Our March 2024 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #295 (provided by Stone Soup intern Sage Millen), which asked that participants write a story that takes place during a sleepover. These sleepovers were filled with fun activities; characters told scary stories, found a hidden portal, and chased after a runaway cat. They dreamed about transforming into fruit and meeting friendly dragons. One group of witches in particular even had to save Santa himself! As always, thank you to all who participated, and please keep submitting next month! In particular, we congratulate our Honorable Mentions, listed below, and our Winners, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “The Perfect Sleepover” by Arden Cha, 10 “A Friendship Sleepover” by Aubrey Huang, 11 “For Jade” by Sophie Li, 13 “Saving Christmas” by Miya Ma, 8 “The Cherry Tree” by Miranda Wang, 11 Honorable Mentions “Amaya’s Story” by Elaine Bai, 12 “Under the Stars” by Elise Ben-Akiva, 11 “The Truth Behind the Glass” by Ella Chen, 12 “Sleepover Magic” by Jiya Parekh, 10 “Sarah” by Chris Ye, 12 The Perfect Sleepover ARDEN CHA, 10 I have always loved going to sleepovers. I remember going to my first sleepover when I was eight. My friend Calvin invited me to his house during December break. We devoured pizza, watched Home Alone, and spooked each other with eerie ghost stories with a flashlight placed under our chins (which gave the most epic spine-chilling effect). I enjoyed the sleepover so much that I hid in the bathroom when mom came to pick me up the next day. Now, I am twelve (almost thirteen!), and I have been to forty-three sleepovers. It feels like every Friday, I get picked up by a friend’s mom and … WOOSH … I am magically teleported to my new one-night hotel. But, there is one thing that is peculiar. Considering how many sleepovers I have been to, I have never hosted one before. Mom always dismisses the subject with her classic, “Leo, there’s just not enough space. And, you and Abigail are already a handful.” I did not mention this before, but Abigail is my younger sister who is eight. She is utterly annoying. It is as if she knows everything that I hate, and she checks them off on her daily to-do list. X Take forever getting ready in the morning in our shared bathroom. X Blame me every time she gets into trouble. X Blast Taylor Swift while I am studying. Just yesterday, Abigail entered my bedroom without permission and left behind a trail of chips. You should have seen me boil. It must have looked like there was fire dancing in my eyes. This year, for my thirteenth birthday, I persuaded (after much pestering) mom to allow me to invite friends over for a sleepover at my house. After many hours spent contemplating who to invite, I finally selected my dream team. I picked Levi, because he is as funny as the funniest person you know times one hundred. One time in science class, we were learning about the parts of the heart and Levi said, “Aorta go before Mr. Bronson looks at my homework!” The joke was so bad that we cried until our stomachs hurt. I picked Logan, who has been my best friend since preschool. Logan stood up for me against the second grade bully. And lastly, I picked Wyatt, because he is the most responsible of all my friends. If we get in trouble (which happens a lot), Wyatt always knows what to do. It is as if Wyatt’s memorized this unwritten book about what parents think is the “responsible” choice in dicey situations. If you have not noticed, I have really thought through my sleepover plans. Now, on to activities … First, we will head to Golf Spot that Rocks, a mini golf and rock-climbing adventure. Then, we will go home and eat pizza from the Pizza Place. Next, we will fill up on three types of popcorn: cheese, butter, and caramel, while watching Harry Potter. Because I have been to so many sleepovers, I have had a lot of inspiration. It is as if I can go through my mind library and search for the memory, grasp onto it, and decide whether to select that activity or not. One week ago, Abigail asked me, “Leo, can I join your birthday sleepover? PLEASE?!” I was too stunned to speak. She might as well have asked me, “Leo, can I use your toothbrush? PLEASE?!” “No way!” was all I could sputter out. “Oh,” Abigail replied with genuine hurt in her eyes. I almost wanted to forgive her for every horrendous thing she has ever done to me…. There was no way I was letting her anywhere near my friends and me. Sadly, Wyatt texted me that he could not make my sleepover because of a soccer tournament. Even without Wyatt, I knew that my sleepover was going to be a blast! After two weeks of never-ending school and swim practices, the day has finally arrived! In a few hours, my best friends are coming over for my sleepover, and in preparation, I have been doing things that my parents have been trying to get me to do for ages. First, I cleaned my room (vacuuming, window spraying and all). Next, I laid the dining table with paper plates and plastic cutlery. And finally, I actually read in the living room for an hour while waiting for my friends. DING-DONG! “Oh my goodness! The doorbell just rang! They are here!” I thought as I dashed to open the front door. It felt as if the next eighteen amazing hours of my life were on the other side of this door. I hurriedly turned the door knob, and … It was just the pizza delivery. I immediately asked myself, “Why would my friends come three hours early?” as I dejectedly took the pizza from the poor woman who was standing there waving her hand in front of
Stone Soup Magazine for young readers, writers, and artists
Weekly Creativity #296: Write a One-Act Play Adaptation of Your Favorite Story
Write a one-act play adaptation of your favorite story.
The Rise of Nintendo by Schamil Saeed, 11
Nintendo. The console that changed the world, for 40 years and still going, there’s no escaping that video games have influenced multiple generations. We’ve all seen the ads; Mario’s mustachioed visage is as familiar to us as Santa Claus or Uncle Sam. But how exactly did this come to be? To figure this out, we have to go back to the year 1981, in the city of Kyoto, the headquarters of Nintendo Japan. The company was a sort of jack-of-all-trades, having dabbled in (successively), playing cards, hotels, and even a taxi service. Their most recent pursuit was electronics, buoyed by the success of their handheld gaming line, the Game & Watch, which was selling like hotcakes in their home country. Recently, however, President Hiroshi Yamauchi, whose great-grandfather had founded the company, had been thinking about trying to reach North American audiences. He soon learned that they preferred the full color, heart-racing action of arcades. Seeing how fellow company Taito had burst onto the scene with Space Invaders, Yamauchi asked his R&D group to develop another space shoot-em-up; the result was Radar Scope, a semi 3-D adventure where you pilot a starship. While the results were positive within the land of the rising sun, the USA release was a disaster. Shipped to the newly founded, short-staffed Nintendo of America in New York City, it had the misfortune to release around the same time as the likes of Pac-Man, and paid the price, with only around a third of the cabinets being sold. Dismayed, Yamauchi asked a new hire to the company, one Shigeru Miyamoto, to come up with a game to quickly reprogram the unsold cabinets with. A year later, he promptly came up with one, featuring Popeye navigating mazes, but the project hit a bump when the company wouldn’t give licensing. No matter, however; Miyamoto quickly replaced series antagonist Bluto with a giant, muscular ape, and Popeye himself turned into a mustachioed man you may have heard of. To prevent animating his hair, our hero got a red cap; and soon the maze was replaced with a rickety construction site filled with barrels. And so Donkey Kong was created, and a star was born. Soon, they couldn’t keep up demand, and the money kept flowing. Sequels poured in; and nothing could stop them, not even a lawsuit from Universal on America’s new favorite ape. Looking forward from arcades, Nintendo saw a new horizon: the console. This came at an especially opportune time in gaming, as, in 1983, the gaming market imploded in America. Atari’s massive stock market crash meant that the field was free of challengers. So, starting in Japan, the same brilliant brainstormers behind Nintendo’s arcade successes devised the Family Computer, or Famicom, coming in an elegant red and yellow color scheme, in 1984. It was an overnight success; but the real greatness would come with the US release. Renamed and redesigned, this would prove to be what put the company in the history books, and it was proven with every timeout hero, with his new, well ‘super’ look, stomped on that Goomba. That much is indisputable. So next time you see, hear, or play Super Mario, or any of Nintendo’s other games just remember it’s not just a game, ‘it’s-a him, a-Mario!’
