The Dragon’s Choice

by Olivia Alcabes
I ran. That’s all I could think about. Running. Running away from the palace guards. I looked back to see them right on my heels.
I know that I’m fast. I’m faster than my mother, my father, my baby brother (of course), and my older sister. But palace guards were trained to be fast.

Scar

by Caleigh Boyer-Holt
Darkness. Gunfire. The silent padding of paws on the new-fallen snow. The darkness worked to her advantage, because she had a flowing black coat to hide her. She was racing against the aerial plane trying to kill her and Ismir. More gunfire.

Skipping Stones

by Ana Henry
I promised my father
(when I was twelve, on
the cusp of something
unknown to both of us)
that I would learn how.

Left Over

by Julia Case-Levine

Sometimes it’s the silence that’s the most painful. The line goes blank, and I can’t help but think, “God, I wish I could have broken it.” If only there were things I could have said—if only the words that I mouthed, the ones I meant to say, could have emerged with concrete, tangible intentions.

The Candy World

by Rahul Mistry

George Beard had lived in his house for a year. He got up at 6:30-ish in the morning, took a shower and had some breakfast. After that, he watched TV and played football outside. Every day, from noon until 2:30-ish, he went downstairs to write comic books.

The Hidden

by Philip Flannery
Archie Anderson was a regular boy. He had regular friends, went to a regular school, and had a regular family. Like I said, he was a regular boy. But it all changed one night–the night before his thirteenth birthday, which, that year, was on Friday the thirteenth.

Life as a Vampire

by Josie Gritton
There once was a girl named Juliet who had just moved in to a new house. She was searching through her basement and she found a coffin. It had black squiggles along the edges and a big “V” engraved on the top. Next to it was a big box that said, “WARNING”

Harris versus The Unknown Person

by Joshua Fu
Harris Burdick was 18 years old and he was a very curious person. He was walking around his neighborhood one day when he heard an unknown person talking really low–so low he could barely hear him–through the window of a small house.

Alex, Ra, and the Mystery School

by Leyu Negussie
Alex Widdton had just eaten five pancakes for breakfast and was putting on his new blue winter jacket and black sneakers. He was whistling as he thought about meeting all his friends at school.

Painting Mishap

by Haroni Amare
I slammed my locker, receiving a dirty look from the boy next to me. I never learned his name and was already half way through the year.  I didn’t know that many names, so I wouldn’t have considered it a big deal. I wasn’t the type to have many friends. It was just me and my best friend, Carl.

An Unlikely Adventure

by Nadav Oren
Ms. Manning’s class has a Field trip to The National Mall. Weird things start happening. A chaperon falls asleep and misses the station. The bus is late. A bee flies around The Jeffferson Memorial. No one brings money for lunch. It’s all up to Harper and Mendel to find out what is going on.

Crime, Dogs, and Chocolate Chip Cookies

by Johanna S
I watched as the moving van pulled out of the new house.  I could see the silhouettes of the old owners in their car backing out of the driveway. The sun was setting behind the new purple house; it was about 4:30 PM on a hot, late July evening.