High school winners

First place

Fun While It Lasted

“You ruined your shoes!”

With a fist grooved into her hip, his mother pointed jaggedly at the deserted, grassy puddle seeping softly from the soles. Head bowed, the boy dragged the saturated shoes away like a limp, dead body.

Throwing open his bathroom window, he tossed them into the thick rain. They had been such fun to stomp in.

Maya Klein

Chico

14

A regular contributor to the CN&R’s writing contests, Maya Klein already has a couple of first-places under her belt (2019 Poetry 99 and 2017 Fiction 59). Now a freshman at Inspire School of Arts & Sciences, she’s won again, this time in the high school division. Maya says she still enjoys writing, listening to music and dancing. She recently had the chance to see Bob Dylan in Berkeley (“It was mind-blowing.”), and she will be performing in North State Ballet’s production of Into the Wardrobe at the Paradise Performing Arts Center this holiday season.

Second place

Good Pasta

Steaming and boiling on water. Spaghetti or linguine, penne or ravioli. Cook it up and serve it with sauce. Tomato or alfredo, pesto or fettuccine. The taste so good with so much seasoning. Olive oil and garlic, cheese and salt. All are good. “Is it good?'’ she said. “It’s delicious,” I said. “Good!” she said. “Because I poisoned it.”

Cruz Anderson

Quincy

14

Cruz Anderson is one of English teacher Johnny Stafford’s many students at Plumas Charter School who entered Fiction 59. The Quincy resident has many interests beyond writing, including riding with the mountain bike team and learning songs on is keyboard.

Third place

Quiet Confessions

Her hair is a feather duster with blonde lint, curls framing her face like a veil of broken spiderwebs. I can smell her breath invading my defenses from where we’re pressed together, her long legs stretched over my small twigs. The silence is full of unsaid confessions and our met gaze reveals more bones than we’d like to admit.

Breanna Dodson

Chico

16

Inspire School of Arts & Sciences student Breanna Dodson loves writing and reading, as well as hip-hop and jazz dancing. Her own works are usually short stories and poems, while the writings by others that she’s drawn to tend to fall under the fantasy and young-adult fiction genres, especially the works of Rick Riordan, author of the Percy Jackson & the Olympians series.

Honorable mentions

Attempts at Comfort

I was sitting by the fireplace, eating a peach with the grim news playing on the radio. I remember feeling the heat of the fire piercing though my shirt; the sweet peach juice on my fingers. I found myself focusing on the peach and warmth, rather than the words I had been hearing. They were talking about the Earth.

Kylie Anderson

Quincy

16

Mystery Meat

A line hung out the door of the Baker’s Inn. Warm sunlight flooded the front room, where the Baker stood selling his famous Meat pies. One after the other, customers rushed towards the counter, buying, eating, and enjoying the pies. There was such a commotion that no one could hear the secret ingredients as they screamed in the back.

Alex Morgan

Chico

14