Coming-of Stories

Annalise Starke had known her mother was going to die eventually; she just hadn't expected it to happen so soon. At fifteen she had moved with her mother back to her home country of Australia with half a heart (metaphorically, of course) and her mother's terminal cancer diagnosis. There, she struggled with the ambiguous loss of mourning someone who was still breathing. But nothing could've prepared her for the real thing. Six months before her projected "death date" Annalise came home to find her mother bloodied and 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘥, and in the blink of an eye, she went from 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘮 𝘩𝘢𝘥 𝘤𝘢𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳 to 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘳𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘰𝘴𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘮 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘥. 𓇼 Once the police finished investigating, and with no answers to show for it, Annalise follows her mother's dying wish for her to return to the states and reunite with her father and twin brother for her final year of school. She grasps at the strings of her mental health and social life (because as much as she wants it to stop, life moves on, time passes, and her with it) as she navigates the halls of a place that's no longer familiar and struggles to fit back into the mold of the girl she once was. Balance is key, and with her long-time childhood best friend, Sylvie Sorren, by her side, Annalise only has to deal with 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 of the pain in silence-because one minute she's fine and the next she's taking deep breaths in the janitor's closet and wishing death upon her mother's killer an ocean away-as she takes up a new title, becoming the "new girl" all over again. Slowly, her sense of normalcy returns bit by bit. Once again, she cares about the latest trends, loves sports, and she can keep a meal down. Things are looking up...until she gets a strange call from a man claiming to be her mother's killer, and apparently, he doesn't like loose ends.

A chillingly beautiful tale of heartbreak, blooming love, and self acceptance that shows no matter how broken beyond repair a person may be, no one is ever permanently out of order. *********** Millie Payne wants more than anything for the hell that is high school to be over. She's been to three different schools in the past year and a half and swore that this one would be different. She was going to keep her head down and do whatever she needed to be able to get by, but when a ghost of her past shows up unexpected, Millie knows that he will let her do anything but. Lionel Ridley knows. He knows the things that she's done that she wishes she could forget and he knows of the traumatizing things that keep her up at night. But not all of the things that he knows are exactly what they seem, for there's a past even before Lionel that only Millie knows. A past she'd rather forget. But how could Millie ever forget when the past keeps coming back to haunt her? Millie must ultimately chose: will she continue running from her past or face it head on?

A group of 16 year old's friends who live in Miami are all sick of there boring lives. Living in Miami is not as fun as everyone makes it out to be. It's actually pretty boring especially when you are a teen that can go no where. But when one of the teens gets a drivers license and they all start to explore Miami for what it is. They start lying about there age and having to much fun. Soon enough they are so wrapped up in there own little game that the damage they have done is irreparable. Lies, sex and even death will turn these teens lives upside down.

The story takes place in the town of Carpi, during the 1970s. Marco, a young man full of dreams and passions, tries to find his way amidst the cultural and political turmoil of the era. A lover of cooking, he believes that there exists a "perfect recipe" for life, a way to make the right choices and achieve success and happiness. This belief leads him to seek advice from the renowned chef Sal Moriglio, who offers him an unexpected tip about the magic ingredient for perfect dishes. Enthusiastic, Marco embarks on a journey of experimentation in the kitchen but faces many challenges. His interaction with the chef opens his eyes to deeper concepts concerning choices, experience, and the value of adaptability. The story explores universal themes such as personal growth, the quest for simple solutions to complex problems, and the importance of reflection in life's decisions.

In the quiet village of Aelwyn, nestled between whispering woods and silver-tipped mountains, lived a young girl named Elira. She was known for her curious heart and a pocket always full of feathers, stones, and odd things she found on her long walks through the forest. Her grandmother, once the village herbalist, had left behind shelves of ancient books and one strange instruction: "Never throw out the cold ashes in the hearth."