Fiction
Blackbird Fly. Top Story - January 2024.
The Basket It's a Monday evening on May 24, 1965. It was slightly chilly with a light breeze blowing. A young lady wearing a long overcoat with her face covered by a scarf walked up to the Fire Department in Anaheim, CA on Ball Road carrying a small basket with a blanket covering the top. It was around 7:00 pm and the activity in the area was light. She walked up the sidewalk to the entrance of the fire station and she left a small basket near the door then quickly walked away around the corner to her car and drove away.
By Rick Henry Christopher 3 years ago in Chapters
Desert Dealings
The inn of Gadgetzan was dim and smoky, reminding the blood elf seated at one of the long tables of an ogre den somewhere in the ruins of Alterac, where once--when he was a much younger man--he had excavated for iron. He sipped absently at a cup of something fermented. He couldn't put a finger the name of it at the moment, and what it was slowly doing to his lower intestine was just as unknowable. He watched the door though, blowing an ungentlemanly burp out of the side of his mouth, waiting for his contact.
By Ashley McGee3 years ago in Chapters
The girl that drowned.
She's "the girl that drowned". I am flipping through an old photo album, which is odd, because no one really has them any more. But I found one I made when I was a child. My own daughter had found it, and had been adding some of her photos to it. I picked it up and idly flicked through it... and suddenly there she is.
By L.C. Schäfer4 years ago in Chapters
1st Appointment
I sat in front of her for the first time, nervous, embarrassed, with a small flicker of hope still left in my sullen eyes. Each time I landed in this spot was different. I had a different motivation, or excuse, a possible dismissal sitting in my arsenal for anyone who wondered why.
By Bugsy Watts4 years ago in Chapters
The Stones of Serin - Chapter 3
Stepping into the small windowless room has the eerie feeling of walking into a secret. The walls on either side are lined with grand bookcases—the one on the right is filled with printed books and the one on the left with photographs and various mementos. Katie gazes at the books and begins pulling some from the shelf in a strangely uninterested and yet determined manner.
By Risen Writing5 years ago in Chapters
Bette On It: Weird Adolescence
Continued from Senior Year June 1, 2004 The evening of graduation and Bette had taken a nap in the afternoon before she got her cap and gown ready. The school used to rent nice ones, but in the last few years, they switched to ones that were basically disposable. That night Bette wore a sleeveless teal V-neck blouse, a denim knee skirt with her black leather belt, and Mary Jane shoes. She stuck a white-out pen in her pocket before she left her bedroom that day. She prepped her backpack with a change of clothes for the all night graduation party that would immediately follow the graduation ceremony. All the students would board buses and go to the event center and get locked in and have food and sodas and get to enjoy the place all night with games, fun, and entertainment. The same event center Bette and Ozzy went on for their first date. Before leaving, Bette and her family had dinner at the house. It was a simple dinner of tacos, fruit salad, and flan for dessert. Bette's grandmothers and grandfather came from out of town for the dinner and ceremony. There were lots of pictures taken in the yard of the house. When John and Lorna took Bette to the ceremony, they let her know that they would leave Lorna's car at the event center for after the all night graduation party and Bette could take it home. John and Lorna volunteered to do clean up at the party and hadn't told Bette about it until the drive to graduation. She wouldn't have talked them out of it, she wouldn't have been embarrassed by them, but she was surprised all the same. She just thought she was going to get picked up by John in the morning. The car was a last minute surprise if she wanted to go out and get breakfast with her friends or anything like that. They gave her the car keys and she stuck them in her backpack. They dropped her off at the local college gymnasium where the graduation was held before parking the car. Public North's auditorium didn't have big enough accommodations for the graduating class, families, faculty, and band; weather was always too iffy to have it outside. As soon as Bette was dropped off, she took out the white out pen from her pocket and got to work on her cap. She wrote on the black cap "❤ MOM & DAD." Where her parents were up on the gymnasium bleachers, she knew they would see it.
By Tinka Boudit She/Her5 years ago in Chapters
Bette On It: Weird Adolescence. Content Warning.
WARNING: Depicts graphic sex Senior Year 2003-2004 Bette was sad to miss the first day of school. She spent the morning getting discharged from the hospital and picking up prescriptions with John. She looked through the other mail that her parents didn't bring to her including her class schedule. Now that she was a senior, she had nearly all her required credits to graduate. She had to take enough classes to make her transcript look good and she could take a couple interesting classes and arrange to not have a last class period again like she had last year. She didn't need to take a math or science. She was required to take Government 12, and for her English class, she choose the creative writing course. Everything else was open. She signed up for psychology and sociology which were each a semester course. She signed up for the life skills class that spent half the year teaching them to cook and the other half of the year teaching taxes, budgeting, resume building, and other things she would actually need to know after graduating. She also signed up for photography. She was never artistic with her hands, but she knew what she thought was beautiful, and she hoped she would learn how to better capture it.
By Tinka Boudit She/Her5 years ago in Chapters
Bette On It: Weird Adolescence
7th Grade 1998-1999 Bette was determined to start the school year different than the year before. She had grown a bit over the summer and wasn't wearing clothes from the kids section of the store anymore. It was fun to actually develop a sense of taste in clothes. For her first day of school, she picked out a pair of designer jeans from the second hand store and a V-neck olive green shirt, a grey zip up hooded sweatshirt, and her hair out of her face in a headband. "Why don't you kids dress up for the first day anymore?" Bette's mother Lorna asked. "It's new Mom. New is nice." Lorna hadn't bothered to try picking Bette's clothes for her since second grade, and they were both grateful for not having to worry about the other. Lorna took the customary first day of school pictures of her daughter and sent her off to the bus stop.
By Tinka Boudit She/Her5 years ago in Chapters
Bette On It: Weird Adolescence
Bette Wheelan is growing up. She is growing up through a world of changes, friendships, boys, confusion, sex, and heartache. Her childhood years molded her with teasing and bullying but got through it with a couple of good friends and two loving parents. And now she’s about to break the mold through her teenage years. Like all teenagers, she learns what gives her power and who makes her weak in the knees. This is one girl’s story from 7th Grade to graduation. Being a teenager is weird. You can bet on it!
By Tinka Boudit She/Her5 years ago in Chapters
Bette On It: Weird Adolescence. Content Warning.
Continues from... WARNING: Depicts graphic teen sex, mentions of suicide Junior year 2002-2003 Bette waited at the bus stop with Cassandra. Cassandra had tamed her look. She wore tight-fitted jeans, sneakers, a fitted pink plaid shirt with a complimenting blue one underneath it. She wore her hair in a ponytail and lots of eyeliner. She was still perky but it didn't feel as fake as it used to be. "Morning Bette. Now those are some crazy pants."
By Tinka Boudit She/Her5 years ago in Chapters
