suddenly stopped into quiet. It’s a feat I never would have dreamed possible, but ...

11 comments 11
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“One Sky” by Taryn Holmes

Submitted to Contest #51

As the last lingering rays of sun faded over the horizon, I smiled up at the bright, dotted sky. A gust of wind blew across the roof, running chills down my arms. I hugged my knees closer to my chest and watched the surrounding land darken from purple to deep blue. My eyes adjusted to the growing darkness and the stars left streaks of light across the sky. Fixating on the North star, I clasped my hands together tight, whispering underneath my breath. “Starlight, star bright. First star I see tonight, I wish I may, I wish I might, have the wi...

2 comments 2
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“A few drops of starlight” by Ipshita Majumdar

Submitted to Contest #51

My name is Ashraf and I was born under the constellation of Orion and its valiant, steady lights.My village used to be one where sparkling diamond lights would light up summer evenings and draw out families to their terraces and courtyard. About a dozen or more unruly heads would run about, zigzagging around woven cots, sprinkled across the streets.The menfolk would spill out into the streets, pondering over the mysteries of a minuscule cosmos, comprising of our village and 2 or 3 neighboring ones, at the most. My mother, aunts and a few oth...

2 comments 2
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“Dancing Over Leningrad” by J. Ernst

Submitted to Contest #51

December 5th, 1941: Leningrad-Russia“Tatyana! Tatyana! Look up there to the right… there …it’s Virgo…she’s dancing!”, Ivan pleaded as he juggled his seven-year-old daughter in one arm while pointing over head at the star filled winter sky with his free hand. But it was no use. Tatyana was too distracted.Squirming vigorously to free herself; “I’m scared papa. I want to go home…PLEASE!” Tatyana’s fear drenched screams could barely be heard over the mass hysteria of panicked voices that packed in all around them on the train station platform.Ea...

3 comments 3
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“AN OLD FARM GATE” by Margaret Kopke

Submitted to Contest #51

There’s not a breath of wind, but it’s cold again tonight. That’s because there’s no cloud cover. So it is once again a perfect night for stargazing. The old lady who has been relegated to live in one of the outhouses at the back of the farmhouse comes to join me. If I look to the western horizon I can see one very bright star, but it’s not a star at all, it’s Jupiter. They say that is the biggest planet in our solar system and has seventy-nine moons of its own. I would love to see all those moons and wonder whether they too cause the s...

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“Scarlet Oasis” by Camille Ruell

Submitted to Contest #51

The whole city was asleep except for the annoying clatter of the crickets and the stars were scattered across the sky to witness the thoughts rooted deep in the curves of my mind. They were pouring out of my lips in smoke, pressuring my temples to scream the hatred and low self-esteem that I was destined to run away but never leave behind. I stormed out of the home, and I knew I was ready to take the blow of thick night on my chest.  You were sitting on the half-collapsed garden wall; the petals of white roses rested on your tangled ha...

4 comments 4
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““Beyond the Stars”” by Rochelle Kauffman

Submitted to Contest #51

It seems like it’s been forever since I have taken a moment to look-up at the stars in wonder and absolute amazement. I seem to get caught-up in this thing we call “Life”.  As I sit here on my balcony overlooking the most beautiful beach you have ever seen, with its white sandy beaches and the turquoise blue water lapping at the shore, knowing it will be the very last time I will ever see it. I meditate on many things and I wonder how I can make a better future for my people as we strike out into the Universe for the first time in ...

0 comments 0
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“A Slip Into Stars” by Dhruv Srivastava

Submitted to Contest #51

It was only as she noticed the wet tickling of the grass against her feet that she remembered what her father said of the stars under which she walked: “Look at ’em,” his gruff voice echoed in her head, “They’re like diamonds up there… like snowflakes. All unique, but so small that they look the same from here.” Her snarky response had been to point out which stars weren’t the same - ones which flashed, sometimes streaked across the canvas that was the sky, and those which seemed reddish. Rather than correct her misconceptions, her father si...

3 comments 3
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“supernova” by Taylor Pastore

Submitted to Contest #51

Stars twinkle down, almost taunting us. They live on seemingly forever, immortal as celestial beings. Human lifetimes are laughable to a star, watching us burn out and die off within a few moments. But they say the brightest stars live the shortest. We strive to live as brightly and loudly as possible, shouting into oblivion, desperately hoping our existence makes an impact on the vast universe. And like blue supergiants, we live as bright as possible, inevitable to a supernova, exploding into nothingness again. We were young and reckless....

2 comments 2
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