The Freedoms

by Alex Won
I… am Jacob; but just note that I prefer Jake. I don’t know my last name because I’m an orphan. I am currently fourteen years old, have rather interesting friends and am bound to die at some point… but that is another part of my story. It all starts when I was twelve, in the year 3011. World War III and global warming has reduced the human population down to roughly three and a half billion.

Lie Crafter

by Miyu Nishio
I don’t know much about myself. I’m not lying to you now, but it’s part of my job. I don’t have an official title or anything, but I call myself “Lie Crafter.” I guess this might be normal, but I’m scared of burning to death. Oh, and I’m not that scared of death itself. Burning myself is what scares me.

The Blank Canvas

by Reagan Bledsoe

Margaret.
That was the first word Felix thought of when he woke up from his prolonged sleep. The woman’s name was imprinted in his mind for reasons he couldn’t recall. He lifted himself unsteadily with one arm, the cold metal table he was lying on creaked as he did so. The room around him was dark, the only light escaping through the holes in the ceiling.

I Lay Still on the Deck

by Noor Sullivan
I lay still on the deck. Small waves crossed paths with the boat on their way to shorelines thousands of miles away, colliding once with the fiberglass and continuing tirelessly onwards. I would never see or hear of them again.

Stranger

by Rebecca Clarke
“Bye guys! See you later!” Sophie yelled at her friends as she rushed to get home from school. She knew she was already losing time and had to start her history paper as soon as possible. She ran as fast as she could to the bus stop, as her bus was going to arrive in about one minute.

Competitive Nature

by Haley Callicott
While some may view competition as substantial and acceptable when lightly portioned into our lives, there are still others (including myself) who find a simple “friendly competition” to be very frustrating. As a child, I had never been the fastest runner, the smartest student in the class, or the funniest person out of my friends.

The Dare

by Emily Eagle
Why am I in here? What does this stupid key go to? Why is it so important to Hannah? None of this would have happened if I hadn’t agreed to do that dumb dare! The dare….

My Friend, SID

by Anna E Primosch
Dr. Rob Robertson plunked himself down on his rocking chair, ready to give eight long hours of loving and understanding advice to the overly emotional numskulls of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area (and receive sixty-two per cent of the $135 patient fee for each and every one, plus one-dollar-per-one-minute-late fees).

Lost in Time

by Sean Pendergast

It is done. Finally. Four years of research and hard work are over. And Tom and I have finished it before Hunter and his crew. I can’t believe it. A time machine. And we test it in two days.

The Boots

by Ryn Purcell

Looking out across the ocean, young Lewis Bonham thought about how he had arrived there. He habitually grazed the triggers of his guns with his fingertips, feeling the smooth metal, worn from years of use. These guns had been his father’s, and his father’s before that. Now it was Lewis’ turn to go forth and carry on the name of Bonham.

Lady Lillith and the Magnificent Margaret in the Sinister Story of the Sea-side Sludge

by Tess Burroughs
She had the loveliest pair of pinched eyes, with two thick, black braids framing her budding face. A set of oval glasses rested on her milky nose. Her lips were fragile and thin, like two pressed daisies, even when she was talking about ridged subjects such as these.

Jose’s Beginnings

by Marwan Lloyd
L.A. Galaxy, my hometown soccer team. There was no better place to start off my fútball (soccer, to all these Americans) career. The day was March 15, 2011; it was my first day. I, 18-year-old Jose Miguel Santiago, was about to receive the first start of my professional career against L.A.’s fierce rivals, Chivas USA.