A boy sat alone in the library a few tables away from me. He was reading a Harry Potter book, and I couldn’t help but think he was the cutest guy I had ever seen. He had green eyes and brown hair and wore dark black glasses that made him look similar to Clark Kent…

Carrie sat in her seat, popcorn on her lap, waiting for the feature film to start. She wasn’t feeling the usual excitement she would get from going to the cinema, this had been killed off when she saw her seat! She knew it was a petty thing to get annoyed about, after all, the main…

Keke carried the weight of his dark life everywhere he went. He was raised by parents who were notorious criminals. Keke’s family had almost everything they wanted, but he knew it and never liked it. He was infamous in both the community and at school. Rumors circulated about his toxic and erratic family.” He was…

Emma blamed her red hair for her bad luck. The fiery strands had earned her nicknames like “Carrot Top” and “Matchstick” growing up, but now they just served as a reminder that she couldn’t blend in—no matter how much she wanted to. Living in a cramped apartment above a thrift shop, she’d spent years scraping…

She doesn’t remember the exact moment it happened, but she remembers when her mother slowly, yet surely, stopped allowing her to be in her arms. She must have been about three or four years old when the warm embraces became less frequent, the affection more distant. Maybe her mother didn’t mean to shut her out;…

This illustration was done by Kristi Coghlan who is our writer, Karina Coghlan’s mother. Two hands and a nose press up against the window pane, trying to get a better look at the storm outside. The moon’s glow and the twinkle of stars are hidden behind dense rain clouds. Only the light from the house,…

One wintery morning in early March, I bumped into a handsome guy while walking my golden retriever, Honey. The caramel latte I was carrying in my hand spilled all over the new light pink coat my grandmother gave me for Christmas. The guy blushed and said, “Sorry, I didn’t see you there. My name is…

It’s an early morning in January, and I’m sitting in front of my fireplace, drinking a warm mug filled with hot chocolate and toasted marshmallows, thinking about how wonderful the winter months are. Snowflakes are falling outside, the Christmas festivities are over, and the scent of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies in the oven awaits…

The air smelled of fresh rain and blooming hibiscus as Elena walked down Calle Sol, the cobblestone street glistening under the faint glow of the early morning sun. It was Valentine’s Day, but she didn’t feel the usual flutter of hearts and red roses. She felt… hollow. A year ago, this day had been a…

One beautiful snowy morning in December, shortly before Christmas, Grace was listening to Frank Sinatra’s Christmas album and baking chocolate chip cookies in her kitchen when suddenly, she heard a loud knock on her front door. She opened the door to find a small family of Christmas carolers singing “Christmas Time Is Here” from the…