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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 Teens on Oct 28, 2022

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✍️ 388 stories

“All of the Stars ” by Lilli F

Submitted to Contest #39

 ‌Grandfather‌ ‌never‌ ‌spoke‌ ‌much.‌ ‌His‌ ‌pride‌ ‌in‌ ‌life‌ ‌was‌ ‌simplicity,‌ ‌the‌ ‌notion‌ ‌of‌ ‌having‌ ‌little‌ ‌and‌ ‌needing‌ ‌less,‌ ‌of‌ ‌stark‌ ‌enjoyment‌ ‌in‌ ‌the‌ ‌littlest‌ ‌of‌ ‌treasures.‌ ‌He‌ ‌was‌ ‌a‌ ‌quiet,‌ ‌indifferent‌ ‌man,‌ ‌coarse ‌and‌ ‌worn‌ ‌as‌ ‌the‌ ‌bark‌ ‌of‌ ‌an‌ ‌oak,‌ ‌with‌ ‌comfort‌ ‌just‌ ‌the‌ ‌same.‌ Grandfather‌ ‌always‌ ‌took‌ ‌great‌ ‌pleasure‌ ‌in‌ ‌his‌ ‌life,‌ ‌plain‌ ‌as‌ ‌it‌ ‌was.‌ ‌‌ Each‌ ‌morning,‌ ‌he‌ ‌rose‌ ‌with‌ ‌the‌ ‌fresh‌ ‌dawn‌ ‌and‌ ‌brewed‌ ‌a‌ ...

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“Staring at the stars ” by Emi Enoki

Submitted to Contest #39

The cool night air whipped around the willow tree. Karla sat there staring up at the stars hoping to someday find a friend. No one liked Karla. She was too shy for the popular group, too wired for the introverts, and not athletic enough for the jocks. She felt out of place and she had never found her click. It all started when Karla’s parents divorced. Karla hasn’t seen her father since she was 1 year old and doesn’t know what he looks like or where he lives. Mother always keeps shut when I ask about her father. The only thing Karl...

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“Our Special Place among the Stars” by Roma Writes

Submitted to Contest #39

I’m looking up at the stars from our special place, pondering on the past. The steep, grassy hill with one single maple tree that I feel protected underneath. I sit up and reach my hand to the rigid centre of the bark. It’s still there - “Mommy and Maya” surrounded by a crooked, elongated heart - courtesy of eight year old me.I put on my glasses and move my hair behind my ears for a better view. I adjust my blue wool blanket before lying down. Much better. I feel so calm when I’m here. It’s just you, me and the maple tree. I miss you so much...

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“IT’S SHOWTIME: THE END OF BETELGEUS” by Andrew Grell

Submitted to Contest #39

IT’S SHOWTIME: THE END OF BETELGEUSEBy Andrew Paul Grell“Even if it does happen, it can’t possibly be dangerous to us. It’s too far away. We’ll get a great light show and Michael Keaton will get a career boost.” Tamar Hoffman the physicist was verbally chest-bumping her father, Caleb Hoffman the mathematician. It was an ordinary suburban star-gazing cocktail party. But the number of such parties world-wide jumped by orders of magnitude on the news that stars started hiccupping. And then another order of magnitude when the most famous named s...

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“His North Star.” by Em C.

Submitted to Contest #39

Stars flickered in and out of view from the spanning blue painted above them. The blanket draped over their shoulders held them down, keeping them on Earth as if their minds were helium-filled balloons slipping from a little kid’s fingertips.  The world was calm and still when the pair of friends lay under the star together. But Miles’s body still felt like it sat on a bed of nails, clutching his own hand to his chest even when he wanted to reach over and grab Oaklynn’s. But he feared that if he did, he would fracture and snap. Break li...

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“Pull” by Amanda Davison

Submitted to Contest #39

Lana takes a deep breath and really tastes the air. She lets it wash her through, touch every cell in her lungs, holds it there, three… four… and then exhales, expelling all the carbon dioxide from her bloodstream back out into the atmosphere, three… four… She spins in place, eyes closed at first — savouring the feeling of terra firma beneath her feet, the reliable pull of gravity keeping her from drifting away into the great nothingness — and then eyes open, taking in the stars, the constellations as they are from this planet at t...

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“Just three people” by L. Melis

Submitted to Contest #39

“It’s just three people.” she sighed, staring up at the sky from the balcony with no regards for the chill of the night. The stars looked less bright, almost as if she wasn’t worthy of seeing them in their usual brilliance. The dim face of the moon seemed one of disapproval. Her left wrist burned, and she quickly covered it with her sleeve as she sat back down on her rickety chair. Her tea was somewhat bitter, but it didn’t matter. Her bag was ready, and she’d leave in the morning. She didn’t know when she’d be back; that might even be the l...

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“The Girl That Fell From Heaven” by Peter Watts

Submitted to Contest #39

The stars hang over me from their lofty vantage, peeping out through the blackened sky. I look at each one in turn. Wondering where she is? Wondering if she if staring up into her sky, trying to find me? Wondering if I will ever hold the ‘girl that fell from heaven’ in my arms again?  It had been an evening not unlike like this one, when she appeared before me. My marathon shift had ended and my bed was calling out to me. The journey home had taken me down an old country lane: shrouded in darkness, with ancient crumbling walls enca...

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“The Stargazers” by Janet Joos

Submitted to Contest #39

The Stargazers The bell signaled the end of the university astrology class. Sandy packed her books together and left the lecture hall without a word to anyone. She rushed outside into a blustery spring day. Deep in concentration, she walked, half ran towards the library, she ducked her head against the wind, thinking only of the new assignment her professor had just given them. ‚Hey, what the hell?’ Sandy cried as she collided with a solid body and slid to the cold wet ground. She saw a few stars as she bumped her head and she thou...

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“Starcounter” by Alexis Klein

Submitted to Contest #39

Eiluned lay sprawled on the grass, her strawberry blonde hair making a wreath around her freckle-sprinkled face and golden eyes. She looked at the clear night sky and the stars above her. She knew that any night could be her last. War raged, hitting and slaying any person or thing in its way. Her father had left Ireland to go fight for the USA. By now, all of Asia was in ruins; Canada and America battled Europe, Africa, and most of South America. Eiluned’s father died because of a nuclear bomb in Brazil, where he had been deployed. Eiluned a...

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“Bigger than your fears.” by Shanedra Smith

Submitted to Contest #39

It was 9:56 pm. All seven year old boys and girls were supposed to be either tucked into bed, off to sweet dreams about dolls and toy cars or whatever sparked their interests, or preparing by bathing, brushing their teeth, and reading a bed time story with Mommy or daddy. But tonight, a young girl—aged 6—was too scared to let sleep overtake her as it so threatened to. Although her eyes were heavy and tired, calls for Mommy and Daddy were frequent by the minute and her little voice trembled with tears that were yet to come out. Her older sist...

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“2:16 PM” by Sarah Dumont

Submitted to Contest #39

Tuesday. 9:34 PM.   The wind was a little bit too strong, a little bit too cold. I was afraid she would be uncomfortable. For a moment, I worried that she would get a cold, and a second later I chuckled while my eyes filled with tears. She could get all the colds in the world now, it wouldn’t really change anything.    - What’s going on?   She had heard me laugh faintly.   - Nothing. I was just thinking about that ridiculous hat of mom’s you used to wear when you were little.    She smiled at me, but the sm...

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“Permanence” by Crystal Harsy

Submitted to Contest #39

The stars faded in the center of her vision as the storm clouds blew out towards the east. Candace, like everyone at some time she supposed, marveled at the vastness, the clarity, the brightness. She wondered at the distance that made big things seem so small. Clichés played through her mind, the only thoughts that formed with any kind of clarity tonight: Everyone everywhere is looking at the same moon. There are millions of stars in the sky and none of them just the same. That star you’re looking at might have already died and the light is ...

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“Diamond Sky” by Audrey K

Submitted to Contest #39

Diamond Sky In the last beautiful place left on Earth, Peony spent every night staring up at the stars she created. There was something glorious about the way she brought them to life. Her parents would say she was gifted, waxing poetic on how a piece of her soul was infused into each twinkling pixel on the screens above. But Peony would only roll her eyes and scoff that they were strings of code. Secretly though, she was pleased. It had been three years since she started working at the Resort.  In a world where beauty was so scarce, th...

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“The Wolves and Stars” by John Blood

Submitted to Contest #39

“Do you hear them?” the old woman said to us around the campfire. “The wolves in the night? Howling at the moon, at the stars?”A silence filled the air, broken only by the crackle of flames, the noise of the forest, and the murmur of the lake. The old woman looked up at the night sky, where the moon shone and the stars twinkled with brilliant radiance, as if listening to a sound that none of us could hear. “I don’t hear a thing!” Sarah spoke at length.“Then listen closely, my dear,” declaimed the old woman in a whisper.&n...

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