Congratulations to our Teen Contest Winners!
Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 03:27PM 
Wow! We had a lot of outstanding entries for this contest! In upcoming weeks, we'll try to honor some of the other particpants. But here are our choices for the winners. We were so impressed by their imagination, vision, passion, and just plain writing ability. We hope you'll enjoy them as much as we did! Please give them some love in the comments! Happy reading! Anne and Ellen
FIRST PRIZE:
Starry Night
By Sharon L., age 13
Too many people passed the old store without a glance. The run-down, rickety shingles were beginning to chip, the windows clouding over with the dust of the decades. Too many people had too much on their minds. Disillusioned by the mantra that life is too short for novelties, too few are staying behind to linger among the ashes of the ages. Yet one old woman spared the poor shack a glimpse. Soft, shimmering bells clinked as the door opened.
…
I found there to be something missing as I grasped the jade necklace. The jewels were carved from the millennium-old stone of the ancient world, the dragons’ fire from the depths of the heartland. My grandmother gave me a warm smile as I gently placed the string of pendants around my neck. “You are beautiful, my treasure.”
…
A little girl wanders around the crowded little apartment. Her parents are protective, watching her every movement to ensure that she is safe, though safety should hardly be a concern in the one-floor rented apartment. She toddles and falls, only to continue her ambling towards a shiny green box. It opens to reveal a string of beads, lustrous in the light of the dull floor lamp. A ribbon is intertwined within the package.
…
The conglomerate of food is hard to distinguish. One platter blends into another, one dish the same hue as those adjacent. The smells, though, overwhelm even the moist glimmer of the sauces mixed together. I try to take a single bite, but somehow another slice ends up on my plate. “Eat, eat!” Fingers pick up chopsticks, hand flitter to and fro, arms nudge other arms. I take a bite of everything.
…
An old woman lifts up a baby, less than a tenth of her age. She is positioned on a high chair, precariously set above the ground. The baby lifts up a bowl and a chopstick and waves around the odd pair until chicken and broccoli plop into her mouth. She drops all and happily chews. Food is presently on her mind.
…
We are running outside, the rainbow of paper, glue, and fabric growing ever higher as the breeze lifts. I feel a nostalgic twinge in my chest, but ignore the darkness as my cousins' squeals lift as high as the kites' path. I squeal for a moment myself, lost amidst the flurries of flight.
…
She sat down while the older woman carried her. Her eyes opened for a moment to allow the sight of beautiful box-shaped kites to cloud her vision. Fish gliding across the clear blue skies, dragons’ tails trailing with the strands of white, yellow squares brighter than the afternoon sun shining down. “Never forget.” She looked up at the woman carrying her and saw a tear trailing down her wrinkled skin.
…
We sit on the grass at night. The sun has finally set and there is nothing left for us inside. The grown-ups tell us to help out, so we take a stroll to the park and come back. Now lanterns are being hung from tall poles, tents being set out. A gazebo with high crimson arches dots the horizon, firefly lights brightening the darkness of the night. I feel the weight of a soft round pastry in my hand and a smile slips out. Mooncakes are my favorite.
…
The gazebo was decorated for this occasion. Not a single corner went unlighted. A tall brown table was set up for the occasion, a bowl of oranges resting in the center. The family looked above the rising hill. While their little girl munched on a fresh cake in the shape of the lunar sphere, they noticed the absence of neighboring lights.
…
My friend had texted me a while ago. “where r u? stop hangin out with those geeks!” Not a thought is wasted on ancient traditions and values, especially not in our bustling age of speed and movement, movement, movement.
…
There was no one familiar outside. The girl shrank up against her parents as she heard words she did not yet understand. “Go back, you Chino!”
…
I looked at my family, all settled at the dinner table, the lively chatter overriding all the darkness of the still air outside. Still, I feel that there is something left unsettled. Without another glance, I flipped my cell phone closed, stood up, and planted a gentle kiss on my grandmother’s tender cheek. “I will never forget.”
SECOND PRIZE:
Accidents
By Dani B., age 16
And I know how it would happen, too.
She’d stand there, fumbling with the lipstick cap, and I’d wait for her to get it. I’m courteous. I’d wait until she twists the red up, like a bloody finger pointing at her, and that’s when I’d clear my throat.
I know I’m awkward. But sometimes that’s what’s needed.
She’d find me in the mirror, pretend to be concentrating on her eyelashes or whatever, but really she’d be sizing me up. And then, when she thinks she knows me, that’s when I’d speak.
“You know, your sister’s messed up.”
She’d turn around. God, I hope this would be important enough to her that she’d whirl around completely and then I’d see her full face. People always look different when you see their whole face.
She’d look surprised, but she always looks surprised. Maybe that’s why she gets the leads in the school plays. I wanted to go to the last one, but I was tired of her acting.
That was a week after Joyce switched therapists.
“Excuse me,” she’d say. No, that’s too prissy. I’d like to think this would catch her off guard enough, take away all her bullshit until all she’d be able to say is, “What?” I think the whole world runs on that word.
I’d look her straight on. That’s the one thing I know. I’d look at her, right there, so direct that she couldn’t look away. I think she’s one of those people who no one ever looks at, really; they just see what they think they know, and she lives up to it.
“Joyce has a problem,” I’d say. I think if I worked really hard, I could keep my voice even. I’d swallow, but keep on facing her, trying not to move.
I love how neat that sounds. A problem. Like it’s all wrapped up in a little package, tied up with string. Like she’s just a dog who did her business on the carpet or something—“Joycie had a little problem today…” or “Joyce had an accident.” That’s another great one: accident. Not the word, but the concept, that it couldn’t possibly be your fault. That you can just say to someone, “It was an accident,” and all will be forgiven. All must be. Because the next time, someone else will be the one who fucked up—not to blame them, of course, totally out of their control. What a joke.
Joyce had told me it was an accident the first time I caught her. We’d been changing for gym, Joyce in the corner, having to borrow a tank top from the Lost and Found. I saw the red lines, little railroad tracks, and didn’t understand.
“Joyce,” I said. “What happened?”
Joyce had slithered into her sweatshirt. Hadn’t looked up. “It was an accident,” she said finally. Then she walked away.
I had been thinking of the little accidents—a series of paper cuts, a dropped kitchen knife, scissors gone wrong. The acceptable accidents you can shrug away. I thought that because I wanted to think that. It took me a while to realize how true those words really were.
Because problems can be accidents too. Especially when you make them for yourself.
That’s what I’d tell her anyway. And then her mouth would catch on the word—“Problem?” she’d repeat. Maybe she’d tell me I was wrong. Or maybe she’d ask who the heck I was, who I thought I was.
Either way, she’d piss me off. There’s only one thing I’d want to hear, and that’s that she knows, that she’s doing something about it. Except part of me would be hoping that she wouldn’t say that, because then I couldn’t lash out at her.
No hesitation. That’s the best and worst way, right? I think it’s worth the risk.
“Your sister had a problem!” I’d say again, my voice rising. “Joyce is really messed up, and you act like nothing’s wrong! She’s going to die you know, she’s going to, LOOK AT ME, SHE’S GOING TO…” I’d swallow, act like I was trying to hold it in, but really I’d be gathering more. I wouldn’t want to leave anything unsaid. “You’re going to lose her!” I’d say. “Do you know that she cuts herself? Almost daily? Do you know how ashamed she feels of herself, how she had to hide it? Do you know she throws up? DO YOU EVEN KNOW WHO SHE IS? You can’t act like this is okay! LOOK AT ME, YOU CAN’T DO THIS ANYMORE!”
I wonder if she’d hit me. One slap, across the face. That’s what I’d do. The truth’s a bitch. But then she’d think about it, wouldn’t she have to? Wouldn’t she watch out the next time Joyce goes to the bathroom after dinner? Wouldn’t she check the desk for the razor I know she had?
Wouldn’t she read over Joyce’s shoulder the next time she texts me, “I can’t handle it today”? Wouldn’t she be the one Joyce could talk to, she’d be the one…
Just not me. Please.
Not me.
I know it would happen that way. I know it, and so when she walks in, I finish braiding my hair like it’s nothing. I watch her pull out her lipstick.
And then she drops it. An accident. I kneel down to help her pick it up, and my body feels like it’s pulsing, and I hand it to her and look her straight in the face. Her whole face.
And I have to stop because of how much she looks like Joyce. I look down and the sleeves of her dress are loose, and they fall back to expose her wrists when she reaches for it…
And she knows I’ve seen her. All of her. She takes it, reddens slightly, nods thanks. Then she teeters out on her high heels, leaving me with the nothing I was going to say, with the trail of accidents down her arms.
THIRD PRIZE:
To Think of Wednesdays
by Emma S., age 14
When I get up on Wednesdays, I’m either going to school, path A, or I’m staying in bed for a while longer, path B. If I take path A, I’ll be arriving in homeroom promptly one and one half minutes prior to the start bell at eight. If I take path B, I’ll be thinking about how weird the word “Wednesday” is when I cast a questioning glance directed at my calendar. I will think of how the n comes after the d, but we still pronounce the n before the d. Or so it seems. On path A, I will participate in playful banter amongst my friends, making the jokes of perverts and sailors. On path B, I will think about the English language, and how on its transition to America, it’s been somewhat slaughtered or recreated like a phoenix. On path A, I will not raise my hand to answer the question of whether or not this leaf is a dicot or a monocot. I truly have no understanding seeing as I didn’t do my homework because of a feline eating my pencil.
On path B, I may get up eventually from the warm burrow in my blankets as my body is pressed against the mattress, but I can hear the rodents chattering, which means someone has entered my lair. On path A, I will wait until the bell rings after 35 minutes of drooling trolls. But on either path, I will see the demons, the shadows, and the sons of the light. School is filled with the trolls and the growls and claws of the educational establishment. Home is filled with the demons and the shadows and the haunts of past kinsfolk blotches and storms.
I will take the torrents of my flaming anger out on the soft fluffy pillow as I turn into the roaring lion raging out of the hurt I feel from poachers hunting down my brethren. And after I calm down, the ice freezing over the flames, although it takes a while, and I will give my cumshaws to the rodents and felines of which I have frightened as I came up clawing and biting, spitting and hissing. And I sit, looking up at the window, calming down. But the burns and the singes of the flames still remain. I look at my feet, which slap across the cement floor of the dungeon as I cross to the window looking out at the moonlight, which may pass through the muddy glass, but I cannot feel through.
And so, on either path, I cannot feel the cold embrace of the night’s mother. For I have my own mother, and no matter how much I wish it weren’t true sometimes, my mother and my father and my family, are my moonlight.
And so, I wake up Thursday, shooting a questioning glance to the calendar. I wake up from the dreams of my falling back asleep on path B or falling asleep during the lecture on path A. And I am no longer the lion who has iced over and the window is no longer reflecting the moon and humans are humans once again. The trolls have left, and so has Wednesday.
Reader Comments (119)
I have to say I didn't understand any of these stories very well... but I do think that the first one was quite beautiful :)
I really loved these stories. Out of all of them the second one is my favourite. The ending was a jaw dropper. All of these are very well written, and they deserved to win. Congrats guys! :)
great! those are great stories! i agree, they are hard to understand, but thats what makes them beautiful! i love the last one, the first one was rather confusing at fist, i'm still trying to grasp the meaning, bu simply superb, and the second one was really good! you guys all deserved to win! keep on writing.
(Dont get me wrong, just cause their a bit confusing, they are not bad! dont change them! thats what makes them special, unique, and outstanding!)
for all those who didnt win (like me,) dont give up! everyones writing is amazing in its own way. imagine how hard it is for anne and ellen, to choose three best out of ALL those great stories!
um, sorry, but the second one has a LOT of swear words!
the first one i am still trying to figure out, the second one had a lot of swearing, and the third one i felt was trying a bit too hard to be great and had a bit of rigidness and would have been better if the author relaxed a little and let the words flow. those are the bad things about them. Now here are the good; the first one had great description! the second one showed what life can really be like and can kind of relate to it. the third, i loved the title and the matter at hand; FINALLY someone else besides me gets how strange and out of place Wednesdays are!!!!!!!!
green eyes is right. wednesdays are sooo out of place!
i really like the second one, but theres like every swear word in it! its great, but young kids will be reading this! great job otherwise, love the last one, first one is beautiful! you all did great!
haha! No one, and Someone! great!
I liked the second one best, but was all the profanity really necessary?
hey!, i just found this, the day, and after reading all the contest winners, i have discovered i'm not the only writer out there! FUN! there are some great stories here!
the first one is BEAUTIFUL! i can see why Anne and Ellen chose it. sorry, but frankly i cant really understand the entire message of it, but thats what makes it so special! i really like it!
the second one is great to, an interesting message, VERY welll written, and a story you really have to stop and think about, greatjob, but i agree with everyone, i dont think the profanity is necesary. your welcome to use it as much as you want at home, school, your other stories, but there are young people reading this, that may have not been introduced to some of the words youve used. their parents may not be too happy. some contests have benn won by 9 year olds!
the last one is my personal favorite. i like the creative metaphors and descriptive and intruiging ways you wrote everything. i really was struck by it! i absolutely love it! brilliant.
i love your book Anne and Ellen by the way.
great author names btw. "Someone, " and "No one" and "scribbles" is awsome! "green eyes" would be a cool name for a story, but thats just random, cause i'm writing a story called Red Eyes!
i probally wrote too much. i blab.
great site and stories! hugs! (> '_')> <('_'<)
hey new person! love that little hugs pic. i'm gonna have to use that.
just saying great job to everyone again. and to the second one, though i dont like the profanity, i stilll like the story.
KEEP ON WRITING!
please DONT give up! And i speak for everone (i hope!) when i say this is constructive critism. all your stories are great, and all stories arnt perfect! just some encouragement in the midst of all theese mixed feelings during this contest.
Thanks to anne and ellen to all their hard work!
New person welcome! thanks for liking my name and if you liked these stories you can also go back through the archives and read winners from past contests. every story that has won something (including these) have been great! Also check out past story starters by Anne and Ellen which are always fun.
Welcome to the site, New Person!
oh and glad you like my name :)
hi all! thanks for being so welcoming!
its sucha nice feeling to be greeted cheerfully by complete stranges. well, i guess not anymore now i know your code names.
i LOVE all the past entires. i really like the great beggingings post, and Haley D's story starters are FABULOUS. thats so cool she was featured. i love all the stories, and especiallly love the post on books. they should do anouther one of those.
scribbles, this is completly random, but do you like doodling by any chance? you know, because fo "scribbles"!
thanks again, green eyes, do you REALLY have green eyes? (If you do, totally jealous!)
and someone, love your ideas on the story starters before haleys, all of your ideas for that matter.
your conversation on their was quite entertaining (In a good way! all the writers talking, fun.)
anyway, i'm blabbing agin arnt i.
see yah.
i really got to shrink theese posts i am making. sorry!
hey new person! thanks for the compliments! your posts are fun to read so not to worry!
this is for everyone, you dont have to answer if your worried about idea stealing, but i'm all of a sudden curous what type of stories youve been writing!
i just finished a 12,177 word story about the loch ness monster, my first novelette. im woking to make it a novellla, then maybe a novel! im right now working on book two, just finisheda story that i may enter in a contest about a girl whosethe most popular in school, but hates it cause everyone always thinks popular girls are jerks, and am working on a story fromt he point of view of a coin.yeah i know, a lot.
Aw! Hi new person!!! Thanks! I'm really happy you enjoyed my pictures!!! :D I was so happy too, to know that there's other people besides me who love writing :) I actually really like your long posts! I thought I was the only super talkitive person on here!!! Haha it's nice to see I'm not alone in that matter :) Welcome to Spilling Ink :)
I found the first story quite beautiful :) It was a little confusing, but amazing at the same time! Good work! <3
The second I could connect with too, as of I have a friend who has a cutting problem... it sucks. But agreed with everyone else, the cuss words weren't needed to get the point across. Little kids could've read that! Not good. But it was well written too :) Keep writing!
The third was kinda confusing too, but hey, it was still awesome! :D Keep writing! Nice flourishing words! Nice change from the common teenage slang haha.
Anyway, great job to ALL who entered, and keep writing!!!
Oh. I'm working on many tiny bits of this and that which might hopefully turn into a story soon ;) Also I'm working on a fantasy about a girl who lives on an island that is alive. The island has feelings and likes to please it's people. Glass randomly grows into buildings and stuff for the people. But the girl isn't happy. The people who rule that area of the island ( the island is called Glassica and the girl's home's name is Pika.) Are extreamly strict. And there's like, more, but you know.... You can just read the book if I ever manage to get it published haha.
Anyway, what's some of y'alls ideas or stories you're working on? I swear not to steal them :) That's just plain cheating. :)
So welcome again new person! What is your name? I feel like I should have a code name now.... how about Claire Clearwater? Lol.
Thank you, authors of these stories, Anne, and Ellen! Your writing has really inspired me to start my own writing again. Congratulations to these great writers, and all the other wonderful writers who submitted: keep writing!
Thanks for all your great comments & observations, everyone. Anne and I love hearing from you!
@Hayley D. I'm in such a writer's block right now :) I can't seem to write something that I can KEEP writing, so like I'll start a story and then have to drop off because it sounds too much like something else that already exists or it just falls apart the more I write it. But your idea sounds great! I promise I won't use it :)
Some of my ideas recently for my stories have been like a boy who the first thing he remembers is running through the snow for his life from his pursuer, a secret investigative organization made of kids... stuff like that. I just can't get it off the ground. I've tried that whole idea where you just push through the writer's block, but I can't. If anyone has any advise, that would be great.
Thanks!
@ Samantha. Dude. I TOTALLY undertsand that! Oh my gosh, I've started on so many little things and stories but I haven't finished any. Yet. There was this one about some cat or something like that, that like found some secret cat secret agent thing. Haha that was a LONG time ago. Then I was working on a book about a bird that was a detective....then I decided to write about something not involving animals as main characters for a change.... and so I wrote about this girl named Lark Dixie who lost her sister at a very young age. Some creep stole her and her dad was involved with something to do with an agency.... and then I was writing this thing about a girl and her best friends - two girls and a guy- who like came together from strange circumstances.... and oh my gosh there's so much more!!! So since the agent, detective, animal thing wasn't working, I've been doing music related and fantasy writing lately. Maybe you just need to switch to a diffrent genere (sorry I forgot what it's called lol) or whatever. I hope this helps! Oh, and thanks :)
yes, new person, i totally love doodling (and writing) so i named myself scribbles! oh and plz do NOT stop blabbing!!!! its so much fun to read when u do :)
I'm currently writing stories about a girl and her pet cheshire cat, a depressed woodchuck, and a goldfish who gets transported into the pacific ocean (don't ask...just don't ask...)
Samantha (thats my name 2, btw) i constantly have writers block, too! ugh i hate it....so so much (melodramatic sob)
when i get the 'block of death' i set the timer for like ten minutes and just write. it doesn't matter if it's weird or dumb or doesn't make sense - just WRITE! you can always revise, just get over the bump!
LOL hayley d i think we all go thru that dog-or-cat-whos-a-secret-agent phase! at least i did...
well i'm off to play rehearsal, so ciao for now!
- Scribbles
PS pretty soon you'll have to change your name, new person!
hi all! thanks for your friendliness!
my name is Inez. i know. wierd name.
i LOVE doodling. i tried keeping a doodle diary, but everything turned into them! serosly, my sermon book my dad made me do, turned into some words from the sermon, and the rest of the page drenched in doodles and scribbles! even my math textbook was covered in doodles surounding the equations. i looked through a old one, and actually found a story idea had jotten down and forgotten about!
Haley, oh my avacados i absolutely LOVE your story! (the island one!) i read a story about a princess in a castle and the castle is alive! read it, "tuesdays at the castle" by jessica day george.
that sounds FABULOUS! i am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO reading that when its a newyork times best seller! ive changed my name to The Blabber. what do you think? or, um.. i dont know. suggestions?
samantha, i feel your pain. i HATE writers block!
i'm writing this story, and i read it out loud to my friends at church, and they keep on begging me to write more, but i'm STUCK! they arnt writers so they do NOT get it!
AUGH!!!!
anywhoozle.
scribles i love your ideas! the goldfish one sound interesting! very much! when i was six, i was writng a story about a alligator (Yes, a alligator) that was bought as a pet, and the girls dad flushed it down the toilet as a baby, and it lived in the sewers, and befriended a talking beetle named steve, and well, yeah. i also wrote a story about two dogs named coco cola and pepsi. strange, yes.
at the current momment, i am writing bits and pieces and struggling to ind an idea. how do you guys get ideas? I"M STUCK!
samantha your idea sound so cool!
writers block help:
at night, (well, thats when i do it.) play through the things that happen in your story in your head, like a internal movie. then, when you come to the end, thinkl of what would be cool to happen. try out each one, playing the scene, seeinng if it fits. you may end up finding one, and sayong, ooh! then THIS could happen, then if THAT happened, THIS could happen, the... etc. thats what i do. or i shove it in my draer for a month, and read it fresh, and i usually say, oh duh, it would be totally awsome if THIS happened, why didnt i thinkl of that earlier?
hey new person/ The blabber!
so cool ideas, but kinda creepy, not ideas but,
1: i have the smae problem at church
2 my middle name is Inez
3: i love "Tuesdays at the castle"
4; i am also writng a story called Red Eyes.
5: I say anywhoozle to!
THATS whats creepy! :) are we long lost twins by any chance?
i agree with new person. haley your ideas are AWSOME! and samatha, and EVERYONE!
scribbles, your idea is so cool! poor woodchuck!
i was writing a story when i was 9 called "My dad's a super spy"
keep writing guys!
i'm writing a book called Salami Dog, (Go ahead and laugh! everyone does when they hear that!)
its about a stray, who is found by Darlene, and she hates him, (He eats all her salami, a quirk, so she names him Salami Dog) and after he ruins her job, gets her fired, and makes her think hes ruined a date and the guy hates her, she kicks him out. but then feels bad and depressed without him, and goes after him, car crash, salami saves her, i dunno. something like that!
then... theres the book two to Lake Monster, (See last post!) but i cant explain that unless you read the first.
keep on writng and keep the comments coming! i love theese conversations, and i love talking with you guys! your like my mutual friends! hee hee. so... Haley, two samanthas, Inez, and of course Ellen and Anne!