Midwest Stories

Before the tripods, Jaime Irvine was just trying to drop a second off her 200 IM. She woke at 5:00 AM. She ate pancakes her mother made. She sat next to Lauren Aguilar in the cafeteria and complained about taper madness. She tied her hair only for races and wore her glasses everywhere else. She had a state championship. A swim banquet where she held Lauren's hand under the table. Three arcade outings that felt like forever. One night between prelims and finals where she sang karaoke and almost felt invincible. That was 2025. Summer 2026: The aliens don't care about her personal best. Three legs. Heat rays. Red weed in the Mississippi. Jaime and Lauren have one advantage: Jaime knows how to hold her breath. The Last Flip Turn is not a hero story. It is a survivor story. It follows two teenage girls through the ordinary wreckage of junior year and into an extraordinary nightmare. There are no generals, no speeches, no last-minute rescue. Only a swimmer, her best friend, and the slow, terrible realization that the only thing keeping them alive is everything they already learned in the pool. Breathe. Flip. Push off. Repeat. Inspired by War of the Worlds (2005).

The inhabitants of a midwestern town play out their parts in the judicial system as defendants, defense attorneys, prosecutors and judges, by day. By night they live their lives as they inhabit their roles as residents of Twin Lakes County.

Let's say you're a criminology student who lives in the Midwest. Out of curiosity you try to get more information about your friends death. You accidentally end up falling into a rabbit hole and start your own investigation. Trying to solve this mystery you find out how much deeper this mess actually goes. So you just try to stop, multiple times but you still keep getting dragged in. Getting stalked and targeted by 4 murderers wasn't really your goal but oh well! Will you survive after finding out about the paranormal part of this situation or not? Will you accept the help from the "red frowny faced mask fucker" or not? Find out and read! (Slow burn! Self insert! Neutral-masc reader! No smut!) (don't recommend reading this under 16 years of age) (Also! Ik Hoodie & Masky are from marble hornets, I just rly like the mh x crp crossover. I also don't claim the other crp/mh character unless I say so & ticci Toby was created by kastoway.)

They wont know eachother for long, but the memory will last a lifetime.

Tania lives at St. Louis, MO with her foster parents after being in and out of the system since she was born.

Laney lives in her head, she hates everyone but her family and her best friend's, and her long-term crush Michael Waters. She ends up falling at a party and having her prince save her. Is this when she'll finally get her high school experience? What even is the high school experience, at this point she's watched enough movies to not actually know what that is. Drinking, love, education, trips around the world?? She's so unsure of everything that all of this seems so distant when its right in front of her. Literally in front of her, Micheal has something to tell her but can't seem to get the words out. Does he love her? Maybe he just needs to know where the bathroom is...read to find out.

A short story about a man who drives to Wichita every weekend to meet his girlfriend, except this time might be the last.

"In the beginning... You just wanted the ending." Except when you realize the beginning itself is the ending. Told through a series of high school anecdotes, Laina Millicent records the lessons and miracles life brought in the rural Midwest. From a cross country team, to discovering the complexity of life's purpose, to experiencing utter magic, this is high school plain and, well, simple. Yeah, sure. Let's call it that... For now at least.

Slice of life. Somebody's life. Howard to be precise.

Theo had things going on in his life that no fifteen year old should. Waiting for Boris to prepare for New York, Theo's father passing away soon after reading things he wasn't able to comprehend and Xandra being even more unbearable that she was before, he just has to get it all out. How? Through the notebook.

Christina is the kind of girl that anyone can grow to love, she's pretty, sweet, always surrounded by friends. Life in her small town has always seemed so perfect, only just before April 12th, 2000. At first it just seems like some nightmare of an incident that would fade away in the blink of an eye; but it didn't.

A middle-aged man who's lived his whole life in a small Midwestern town is suddenly reconnected with a friend from his past and is forced to ask himself whether the way he's been living his life is the way he should be living it.

Written as a first person account, this is a story of a Chicago winter from a few years ago. It traces the ups and downs of a life sandwiched between love and heartbreak. This is a story about losing and then winning, about crumbling and then rebuilding, about seemingly almost dying and then living.

In my science class we're learning about droughts, and along with that we learned about the Dust Bowl. For an assignment we have to write a story from a first person view of someone going through the Dust Bowl. So I thought why not write it on here and publish it as well as get a grade from it.

Elizabeth Kays knew leaving home behind would be one of the hardest things she had ever done. But after 22 years of heartbreak, failures, and memories she knew it was time to move on. She knew Haysworth, Indiana a boring, small town was just what she needed. But, what she didn't know was that sometimes your past catches up to you. Unfinished business from her past wasn't the only thing that was that would haunt her in her quest for a new beginning. Wesley McAurther made sure of that.

Clarissa Daniels is a 48 year old teacher at Franklin Elementary School, in Franklin, Michigan. She gets fired for constantly scaring one of her students. What will she do from here on in? Work at a library? A soup kitchen?

On a stormy night along Highway 20, the Sandhills Café glows like a lone candle on the Nebraska prairie. Evie Harper has spent years watching travelers pass through-each one leaving behind a story she'll never quite live. When a road-worn musician named Cal wanders in out of the rain, he plays a quiet song about highways, missed chances, and the lives people almost choose. By morning, he's gone. But something small-and stubborn-remains.