flash contest

Our May 2023 Flash Contest was based on Prompt #251 (provided by Stone Soup contributor Molly Torinus), which asked that participants write an enemies-to-lovers story. Molly’s prompt resulted in some of the most creative work I’ve seen submitted to the Flash Contest in a long time, with submissions ranging from a poem about the rivalry between pi and pie, an origin story for the pluot, and a mock interview between vanilla cake and chocolate cake. As always, thank you to all you participated, and please keep submitting next month! In particular, we congratulate our Winners and our Honorable Mentions, whose work you can appreciate below. Winners “The Big Red Barn” by Elena Bonnette, 10 “The Girl Across the Bridge” by Aaron Duan, 12 “11:06 PM” by Lauren Kim, 13 “The Butterflyherd” by Mary Lane, 11 “The Captain and the Admiral” by Lui Lung, 13 “The Story of the Pluot” by Ariel Zhang, 11 Honorable Mentions “40-Love” by Yuhan Cai, 12 “Yin and Yang” by Inaya Dar, 13 “Of Nighthawks and Roses” by Owen Duan, 12 “Vanilla Cake vs. Chocolate Cake” by Chloe Lin, 10 “Pie and Pi Share the Spotlight” by Ayaan Pirani, 11 “House Animal” by Melody You, 12 The Big Red Barn Elena Bonnette, 10 Once upon a time, there was a Big Red Barn that walked on big, stumpy chicken legs. And inside that Big Red Barn was a big red robot named Pepperoni. And inside Pepperoni was a big red dog with the name Wild Cherry. One day the Big Red Barn, Pepperoni, and Wild cherry got very bored of living in Pasadena, so the barn decided to use its chicken legs and moved to Hollywood to become a romance movie star, and meet other barns to be friends with. The Big Red Barn had always wanted to be a movie star, and was excited for this chance. The Big Red Barn waited and waited for his big break, and finally saw a notice for auditions for a love story set on a farm. At the audition, he noticed a Blue Barn, who looked vaguely familiar. He stared at her, trying to recognize who she was. The Blue Barn stared back with an equally suspicious look on her face. She quickly hurried away, and they parted. But, Wild Cherry knew who she was. Her great, great, great, great grandfather’s cousin’s children’s second cousin’s mom’s dad’s worst nightmare. So sadly, as it was, the Blue Barn and the Big Red Barn had to play the lovers in the big romance movie called Romance Under the Willow Tree. When it was time for the big mushy part, they were still glaring at each other, leaning in, and then, “BARK! RUFF RUFF RUFF! STOP!” Wild Cherry exclaimed,“Murderer!” The movie crew gasped. The Big Red Barn and the Big Blue Barn connected the dots. “I HATE YOU!!!” yelled the Big Red Barn. “WELL, I HATE YOU MORE!” screeched the Big Blue Barn. “Hey! This isn’t part of the script! CUT! CUT!” hollered the director. But the film crew kept filming and caught the rest of the argument: “I looked up the history of this family and I found out that your great, great, great, great grandfather’s cousin’s, second cousin’s mom’s dad, used his big, stumpy, chicken legs to stomp on my great, great, great, great grandfather’s cousin’s second cousin’s mom’s dad’s big red dog! And you killed him!” said the Big Red Barn, a sob catching in his throat. “Well I looked up my family’s history and found that your great, great, great, great grandfather’s cousin’s, second cousin’s mom’s husband’s cousin stole a piece of barn wood from my great, great, great, great grandfather’s cousin’s second cousin’s mom’s husband’s cousin’s body! Stealing isn’t nice so that’s why I hate you.” They stomped off in separate directions. Two years later, the Big Red Barn, Pepperoni and Wild Cherry were relaxing at a beach in Honolulu, Hawaii. They were there because they were bored with Hollywood and uncomfortable with the Big Blue Barn in their midst. Wild Cherry came back from surfing and he saw the Big Blue Barn. She ran up to Pepperoni and barked at him to translate his barks to the Big Red Barn. When the Big Red Barn heard this, he wasn’t too happy and tried to hide. But it was too late. The Big Blue barn saw him. She gracefully flounced over and handed him a gift. “I’m sorry for the drama at the movies,” she said. “It shouldn’t matter about our ancestors’ wrong doings, it should matter who we are now.” The Big Red Barn accepted the gift. “ I’m sorry, too. You have a kind heart. You’re not a murderer like your great, great, great, great grandfather’s cousin’s, second cousin’s mom’s dad. Also, maybe it was an accident. I am very sorry. I will give you a piece of wood from my own skin to replace the one my ancestor stole.” Then Wild Cherry barked in delight as the Big Red Barn opened the gift. It was a pair of XXL water shoes, a pair of XXL tennis shoes and a pair of XXL tap dancing shoes (tap dancing is very important in the barn culture). The Big Red Barn didn’t know what to say, so he put on the water shoes, grabbed a giant red surfboard and ran to the water, water shoes squelching, with the Blue Barn, the surfboard, and Wild Cherry. (Pepperoni stayed on the beach since robots shouldn’t get wet.) The two new friends sat on the surfboard and gazed into the sunset together. 4 ½ years later the Big Red Barn sent Wild Cherry and Pepperoni to pick out an engagement ring for the Big Blue Barn. It would be a perfect scheme. The Big Red Barn would be with the Big Blue Barn and she’d never notice the bot and dog were gone! Then he would propose to her! When he got to the park, she was already