Read Previous Winners Works 2023 – Dymocks Beyond Words

The longlisted stories from Beyond Words are here!

The Week Without Grandma

Ruby
Year 3 - NSW

As Tess walked into her room, she admired her sparkly, purple bedspread. Her grandmother had bought it for her birthday last year. She adored it. Smiling softly, Tess looked up and saw brown eyes reflected in the window. Kind eyes, just like grandma’s. She lived with her parents, Molly and Theodore, brothers Toby and Tom and her beloved grandmother Rose at the bottom of a steep slope at the outskirts of town...

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Freddie Wants A Friend

Isaac
Year 6 - VIC

Here we go again... I thought as I walked into Gardenvale Grammar. I thought through for what seemed like the millionth time what my mum had always told me: I was a kind, good natured boy that was fully capable of making friends.

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The Last Stripe

Ariana
Year 5 - VIC

Tasmania: September, 1936 Only the Two-Legs are worse than hunger. They had taken everything; my friends, my family, even the food. Long ago, they say, the Two-Legs were different; they did not kill for pleasure, and took only what they needed. Not like these. These wore strange smelling pelts from head to foot, as if afraid to show their true selves. And they had the bang sticks that spat fire and roared death.

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Cremation

Owini
Year 12 - VIC

Festering high above the veranda is the sweltering stench. I know what lies under these floorboards. He, however, does not. “God, this heat, it doesn’t feel real,” he says, glancing sideways at the thickened bush. He’s been eyeing it nervously for the past twenty minutes but has now relaxed a little. His shirt is crumpled, it looks expensive. The collar is pointing up on one side the same way it was when he left some time ago.

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Apocalypse Mornings

Isabel
Year 10 - VIC

The cotton sheets stick to my thighs as I roll over. The orange sunlight spills through the window and splays across the room, hitting the back of my head as I lay half off the bed precariously. Silvio steers himself through the maze of books and contaminated clothes that lay in piles like landmines.

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A Perfect Date

Evangeline
Year 10 - NSW

It was Autumn and the whole world knew it; each cafe illuminated with the warmth of pendant lights, French jazz streaming out of cracks in the brickwork, streets lined with the delicate suggestions of leaves. Kate sat in the heart of a cafe, gnawing on her lip, flinching each time the cafe door swung open, bringing in with it swirls of wind and wafting chestnuts.

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The Beach

Caitlyn
Year 7 - WA

The waves sail and crash gently on the shore. Blue as the sky, foam like white clouds, leaving abandoned treasure for seagulls to sweep up in their claws. The breeze smells of salty seaweed, dark and curious.

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Love, The Body

Chloe
Year 9 - TAS

The air was bitter like acid rain as I stood next to you, on the edge of the high rise in central Chicago, coughing down my fear and choking on laughter that rattled my bones. You held me at the crook of your arm, my hair whipping your face in the wind. You swallowed. You breathed. Why did you do this to me? Didn’t the gun feel too heavy in your hands? Were you not sad as you pushed me, flailing, innocent, off of the roof and into the sky? Why didn’t you cry?

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Ebbing Away

Esther
Year 6 - NSW

It was one month after my eighteenth birthday when I first noticed that my right pinky was missing. A small nub was left in its stead, as if I were a waning fragment of the moon or an unfinished drawing by a careless artist. Nonetheless I had housework to do, so I paid it no heed and continued with my life. It has only progressed since then.

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Stuck

Adeline
Year 5 - TAS

I am 11 years old. And I have never left my house... I make it my job to keep everything in order. As if the incense can mask the smell of fear. My room is always tidy, mimicking myself. No sharp objects are allowed and no shouting. My home is a haven of peace. But something is always missing. It makes the night seem longer and my feet seem heavier. A true friend.

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The Land of Forgotten Music

Jasmine
Year 4 - NSW

I banged on the black and ivory keys in frustration. My heart was pounding so fiercely I thought it was going to leap out of my chest. My gaze drifted towards the window. I could see the neighbours’ children playing happily in the sunshine, giggling and chatting away. My insides filled with envy. Why did I have to be stuck in here, practising this tedious piece? The ball of rage in the pit of my stomach threatened to explode. I could feel the tension building as my fingers flew angrily across the keys. Chopin’s Etude rose to a crescendo, and suddenly, everything went black.

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Paint Baggage

Leyi
Year 12 - NSW

It was the day the carnations started rotting when you got the phone call. You sank to the floor, banged your head on the kitchen island and a trickle of blood slid down the side. You then sat on the steps of the house, overlooking the cul-de-sac with a bottle of vodka, downing the entire bottle over the next four hours. You remember the wind that bit into your face that day, taking chunk upon chunk until it took so much the pain subsided.

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Forged By Flames

Adya
Year 6 - NSW

The forest that once used to be thriving, now frightened Alfred. Due to the sweltering heat, he was shaking and felt dizzy, not only from the scorching temperature, but also from gazing at the black, cindered trees. As Alfred’s eyes scanned the desolate landscape, he was met with a vision of devastation. Tall, skeletal remnants of oncemajestic trees reached towards the sky, their charred and blackened trunks stark against the backdrop of an ashen landscape.

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Feathers and Flight

Adeline
Year 7 - VIC

Soft, fluffy clouds like a chick’s feathers drifted across the skies. The tweet of Spot Feather brought Swift Feather’s focus back to the nest. “No luck?” Spot Feather asked sympathetically. “Nothing,” Swift Feather sighed, her blue feathers fluttering with her unhappiness. Spot Feather gave her white belly feathers a nuzzle. “You’ll get it someday,” he reassured her. “I took heaps of time!”

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The Man, The Myth

Olivia
Year 10 - VIC

Giovanni Amadei was a man of three minds. He was not some misunderstood comic book hero - though he may have fancied himself as such in his youth, a childhood spent stealing the centrefold of his neighbour’s newspapers, watching L’Uomo Mascherato defeat pirates in skintight lycra. Nor was he one of those strange mutants like in his aunt’s pulp novels from the corner store, despite growing up in Sessa Aurunca, a block away from the Garigliano Nuclear Plant.

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Life Beyond the Fridge

Lac
Year 5 - VIC

Eggs. Delicious, funny shaped thingies. You probably eat them every day. Though have you ever wondered what it’s like to be born from a chicken, then put into a fridge to be later taken out and eaten? You probably haven’t since you’re not weird like me. But if you did, I shall tell you a tale about an egg called Eggward...

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Ribboner

Emily
Year 12 - QLD

“Between a girl’s life and death, there lies a red ribbon.” The words were faint under thundering drums, banging down the tunnel in an ominous echo. “The weak fall beneath it, unworthy to be called women.” My breath came fast and heavy, choking on dust as the next phrase reached my ears. I forced myself to ignore the clang of chains bouncing along the corridor, waiting for the distant announcer to speak again.

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Afterlife

Sophia Cyan
Year 7 - VIC

The wedding bells chimed, a melodic chiming coming from the nearby town. It was almost time, a beautiful warning. A magnificent arch, decorated with flowers ranging from vivid lilacs and pink roses, stood tall and grand at the end of the aisle. The benches were full, flooding with guests wearing suits and prim dresses that reached their ankles, mingling with one another. We were in the middle of a meadow. A meadow which I used to play in as a child before I moved to the city.

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The Unseen Light

Camilla
Year 6 - NSW

The howling of her baby cousin pulled her like gravity towards the bedroom, smooth, cold wooden floors shifting to rough, soft carpet. The fluffy blankets and cushions were peeled away and suddenly soft but firm pressure on her fingers and warm laughter brought a broad smile to her face. Thunderous footsteps echoed down the corridor and a lightning voice cracked through the air

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A Bedtime Story

Aditya
Year 6 - NSW

“So, what story shall I tell you tonight?” I ask as I ease myself into a chair. I’m not as fit as I once was, and arthritis has claimed my tired legs. But letting that interfere with the story? No, that just won’t do. So I settle in, and wait for Priya’s response.

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Zombie Within the Cage

Leon
Year 12 - QLD

During the most frigid of autumn days, a young man exchanged four cans of soup for a bag of ice chunks. He freed a hand from his pocket and extended it for a handshake, but the supply merchant did not reciprocate. An elbow from behind jagged his side and thrust him into the ground. The offender took up the young man’s spot in the queue and he was forgotten

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Curse of the Pirate King

Patrick
Year 6 - NSW

John Roberts, self-proclaimed pirate king of 1720, was alone in his cabin. Sunlight streaked in from the cracks in the Royal Fortune’s wooden planks, warmed his flesh. He could hear blasts from his forty cannons’ blowing apart enemy ships, sending their wreckage spiralling to the bottom of the sea.

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Cellotape

Sri
Year 11 - NSW

They had punched me in the face this time. My glasses were knocked off . Last time they had kicked me. It was certainly an improvement. I dropped to my knees onto the wet grass. Blobs of colour splattered my vision, the school football field was reduced to a thick whirl of colours. The sky was gray with large towers of cumulonimbus clouds clearing, the storm was over and it was the calamity after the storm that everyone was anxious about. My hands frantically searched for the glasses, my fingernails caked with dirt as I ruffled through mounds and mounds of grass.

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Alan! Let's Go!

Auley
Year 3 - VIC

Library assistant, Hilary, announces to the listeners of Rochester village on 91.5fm that the first person to reach the local library will win a bright yellow, ninja warrior, bouncy castle. Who will get there first? Will it be Alan, the loveable, nine-year-old hero of our story, his arch nemesis, Jeffery, the old lady from next door, Miss Scratch, the cheeky toddler Peter, or Alan’s best friend and neighbour, Lily? You choose.

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Through the Glass

Sophia
Year 7 - QLD

There is a man that always sits outside my window. He wears tattered clothes, has a bristly moustache and brilliant blue eyes. He sits on the ground regardless of the weather conditions. A dog crouches next to him; its fur now blackened by the dirt the earth had inflicted.

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The Day I Never Knew Was Coming

Jenny
Year 3 - SA

One lovely spring morning I woke up in my bed feeling very strange. The day just didn’t feel right. I didn’t know what to do, I was just so bored, so I decided to hop out of bed and change myself, so I did so. Then I went to the kitchen but nobody was there. Then I wandered off to the door to see if anyone was in the garden. As I was heading to the door, I looked out a window and saw Grandpa doing some gardening. Then Jack snuck up behind me and gave me a shock by saying “Boo!” I turned around and asked him where Mum and Dad were.

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On The Ball

Lin-Ling
Year 8 - NSW

The ball was a blur of white; it whizzed towards you so fast you could hardly see it. If you were not quick or agile, if you did not know how to react on the spot, you would not stand a chance. Viola was none and she could do nothing but watch the ball repeatedly being snatched from her hands. Countless times she was shoved onto the concrete by opposing members or elbowed in the gut. If not for the smirk her peers gave every time she fell, she would’ve thought she was invisible, sinking deeper and deeper into the ground.

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Now Viewing Drafts

Aditi
Year 9 - QLD

User: EmmalineSmithens07@emails.com.au Folder: Drafts To PercyReed12@emails.com.au Dear Dr Reed, I hope this email finds you well. How has Lana been lately?

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Medusa

Micah
Year 10 - SA

I wake up to silence. Of course, I always wake up to silence, but this is different. Instead of waking to the peace of the temple and the calm of Athena’s presence an anxious energy surrounds me

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Everything We've Ever Known

Sarannah
Year 6 - QLD

Angel tried to calm her breath as she gripped the bottle with its metallic looking contents, perched on the roof of the tall building, gazing out across the sea of neon city lights. She looked around for the weird, winged creature called a "Bird” that she had rescued from the lab she had worked as a slave for. She admired its slick wings, and its soothing song. Angel wondered how the scientist thought this beautiful creature was a failure. She realised that it needed a name. The word "name" was new to Angel, as she had never had one before.

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Mylop the Dreamhorse

Esther
Year 6 - NSW

Darkness. Silence. Mylop lies trapped under tables and chairs that are crumbling away. But Mylop is safe. Preserved. And Mylop is waiting. Waiting. Waiting for his Pippa to come back home. The sky was blue and shining. The day was warm and fair. And Nora was moving away. Again. She’d said her goodbyes to the friends she’d only just made. She’d waved farewell to the room she had just begun to like. And as she drifted away yet again, she’d looked back at the small house wistfully, her eyes blurred with tears.

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A Brand New Me

Euming
Year 6 - WA

I peered up the hole but could only catch sight of the intricately painted ceiling of the tower. There was a hidden pathway just beside me in the dark. “I can never go back up there. Everyone probably knows who I am now,” I muttered. I could hear the queen alerting the guards. “I must quickly make haste through this hidden passageway before it’s too late. But where will it lead me to?”

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A Swimming Dream

Isabella
Year 3 - NSW

There once lived a girl called Emily. Emily had a dream and that was to be a lifeguard. You see, her mum was a swimmer, but she sadly drowned. After that her dad looked after her.

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A Tempo

Amelie
Year 10 - NSW

The candle flickered against the sombre depth of the wooden room bringing forth an incandescent glow. Petrichor overwhelmed all senses and droplets of water barged through the timber defences above our heads. The downpour became our bubble, a world in which it was only me and her, shielding us from the cruel inevitability of the world. My life was an ostinato– repeating and repeating until it became monotonous and I lost track of where I was.

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Raven's Haven

Lydia
Year 8 - VIC

Raven inched slowly along the edge of the cliff. Her golden eyes were locked on the sprig of starbloom that sprouted from a nook below. A shard of rock broke away beneath her paws. Startled, she scrambled to steady herself, trying not to look down at the deadly drop. She breathed a sigh of relief, before turning her focus back to the plant. It was so close, just a few more careful pawsteps and those pearl-like flowers would be hers.

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The Eyes Weren't Plastic

Alyssa
Year 7 - QLD

Bringing back the ones you’ve lost teased his mind. Matthew, a taxidermist, was usually stuck in his head with wooden planks over the doors, and often found himself holding a corpse, one with a beak, or talons, or razor blade teeth, and a compact sewing kit and a surgical scalpel. The process made the gears in his head turn. He was intelligent. His mind thought of wonders one couldn’t possibly perceive. Thoughts of things filled with rouge and chartreuse, weaving in and out of nerves and equations, dancing in dimly lit moods.

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The Black Lace

Neve
Year 5 - TAS

Loni Bramble was woken from a deep sleep by the sound of an intense, verbal fight. The constant drip! drip! drip of water inside the ceiling was getting seriously annoying and her room was starting to smell of mould. Loni had been trying to tell her mum about it for weeks, but she had too many other things on her mind to care, so Loni would just have to put up with the horrendous smell.

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How to Save a Turtle

Zia
Year 6 - VIC

Mia woke early in the morning. The dawn light crept through the tattered curtains and shone on her face. She blinked quickly, willing the light to shine elsewhere until the sun passed her window and left the room dark again. Her body seemed colder than usual and she leaned to the side and pulled the blanket over her head. The crash of the waves on the shore called to her, and she tiptoed out of the room. Her mum was asleep, softly snoring under the blanket, the other side of the bed was empty.

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Fruitful

Maya
Year 11 - NSW

The cashew apple is highly perishable. In Goan culture, in its day-long life, it is processed into the alcoholic ‘feni’, its transience preserved in a fragile glass bottle for a stranger’s future bliss. The amber glow of ghee lamps thaw the midnight ragers and sugarcane cocktails of Goa, its honey menthol sands soothing the alcohol’s infection in local party-goers. In Sita’s family, however, the disease has been more chronic.

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Darkness

Erum
Year 5 - NSW

The galaxy, deep dark, but also glowing and beautiful with the light of a million stars. So peaceful, so calm, so gorgeous. Uninterrupted going on for miles and miles. So far away from the earth, from any planet really. It had been like this for years, decades, centuries. Until...

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Fire Like a Dragon

Tsz Shuen
Year 4 - NSW

As he drew and drew, I sprang up from the pavement and sprinted across the street, not daring to look back. “Hey, I’ll catch you!” a voice boomed behind me as cold sweat dribbled down my hot cheek. “It’s Sam again, always picking on me,” I murmured in helplessness. My face was covered with rude words and terrible drawings.

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Bane of Night

Daniel
Year 10 - NSW

Valentine and Lucian sat at the mouth of the Brocelind Forest, the trees towering over them like dark twisting spires, ascending towards the heavens. Above, the sky was a beautiful dark sapphire colour, veilless, littered with bright and gleaming stars that twinkled and winked at Earth. The moon cast its silvery incandescence upon rolling plains of lush green grass, which seemingly stretched to eternity. Beautiful.

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The Last Promise

Frankiei
Year 5 - NSW

Old hands come together. Soft and weathered skin intwines, two fingers fitting perfectly together, just like they do every time. I love this feeling, this unbreakable lock that brings people together. A permanent reminder that someone out there cares about you. The feeling I get when a promise is made is exhilarating, a zap of energy bringing me to life.

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The Illusionist's Shadow

Nozomi
Year 7 - NSW

In the saloon bar of The Magic Pudding Tavern, the Friday night drinkers were spellbound by the top-hatted man shining in the spotlight - an illusionist of considerable skill, with a familiar repertoire. Long lengths of ribbon came out of his mouth, an audience member was cut into pieces while trapped in a box, then reassembled, and a rabbit was pulled from a top hat. The audience watched with rapt attention as one magic trick after another unfolded. What the audience didn’t know was that it was being robbed right under its nose.

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Mary's Flowers

Abigail
Year 6 - NSW

Tirelessly, I stormed through the daffodils and daisies on my chubby, little legs like a stampede of wild animals. Brother Marcus ordered me, as captain of the pirate ship, to cease trampling on his daisies. I ordered him, as second in command, to quit stomping on my daffodils. Captain Brother and I sailed our pirate ship through the Pacific Ocean of Daisies and Daffodils.

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Unwritten

Fiona
Year 10 - VIC

A serpentine voice emerged from the depths of the vast ferry. “We strongly advise against speaking to anyone, here, and on the island. Another ferry will appear there at exactly this time tomorrow. If you miss it, there will not be another to retrieve you. Happy travels.”

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Ocean Wide, Skin Deep

Henry
Year 11 - NSW

At the age of four, my mother told me that all people judge a person, first by their appearance – the outer and most vulnerable part of oneself – followed by their family, their achievements, and only then by their demeanour. She made it a priority to perfect my habits, body and etiquette before I turned eight, but had severely underestimated her ability to remould my external design, like the remorphing of misshapen clay on a potter’s wheel.

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The Journey

Harper
Year 4 - NSW

Mum tugged my sleeve and I jumped into the car. We sped down the driveway, leaving our beautiful house behind. I glanced back, trying to grab one last look at it. All I saw was the oak sapling I had planted one year ago. It stretched out of the ground like it was someone’s hand reaching out, waving one last goodbye.

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Sparrowbrook Sorrow

Loukya
Year 6 - VIC

Sparrowbrook had been a lovely coastal town – but not anymore. There had been luscious, emerald green oases of plant life in the centre, before the cyclone. There had been libraries before the cyclone. There had been offices, schools, medical clinics, gyms; before the cyclone. There had been people before the cyclone.

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Dearest Marjorie

Isla
Year 9 - QLD

Widowed and wilting like a rose cut many years ago, Marjorie sat alone in the parlour rereading the words written on the yellowed page. To her it seemed as though those words were the nectar and she the hummingbird, forever longing to enjoy their sweetness once more. Only the slight light of the pale afternoon illuminated the room with a deep blue glow, allowing Marjorie to memorise the words once more before the sun would set.

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The Elegantly Mute Cat

Ryan
Year 3 - NSW

Trip, trap, trop. A black Russian Blue raced across the street like a cheetah. Before everyone was staring in awe at the fast speed, another blurry human figure chased along the same path like lightning, leaving clouds of dust behind.

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The C's

Yuhan
Year 6 - WA

Hey there, it's me, the red centre of the Rubik's cube, what are you? Wow, cool! Now let me introduce myself a bit more. My name is Red C, the most important part of the Rubik's Cube personally. Unfortunately I am not the only red one, there are eight other reds on the corners and edges. Also, I have a secret, a very special and common one but maybe.....I’ll tell you.

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Technology is Faster

Charlize
Year 9 - VIC

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. I squeeze my eyes shut, bracing myself for the start of a new day. Another day. Another day of Live Better. A sweet, tinkling melody trills its way into my ears. “Good morning Ash! Today is the 9th of April. It is currently 7:30 am. Please come to the breakfast table in 10 minutes.”

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Moment

Grace
Year 11 - NSW

Silence deafened the room as quickly as the heat rose to my cheek, forming a scarlet imprint of her hand as it met my cheek like a sword to Caesar’s back. Mouths wide open and gawking were silenced by the inescapable loud. Stalls quickly unlocked. Feet pitter-pattered. Girls circled the scene like seagulls around a packet of Maccas fries.

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Comforted by Delusion

Annabel
Year 9 - NSW

Content Warning: References to suicide. I feel the sting of a solitary tear begin to build and descend down my weary face. The full realisation of what I’ve just said and done is dawning upon me. I move as if in slow motion to collect the familiar ingredients in which to make a soothing brew. I was most comfortable in the kitchen. It was where I was first taken after he had swept me off the street and into this beautiful home.

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The Window

Gabriel
Year 9 - SA

Anna woke up two minutes late. A cool zephyr flowed into the room, a breath of frosty, pungent air winnowing through the crenulated fissures in the thick concrete walls. The bed was cold, despite her having slept on it all night—she was an ascian, like the others walking the empty halls, ghosts dreaming of vestiges of their long-forgotten pasts, desideriums haunting them perpetually.

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The Monster of the Summer Woods

Sanuthi
Year 4 - WA

Lily skipped happily through the lush green woods. She stopped to pick a few flowers and sighed in dismay. Her house was right next to the beautiful forest, but now it was close to the start of summer. Her mother never let her near the woods during the hot season as the villagers had told strange tales of a long, quick, dark blue creature with electric blue wings that comes out only in the summer and sets parts of the woods on fire.

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The Man on the Bike

Ava
Year 6 - VIC

A simple, content bike sits on the street waiting to find a home. It’s rusty and old, the blue paint peeling off, the tyres are flat, the lights smashed and the basket clings to one lonesome screw. It still waits. It rests on the ground next to a growing tree and watches shadows pass by, wondering when it’s to die.

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The Great Adventure of an Ordinary Erasable Pen

Lyla
Year 6 - ACT

Finally! Someone was using me! I glide across the page, spitting out ink like my life depended on it. For the first time in forever, the human is testing my history brain with a 5000 word impromptu essay. It’s hard, but no match for my clicker! This is so much better than how I used to spend my time: stuck at the back of the stuffy, hot pencil case, where daylight never reached.

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Light

Matilda
Year 11 - TAS

Her footsteps echo through the caves, warm metal upon cool stone. Looking at counts of photons, it would be reasonable to say it’s fairly dark down here. Not completely void of light, though. Unit-Y needs nothing brighter than the glow from her monitor, with her other sensors picking up the slack for her array of cameras. “Sight” is not a priority. She knows visuals are generally appreciated however, so she turns on her flashlight.

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This Is No Disney

Helena
Year 6 - NSW

Being a twelve-year-old is hard. I have spent my entire life trying to search for the difference between reality and virtuality and so far I have recently made three conclusions about this world I am in. They are: Santa is not real because he cannot possibly fit through chimneys in apartments, there are no Gods as if there was one, no animals including humans would suffer tortures, abuse, and horrid organ trades, and that everyone eventually dies.

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The Mythical Tree

Skylar
Year 4 - NSW

One by one, trees were cut down, leaving old stumps behind. As each tree was cut, the air slowly grew thicker, making it harder to breathe. Humans did not realise that until they cut down the MAGIC TREE... Guardian of the forests, with magic golden vines dangling down the branches like rain toppling off a tree. It was found when people were sent by a helicopter to find more trees, as everything in view were all fat stumps. Because of this, many birds, bees and bugs lost their home.

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The Harrowing of Endless Life

Christina
Year 11 - NSW

Moonlight fractured the ebony sky. Each house cast its eyes over the pavement. Each teenager, alone. One held a flashlight and decorated the silence with a quiet buzzing. Lily’s hushed breathing blew the leaves gently. Branches from the bush grazed her plump cheeks. Her brows furrowed as her eyes darted around the street. Grids of cubic houses fully painted in white with artificial white stones covered any trace of nature’s verdant hues.

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Sea-stars

Chloe
Year 11 - QLD

You never learn to fear the ocean. It used to frighten you. You would jump away from the crashing waves, hesitate to swim over murky depths, frantically investigate whatever just brushed your ankle. It wasn't true fear, though.

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A Life of Love

Finley
Year 10 - QLD

Zero; They are infants really. Babbling constantly and full of cries that sound to the heavens but still a` long-lasting friendship is kindling between boy and girl. Not much is said, no real words are uttered and yet both share the simple understanding that the other is someone they trust, someone they care for, someone they love.

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When the Dying Girl Dies Last

Zach
Year 8 - VIC

I was a dying girl for a long time. It sounds bad when I say it like that, but it’s fine. I was diagnosed when I was very young, and I learned to accept it. I didn’t like pity. I didn’t want it at all, so I never told anyone in my village. The only person who knew was my mother, and she took that secret to her grave. I didn’t talk to people. I had a rule in my life. Don’t make friends. I'd die before I turn 21, so why would I hurt people by befriending them then leaving?

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The Jovian Plutonian Gravitational Effect

Marina
Year 11 - NSW

I don't wear shoes. I was eight years old when I vowed never to wear shoes again. I was sitting in front of the radio, crying from embarrassment, rage, and disappointment at once, all because of some made-up term I couldn't even pronounce.

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Storge

Esther
Year 11 - NSW

Peter loved his friends. He tolerated his older sister when she visited from the USA and lived in comfortable silence with his parents, as if they were flatmates rather than a mother, father and son. But his friends - Our Lot, as he called them - they were his found family.

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The Brave Count

Kirri
Year 6 - VIC

“31,1998,182,294, 19765, 21.” The Governor stood upon a podium reading out numbers. It was the year 1879 and in Kalveria, due to overpopulation, the government had imposed a new law. This was entitled The Brave Count. Anyone who was brave enough to put their life on the line would have a number etched onto the back of their hand.

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Beyond the Reef

Matilda
Year 5 - NSW

My eyes shot open as panic flooded through my body. I took large gulps of air and tried to control my heavy breath. Images raced through my mind like a small piece of wood getting swallowed by a raging river, then to appear again. I buried my face in my hands, resisting the urge to let out a blood-curdling scream

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Wolf

Sophie
Year 7 - VIC

It lowered its grey head down towards the water. It drank from the lake which was more waste and rubbish than water. All the while it kept its blue eyes up, vaguely glancing over into the distance, watching the landscape of either burnt or torn up trees.

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The Egg Trial

Lena
Year 3 - NSW

Whoosh. The leaves rustle briskly in the gentle breeze. The whole camp is asleep, tranquil under the blanket of scattered silver stars. The forest is just dark green, black and brown, the colour palette disturbed by the fiery red of Phoenix’s hair.

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Still Beautiful When She Screamed

Hailey
Year 11 - NSW

In the city. A new life. Or what he thought it would be. A nine to five job and freshly cooked meal each night. At least, that's what he was told. What they would have to call home was never going to be such. Would it be enough? Would it be enough if they did not love each other like truly beloved should? He thought of the girl. It's for the best. We’re a good match. Hardly. And he knew it. Holding hands. Yet so distant.

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Irene

Frankie
Year 6 - NSW

As Irene opened her furrowed eyes the sunlight ripped through the curtains, birds sang and she could hear the other seniors getting up for breakfast, and like every other morning the thought hit her. It made her stomach drop, her heart race, her hands became clammy, she gave a big sigh.

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After Midnight

Alice
Year 6 - WA

I smell the earthy scent of the Market, the potions and powders and exotic objects mingling into a powerful smell. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. One minute till midnight and she’s still not here.

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The Boy and His Wish

Zoe
Year 5 - VIC

The wind howled and the clouds spat out mouthfuls of rain, and then it became ice. It was a cold rainy here in Wantirna. I was curled up on my bed reading a book about a ghost. I had to hide this book from my mum because she didn’t allow scary books, only allowing me to read the books babies read.

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Figment or Friend

Mila
Year 5 - NSW

I told my mum that I would try to make more friends than just the school librarian, but considering I’m still eating alone and talking to myself, I’m not exactly succeeding. Sitting listlessly in class, not even a smile on my face to distract me, I focused on reading my novel instead of feeling lonely. And I assume it worked, because I realize that the protagonist, Inge Maria Jensen, and I would get along so well, eating Angelina Nordstrup’s orange cake and sharing stories we wrote on the fairy tale hills of Bornholm.

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When It Rains

Ella
Year 5 - VIC

When it rains, we don’t get to run outside because the rain will ruin our clothes. When it rains, thunder booms and claps and lightning sparks the horizon. When it rains, Remmy Smith hides under her desk because she’s scared the whole classroom will crumple into a million pieces at any moment. Finally, when it rains animals are washed out of their homes or hit by skidding cars.

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Through the Window

Molly
Year 11 - NSW

She watches him through the window. It strikes her, the strangeness of the moment. Time hangs in a balance, edging towards clean fracture, splintering into the thousand shards of a broken mirror. The broken mirror, which lies in pieces on the cold tiles of her bathroom floor, self-reflection ending in tears and adrenaline, pulsing,

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Sparrow

Sandani
Year 8 - VIC

“Do you think I ought to say yes, Miss Laurens?” “We’ve been through this Hanna,” said Genya not unkindly. “Whether you go to Lord Sparrow’s ball should not be affected by what I have to say on the matter. Your decision should be yours and yours alone.” Genya paused for a moment, wanting to add that if Hanna had a single intelligent bone in her body she would say yes in a heartbeat. Who in their right mind would say no to a lord’s invitation? However, Genya thought it better to simply return to sharpening her daggers.

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Window for the Night

Samalmi
Year 11 - WA

I find paradise in a window. Every night it is a different one, but I have worn this neighbourhood down and must seek anew. There is a little girl in a big house who now waits for me as the sun settles into its throne, sighing out a wind that rattles my bones. Her hand is warm, and her eyes are soft with care, but melancholy. She is a fallen angel.

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The Inside World

Karunamuni
Year 8 - TAS

Tuesday, 07/04/2278. There Amber stood, fingers against the cool glass. The outside world to her was nothing but a fog of mist and steam. It swirled and curled into soft cotton, and the only thing between Amber and the piercing winds outside was this pane of glass. A pane of glass, made of a nanotech-engineered force field. If she punched it with all her might and tasted salt down her cheek, it still wouldn’t be enough. But when it came down to it, no matter how many layers of synthesised technology there were embedded in it, it was still glass.

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Flame

Charlie
Year 5 - VIC

It was late at night and George awoke abruptly from a deep slumber. A loud bang unlike anything he had heard before disrupted the calm of the night. George threw his cloak over his night clothes and slipped on his boots. He slid down the stairs and made his way towards his father’s quarters. George’s heart beat faster with every step. Ever since his mother’s disappearance 12 months ago, he was acutely aware that his dad and brother were his only family left.

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Confessions

Ruby
Year 12 - NSW

I will try to remember him, for you all. Now, I know myself. I speak the plain and honest truth, no rose gold glasses or all those cliché idioms. Even if I did love him, once, I know the truth of the matter and that is what I will try and convey to you today. He was in the wrong, from the start. But I understand why he did what he did. Just left me a bit wounded, that’s all.

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Carousel

Evie
Year 6 - NSW

Florence had always loathed cleaning. The dust got into her face, making her sneeze constantly. Her father knew her hatred for disinfecting their family house, so he made her clean more often than her mother.

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Triton Savage and the Red Monstrosity

Lucas
Year 6 - NSW

I am Triton and I am deaf. I go to Simongton High, and I am telling you the story of how my life turned upside down. Not just upside down, but upside down and all around. Now I’m telling you not to go to hotels and turn on the fire alarm, and if you see a big red monster, just go back to bed. None of the things that happened to me will repeat in history.

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The Prey

Annabelle
Year 8 - NSW

The constant thrum of crisp, white snow against warm, thick coats provided a comforting beat to the sound of our pounding feet. The crepuscular shadows were drowned out, washed astray by my swift run. Looming mountains stood over us, mammoth structures that mimicked tombs of giants. Our hunt had just begun and was looking promising. Game was abundant, spirits were high. The ground below us shifted gradually. A slight downhill greeted us and we followed its silent message.

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The Mysterious Brown Liquid

Alexander
Year 2 - NSW

The bell rang. It was the end of recess and our brilliant soccer match had sadly come to an end. My friends and I went back to our Year 2 classroom, where we found our teacher, Mrs A, sitting at her desk already waiting for us. Mrs A pulled out from a shelf a big leathercovered book. On the front cover was the title in big golden letters: ‘St George and The Dragon’. It was now time to listen to the teacher.

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The Dunes

Ruby
Year 8 - NSW

The sun is high in the sky above me as I make my way across a desolate sandy landscape of dunes, looking around to get some sense of my direction noticing the squeak and crunch of sand beneath my bare feet. I can see waves of heat rising from the sand all around me and feel the sting of it on my skin. The scorching sand burns my feet as I slowly step forward feeling a heaviness and exhaustion that I can’t make sense of, because honestly, I can’t even make sense of being here.

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A Hollow Pearly Heart

Lara
Year 12 - QLD

There was a girl whom Grief named his target. He shrieked at her, disguised as a familiar voice released from a calcium carbonate cage. But before Grief, it was Aggravation that was a thorn lodged in the girl's side. He came in the form of a younger brother.

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The Uncontrollable Fire

Rachel
Year 5 - WA

“Turn now” Max called from his horse. Chelsie turned on her horse Chestnut. Max and Chelsie were brother and sister. Today the two kids were rounding up the family’s sheep with their Kelpie, Chips. The sheep needed to be sheared once again because of the boiling hot weather. Many fires had spread throughout Victoria that summer, but thankfully none had been close to the Dot’s farm. The hot weather was horrendous and a massive barricade to Ross the farmer.

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The Trench

Maisie
Year 8 - NSW

The sub was a marvel of modern engineering. Its gleaming white body was as large as two trucks and oblong shaped, with a large glass bubble at the hull to serve as a viewing window. Strapped to its roof in large waterproof barrels were the Unmanned Underwater Vehicles, programmed to map the undiscovered underwater regions. The metal, sleek but durable, was branded with its name - Moros - in proud black lettering

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The Door

Annabel
Year 6 - NSW

Wind billowed and the curtains flapped endlessly, freezing the room. The moon shone brightly, lighting the dark forest below. The old rusty beds with broken posts were positioned perfectly in the corners of the room. As the wind howled louder and louder, it was harder and harder for Hannah to stay asleep. Sitting up quickly, a thought crossed her mind.

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Our Grey World

Bijou
Year 5 - NSW

The sunlight was grey. It pooled through the window spreading with the rising sun, up over the sleeping city. Yet, the sunrise was not beautiful, nor mellow like a flower, or shrouded in clouds. It was grey. Grey, like everything else I saw in the world. My room, my house, my school. My mother’s triangular, dangly earrings, suited for a special occasion, but worn day after day as they bore no beauty.

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Allegiance

Jai
Year 12 - NSW

I grew up in the Lower North Shore – Hunter’s Hill. Next door, there were trees that looked like they belonged in a forest. Really tall. Green all year round. It had one of them modernlooking kitchens – all greys. A bunk bed in my room for my brother and me. And one of them carpets with the city printed all over it, with the roads and that. That little carpet was luxurious at the time – a landscape of long laneways to become lost in. And Hungarian goulash. The smell all through the house. I’m part Hungarian with a bit of Italian.

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Jimmy the Dino Kid

Benjamin
Year 4 - NSW

This is a story of a boy named Jimmy whose mum would say, ‘You can be anything when you grow up.’ Jimmy believed his mum, but took it one step too far.... Jimmy had two loves in this word: dinosaurs and swimming. Jimmy’s love of dinosaurs started when he watched Jurassic Park with his dad at the movies. Ever since that movie, Jimmy decided he would BE a dinosaur. Jimmy wore a dinosaur costume 24/7, however, once Jimmy started school, he soon realised that being a dinosaur was not that easy.

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A Day to Remember, A Promise

Jade
Year 12 - NSW

The warm flow of Can’t Help Falling in Love kissed her ears as they drove. Her grandfather hummed quietly in the front seat as her brother fidgeted in the seat beside her, eager to escape. A soft ‘tick-tick’ of the indicator, followed by the distinct ‘crunch- rustle- crunch’ of leaves under the wheels meant the arrival at our destination. Before the wheels had ceased motion, the door was open and a flash of movement shook the car.

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School Photo Shenanigans

Eleni
Year 9 - WA

Last year I may have lost the battle, but this year I’m out to win it. I’ve been practising for months to get this right. But it all comes down to a most auspicious day, a day that occurs ... tomorrow.

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Lord of the Wings

Claudia
Year 6 - NSW

A banana skin shot through the air like a bullet, carefully aimed at a lowly bird minding its own business. SPLAT! The bird topples over from the sheer force of it. “BULLSEYE!” a kid shouted, “HAHA THAT’S WHAT YOU GET YOU FILTHY OLD BIN CHICKEN!”

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Deep Down

Leonardo
Year 6 - VIC

Sometimes I forget who I am. I forget why I am here. I forget what I’m doing. I forget everything that leads me to this moment. My subconscious consumes me and steals my focus away, just like I was never there... When this happens, I begin to search my memory and piece back what I lost. So I begin the dive deep down, into my chamber of memories.

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