Last February, the CORE Insider held its second school competition, “99 Word Stories from Highway 99.” Students were challenged to write stories with a word count of exactly 99. The following are the winners and their respective stories, chosen by a panel of judges assigned by the Insider (judges did not vote on entries in their own category).
9th Grade Bracket:
1st Place: Eleanor Kerney
Bio: Eleanor Kerney is an arts-loving freshman at CORE who has always enjoyed reading and writing. She has wanted to be an author since she was little and is currently writing her own novel.
She submitted the 99-word story Sticky Notes, which won first place in the freshman bracket:
The school day starts the same as it always does: quiet. A boy I don’t recognize comes through the door. The teacher points next to my seat; he sits. He turns to me and opens his mouth. Just like everyone else, no sound comes out. I point to my ears. He gets it. He digs through his backpack and pulls out a sticky note. He writes deaf? on it; I nod. I take the note and write My name’s Lil. He writes: Mason. We take turns writing on the sticky note until it fills up. Then, he grabs another.
(Eleanor was the only 9th grader to submit a story)
10th Grade Bracket:
1st Place: Moriah Henderson
Bio: Moriah Henderson is a high school sophomore by day and an elite dancer by night. She collects old books and enjoys exploring eclectic antique bookstores in every city she visits.
She wrote Heart on a String, which won 1st place in the sophomore bracket:
Utter desolation—I walk through emptiness. From east to west, the horizon fades from light to dark. Behind me trails my heart, on a string, taped together. Beaten and bashed, I’ve attempted to patch it up, but the stitches hardly hold anymore. It occasionally disintegrates into distorted, broken, fragmented memories, but I repatch it desperately. Bits and pieces of the heart fall to the ground… Rugged and coarse, the thread drags it along like a dead kite. If you look behind me, you can see the shards, like a shattered stained-glass window, glimmering on the skyline.
Isn’t it beautiful?
2nd Place: Serina Rogers
Bio: Serina Rogers is a 10th grader here at CORE. She enjoys sports and reading. Once, in Thailand, she ate a tarantula (not by accident).
Her story, A Moment’s Notice, won 2nd in this bracket:
Hands interlaced, they strolled through the halls of the Metropolitan Museum on a cool autumn afternoon. She had on a worn biker jacket and baggy jeans, and he wore a crew neck sweater and adidas. “Ooh, what do you think of this one, Jackie?” he asked, gesturing to El Greco’s View of Toledo. “I like this one,” she replied. “You see how the light is pouring in from the clouds? It’s very striking.” They stayed at the painting another moment, admiring the artistry, before shifting their attention to a new piece. That’s the way it was—look, admire, move on.
3rd Place: Luke McComb
Bio: Luke McComb is a sophomore at CORE and enjoys sports, the outdoors and FFA.
Here’s Luke’s clever (as Charlotte the spider would say) story Sold!, which took 3rd for the sophomores.
Socrates the pig let out a soft grunt as he stepped into the show ring at the Silver Dollar Fair. His hooves sank deep into sawdust shavings while he gracefully strolled around the judge. Obediently, he followed instructions from the whip that guided him until the judge draped a silky blue ribbon over his back. He was led back to his pen and rested there several days, munching contentedly on his feed. Socrates looked up and oinked as his gate creaked open one last time.
“Sold!” a man yelled. Socrates wondered what would happen next. He always had questions.
11th Grade Bracket:
1st Place: Elena Cuny
Bio: Elena Cuny is a junior at CORE. Reading is her favorite thing to do. She wishes she could just jump into a book and live in a fantasy world filled with weird creatures and magical people.
Her winning story, A World of Darkness:
I wake.
Darkness.
The sun hasn’t shown its jubilant face in 3,652 days.
The hour?
Darkness.
Time ceases to matter in the schedule of the night.
The people?
Darkness is our life.
Whispering is our speech as silence is our language.
I walk.
Darkness.
I see in frames, never in full.
Light is dead.
I eat.
I drink.
I am nothing.
Life lost its meaning as we became machines of some unknown authority.
The world?
Darkness.
Only a shell of its former glory.
Our motivation?
Survival.
Purely a day by day will to keep moving.
Keep moving.
I sleep.
(Elena was the only 11th grader to submit a story)
12th Grade Bracket:
1st Place: Katelyn Copper
Bio: Katelyn Copper is a 16-year old imposter among the seniors at CORE. She once lost oxygen long enough that she turned blue.
Her winning story is Can You Spare a Moment?:
She was unusually hurried that drizzly morning. Flying down the apartment steps, she spared little notice to her neighbor. The day’s tasks flew by until she allowed a single hour for coffee. She watched uneasily as a stranger slid into her booth. Oddly askew, dark, frizzy hair framed a few scars. “Can you spare a moment?” She mumbled that she was occupied. He left. Driving back, a break in the suffocating traffic caused her to speed through the intersection. Screeching brakes had no effect. Horrified, she stared at the pedestrian sprawled on the asphalt- at the dark, frizzy hair.
2nd place: Natalie Reed
Bio: Natalie Reed is a senior at CBHS and a passionate FFA member. She loves agriculture and leadership, and is known for chatting people’s ears off.
Her story, The FFA Van, won her second place in the bracket:
I climbed into the white van with only four hours of sleep, with eight rowdy FFA kids and boxes of World Ag Expo swag. The ride was never-ending yet over in an instant. We played intense games, prank-called friends, laughed until our sides ached, and erased seven hours. By nightfall, the van was a mess, warm, and full of memories. I watched headlights streak by outside the windows and realised, these rides were my favorite times. My days in this van are numbered, but seeing the younger kids laugh behind me made me feel like something was starting again.
3rd place: Niko Sawyer
Bio: My name is Niko Sawyer, and after making such a huge decision to move to Chico away from my past, writing stories is what kept me going. The inspiration for my story was my beloved partner, who reminded me what love is.
The story was named Amour Floral:
The shining sun beamed down upon her white curls. Yellow eyes fixed on Rose. Her incarnadine hair contradicted her emerald eyes. The two women smiled at each other. Laying in the grass, fingers and hearts intertwined. As the two looked at each other, they knew this was happiness, this was their paradise. Rose braids Daisy’s curls, mumbling the French romantic-divination game; “she loves me, she loves me not.” Rose finished Daisy’s braid, Daisy turned and kissed her crimson-haired lover. “She loves you.” Daisy smiled, lying down on her lover’s chest. To a viewer, they’re just flowers. But they knew.
(Initially, we mistook Niko for a junior and did not find out about our mistake until after the judges made their picks, that is why this bracket has a 3rd place.)
Staff Bracket:
1st: LaDawn Black
Bio: LaDawn Black is a Spanish teacher here at CORE Butte, but her original teaching background includes Italian and English. She was once held up at knifepoint (box-cutter, actually) in an airport in India.
Her story, Belly Button, won first place:
For some of my kind, life is exciting—thrilling even. Exhilarating rides in the round-and-round machine, an ever-changing view, and always in good company. Warmth? Camaraderie? Terrycloth? What I wouldn’t give!
I’m stuck alone in an ever-growing hole that barely passes for home. My only comfort is that I stay dry now, even in showers, because my guy’s been hitting the carbs. Even so, I’d escape if I could.
Once, he wore a sweatshirt with nothing underneath, so I tried to stow away on some fuzz, but ultimately I failed.
Want my advice? If you’ve gotta be lint, choose dryer.
2nd: Philip Knoch
Philip Knoch teaches 8th-grade math here at CORE. When he was 20, he flew to Kyrgyzstan for a 5-month college experience, only knowing 3 words in Russian: “Hi, bye, and thanks. “
Chasing the Adventure: Life Abroad in Central Asia:
“Allāhu Akbar,” the words hung in the moist, smothering heat, proclaimed by caked, dirty speakerphones dangling from enormous minarets. Waves of rippling echoes reached my ears. A shadowing figure from behind woke me from my musings, “give me your passport.” The plain-clothed officer glared at me steely. “This isn’t you. Come to KGB.” I was shoved, protesting, in the back of his Lada surrounded by mafiosa – like being boxed out of a rebound in basketball, I had nowhere to go. My thoughts switched to 5.0x, and my fight-flight response awakened. Who will save me – is this the end?
Did not enter contest:
The Bluff by Mr. E
Gregory let his robe fall dramatically to the sand, adjusted his Speedo in ways I’d rather not describe, and, like a National Geographic bird, began his dance. Gyrating spasmodically, his toes in the white Pacific froth, Gregory danced like no one was watching. But people were. A wedding party, jaws agape.
“Excuse—”
“—For $500—and that champagne.” Gregory Gangum-styled. “I could be persuaded to take my dance further down this publicly accessible beach.”
Back on the bluff from which he had spotted the wedding, Gregory lifted his champagne to the setting sun. The object of his toast? We’ll never know.