*Watty's Shorts Winner, 2020* While cleaning out empty lockers during detention, North Kingsley comes across a battered textbook filled with off-beat and personal messages written in awful handwriting. On a whim he writes them a message back. Days later, he returns to the locker to find a post-it note response waiting for him. From there a timid friendship between seeming strangers strikes up and North finds himself becoming increasingly curious about the person on the other end of his messages, to the point where he stops fighting the feeling that maybe there's something more beginning to grow between them. *PART OF THE "STORY IN A NIGHT" COLLECTION* Started: March 20th 2020 (Chapters 1-20) March 24th 2020 (Chapters 21-22) Completed: April 12th 2020 (Chapters 23-27) * FIRST PLACE 'AUTHORS BOOKS AWARDS' SHORT STORY CATEGORY: 14-08-2020 *Watty's Shorts Finalist: 12-11-2020 *Watty's Shorts Winner: 05-12-2020

By day, Miles Stewart is your below-average high schooler. Flying under the radar by the seat of his pants, trying to get through each day without drawing too much attention to himself. By night, he transforms into Sephora Utah, a drag queen who rules the club scene. His expressive alter ego, under whom he can be fully himself, safe from judgement. Those two aspects of his life have remained seperate for almost two years. But this precarious balance is tilted when his double life is discovered by Caleb Proust, under compromising circumstances. Under threat of losing his anonymity and lifestyle, Miles negotiates a mutual agreement that if one goes down, so will the other. Because, of course, no one knows Caleb is gay. As long as Miles has that to hold over his head, he should be able to make it to graduation. Just so long as he doesn't go and do something really stupid. Like fall in love. ~~~ WINNER: The Dead Poet Society Awards by @The DPSociety 1st Place in Teen Fiction: The Mono Awards {Silk Edition} by @themonocommitee 2nd Place in Teen Fiction: The Summer Smoothie Awards by @PhantomUnicorn Featured on @cupid 's Reading List {Cupid in the City} Featured on wattpad's @YA Reading List {Clueless} Featured on wattpad's @generalfiction Hidden Gems Reading List (Wattpad Outreach} ~ ~ ~ COVER DESIGN by cil @sereneur

No.

"What did she say?" I asked, cutting him off. It was then that he turned to look at me, and I couldn't look away. The way his blue eyes gazed into mine; the way he looked at me made my breath catch. There was something about Dylan Lewis that had me trapped. No matter what I did I couldn't get away from this feeling inside me. I didn't know what it was, but it was a feeling I could get addicted to. "She told me not to break your heart," he said softly. In that moment I knew what Kelly had known from that morning when I told her what had happened. He could break my heart eventually if he wanted to, and I would probably let him. ......... Alec Brook got a week of detention for an incident involving a fist. There he met Dylan Lewis. With a new friendship, unexpected feelings emerge that leave Alec questioning his relationship with his girlfriend, family and friends. (Edited version of my original story 'Detention Boys')

SPIN-OFF TO "FROM THE OTHER SIDE" Having a crush on one of your best friends is already a struggle. Having a crush on one of your best friends, who is overly affectionate and oblivious, is even worse. Marcus speaks from experience. And it doesn't help that his feelings only grew stronger during the year they both took off before college. Now Marcus is away from Ashton, campuses nearby yet just far enough that Marcus believed he could push his feelings aside. And he believes he'll find that in the company of a broody, direct boy named Elliott, but the two opposites only occupy his mind at the same time. started: july 20th, 2019 finished: march 14th, 2020

NOW RADISH EXCLUSIVE Santiago Balderas works night shifts at the club downtown, where every weekend he finds himself watching something akin to burlesque, as well as keeping said entertainers safe. People had a tendency to be grabby - he'd experienced it one too many times, and he wasn't even on stage. He finds himself infatuated with one of the dancers, with the way they seem to hold the attention of everyone glancing in their direction. Santiago is one of the lucky ones able to touch them in any possible way, but not in the way he wishes. It doesn't help when he finds out the person is taken, completely off limits. It's even worse when the partner is just as intriguing. started: december 21, 2019 finished: october 13th, 2020

Charlie Holloway has great friends, good grades, a steady part-time job he actually likes, and athletic ability that makes him a star in two sports, but recently it's all felt rather hollow. However, when childhood friend Theo Broussard comes back into his life, Charlie is shaken out of a years-long daze that has left him coasting through his teenage years. Theo just happening to be the star player for his school's biggest rival and his first crush only complicates matters further. When things get difficult, Charlie finds himself forced to choose between his current life following the path of least resistance or a harder but possibly more fulfilling one. "Only to feel this fully, this entire, the way snow touched bare skin & is suddenly, no longer snow" -Ocean Vuong, "Devotion" from Night Sky with Exit Wounds [Re-edited 4/18/20]

[WATTY WINNER 2021] The summer takes a turn for the worse when young filmmaker Dakota Black returns to his Washington hometown to co-produce a series with a premium television network, and the screenplay becomes a chilling reality. ***** Dakota Black isn't looking for fame. He isn't even responsible for submitting his short film that wins numerous awards at a prestigious film festival in New York City. He has his ex-girlfriend to thank for that. One year after skyrocketing to stardom, graduating high school, and moving to Los Angeles for film school, Dakota returns to his island hometown in Washington State to co-produce a drama series with a premium television network. But when the summer takes a dark turn as the series' screenplay becomes a chilling reality, Dakota and his splintered group of friends are pulled into an elaborate conspiracy that elicits fatal consequences. [[2021 Watty Winner - Mystery/Thriller & Wattpad Editors' Choice]]

Six teens are devoted to a game with one rule: If a player gets tagged, they must change their life within the next fifteen minutes. The better the player, the bigger the change. One might give their car away, or punch the school bully. Another might change identities or sacrifice their virginity. Anything to keep evolving, to avoid fitting into a label or caring about the junk they own. But their quest for enlightenment has taken a rotten final turn - one of the players has murdered the game's creator, the teen prophet (cult leader?) David Bloom. Our narrator is being framed for the crime; can he clear his name and discover which of his lifelong friends is the murderer before he takes the fall? [sic] is a gritty teen murder mystery that delves into the psychology of enlightenment among the criminally dysfunctional.

A high school wrestler finds his life spiraling out of his control. Liam García never meant to let cutting weight consume him. He never meant to find solace in the starving or the purging. He loved the sport more than anything. Until it started to destroy.