Onceuponnowcontest Stories

What would happen Goldilocks, Cinderella, and other fairytale favorites went to high school instead? This is a collection of modern fairytale-retellings. Cover by @sugarcrystals / SHORT STORY / FAIRY TALE RETELLING / ROMANCE

A modern take on the classic tale "Ugly Duckling". A young girl is dropped off at an orphanage after her mother simply doesn't want her anymore. This girl goes through her life constantly being put down. Everyone tells her she isn't worth it, and she starts to feel that way. With a love of nature and animals this girl starts to grow and mature. Many trials and challenges put her through hard times in her life. Will she always be the ugly duckling? Or will she one day grow into a beautiful swan.

In the heart of Castle Aanca, the museum of Fables and future sciences, stories become a lot more lively. Prince Alfil, the leading hero in his Fable, is one of the most popular exhibits in the museum being the spitting image of every little girl's dream prince...if he could manage to stay in the same room with one for more than five seconds. With pressure of being shut down by a major laboratory when they come with an experiment of their own, the director of museum hastily introduces the new additions. However, when mysterious incidents begin affecting the other Fables, Alfil brings it upon his self to find the truth. But with a fear that makes it impossible to interact with his fellow Fables, let alone fans, can Alfil save his home--or be ERASED forever? Cover image from: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/ee/87/66/ee8766ec40f95514e0dca98ed4b46771.jpg

"I'm dead?" He shrugs and looks back at his tablet. "Yeah." I stand despite the pain it gives me. "I can't be dead. I had my whole life ahead of me." "I'm sorry...?" He doesn't sound very sorry.

Top 25 Finalist for Target's Once Upon Now contest He's trapped. He couldn't breathe. The white walls were smothering him, the barred windows were taunting him, the ticking of the clock was killing him. Now the nurses, of course, they were there too, they were there constantly choking him, forcing the colored pills down his throat. He wasn't just the amusement of the place. No, he was the beast of the place. Adam was suffering from insanity. Insanity from being locked in one single room for eleven years. Eleven years he has been stuck in the psychiatric hospital. He couldn't get out and he couldn't be saved, so what was left for him? What was there for the beast besides death? There was only one answer, one answer that not even he knew just yet, but it would all start with a single name. That single name that would bring a new feeling to that white room. That single name being Belle. ----------- A/N: This story is entered into the "Once Upon Now" story contest by target. This story is my version of a modern day "Beauty and The Beast" Anyways, thanks for reading!(: Xx Cover made by: Playboystiles

Earth have different portals that led you to different worlds, Tomas always loves to read books that contain magical stories. He never thought, that one of the stories he read as a child will actually become reality. In a different way and different time.

A young spoiled Princess seems to find everything funny. She loved and lived for practical jokes, especially when she was behind them. On her fifteen birthday, she happened to pull a joke on the wrong person, then her life totally changed. copywrite@mariapagan

Petie the Rabbit must earn points to become the next Easter Rabbit But something goes wrong, and Petie will have to find courage, to be the next easter rabbit. Edited completed. copywrite@mariapagan2016

The Enchanted Central Forest calls out to her, and she can sense it. It's not against the law to go there, but humans have been taught to fear magic. Yet, Sadie Garcia is not a normal New Yorker or human. She can't help it if she feels the urge to explore the wonders of magic. On an ordinary day Sadie and her best friend, Giana visit the forest. Unknowingly on that day, their fates will forever change. For they learn the truth of their family linage, and who they truly are. Now they must embark on a journey that can determine the fate of the magical realm. Sadie and her friends only have a week to learn the ways of magic, and save the life of the future king of the realm. Sadie is determined not to fail, but can she defeat the evil that has cursed the future king for years? Can she be the sorceress she is destine to be? Thank you to all who voted and read this story during the Wattpad Target competition.

"Humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate beings, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves." -Plato's The Symposium After a mission forty-five years in the making, after finding his soulmate, and after discovering a queen like the daughter Samuel never had...Samuel has his hands full these days. When his queen is betrayed, its up to Samuel to find her and keep her King from doing irreversible damage. When myths and fairy tales literally combine, love comes naturally. And to protect the ones he loves the most, Samuel will alter a plan centuries in the making. Will he be able to save the ones he loves without ruining another's chance to reunite with their soulmate?

After an explosion leaves Charity Bosworth horribly disfigured and her parents dead, she believes that the only people that will ever love her are her two older sisters. It's been six years since the accident, and at twenty-two, she works in the back of her family's florist shop designing and creating floral sprays and centerpieces. It's a great job, one she's good at, even though her real passion is photography. The one day she is running late and hurries out of the house without covering her scars, is the one day her sisters leave for lunch and forget to lock the front door of the shop. As Cheery is photographing her latest centerpiece creation, Brax Hudson walks through the door and into her life. Brax, an award-winning photographer, sees her differently than other people do. He looks past her scars and insists on getting to know her. Her sisters encourage her to go out with him and she finally agrees to a date. But when Brax has a family emergency and has to cancel at the last minute, she realizes it was too good to be true. She isn't dating material, not that she ever thought she would be. Hurt and disappointed, Cheery picks herself up to make her weekly visit to the burn unit where she'd been a patient for two years. Speaking with one of her doctors, he reminds her that her scars are only skin deep... what's in her heart is all that matters. With a million questions on her mind, she goes to Brax's photography studio where he shows her why he is the perfect guy to see past her beastly scars and live happily ever after.

Have you ever seen your world suddenly turn upside down? Things that seem impossible have a chance of possibility, and stories come alive? Things in our world that is odd suddenly become the most normal thing on the planet? Oh, it's happened to me, alright. My name is Julianna Owens. I've experienced questions that I wouldn't ever ponder come to life. Even the things I imagined when I was little could never compare to them. How did this happen? It all started when my grandma moved in.

" You know what sucks about plans? They can easily be ruined." ~Renae " I'm sleeping beauty, and my prince is dead. There's no one to come kiss me awake and take me away from this nightmarish world. The world without him." ~Renae Renae just wanted to away and live in a fantasy world. The world where her prince didn't go. She was tired of everything falling apart around her. All she wanted was to keep moving forward and forget about all the bad things lurking in her past. After recently graduating Renae runs into an old classmate at a coffee shop where they begin to bond and become close friends. Slowly she realizes that there's more there than just friendship between them and can't help but feel drawn to him, but the last man she kissed....No, she couldn't let anything happen between them, her last kiss would be just that, her last kiss. But what if it's not that simple?

When you've been playing online games as long as Devon has -- you do a lot of killing. It's what you expect. What you don't expect is for one of the creatures you've been killing to suddenly beg for its life! And when you learn that some myths thought to have disappeared from the world centuries ago haven't disappeared at all - but just found new homes - well then things get really interesting! Originally entered into the #OnceUponNow contest, I've now entered the story into the #Wattys2016 writing contest. I Hope you enjoy reading the story, and comments and critiques (and even votes :)) are always welcome. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Fallen stars never stay on earth. Such is the case of sixteen-year-old Carmen Esmaier, citizen of planet Terra and daughter of two of its most revered heroes. Shielded by her vigilante of an aunt since her parents' deaths, Carmen doesn't dare mention her dream of following in their footsteps and joining the army. But that all changes when a team of scouts arrives at the colony to host a contest, the prize being a coveted position in the army. For Carmen, that doesn't just mean soldiership and escape from her aunt, but a chance to work with Casper Conduir, her childhood hero...and perhaps something more than that. It doesn't matter that she'll have to navigate a jungle of carnivorous trees and the discrimination of half the colony just to get to the contest. It doesn't matter that she arrives an hour late, nor that she has no weapon. After all, she just needs to fight for her happily ever after, and it'll come...right? #MayJustWriteIt #ProjectWomanUp Cover by @Homely8

Robin is just like any other teenage girl. She loves to run, hang with her friends, and is obsessed with her cell phone. Oh, and she's known by her city as The Hood, the mysterious figure that takes down those that are corrupt and wealthy with the help of her merry men - her three computer genius friends that are expert hackers. Her current target? Richard Sherwood, CEO of Sherwood Innovations. He has a net worth of multiple billions (exact amount unknown) and has been grooming his son to be the heir to his empire. Oh, and he happens to be involved in the death of Robin's parents and the disappearance of countless other innocents in the city. So, what's a girl to do? Stand back and watch a selfish, malevolent man take down the city with his bare hands? No. She's going to steal from the rich and give back to the poor, of course. But even though she has her secret weapon, Golden Arrow, and her tech savvy best friends, stealing from the most powerful man in the city from his Sherwood Tower office building is much easier said than done. *** This is my entry for the Once Upon Now, Target//Wattpad Contest. If you enjoyed Golden Arrow, please come back and vote from June 14th - June 21st....only votes during this time frame and only votes on the first chapter will be counted for the contest. With your help, Golden Arrow could be published in the upcoming Once Upon Now anthology that will be carried in Target stores and potentially other retailers later this year.

Penelope "Poppy" Icarius fell in love at the curious age of 5. Poppy never questioned her love for the lively, freckled boy down the street, not even after he moved away, leaving Poppy alone in their make-believe world. Now, age 25, Poppy faces a turning point in her high-profile fashion career. Faced with a major career decision, her sister's impending and ridiculously over-the-top wedding, and a slew of hilariously bad dates with New York's most eligible, Poppy must come to terms with the realities of the life she's living and the secrets she's keeping--even from herself. This modern-day retelling of Penelope's story from The Odyssey explores the bittersweet intersection of change and certainty, and the challenge of defining yourself in the face of uncertainty, reminding us that becoming ourselves is sometimes the greatest--and most difficult--adventure that we can choose to wander through. *Thanks so much for checking out my #onceuponnow entry! If you like it, you can vote on the first chapter starting June 14th. At any rate, I'm humbled you'd check this out and I always welcome feedback! Stay excellent <3* Cover created using materials with creative commons licensing. Boat image, entitled "Boat," from flickr user geopungo.

*When a child reads their first fairytale, they dream of being a princess or a hero. They dream of living in a castle and having a Happily Ever After. That one fairytale becomes what we base our dreams on. Whether it's going from rags to riches or waking with a kiss, it becomes a part of who we are. For me, those fairytales are the reminder of something I will never have. Happiness.* Carson has always been on her own. Ever since she can remember, she has been in and out of foster homes and constantly unwanted. She has no idea where she comes from or who her parents are... all she knows is that she's alone in this world and that's never going to change. What happens when one night... her life is changed forever? ***********************

There' a private war In the world of Genies and Witches Only one Genie was able to get away. Then the war begins. In the middle of all the hate and war, Jack happens to find love. copywrite@mariapagan2016

ARISTA DOES NOT like monsters or dragons, but sometimes to slay a monster, you have to embrace your inner monster. In this modern day retelling of A Thousand and One Nights, sometimes, you just have to survive one night in order to survive a thousand more. ▂ ▂ ▂ ▂ ▂ ▂ ▂ ▂ ▂ [#574SS]