Teen Read Week Short Story Contest

National Teen Read Week was October 7^th – 13^th. To celebrate, the Magee Library again asked for original short stories based on this year’s theme, It’s Written in the Stars. Students at Magee High School were encouraged to participate through their English class. Entries submitted were judged on originality and enjoyment. The winning entry was titled, The Galactic Runaway, by Preston Grim.

Preston is a tenth grader at Magee High School. The 15-year-old is new to the area as he and his family moved to Magee this past summer. Preston enjoys writing and got ideas for his story by talking with his friend. He entered the contest in his English class taught by Pam Rodgers.

The Magee Library would like to thank all the teens that submitted stories, the English teachers at Magee High School for their support, and the Magee Courier and MageeNews.com for publishing the winning story.

Written in the stars: The Galactic Runaway

It was an unusually starry night in Austin, Texas. 16 year old, Brett Ellis, is up late playing Fortnite with his friends. Breo glow under his bed. He puts his hand under the bed, and he starts to pull out a medium-sized metal orb. The orb is about the size and weight of a soccer ball. The orb starts to hiss again, and then "POP!" The orb opens. Once all the smoke clears from the orb, Brett passes-out, fore he had just seen an Alien.

tt's parents went out of town the other night, leaving him home alone with his dog, Chelsea. Brett finally decides to call it a night and heads upstairs to his room. When he steps in his room, he sees glass all over the floor. He instantly thinks there is another person in the house, and he isn't wrong, but it's not a person.

He starts to hear a "hiss," but it wasn't from an animal. It sounded more like it was from a machine. He looks and sees something starting tBrett woke up thinking he just had a weird dream. He stnads up and looks on his bed to see a small alien sleeping in his bed. He yells, and his dog, Chelsea, runs up and jumps on the Alien. The Alien wakes up, and screams with a loud pitch. Once the alien stops screaming, Brett pulls out a baseball bat and starts to swing at the alien.

"Wait, Wait, Wait," yells the Alien. "Let me explain myself."

Brett is amazed by the fact an Alien is speaking fluent English. He lowers the bat, but doesn't put it down.

"My name is Notserp, I am from the planet Ippississim. I'm just running away from home, because I am tired of my father's stupid rules. I encountered troubles with my ship while trying to make out of the universe and crashed into the Milky Way Galaxy, again. We have about 2 days before my father comes to bring me back home. I hope he doesn't do what he did last time. "

"What happened last time?" asked Brett.

"Well, last time I crashed into planet Earth, I crashed into Antarctica, and let's just say it wasn't always barren." explained Notserp.

Brett thought of all his friends and family and decided to help Notserp find his ship. He packed his stuff and brought food and water for himself and Chelsea. "So, where are we going first?" Brett asked.

"Well, according to my calculations, my ship landed at the coordinates 30.50904 ⁰ N, 97.67722 ⁰ E," said Notserp.

Brett pulls out his phone to type in the coordinates. Notserp climbed in Brett's backpack and caught a bus. The coordinates brought Brett to the city of Round Rock, Texas. Notserp had said the ship had auto-landed in the middle of Cedar Ridge High School's courtyard. When they arrived, the school was shut down by the U.S Government. Notserp and Brett thought of many different ways to get the ship back. By the time they were done strategizing, it was night time. Brett decided to call a friend he knew in the area, and they were able to spend the night at his friend's house.

When he arrived to his friend's house, he was kind of nervous about telling him why he was talking to his backpack. When he finally summonded the courage to do so, someone started banging on the door to the house.

"FBI OPEN UP," screamed the FBI officer just before he knocked down the door leading in a swarm of officers. Brett grabbed his bag and jumped out the back window. He starts running as fast as he could. He wasn't thinking of anything else; he just ran.

Meanwhile in Austin, Texas, Brett's parents arrived back home from their vacation. They call his name asking him to come downstairs. There is no reply. His parents go upstairs to see a broken window, and there son, gone.

Brett finally stops running after realizing Chelsea is hungry and tired. His phone starts buzzing; it's his parents calling. He answers the phone and tells his parents he spent the night at Brandon's house. When they asked about the broken window, he just told them some kids were throwing around a baseball. His parents believed his story. He hung up the phone and opened up the bag only to find homework. He had grabbed the wrong bag. He instantly thinks everything is over. He gives up, and waits for an alien invasion to happen.

The FBI had taken Notserp and started to analyze him. Notserp's father was only hours away.

Brett uses the rest of his money to buy a bus ticket back to Austin. His parents are glad to see him, but he tells them what's about to happen. They think he is just speaking nonsense. Then a few hours later the news came on...a massive UFO was entering Earth's orbit.

As Notserp's father's ship enters Earth's orbit, Notserp's father prepares the ice beam. As he prepares to destroy Texas, a loud "clunk" was heard outside the ship. The ship's screen says identified ship in loading dock. It was Notserp's ship.

A little while earlier in Round Rock, Texas, Notserp had escaped from the FBI, and had gone straight to the school. He assumed since so many FBI officers were at Brandon's House that only a few would be at the school guarding his ship. He was right. Stealing his ship back, he flew straight to his father's ship.

Notserp's father still mad was still bound and determined to fire the ice beam and make Texas a barren state of ice. Notserp tried to run over to his father before he could do it, but he was too late.

Brett and Chelsea are outside playing. He looks up into the sky and sees a white beam. Coming right towards Austin, Texas..

Brett gasps as he woke up, startled from the wildest dream ever. Chelsea jumps on his bed trying to get him to come outside. He goes to open the door, and when he opens it, he sees snow and ice everywhere. In the middle of summer.