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

5380+ 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 300 of 359

The Boolean Code (TW: minor blood and death)

Submitted to Contest #76

Special thank-you to my own computers teacher who is the kindest teacher I have ever known. *** For everything that I know, there is so much that I don’t. While I know how to keep a child engaged while learning even the most boring of coding languages, I don’t know how to explain the bruises. While I know how to make an amazing task bar with flashing rainbows and unicorns using CSS, I can’t explain the sudden weakness or how it suddenly hurts to breathe. I wish I could tell them. About this. *** “We’re sorry. We could have saved you if y...

41 likes 67 comments 67
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Coffee?

Submitted to Contest #76

1. The car was parked, convenience store neon stretching across the lot and sputtering out 2 parking spots away. We were staring at each other instead of ahead, and for the first time I realized that our collages of one another were imperfect. He did not know me.  “No,” I said. My breath was coming fast, I could feel it oxidizing through my arms or my legs, not quite reaching my wrists. “Don’t tell me what you think. We were- are- so much better implicitly.” “What are you?” He laughed a bit, more of a sigh. The light was low, a lone ...

10 likes 1 comment 1
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Aftermath of Overthinking

Submitted to Contest #76

‘You can suffocate a thought by expressing it with too many words,’ a quote by Frank A Clark. Even the most complex thoughts and emotions could never be matched by simple words. Metaphors and similes can only go so far in this world of literature. I wish I could be mysterious with every sentence of mine to contain hidden meaning, or would that be too much? Too intimidating? Or not enough, and not reach the expectations of others? Or perhaps, I’ve over thought about this once again.  My thoughts o...

11 likes 2 comments 2
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Shades of green

Submitted to Contest #76

There’s a little pot of flowers on the windowsill behind the sink that I stare at every time I get yelled at. She’s got a grey clay pot. Not charcoal-colored, and not exactly ashy either. I’d say she looks kind of like steel, other than the fact that she’s matte, of course. She looks the same as the pots and pans in the kitchen, or the microwave and dishwasher. Everything in here is kind of the same, which is helpful because whenever I get yelled at my eyes just dance around to all the grey objects I can find. I have a game where I try to co...

7 likes 1 comment 1
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The day my daddy lost his laugh

Submitted to Contest #76

The day my daddy lost his laugh Wordcount: 2835 Written by Johan van Rensburg It’s a stare-off. Little Steward stares at the man in the doorway -and the man stares back. It’s kind of funny, the seven year old braveboy in front of the dirty somewhere-around-thirty fellow.  More awkward than funny, though. Little Steward beholds the torn and muddy shoes, from which the big toe clearly gasps for fresh air, to the two sizes big jacket that clearly dated at least three centuries ago which stinks and clearly cries out for Nenn...

5 likes 0 comments 0
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An Overdue Reunion (Part 2 to Next gen)

Submitted to Contest #76

Harmony and Arren were sitting on the couch and had been deep in a conversation. "Come on, what took you so long this time? Hades and Persephone usually let you leave for a while much earlier..." He faintly fidgeted with his fingers as if he was thinking about something, he sighed and finally said, "Oh you know...Persephone just really wanted to be with us a bit longer. And maybe something else..." Don't ask any other questions, please don't ask any other questions. He'd probably be upset if anyone else knew, Arren thought as he fidgeted...

65 likes 356 comments 356
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A normal day on the job with Mrs. Anderson

Submitted to Contest #75

"Alright, Miss Anna was it? How can I help you today?" A woman sat with her legs crossed, her blouse barely fitting over her bosom, tight slacks hanging just above her ankles. Her crocodile print sandals were ugly enough to gag at, but her client paid no mind. This time things would be different. This time she would turn her life around. Mrs. Anderson adjusted her cross shoulder bag, pulling out a lip gloss from within the depths of that horrid flowery pouch, the leaking perfume scent rising out into the air, flooding Miss Anna's nostrils...

1 like 0 comments 0
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To Be Him or To Be Me

Submitted to Contest #75

"I didn't touch it, Arlin, and you can't prove I did!" Nebula yelled, stabbing Arlin with her index finger.  "I don't care if you did!" He met her intensity. With a breath, he continued, "I just want to know who fixed my tablet." "Even if I did, don't think you could catch me with that lie. You've never thanked anyone in your life." "Not to you. You mess around with everything… what… what is the sound?!”  They walked out of the hall into the main room of HQ. Nothing was there, but the noise persisted.   They took a f...

23 likes 2 comments 2
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The Ultimate Chess Player's Guide to Happiness

Submitted to Contest #75

Disclaimer: I don't actually play chess, so sorry if I got some of the details wrong. With that being said, enjoy!Chess strategies lined up in my head as soon as I glanced at the chessboard, waiting for me to pick and apply one. The board was made up of exactly 64 squares, 32 white and 32 black. It was a perfect mixture, one that I loved. “Next up, Varsha Vimal playing white, and Zelene Gilbert playing black!” The announcer declared. This was the biggest chess tournament of my life, it was the state tournament and it was being broadcast...

65 likes 226 comments 226
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Marked

Submitted to Contest #75

Trigger warning: Mentions of self-harm and abuse You’ve cried a lot, I bet.You can deny it if you’d like, but I’m sure you have. You’re human, after all. From big buff men whose job, they think, is to protect everybody, to train-wrecks of little girls who wail when they don’t get what they wanted for Christmas—everyone’s cried. And I’m no exception. Although I’m not exactly human. It’s 2142, and people call our planet old-fashioned. They say we’re behind the times, looking back on us the way, a century or so ago, those on Earth loo...

13 likes 2 comments 2
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Two Ways to Fix a Failing Grade

Submitted to Contest #75

Rosalind stepped off the bus, backpack tightly strapped to her back. She had thick lipstick applied, practically drawn on, to change the shape of her lips. She applied a soft contour to her cheeks to take away from her sharp jawline. Her pockets had a couple pairs of plastic gloves, and she took several deep breaths to calm her nerves. She wore the best running shoes she had. There was no way she was going to fail and retake a course as pointless as Art History. It was a required class, and she couldn’t fathom why. She couldn’t care les...

2 likes 0 comments 0
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Fortress of Solitude

Submitted to Contest #75

“I’m ready,” I declared, “I’m ready to get out of this house and explore the world,” I grinned at my parents. They smiled back at me, a sense of relief painted across their face as they gave each other a sideways glance, “We’ll help you,” Dad said quietly back “we’ll do this together.” --- It was a school like any other, so I’m not sure why it had to change my life; ruin my life before it had even had a chance to begin, in essence. I was an average teenager, as in to say there was nothing extraordinary about me and I was just like every ot...

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Cat Got Your Tongue

Submitted to Contest #76

“Hey.” “Hey yourself.” “No, I got you something.” “Okay.. And why?” “Because I just think you’re pretty neat.” “No, I mean why.” “That is the reason.” “But I’m not ‘pretty neat’.”  “That’s my opinion, and I’m entitled to it.” “Someone is in a bad mood.” “How am I in a bad mood?” “What, you want me to play nice just because you got me something that you refuse to even tell me about? It must not be so great since you seem so embarrassed about it.” “That isn’t why. I just don’t think that your mom would like it.” “What is that...

12 likes 2 comments 2
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Tavern Dealings

Submitted to Contest #75

The night was reaching its peak at the old tavern on Conjuror's Row. Inviting orange light spilled out of the windows and onto the street. The air inside was mildly opaque, both in the sense that smoke billowed from the pipes of relaxing adventurers and that the atmosphere of the place was one that begged for anonymity. It was for this reason that the nymph lounging in one corner frequented the place. Her gaze shifted continually around the room as she nursed her drink: an amber-colored brew that never seemed to empty.Between muscled adventu...

6 likes 3 comments 3
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The Fixer With A Broken Past

Submitted to Contest #75

Madelyn Badeaux was a name that was renowned and admired by all. She was a woman of great distinction that carried herself with great pose and she treasured the fact that she could turn the most wretched of people into upstanding citizens. She was the best therapist in all of England and she could certainly get anyone’s life back on track. This mere fact was evident from the lives of her patients. She had a way around people and knew exactly how to fix a multitude of problems, nothing was too big for Madelyn. Except maybe one man could disma...

3 likes 5 comments 5
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RBE | Illustrated Short Stories | 2024-06

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