maplefoot's second one-shot contest

Four years ago, Valentina Coppola was erased from the life she used to know. Accused of pushing her twin sister down the stairs of their home, she was sent to a boarding school for ill mannered ladies in Stockholm. An academy shaped like a prison. Years after the fall, she is brought back to Italy so that amends can be made. Older. Sharper. And still helplessly hurt by what happened years ago, Valentina must learn to navigate life with the brothers that didn't believe her, a father who shipped her away, and a twin sister who hides behind a fabricated lie. This time, Valentina has secrets of her own.

They called her a burden. They called her unwanted. Aarohi grew up feeling like she did not truly belong anywhere. She learned to stay quiet, to not argue, and to not expect too much from anyone. Love was something she saw from a distance, not something she felt. One night, everything changed. On a stormy evening filled with loss and chaos, Aarohi's life takes a sudden turn. At the same time, the powerful Singhania family is dealing with a tragedy of their own. A family known for strength, discipline, and power suddenly finds their world shaken. When Aarohi's path crosses with the Singhanias, nothing feels simple. She is a stranger in a house filled with strong personalities, strict rules, and unspoken emotions. Six brothers with different natures. A father who believes responsibility comes before feelings. A home that feels big... but unfamiliar. Aarohi must learn how to adjust in a family that is nothing like the world she came from. Will she always feel like an outsider? Or will she slowly find a place where she is accepted not out of duty, but out of choice? This is a story about family, healing, strength, and finding a home in the most unexpected place. Because sometimes, the people who are not related by blood... become the ones who matter the most.

AASTHA ~°• The Faith •°~ ---------------------------------- She wasn't the weakest among them; She was the reason they never fell. •. °. .°• She never knew she had a family. She never knew she had brothers. All her life, it was just her and her mother... and the memory of a father she lost long ago. But fate had never been kind to Aastha. And now, the only person who meant everything to her was slipping away. Her mother. Her only home. Last stage brain tumor. With trembling hands and a breaking voice, her mother reveals the truth - Aastha was never alone. Somewhere out there, a house stands filled not with one or two... but seven brothers. Seven strangers. Seven bonds she never knew existed. Will they accept her? Will she accept them? Is Aastha truly just an ordinary girl thrown into an extraordinary situation... or has she known more than she ever let anyone believe? Because sometimes, faith isn't discovered. Sometimes... it's hidden.

At sixteen, she used to be loud, bubbly, and a little chaotic. Now she's quiet, calm... and painfully distant. When home turns into something she has to escape from, she runs - carrying nothing but silent scars and a heart that forgot how to trust. Fate leads her to a house filled with six brothers - six different personalities, six different storms. Loud, protective, annoying, caring... everything she isn't used to. She doesn't want attachment. She doesn't want love. She just wants peace. But sometimes healing comes disguised as chaos. And sometimes, six brothers are enough to teach a broken girl how to smile again.

After her mother's unexpected passing, Gemma is sent to live with a group of strange men who don't seem overly fond of her being there. Their secrets, their strange rules and behaviour make Gemma want to run; to hide, to go back in time to when everything felt safe again. But life doesn't always play the way's expected, and Gemma's life of before can only stay as that: in the past. Top Rankings: 6/11/2025: #1 in grief 7/1/2026: #1 in friendship 9/1/2026: #2 in siblings 13/1/2026: #1 in mystery 1/2/2026: #2 in selectivemutism 13/2/2026: #1 in bullying 1/3/2026: #1 in oregon 31/3/2026: #2 in overprotectivebrothers 7/4/2026: #2 in brothers 8/4/2026: #1 in anxiety

🌹 𝐆𝐮𝐚𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐇𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 Aria arrives at her new school carrying more than just a past-she carries a silence sharp enough to cut. She doesn't look for attention, she doesn't ask for friendship, and she definitely doesn't believe in love. Not anymore. Her world is built on rules: Stay small. Stay quiet. Stay hidden. But everything starts to shift the moment Shivansh Rawat begins to notice her in ways she can't ignore. He watches her the way no one ever has-carefully, respectfully, like he's trying to understand the shadows she refuses to speak about. He doesn't push. He doesn't pry. Yet somehow, he gets closer than anyone should be able to. His presence is steady. His patience is disarming. And his care? It's the kind of dangerous that scares her... because she wants it. Aria feels the walls she built trembling against him-this boy who quietly steps into the spaces she guards most fiercely. He makes her question everything she believes about trust, safety, and love itself. But darkness doesn't disappear just because someone kind walks in. As she becomes part of a world filled with loud laughter, fierce loyalty, and friendships that burn bright-Rohan and Avni's fiery clashes, Saavi and Akshat's warm, teasing spark-Aria begins to feel something she has long forgotten: Hope. Hope that terrifies her as much as her past ever did. Because secrets don't stay buried forever. Sometimes they rise exactly when you start to heal. And Aria's past carries shadows that don't loosen their grip easily. Guarded Heart is a story of slow-burning romance, emotional unraveling, and the quiet bravery it takes to let love in when you've learned to fear it. Some hearts hide because they've been hurt. Some hearts protect because they care. And some hearts... collide so intensely, the world around them shifts. 💞 Slow Burn × Emotional Healing 🔥 Enemies to Lovers 🫶 Brother's Best Friend 🌸 Found Family & Fierce Friendships 📖 School Life

Saudade- a nostalgic longing to be near again to something or someone that is distant, or has been loved, then lost; "the love that remains" Marlowe Wanless, just 11-years-old has spent the better part of her life that she can remember in the house of her abusive and drug addicted stepfather. After he has been arrested for possession of illicit substances, Marlowe's custody has been shifted to her 7 terrifying older brothers who are surrounded by rumors regarding their line of work. The Valente's now juggle healing a mentally destroyed child while simultaneously sheltering her from lurking rival business' that will stop at nothing to harm the littlest Valente. Have the rival businesses just brought more danger then her stepfather? Who can be trusted? Or the bigger question, who can't?

Jaxian Drex "Jaxie" Malverez is the savage, pink-leather-clad drummer of Auxeria High, an openly gay rockstar whose life is a masterpiece of sharp edges. His world is governed by a meticulous order where only his music and his attraction to men have a place, leaving no room for the "maarte" drama of the female species. Kaelira Vynne "Kae" Castellano, the soft, jolly, and hopelessly naive transferee from Europe, is the walking violation of his peace and the ultimate distraction to his focus. But when her "conyo" charm and constant habit of getting into trouble trigger a fierce, possessive protectiveness in Jax, his carefully constructed identity begins to fracture. The heart he swore only beat for boys now thunders uncontrollably for the girl he deemed too slow, too messy, and too irritating to ever notice. Is Jaxian's rhythm as fixed as his savage reputation, or will he let a girl be the one to finally break his setlist? What happens when the ultimate annoyance becomes the only music loud enough to drown out his own rules? Second Book of Vexera Series. Dual Point of View.

Radhe Radhe ✨ Hello my cute little red flags❤️ "What happens when a girl with a broken past enters a family that doesn't know how to fix her? Seven brothers. One truth. And a secret that refuses to stay buried." Alia was just fifteen when her world shattered-again. Years after surviving a trauma no child should bear, she finds herself in a stranger's home, far from everything familiar. Her mother has remarried, found love, and started a new life. But for Alia... healing isn't that simple. Now surrounded by seven stepbrothers who barely know her, in a house that feels more like a castle than a home, Alia carries a burden too heavy for her age-and a past she cannot speak of. They call her family. They say she's safe now. But Alia knows that safety is just a word... and trust doesn't come easy when you've been broken before. What happens when silence screams louder than truth? Will this new family help her heal-or will her past follow her into the only home she has left? Hare Krishna ✨

Elliot Jensen and Elliot Fintry have a lot in common. They share the same name, the same house, the same school, oh and they hate each other but, as they will quickly learn, there is a fine line between love and hate.