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Discover weekly, the best short stories

Looking for a steady supply of teens & young adult short stories? Every week thousands of writers submit stories to our writing contest.

5300+ Teens & young adult Short Stories to read

Submitted by writers on Reedsy Prompts to our weekly writing contest. Looking for the best short stories for teens? Our collection of funny, suspenseful, and relatable young adult short stories will meet your needs.

Teens & young adult Short Stories – Page 2 of 354

Icarus

Submitted to Contest #293

Crrrrrraaaaackle… “We are hitting slight turbulence here folks. The pilot has turned on the fasten seatbelt signs and we recommend you return to your seats. Thank you.” Bailey opened his eyes suddenly to the rocking of the plane. The lull of the stewardess’ voice reassured him in his hypnopompic state but he couldn’t help but feel uneasy. He tried to settle back into the first class seat his family had been upgraded to randomly. He focused on the clouds morphing before his eyes. They danced and changed without restraint. He had always wanted...

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Driving to Change

Submitted to Contest #293

It was August, the weather was beginning to crisp, and the leaves were falling around me. Clouds moving across the sky as the cool air moves into the area. I was alone. Laying in a pile of leaves, to create a nice soft crunchy bedding from the moist ground beneath it. My world was about to change just like the weather. This was going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But I was kind of forced into it, in a short amount of time.   I sit up, admiring the kids running around. People walking their dogs and seeing babies experienci...

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Rhinestone Sneakers

Submitted to Contest #293

The rhinestones on Arianna’s sneakers are sparkling from sunlight creeping through the window. It finds each and every one, lighting them ablaze before another cloud whips past and starts the cycle over again. Arianna dips her foot closer, poking at the tongue of the left one, before kicking the shoe away and pulling her entire self up onto her bed. Not her bed anymore, she thinks. For two weeks it was, but two weeks have ended, like she always knew they would. They weren’t supposed to fly past so quickly. Not like the clouds outside, too fa...

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Out of Control

Submitted to Contest #293

I stare out the van window, my head pressed against the glass, watching the world pass by. Trees and rocks flash past as the van navigates the winding road on the way to… to where exactly?It’s not my fault. Not really. I was fine in my last foster home. It was that other girl, Jenny. If she hadn’t snitched about me sneaking out, I could have stayed there until I aged out. Instead, here I am, riding in a van to a place I know nothing about while my social worker rambles on about how I’ll be there for around eighteen months and how I’ll feel s...

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The Magic of the Passenger Seat

Submitted to Contest #293

I'm 25 years old, but I still sit in the passenger seat. When will I get my driver's licence, they ask. I answer, why should I, when sitting behind the wheel would take the magic away? Instead of dreaming about where this road that I have travelled so many times before leads, I would have to concentrate on the road itself and remember which of the numerous regulations I had to learn applies here. Sitting behind the wheel doesn't mean freedom of going wherever I want. It means to be locked into a set of rules. Not to mention the responsibilit...

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Travelling with a Friend

Submitted to Contest #293

Travelling with a Friends. Simon the rat, and yes, it is really Simon. Like you and come to that, Simon knew all Rat names begin with the letter “R”, But Simons mother wanted to be different. That was different, Simon thought. Anyway, I digress. Simon, like all rats, was hunting for food one day when he smelt an enticing aroma coming from the station warehouse. Apples, carrots, fish, and his favourite meat. So, of course, he had to investigate. Skirting the building, he found an orange clay pipe through the wall; they were expecting me, ...

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Fury & Fire

Submitted to Contest #293

“Please, Heli. Let me go.” My voice cracked, raw from screaming. Tears blurred my vision, my knees burning against rough concrete.“You’d rather run into the fire than be with me?” His grip locked around my wrist—crushing, unrelenting. His cobalt eyes burned, torn between rage and something else.“I left something behind.” My hands trembled.“Is it worth your life?”I held his gaze. “Yes.”“What is it?”I hesitated.“Fabianne.” His voice dropped. “What. Is. It.”I clenched my teeth. Then, in a whisper, “My sister’s necklace.”For the first time since...

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The Watch Thief of Wuthering Hallow

Submitted to Contest #293

If, while reading this you start to suspect that you’re different, then you’re not like them, you’re more like us. If you ever feel an inkling in your veins, a nagging instinct that signifies that something about yourself isn’t entirely as it seems, it may be entirely too late.They will find you.They’ve found them all. Except us.In this broken society of Wuthering Hallow, they call us “Outliers.” We may not betray it at first obvious glance, but we bend minds. Even for those who are not like us, existence in the city of Wuthering Hallow is i...

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Margo and Angel's Breakup Story

Submitted to Contest #293

The blackberries are tart and bursting with juice. I shovel them into my mouth, wincing as the sourness echoes through the insides of my teeth. The berries have been sitting in a plastic container in my carry-on bag all day, stewing in their own flavor. It’s almost seven in the evening and I usually would have had dinner by this time, but I couldn’t risk missing my flight. Now I’m seated in the window seat, the wing of the plane visible against a backdrop of peach-colored sky. I try to fish out a blackberry seed from between my teeth with my...

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Blinded By My Favorite Colour

Submitted to Contest #292

Prompt: Write a story inspired by your favorite color. Blinded By My Favorite Color I grew up taking colors for granted. One never appreciates the world of color until it disappears from one’s view. I never planned for it to happen. It just did. One day I woke up and I was colorblind. My ophthalmologist was as much dumbfounded as I was. I had experienced no trauma to my head; nor did I have a familial history of color blindness.  My vision was now a black and white movie with silhouettes of people blurred ...

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Stained Glass Window

Submitted to Contest #292

(Story contains physical violence, suicide or self harm, and mental health related topics.) The sun penetrated the blue glass window. Shades of green sprawled across the gray carpet. Ever since he had been a kid, the sun had laid on the ground in the same way. The wound of light had become a routine and the boy found small comfort, and it’s never changing presence. He himself was a pale blue, he always had been. His mother, a warm, yellow, and his father, a passionate red. He almost never left his room. The color, blue, while unwelcomed by ...

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A Fleeting Connection

Submitted to Contest #293

I settled into my aisle seat with a sigh, shifting slightly to make myself comfortable for the long flight ahead. The plane hummed steadily, passengers buckling in, adjusting their belongings, and preparing for the journey. Next to me, in the dreaded middle seat, sat a young woman, likely in her mid-twenties. She had an unassuming presence, her brown hair tied back in a simple ponytail, glasses perched on her nose, and a well-worn book resting in her lap. Her hands, calloused in a way that suggested hard work, absentmindedly turned the pages...

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Road Rage and Me

Submitted to Contest #293

I see you creeping up on my bumper and I don’t like it one bit. This is the way it always goes when I am driving anywhere. The driving instructor instilled a sense of duty in me to check my mirrors every ten seconds. I slow down slightly just to let you know that yes, I am aware you are there and in a hurry, but I do not care. As you encroach upon the space that I claimed as my own, I notice that you are texting while driving. My rage is building and I start thinking about that new car I saw on the television last night. I slam on the brakes...

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Where are Tina’s colours

Submitted to Contest #292

She Woke Up to the Sound of the Phone Eva answered , then stared at the screen for a moment. She was instantly awake when she saw the name: Sarah. “It’s not like her to call at this hour… It’s three-thirty in the morning. Oh God, has something happened?” —“Hello, Sarah? Are you okay?” Sarah’s voice came through, hesitant and slightly choked:—“I’m sorry to wake you… I couldn’t sleep. I feel a terrible heaviness.” Eva sat up in bed, her senses fully alert now.—“It’s okay. What happened?” —“Do you remember when I told you that I felt there was ...

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The End of All Eras

Submitted to Contest #292

Rot didn’t miss red.Six kings had fallen since The Blotting, and still, he grieved all the colors—all but that of his namesake. Seeing only black pour from battlefield victims made it easier to grant them peace. Made it easier to do Emethara’s bidding as Heir to the Plague.The Shepherd of Mercy.The grayscale suited Rot. In his first years, every sight of red brought bile to his throat—a terrible irony considering his origins as a butcher. There were nights that he wept by his scythe, hating himself for taking up this abhorrent mantle. Now, h...

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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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