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Write about a character whose life changes for the better.

Posted in Middle School on Nov 1, 2022

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✍️ 47 stories

Do None Condemn You?

Submitted to Contest #152

Before she was killed, my mother named me Shani. It means scarlet. Aunt Miriam believed it was a last act of defiance. I would be a constant reminder to the Sanhedrin— the council of elders—that they had failed to break her. As a child, the women of the village whispered that my mother had spoken a curse over me in revenge for her death. That in giving me this name, she sealed my future just as I had sealed hers. It was my fault that she was put to death. An unmarried Jewess found with child has but one fate under the law of t...

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This is the One: the final entry posted to ‘Dispatches From the Grave’

Submitted to Contest #152

Everyone uses Saltbox to buy a home, so I really didn’t have a choice.The app’s clever logo splashed on my 6-inch touchscreen then vanished, followed by some sleek Roboto-font text that congratulated me for making the decision to download.Good morning, handsome! the app lied, but I let that go. We all lie a little. Welcome to Saltbox!“Uh-huh,” I said, wondering if anyone at Saltbox actually spied for quality assurance.Would you like to find a home today?I always believed non-consensual small talk to be a criminal offense. Time is our most pr...

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Waltz

Submitted to Contest #152

       Twilight. Witching hour. Her favorite time. With no definitive arrival or duration, it blurred into reality until fading away as non-descript. No motif reflected her as genuine as dusk. That’s when she chose to do her work.              He sat on a bench in the park he’d driven by for years. He’d never stepped in prior and wouldn’t again. He should’ve been home after a long day. Instead, he indulged in a needless moment rather than mai...

18 likes 14 comments 14
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The Newlywed Club

Submitted to Contest #152

THE NEWLYWED CLUB.     CONTENT WARNING: This story contains a healthy dose of swearing. Some real whoppers too, so I hope you're into that kind of stuff! Also contains: (SPOILER!) An allusion to grisly death. Enjoy!   1     “We have plenty of time.” Connie looked out the passenger's window, as a white whale of a cloud floated lazily across the sunny sky. “It’s our honeymoon, try to relax.”     “Sure we do sugarbride, I know that. We’ve got the rest...

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Upwards to a Better Life

Submitted to Contest #152

I wondered how long I could go without breathing? It was the summer of 1995, and California was in the middle of a blistering heatwave. The hot, dry air was suffocating and I was abundantly sorry that I hadn’t scraped together the money to get the air conditioning in the car fixed. As I drove Highway 50 up into the Sierras, my eyes fixed on the seductive heatwaves that danced on the road in front of my car. They flared, they rolled, and they wavered. They were interesting and mesmerizing.I had driven this road uncounted times;...

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Poppet

Submitted to Contest #152

Carlos discovered the poppet under a pile of shoes in the back of his grandmother's closet. Although covered in years of dust and grime, the herbs inside gave off a mephitic odor that was amazingly pungent. At the ends of the limbs, the material used to make the doll had unraveled – the hands and feet appearing hairy and disheveled - a child’s nightmare seven inches long. He put it into his backpack and stood up, a little light-headed from the dust and smell.  He heard his father calling for him to come downstairs. They’d already loade...

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The Symptom They Never Told You About

Submitted to Contest #152

“You’re absolutely glowing!” “Have you felt him kick yet?” “Lookin’ good momma!” I shudder as I look into the mirror. I try to put the words others have said on top of the image I see in the mirror, but they just won’t fit. I think of the more intimate words of my husband. “I love your body.” “You’re beautiful.” “I love you. All of you.” I try those phrases out, but they all fall short as well. I then land on the two statements I have heard the most and hate the most. “You don’t look pregnant!” “Look at that beautiful baby belly!” ...

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"New Face"

Submitted to Contest #152

October 1973 When Jenny got the call, she dropped everything. She left her multi-billion-dollar company in the middle of a staff meeting when her assistant gave the message. At the other end of the line, she was neither shocked nor surprised by the news. Actually, she expected it. She called her driver and told him to start the limousine. She pulled out her mirrored compact to make sure she covered the Frankenstein monster scar above her right eye. It was both a reminder and a symbol of what she had gone through in her life. She still wanted...

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The Sleeper

Submitted to Contest #152

Some people are particularly smart, or handsome, or witty. Harold Anders wasn’t particularly anything except particularly bored. He loathed silly parties where everyone talked about themselves and nobody ever really listened, unless there was some titillating nasty news about the deviant behavior of so and so, and who would have ever believed Sharon was such a whore. No, he preferred to stay at home and fall asleep watching reruns of the Andy Griffith show or Bass Masters. I guess you could say that Harold was particularly good at sleeping,...

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The Light In the End of the Tunnel

Submitted to Contest #152

Miranda groped her way along the cold wall of the cave, ignoring the fresh nicks and scrapes gifted her by the sharp gravel beneath her feet. They were, after all, nothing compared to the hunger. The sun didn’t shine down here in the bowels of the earth, but she knew, she knew days had passed. Days and days and days. Enough days that she’d begun thinking it might’ve even been weeks, months, years. How long could a person last without food, anyway? She knew so many other things—things that had qualified her to join up as a “valued team memb...

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Meant for each other

Submitted to Contest #152

Magic was dying. That one idea haunted Yashmar, no matter what he did.  Sitting in the half-empty hall, he tried to focus on the lecture, as the professor skipped through the presentation slides. His mind was elsewhere, though.  Spring had just started. The one time in a year when the looming death of everything he knew seemed less threatening. With nature coming back to life, his heart saw a spark of hope, as the power inside him blossomed together with the flowers.  But even spring couldn’t save his people. Magical races...

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Hinges of Destiny

Submitted to Contest #152

“Choices are the hinges of destiny.” PythagorasThis is a story of two women, one my mother, Cathy, and one whose name is unknown, so I will call her Mary. Dr. Rosner played a significant role in both of these women’s lives. Cathy’s story is true; however, Mary’s story is mostly speculation.1975 - Not long after she and Bill decided they were ready to become parents, Cathy felt the changes in her body. Cathy wrote in her journal, “Today is the first confirmed day. About two hours ago the doctor informed me that I’m pregnant.”1971 - A wom...

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The Cup

Submitted to Contest #152

   A series of clattering, clunking and banging rocked the kitchen. A lonely woman approaching middle age loaded her dishwasher from a rack bent out of shape from years of use. The sink was still full of culinary wares neglected from the last few nights. She began singing out of tune when she came across an odd receptacle. It had the shape of a human face whose craftsman made the common mistake of pushing realism into the netherworld of uncanny valley. It was an eyesore. The enlarged grin stared b...

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A Place Where Only the Things You Want to Happen, Happen

Submitted to Contest #152

April walks the aisles of her favorite bookstore, carrying her infant daughter, Kelly. She loves to read and hopes Kelly will, too, one day, but she can’t afford any of these books. She is tired, overworked, and underpaid, and she worries she isn’t giving Kelly enough. Still, April shows her daughter the caterpillar mural in the children’s section with a smile on her face. A stranger approaches—an older woman, beaming at Kelly. “Look at her,” she says. “What a precious baby girl. A miracle.” April smiles politely, knowing the woman mea...

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Aubrey Rose McCallum

Submitted to Contest #152

“My name is Aubrey Rose McCallum.” She told me on the first day of class, “And I am autistic.” Now I want you to see something.  Please, follow me.  It’s on the north wall of the gymnasium.  Right there.  Beautiful, isn’t it?  It took her over a semester and a lot of spray paint, but it is a true work of art, don’t you think so?   As you can see, Aubrey used such  brilliant colors to transform that plain, dull brick wall into this striking figure of a heavenly angel with both wings and arms spread ou...

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