To all, I shall first address the probability that I have sent this with false coordinates. I sincerely apologize on my part, for my foolish mistake, of which, will never happen again. Therefore, I extend my greetings to any foreign recipient. If you would kindly dispose of this report or simply ignore it, your efforts will be greatly appreciated.   This leads me to my second matter. As A9005, I report my findings of a boy and a girl. Located...

    My friend said something really real to me a few days ago. We were in Java class. I bet you can picture it, gray walls, long desks, lap tops placed in front of each student, them busy clacking their keys. A mundane buzz of "do you get how to do it?" and "can you show me?" I had asked for my lap top back when she made a weird face. Now confused myself, I asked her "what?"
    "You...

you are an effigy of nonchalant affection
ripped jeans in the snug corners of a hollow december
i think you knew what i meant when i said nothing—
unsung feelings, glances laced with vitriol
you watched me sink into paperback novels
i lived in my head all the time


you did not understand me playing
tic
tac
toe
with my emotions, bleed as they might
for lyrical mastery 
and the intricacy of a sob story
but i reeked of apathy,...

   Characters:
Alexus: Female. Alexus is fifteen. She enjoys math, flowers, and Peppermint Tea. 
Karl: Male. Karl is Alexus' cousin, sixteen years old. He spends his time failing tests, to prove that they don't really show what he knows.
Trisha: Female. Trisha is fifteen. She longs for out-of-this-world adventures, and is always trying to take grafiti to the next level.
Bark: Male. Bark is from Out of Time, and loves shocking people with his entrances. Bark feels age does not...

I’ve always struggled with friendship. I’m extremely good at making new ones, but maintaining them has always been the problem. I always would heavily rely on them. It weighed both of us down. In my middle school years,the swarm of hormones hit everyone like a hammer pounding a nail. As a young transgender boy still trying to figure out who he was, it was a time of insecurity and acne. I lost many friends due to us growing apart or...

Happiness is when my violin sings under my fingers and my bow.

    I love to write about my pets and I also love to hear about other peoples' pets. In this competition you may write anything about your pet or pets. It may be a story, a poem, a single line, or a paragraph. Even though the title is "Furry Friends", any pet is allowed to be the pet that you write about, even a goldfish.  

Words: 1-500    
Deadline: October 15th
Prizes: 1st Place- Three reviews for work...

The moon is always changing. She starts thick and wide, full as a beach ball. Then she gets smaller, until she's small as my finger. Then she grows again. Why?

The moon is not a guiding light. She does not shine for others. She is but a reflection. A chunk  of rock to busy changing her appearance to notice the sorrows of people.

She changes her looks all the time, not accepting the true beauty she is.

The moon doesn't...

    She could feel the morning mist start to tickle her toes. She laid down a bouquet of lilies and a paint-chipped comb.
    “I knew you’d forget it.” Her hand instinctively reached for the glossy, callous granite that bore his title, and almost just as instinctively, she began to weep. She wept not because he was gone but because she was left behind.
                                   ...

Saturday morning, Miss Alice Witchka walked into the Brewing Diner on the corner of 43rd Street.
“Good mornin’ William,” she yelled across the room as she hung up her hat.
“Mornin’ Alice.”
“Say, you seen the paper this morning?”
William stood behind the counter serving plain old black coffee to a customer who was doing a word puzzle in the said paper.
“No, haven’t had the time. This mornin’s been real busy. But I gotta stack right here. Anythin’ worth...

Human Connection
By Allie Shafer
    Throughout my life, I have had many human connections, but there is one that has always been more important than the rest. It is the one that I have with my sister. We are twins and have gone through almost everything together. We have a very strong bond and we have always been close. My mother says that friends will come and go but we will always have each other. I did not realize that...

Florence stopped me, right before we walked into the dining hall. "Are you sure you don't want to sit at another table?"
"No, it's fine. I've been sitting there for two years. It's the last day of camp. It'd be awkward not to," I respond. That's me: prone to ranting when I don't know what I'm saying.
Florence grimaced. "It's gonna be fine. Are you going to confront him?"
I shrug. "I'm just going to say I can't believe he...

This is currently an unedited version, therefore there are no indentions and whatnot.

Chapter 1
 
“Haha, nerd!” some boys run across the hall laugh- ing. They pass a girl who they shove away, making her fall. Some more boys follow after the first group, chuckling. Eric, a boy standing next to her getting some things from a locker, glares at them and yells back, “She isn’t a nerd, she’s just smarter than you.” With that the boys slunk away...

I was three when I gained the skill of my mother’s native tongue.

    My adolescent mind has lost the memory of those moments to cram my mind with formulae and history of people not my own, but my mother showed me a video of a smiling cherub struggling to navigate the terrain of our deck, legs splayed either side of her brightly-coloured vehicle. It was little more than a child’s luggage with wheels, but the words streamed out of my...

Personally, I think our generation of children; even adults, spend too much time with a screen in their faces. Take my parents and me for example; I used to be addicted to gaming until my parents encouraged me to stop. I was actually getting bored with gaming, but since I was addicted, I couldn't take my eyes off. The irony is my parents look at their phones A LOT.

But, I realize now that
I don't have friends other than...

green walls that we always joked were the face
of balamory, childlike laughs that hugged
the warm air (when the heating was on) and 
smiles over the chatting of the TV.

the rush of the motorway, right next
to the garden, gentle hums guiding me 
to sleep on those restless nights, speckled with 
stars and blessed with hugs and goodnight kisses.

always fun despite the tension of Wales 
and England rugby matches, the despair 
of money problems and me, constantly  ...

    Does time exist? Is it a concrete, linear function embedded into the laws of the universe? Or is it trivial, created inadvertently by humans in an attempt to understand the complexities of the world?

     Whatever time may be, there never seems to be enough of it. Billions of years between now and the “start of time”, but we only get a fraction of that. Is it enough? Can we, in these meager years, gain enough knowledge to unlock...

in your stillness
you scare me
perhaps it is the moonlight
that makes your skin too pale
or the lack of wind
letting every hair hang
without movement —
i am not sure
you don’t even blink
just keeps your eyes
on the lake
like it whispers secrets
only to you
what do they murmur
what do they scream
what do you think
of me?

Self-respect, to love yourself in every way, to see the beauty, even if it's in the flaws. To have self-respect, is to be content, with the person you are inside and out. Even if, you have to change, self-respect is the justification in your own thoughts. That is what I call self-respect.

Their quickening hearts burn,
As they wait for that bounce.
At the strike of the hand,
The tables will turn.
With every bounce,
They must see the land,
Where the ball will strike.
Back and forth,
'Til someone takes a hike.
Because of the hit that they'd miss coming forth.
 

I often find myself
Quite bored,
When intelligence
Is a desired longing.
From human conversation,
To something that would test
My skills.
But I often find my desire tested,
When the world revolves around
A topic or device that I cannot relate to.
So I ask,
"How is that going for you?"
"Does your brain become wiser?"
"Do you find true happiness there in your virtual world?"
 

It started long ago, 
But now it has come to a new low. 
What once was green, where once children played,
Is now engulfed by the fire and the flame.
Where once was friendship and love, 
There is hatred and distrust, and no hope comes from above.
Because it has been swallowed, in an inferno of fear and blame,
By the fire and the flame.
Where once there was life and prosperity, 
There is nothing but death and animosity. 
All...

Tumbling waters and tidal waves
Lost again in a deep blue sea
Shattered hearts and broken dreams
But at least you're here with me.

So I'll hold you tight
And wipe away your tears
We'll let the rocking waves
Cradle all our doubts and fears.

A place we know too well
We've all been here before
Let's make the stars our lighthouse
And guide us back to shore.

In suburban Sydney, where the grass is withered and warn, and the steak is always past its diary date, lay Tim lying underneath the bedsheets of his room. He was quite a peculiar child. Although he was terribly smart for his age, and had short, muddy locks seducing any girl in his grade, Tim kept an incorrigible secret. One which muddled every aspect of Tim’s mind, every day and night. One which caused him in this very moment to sit...

Her ancestors used to lead a pleasant life,
Free of pain and strife.
But that all changed that day,
When the huge black ships moored at the bay.
The pale apparitions that came with the ships claimed the land their own,
And suddenly, so many things were gone.
Her whole life she had been oppressed, silenced by force,
The invaders’ hearts cold and their eyes without remorse.
But not everything was gone. Her beautiful children she still had,
Their love...