Mixed Messages

Hello Freshman Fifteens,

The story I'll be entering in your Common Room Teen Mentoring Contest is called "Mixed Messages". It is a teen fiction with romance. It is about preservation, and how a girl tries to get her message across when she realises her childhood best friend and first love was half deaf so he never heard her confession before he went away. It will be approximately 2,500 words.

Pitch:   Alyssa Singh has never gotten over her first love; maybe it was because of how he simply smiled off her confession as his family drove away. Three years later, he's back with a girlfriend, and the news that's he has always been deaf in his right ear. Shaken by the news, Alyssa wonders if she has the right to even think she was his friend since she never noticed. But unable to let her feelings subside, she decides it’s time to get her message across, even if it means dealing with the pain of rejection again.

Sample: He never liked to cover his ears. Not even if they were stiff red from the frosty winter air. I always figured it was his attempt to rebel against his over protective mother and to prove that he could take care of himself. Sometimes, I’d manage to sneak him away from his mother and find us a hiding place.  There, I’d put one of the head buds of my sister’s old MP3 player in one of his ears, and talk to him in a hush voice in his other ear. The things I told him were things I’d never tell anyone else. In return, he’d listen attentively; studying my over exaggerated expressions, and flushed red cheeks.

Bio: Hi, I go by Reza here. I am sixteen years old, and going into grade 12. Writing has been an interest of mine since middle school, ever since I was introduced to YA fiction. My favourite writers are Joss Stirling, Beth Fantaskey and Julie Kagawa. I am interested in writing a mix of all the genres, focusing mainly on stories with fantasy, adventure, action and blend it together with romance.