WRiting Contest #3 - Story Script
laureate Category Winning SUbmissions
Scattered
By James Zhang
First Place, Laureate Category
My best friend Oscar stopped talking to me one day. All of a sudden, he started looking past me like I wasn’t even there. It felt like the pieces of my life had been scattered, and I didn’t know how to put them back together.
Oscar and I had been best friends since the start of kindergarten. We lived minutes apart, walked to school together, and spent every recess building imaginary worlds out of playground equipment. The swings became spaceships. The gravel field became the moon. The jungle gym became treacherous mountains we had to climb.
But every great story needs a villain and that role always seemed to fall on Kevin. Kevin never complained.
Kevin struck by a sword. Kevin bruised by boulders. Kevin dramatically defeated at the end of every adventure. Every single time. And he never complained.
Looking back, I hadn't always been as kind to Kevin, yet that didn't matter to him when I needed him most. When one day, the pieces between Oscar and I just didn't fit the same way as they used to.
I chose someone else as my partner at recess, leaving Oscar alone and hurt. He stormed off the gravel field declaring that we were no longer friends.
Just like that, everything fell apart.
I remember sitting on the ground crying, feeling embarrassed, confused, alone. Then someone came over.
It was Kevin.
I couldn’t explain what was wrong, so he didn’t ask. He just sat with me. Inside, he sat next to me on the carpet. At lunch, he made silly faces until I laughed. By the end of the day, I felt lighter than I had that morning.
The next morning, Oscar and I walked to school in silence while our moms talked behind us. Finally he asked, “Friends again?”
“Best friends,” I said.
Kevin was happy to see us together again and we started giving Kevin different roles. Instead of Kevin the villain, sometimes it was Kevin the hero.
I moved the next year, and I never saw Kevin again, but I still remember how he was the one that made all the pieces of my life fall back together.
Exordium
By Doyoung Lee
Second Place, Laureate Category
Once upon a time, in a place without a name, there lived a brother and a sister. Perhaps they were born there, or placed there by some omnipotent being. They themselves didn’t know how they got there. But they had each other. And that was all they needed.
One day, in the place without a name, the siblings came upon the ruins of an ancient city. Within the decay, they found a metal building where a metal sea churned in a metal heart. The brother was uninterested, but the sister was mesmerized. Seizing a hammer she set to work, striking and melding molten metal. Soon, she created the first piece of art the place without a name had seen in ages. She placed it before the metal heart as a gift.
After many years, the place without a name was decorated with the creations of the sister. Among them was her magnum opus: a beautiful statue glowing with her perfection. The brother however, blind to his sister’s pride, declared the statue imperfect. He took a chisel to the work, molding it in his arrogant vision. Having finished, he turned to his sister, expecting her to praise him. But his sister did not praise him. She did not praise for ignoring the beauty of the original form. She did not praise him for shaping her work to his whim. And as the defiler failed to recognise the beauty of the statue, he failed to recognise the white hot flame of hate forming within his sibling.
It had been done. The sister was in disbelief, the consequences of her actions set in motion. She had done it. No longer would she be oppressed by her brother. She stared at the prison of her making. There was no doubt that he was beginning to realize what she had done. But the time to find peace with her actions would come. For now, she walked, for there was much to do.
Icebreakers
By Aiden Tang
Third Place, Laureate Category
Summer camps were some of the best memories during my childhood. And I loved summer camps because of the friends, activities, and skills we learned. But there was one thing l never really liked doing. Those little icebreaker activities we would have at the beginning of camp to get to know each other. I never really understood why we did those. We were just expected to sit in a circle with five other complete strangers we’ve never met and answer questions on the spot? That was way too much work for an “introductory exercise,” especially for a 7 year old at 8 am in the morning who didn’t even know what was happening! I remember the camp counselor telling us to each say our name and what our favourite scent was in the whole world. Now that I think about it I should have paid more attention to the answers my fellow campers were giving because they were normal and generic. Some said they liked the smell of roses, some said they liked the smell of their parents’ cooking. But when it got to me, I, in my confident 7 year old voice answered, “Hi my name is Aiden and my favourite smell in the whole world is the smell of underground parking lots!” I don’t think it clicked with me at the time that the answer I gave for the icebreaker activity might have heavily decreased my chances of making friends with the other campers. That only became obvious to me later when I realized no one really wanted to be my friend. I suppose that day I didn't just break the ice between the other campers and I, I made the ice even thicker. My mom picked me up from camp that day, parked in the underground parking lot. That's when I realized I didn’t care what the other campers thought because this was my favourite smell, and no one could take it away from me!
A War Nobody Wins
By Jon Yin
Honourable Mention, Laureate Category
The grand and glorious ‘Crab’ empire seemed like a paradise. But it was built on the backs of the crabs. The turtles who were the actual rulers kept everything to themselves: seaweed, shrimp and most of all, their energy producer, jellyfish.
In the empire there was a crab named little Johnny. One day he snuck out of work to explore the deep sea, and he discovered a glowing neon pink jellyfish. Although little Johnny didn't know it at that time, the jellyfish had magical powers.
Perhaps due to the transparent nature of the jellyfish, as soon as it touched little Johnny’s tongue, he could see through the turtle's schemes. He realized the crabs were just tools for the turtles to use. This angered Johnny as he wanted the crab and turtle races to stand on equal footing.
He tried going to the jellyfish energy plant where the jellyfish were supposedly converted into energy, but all he saw there was his fellow crabs working their butts off by peddling little eight pedal bikes to produce energy. Johnny used his marine camera and took a picture and narrowly avoided being caught by the turtle guards.
When Johnny reported his findings to the crabs, they were furious and stormed the turtle palace. The turtles, with superior technology, fought back ferociously. The crabs on the other hand, fueled by their anger, fought like wild beasts and cleared the way for Johnny to reach the turtle king. Johnny prayed for the safety of his friends and rushed to the king’s chamber. He pushed open the dusty doors and with a thousand-year old croak, it revealed the towering turtle king.
Little Johnny fought valiantly. He crawled all over the giant king’s back, snapping at him with his pincers like a mosquito. But the turtle king was too big. The turtle king was too strong, from eating all the jellyfish. Johnny was left near death about to be crushed by the king's giant-like foot. A tingling sensation started in Johnny’s tongue and spread through his body. Suddenly, he emitted a bright neon pink light with his powers from his pincer and blasted the turtle king away. But, the shockwave was too much for little Johnny to handle and everyone in the palace was cooked to perfection.
Turtles and crabs. The empire was dead, and no one gained anything, except the jellyfish who took over and created a whole new peaceful civilization.
The end.