Spark a Story
Page 16
The landlord had gotten off the I-95 and was late; he had promised them the pump by nine. And he was especially anxious to find out if there’d been any damage done to his couch and damn one of his headlights was out and he was checking his watch and comparing it to the one in his truck and wondering why it wasn’t the same when he saw something on his right some woman probably that new mother he always did like her looking wide-eyed looking down and he looked to the street where it was too dark to see what she was pointing to.
Contributors’ Notes
TAL BAJAROFF is a ninth-grade student at Miami Beach Senior High and lives at home with her family of seven. She enjoys the arts but hasn’t really considered herself a writer so much as a singer (so much that she has her own band). She wrote this short story with her stepsister Ella Rabino, who she claims is the only thing—along with the dogs—keeping her sane in a house so full of people.
KAYLA BERNHOESTER is seventeen years old, and she has been writing as long as she can remember. She’s an award-winning artist who fell in love with theater, music, and artistic design. She plans to attend Webster University in St. Louis to pursue video game design or acting.
JARYN BLAIR is from Phoenix, Arizona, and is a student at Sandra Day O’Connor High School. She enjoys reading, writing, and drawing. She loves spending time with friends and family and seeing the world’s sights and cultures. Jaryn participates in theater and writing club at school. In the future she hopes to pursue her dreams of becoming an author or a physical therapist for animals.
NIKI BORGHEI is passionate about books, literature, philosophy, language, and art. Since fourth grade, she has been in love with reading and writing, which seem like magical tools to create and travel to new worlds. Her favorite things to write are short stories and poetry. Niki also enjoys arts and crafts, including bookbinding and calligraphy. In the future, she hopes to start a business or become an English teacher. Her dream is to continue writing throughout life to inspire people to follow their dreams.
CARLO DI BERNARDO is a junior at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois. Surprising circumstances brought him to the United States; he used to wake up in a small village in southern Italy. This is why his stories always take an unexpected turn. He loves to create his own music, has a passion for cooking, and cannot stop playing soccer. “The Sickle” is his first published story.
A dedicated student, loving daughter, and friend to all, KYLA DUHART’s interests vary. She loves to photograph nature, advance her knowledge in math, and, most importantly, follow the path God has set for her. She is on the honor roll, has received a 4.0 grade point average, and is a six-year attendee of Centerpoint Church in Colton, California. Her future goals include a math profession, continuous attendance at her church, and to be everlasting friends with her best friend, Athena O’lear Thompson.
ADELLE ELSE resides in Alexandria, Virginia. Writing, art, and photography have always been strong passions of hers. In the future, she aspires to travel the world, seeing as many places as she can, seeking to capture them in words, photos, and on canvas. Much of her writing inspiration comes from places she has seen and the nature around us. Some of her favorite places she has visited are Dubai and Hawaii. She has earned a black belt in tae kwon do and is proficient in four languages. She intends to keep writing and see where it takes her in the future.
BETHANY HALL wants to become a high school English teacher. She loves to play piano, which she has been studying for six years. She is the youngest of six children, and her father is a pastor. She has won two other writing awards from Scholastic.
The author of “Only a Fool Would,” AAMNA HAQ is currently a high school senior in California. She loves reading, especially mystery and science fiction novels. She is involved in journalism, creative writing, and STEM, and hopes to be able to pursue work in all of these areas when she is older.
ANNIE HOANG is a fourteen-year-old student from Portland, Oregon. She lives out most of her days enjoying the rain, learning new things, and hanging out with family and friends. Every other moment is spent delving into fictional worlds and inventing her own through her writing. When asked what she wants to do when she’s older, her answer is constantly changing, but her goal in life is to make a positive change. She would like to thank you for reading her writing (including this very-awkward-to-write biography), and hopes that her words have given you something to take with you.
MORGAN LEVINE is a poet and junior at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas. She is a two-time finalist for Houston Youth Poet Laureate. When she’s not doing homework, she’s drinking coffee, playing soccer, or being inspired by her beautiful and strange friends and family. She enjoys comfortable silences, Mark Rothko, and collaborative playlists.
SIMON LIU has always been interested in trying new activities and experiences. He is a member of the Herricks High School student government, treasurer of the garden club, as well as a member of the cross-country team. Currently, he is very interested in learning more about the technology that powers our world as well as taking an active role in his community. He is fascinated by how vast the world is and the infinite possibilities it contains, and his aspiration is to never stop learning and pursuing new ventures.
AELA MORRIS is eighteen years old and a student at Evanston Township High School in Evanston, Illinois. In addition to writing, she enjoys playing the violin, editing her school’s literary magazine, and volunteering. She has won several local poetry contests and wrote a monologue that was featured in the Statue Stories Chicago project. Aela’s future plans include studying creative writing and history in college.
RUSHALEE NIRODI is currently a senior at Mission San Jose High School. She is an avid reader, and her favorite series include Harry Potter and the Shadowhunter Chronicles, but she is always looking for something new to read. She also loves performing and is currently applying to colleges as a musical theater major. She hopes to continue writing throughout her life and is always excited to start working on something new.
JOSHUA PECK has had a great fascination with audiobooks and has listened to hundreds of books. He started writing seriously in high school and has written a few dozen short stories. While much of his early work is not very good, he believes that even the bad work he has written has taught him something not to do next time. He also enjoys camping and has hiked nearly six hundred miles. He is currently a senior and is looking to pursue a degree in creative writing and earn his teaching credentials in college. He hopes to spend a few years as a high school English teacher and maybe write full time one day.
Storytelling has been an important aspect of HANNAH PERRY’s life for as long as she can recall. She keeps a journal and pen with her at all times, and is always turning to new people and experiences for inspiration. During the summer of 2016 she entered and won the high school division of a local essay contest for Kids’ Standard magazine. She has taken honors English throughout high school and is currently enrolled in AP English as a junior. She enjoys participating in the writing club as well as in forensics—competitive public speaking—and she is one of the captains of her school’s team. Hannah hopes to attend a good college and pursue a degree related to writing so that she can include her passion for storytelling in her career.
VICTORIA RICHARDSON is a homeschooled sixteen-year-old and has been writing stories since she was eleven years old. Her favorite things to do include spending time with family and friends, writing stories and reading books, and acting and singing onstage. She’s always been interested in writing, and has lately been looking into becoming a social worker—right now she’s waiting to see where God wants her. She’s very excited to share her story with you and hopes you enjoy it. Soli Deo gloria!
DESTINY TRINH is currently a senior at Kennedy High School in Fremont, California. She is part of many different organizations including DESI (a Bollywood dance group), the Vietnamese Student Association, her school’s ASB, and tennis, for which she was a captain
for the past two consecutive years. During her free time, she enjoys reading, dancing, listening to music, and, of course, writing. Her goal is to major in English in college.
GRACE TWOMEY is a sophomore at Apex Friendship High School in Apex, North Carolina. She has won many schoolwide writing contests and has been published twice in Saplings: The Carolina Young Artists’ Magazine. In 2012 Grace moved from New York to North Carolina with her parents, her younger sister, and her dog, Cocoa Puffs. In her free time she enjoys reading, playing guitar, and, of course, writing.
AMELIA VAN DONSEL is a senior at Waltham High School in Waltham, Massachusetts, where she is the editor in chief of her school’s literary magazine. Her work has been on display several times at the U.S. Department of Education and published in numerous anthologies and magazines, including The Best Teen Writing of 2015, The Best Teen Writing of 2016, and American High School Poets National Poetry Quarterly as a national winning entry. She has also received gold medals and regional awards from the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. After graduation, she intends to pursue a college degree in English and continue with her writing.
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