Hiraeth – by Rhonda E Carper

With her right hand at one o’clock on the steering wheel and left hand deep into a one-pound bag of Mister Bee potato chips, Aunt Mary Jo remarked, “We’ll just keep going until we get there.”

I Miss the Stars – by Melissa Grace Reeve

In the summer, it’s not dark until well after he should be asleep in bed.

When Will You Drink from Me Again? – by Valerie Hickey

I arrive in a midnight storm bursting from an angry cloud

Grit and Determination – by Alex Clare

The gorse bush, where my fingers were currently buried, jutted out from the slab with a brash confidence.

Ice Fishing – by Stephen Garrett

Eventually, the trees end abruptly and you are at the lake, an expanse of white, bounded by trees and ice-encrusted granite.

The Weight of My Own Voice – by Finnian Burnett

“We saw you look,” the girls’ voices echo in my head as I run out of school, all the way home, panting and crying by the time I reach the front door and, “Boys don’t go to dances with fat girls,” my dad tells me.

Don’t Be A Beethoven – by Allie Guilderson

Listening to Morgan playing through her pieces, I began to feel that familiar jealousy creepy into my stomach.

Upstream – by Ramona Eloise

When I was fourteen—no, thirteen (gee, maybe even earlier?), the chronic pain began.

God Loves The Sinner, But Not One Like Me – by Suann Amero

Turning from the window to look at Mom and Dad, I watched as she zipped the last bag and he pulled the blankets up over the pillows in his sloppy man-version of making the bed. Mom was vibrating with anger. I had no idea why she was so upset, I was just thankful that her anger wasn’t aimed at me.

Little Cabin in the Woods – by Andrew Shaughnessy

There was no trailhead. Rather, I should say that if there was a trailhead, we couldn’t find it. I grabbed the metallic tube that my parents called a ‘torch’ to join Bill in the search. I flicked it on only to realize that, compared to Bill’s floodlight, my flashlight had the candlepower of, well, a candle.