Voyage YA by Uncharted

“Zachary Kahn-Molina, do you have siblings?” Mr. Rattrazino paused, stub of yellow chalk cinched between his second and third fingers like the suave, self-destructive, chain-smoking lead of a 1930s movie. Rattrazino—mostly, we called him “Mr. R,” though a few smart-asses (usually after they’d bombed a test) muttered “Mr. Rat” behind his back—was old-school that way. […]

they say grief is the price of love, as if there’s a penalty for loving, as if it breaks rules or laws or expectations . it’s a laugh, really, what they say about grief, what they think they know about love; it’s their rules that have a cost—the rules written on their face as they […]

Third Place Winner of Voyage’s Love & War Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Ayana Gray Chapter One Three nails stuck out of the ground an inch from Lane’s left big toe. Their heads were a quarter inch wide, and they stood a half inch from the surface of the soil. They almost looked like […]

Second Place Winner of Voyage’s Love & War Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Ayana Gray . Chapter One Present day  “If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger: I should not seem […]

First Place Winner of Voyage’s Love & War Contest judged by NYT Bestselling Author Ayana Gray . Chapter One Clio twisted the tuning key and plucked the shortest string again, bending close to her harp to hear it over the patricians’ murmurs. Too much—the note had gone sharp. She inched the key back with twitches […]

Content warning: Themes of death .Your dad woke from a ten-day coma. He was forty-seven and living in the in-between measurements of time. You were fourteen. He shared a room with four men at a nursing home that specialized in neuro diseases like Parkinson’s and MS. He had the latter. During the coma, the nursing […]

Content warning: Physical and verbal abuse of a teenager . Thursday Night or Friday Morning The night air hit me like a slap. I kept my hands in my coat pockets and ducked my chin to my chest. After crossing the grocery store parking lot, I headed up the main street, past the classy little […]

Erica’s in our spot, her gold hair shining in the sun. I drop my best friend Birdie’s hand and get ready to run. I’ve spent eighty-eight miserable days waiting for a glimpse of her. She won’t notice me until I’m past the newsstand. I’ll skid to a stop, slide my hands around her waist, and […]

Here’s what I have learned. The holes don’t go away, but something else moves in. You’ve been hollowed out, a cracked oak yanked wide open by unyielding, unforgiving hands, They don’t care what they break as they scoop out the most precious, spongy part of you and squeeze. As the footsteps fade, and the ache […]

I forgot how cold winter can be. The frigid air is a thousand tiny pinpricks on my face as I follow Caleb down the path between our houses. “Come on, Kiki,” he shouts at me over his shoulder. His breath is a thick white cloud against the night sky. “California hasn’t made you soft already, […]

Remember the times your dad poked fun at you by imitating that silly cartoon and asking if you wanted to be a boy. Remember the times you felt more connected to your boy stuffed animals and had more fun voicing toys that were boys. Remember the times you only wrote stories from the perspective of […]

I liked the way her hand danced with the wind. The air felt harsh blowing against my face in the backseat, but Osh made it seem like her and the wind were good friends. Her other hand rested low on the steering wheel. She was undeniably cool. I made a mental note to drive just […]