ACARA Years 7-10

Story·Arabella McClendon, age 13 — Alien scouts investigate Earth, finding a planet too corrupt to rehabilitate but too good to destroy, so they quarantine it until humanity can heal itself.

Poetry·Maya Wolfford, age 13 — Fire-colored butterflies, falling snow, and guiding stars become a meditation on how fate guides rather than controls, ending with the declaration that not all maps must be followed.

Poetry·Maya Wolfford, age 13 — Natural elements—waterfall, brambles, ocean, rose—hide their true natures behind false facades until one rose's kindness earns it the gift of beauty.

Story·Alejandro Lugo Saavedra, age 13 — A boy named Gabriel dreams of his Arizona childhood, navigates Pennsylvania middle school, then learns his family must move to Florida.

Story·Allie Aguila, age 13 — A man seeking escape from anxiety tries experimental goggles that restore childlike imagination, but stays too long and encounters darkness that threatens to consume him.

Story·Benjamin Mitchell, age 13 — In a post-apocalyptic Nevada compound, Oswald attends a mandatory festival where the High Chancellor reveals the entire climate disaster was an elaborate government hoax to test survival protocols.

Story·Thomas Faulhaber, age 13 — In a world where middlenames determine destiny, a boy named Robin Burke struggles with his musical heritage until riots against the naming system expose its fundamental flaw.

Poetry·Rebecca Beaver, age 13 — A speaker confronts the loss of their heart to the moon, becoming a whisper of their former self in this surreal exploration of identity and emptiness.

Poetry·Sara Chebili, age 13 — A grandson builds a chair beside an avocado tree he planted, hoping to help his grandmother with memory loss remember their shared moments by the shore.

Story·Rhianna Searle, age 12 — After Trump's 2016 election, two sixth-grade best friends—one Democrat, one Republican—struggle when politics threatens their friendship, until a handmade bracelet offers reconciliation.