Menu

Menu
Prompts
Contests
Stories
Blog
Featured stories
Activity feed

Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of middle school short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

550+ Middle school Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Keeping the attention of a middle schooler is hard. But our collection of gripping middle school short stories will do the trick!

Middle school Short Stories – Page 3 of 37

Thursday Night

Submitted to Contest #284

Rain pattered on the roof of Grandma’s house as Christine settled in after Thanksgiving dinner. She sat on the plush carpet and started playing solitaire on the coffee table. Mom was hollering at the football game, but Christine was doing her best to tune that out. Grandma was in the kitchen finishing the dishes.  Dinner itself had been the usual stuff: turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans. It was a nicer, heartier meal than Christine usually ate. Now she was pleasantly full, enjoying her cards and the relative peace and quiet...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Starting Over

Submitted to Contest #283

Starting Over By: Elan Leem “All right, we’re here,” Dad said as he opened the car door. I was jittery all over. I stepped out of our rustic blue Honda and marveled at our new home. Wow. It was…big. Tall, wide, modern. Picture this: white walls, wide windows, wide tile front yard with palm trees, shouting “exciting tropical vibe.” I peered through the side door to the backyard. It was big. I think I saw a pool. Dad opened the trunk and pulled out a few big suitcases. My flip-flops slapped my heels as I took steps. “You excited?” I shrug...

2 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Dougal McCoogan vs. Santa Clause

Submitted to Contest #283

 Dougal McCoogan had made it. Finally, after walking for weeks, through blizzards and blinding cold, he had done it. The dishevelled, skinny boy looked down on the scene below him with a definite sense of pride and smiled. The North Pole was exactly like he though it would be.  No, this is not the story of a boy explorer trekking in the wilderness. That is just incidental to our tale. And the north pole Dougal was now staring at is probably not the one you have seen in pictures. I am not sure you know this, but there is in fact thr...

8 likes 4 comments 4
Read story

Believe

Submitted to Contest #280

“I don’t know if I can do this, Mom. Not without him. And the kids—” “Shh. I know it will be hard, honey. The kids will get through it, and so will you.’ “I just. Why? Why him?” “Only God can answer that question, Becca.” *** “Andrew! Jacob! Hurry or we’ll miss Santa!” “Coming, Mom! Come on, Jacob. Mom’s downstairs waiting.” “Okay, Andy. Is Grandma coming with us?” “I think so.” “Do you know what you’re going to ask Santa for?” “I don’t know.” “I know ‘xactly what I’m gonna ask him for.” “Yeah, what’s that?” “I can’t tell you, Andy, or it wo...

5 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Friendship Lives Long

Submitted to Contest #280

It was a sunny afternoon when I first heard the whispers. I was the most popular girl in school, mostly because I was the richest. I had a lot of friends, but I also had a best friend, Isabella. You might think she was the second richest girl in school, but apparently she was the nerd in school and not rich. I had a lot of admirers, which made some people very eager for my popularity, like Jess. She tried everything to embarrass me, but none of them worked. Once, she failed again, and I saw her crying in the classroom with the air hanging, I...

3 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Dinner Lady

Submitted to Contest #280

Trigger warning: paedophilia How can people not have faces? Of course, every single person has their own recognisable set of features that define their individuality, but Harry could never bring to mind a single one of the half dozen or so middle-aged ladies who cooked and served his daily school lunch. Of course, that was mainly because he never really looked at them. To him, they were just the fuzzily observed people behind the fat hand or the thin hand that doled out the chips.Until Mrs Smith arrived. She seemed to think that being a dinn...

3 likes 0 comments 0
Read story

Surrender to the Nightmare

Submitted to Contest #279

**This story contains teacher perpetrated psychological child abuse** Winter of 2006 was the start of a string of winters that McKenna wanted to forget. As she sat down in the cold concreted prison-like covered area of the oldest building in the school, McKenna’s mum was having words with Mrs McConnell about bullying. She had said nothing of the sort to her mum, but unbeknownst to McKenna, Leonie’s "mum-senses” were tingling. ‘What’s your mum doing here?’ Bec asked as she walked over to McKenna.‘Talking to Mrs McConnell about bullying,’ she ...

10 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Apology I Didn't Owe

Submitted to Contest #278

The courtroom was quiet except for the occasional shuffle of papers and the distant murmur of voices in the hallway. Mia sat nervously on one of the hard wooden chairs, clutching her hands together in her lap. The only sound that seemed to fill her ears was the pounding of her own heartbeat. She had never been in a courtroom before, let alone a disciplinary hearing. But today, she was here—and she had no idea why. It had all started two weeks ago when Mia was called to the principal’s office during her lunch break. She was sitting in the caf...

12 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The price of popularity:

Submitted to Contest #277

By Cohdee Dimarco, 14 My breath shuddered as the icy wind lashed against my skin, its cruel touch biting into my thick curls now glazed with ice. I stood uncomfortably at the towering gates, their dark shadows looming over me. In the distance, children’s laughter and shrill screams echoed—grating on my ears like nails on a chalkboard. Desperately, I clasped my hands over them, trying to drown it all out. “Mika, are you alright, darling?” A warm, firm hand pressed against my back. I turned to see my soft-hearted aunt Susan, her gaze filled wi...

8 likes 2 comments 2
Read story

The Wicked Redhead

Submitted to Contest #277

She wasn’t really wicked, though. She just needed some understanding and a lighter touch. She was sensitive. And smart. When the wranglers came to her stall to turn her out and clean, she would always pin her ears and bare her teeth. This behavior frequently resulted in her being left alone, as well as earning a bad reputation, threatening to end in slaughter. I had grown up on this ranch, and was a pretty good hand, myself – especially with the horses. In all of my twelve years, I had never seen anything like that ornery, chestnut mare, Bel...

11 likes 6 comments 6
Read story

Shattered Certainties

Submitted to Contest #276

The universe had always been a place of cold, hard truths. Being an engineer and a committed agnostic, I had always rejected the idea of a higher power, considering it merely wishful thinking. It wasn’t until I faced an unplanned physics experiment regarding inelastic collisions that changed my mind.  Like many people, I imagined death as a permanent, dreamless sleep. I was self-sufficient and content with my life. Where my beliefs started is simple. I grew up hearing about how poor my father’s family was and how his mother would give m...

16 likes 16 comments 16
Read story

The Girl with the Ocean eyes

Submitted to Contest #276

I was a loser. I was a too-tall, overweight, closeted girl with no social skills. I had spent two years trapped inside the house with my family hiding from an illness that was killing millions of people. I spent those two years playing Minecraft, watching any people skills I had slowly crumple into nothing, and fighting with my sister. My parents decided it was time for a change so they packed up our home in the big city to move us across the country to a small town that was centered around its high school and middle school.  I had long...

7 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Adolescent lessons in dating and popularity

Submitted to Contest #276

Adolescent lessons in dating and popularity You can say that I was a misfit growing up since I didn’t fit in with others my age. My worldview evolved from a composite series of adolescent failed attempts and near catastrophes. I didn’t play or watch football or baseball. I spent time in the library reading esoteric topics like politics, psychology and new age books about Eastern religions. I didn’t like to join teams but was willing to participate with a small group of friends. I was friendly with the less popular girls but wasn’t attracted...

9 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

Liam the Lovable, But Fearful, Leprechaun

Submitted to Contest #274

“Liam the Lovable, But Fearful, Leprechaun” By Edward J. McCoul There are two things Liam O’Shaughnessy loved more than anything in the world: gold and friendship. And there were two things he feared more than anything else: heights and rainbows. Which was unfortunate, since he was a leprechaun. Every time he went to check on his gold at the end of a rainbow, he’d have to climb up a hill or down a rocky slope. “That gold won’t guard itself, Liam,” he’d mutter to himself, inching along on shaky legs. Then he’d see the shimmering rainbow stret...

15 likes 1 comment 1
Read story

The Unwanted Unicorn

Submitted to Contest #274

“The Unwanted Unicorn” By Edward J. McCoul It all started on a perfectly ordinary Tuesday. Twelve-year-old Max was home alone, nose-deep in a video game when he heard a loud, wet sloshing sound from the backyard. That was strange. He muted his game and listened. There it was again—a sound like someone was pouring oatmeal into a bucket. He crept to the back door, cracked it open, and peeked outside. And there, in the middle of his mom’s prize rose bushes, was the last thing he ever expected to see. A unicorn. It wasn’t quite what he had imagi...

15 likes 2 comments 2
Read story
RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

Bring your short stories to life

Fuse character, story, and conflict with tools in Reedsy Studio. All for free.