WATTPAD ORIGINAL EDITION When Elliot Goldman meets his sweet and charming new lab partner, Jordan Hughes, suddenly high school doesn't seem so bad. For the first time ever, Elliot can't wait to get to chemistry class... ***** Smart, good looking and charismatic, Jordan opens Elliot's eyes to the possibilities around him and gives him butterflies like nobody else does. Jordan isn't exactly the kind of person Elliot's used to having as a lab partner, but when they start acing their assignments, life is suddenly about more than boring lectures, bad cafeteria nachos, or relentless bullying. And then one night, the butterflies start to make sense - the trouble is, now nothing else does. As Elliot begins to figure out how he really feels about Jordan, he realizes that sometimes the last thing you are expecting is the one thing you need the most. [[word count: 40,000-50,000 words]]

A possible future in less than 500 words, if plastic wins. This was my entry for the WattPad/National Geographic #PlanetOrPlastic competition back in late 2018. It reached their Top 10 Submissions which, given that there appeared to be well over 5000 entries, was a very pleasant surprise! The competition itself had a limit of 500 words so, for those who keep asking if I intend continuing the story, the answer (for now!) is no - unless I can find a very good reason for adding any more. Many thanks to everyone reading and voting on this story and getting it to number 1 in the #sciencefiction category in May/June 2020! I did try to thank the voters individually on their pages but Wattpad have a daily limit on the number of times I'm allowed to do that and there are now too many of you (not that I'm complaining)! Here's the top 10 submissions page: https://www.wattpad.com/list/738243473-planetorplastic-top-10-submissions If you want to read the story in Polish please head over to https://www.wattpad.com/story/236405960-m%C4%85dro%C5%9B%C4%87-staro%C5%BCytnych-t%C5%82umaczenie-pl where @juliatlumaczy has done a fine job - thank you, Julia! @juliatlumaczy has now sent me a version of the cover she used for her Polish translation - thanks again, Julia! @alex_sokolova has also translated the story into Russian as well. You can read that here: https://www.wattpad.com/976002417-мудрость-древних - many thanks, Alex! We now have a third translation! @AlfonsoLucassen has kindly translated it into Spanish and you can find it here: https://www.wattpad.com/1063634347-la-sabidur%C3%ADa-de-los-antiguos