614 words (20073 total)

First line: I was seriously underperforming in art that afternoon.

515 words (19459 total)

First line: So I was right about the hockey thing.

567 words (18944 total)

First line: It was the boy from the river.

563 words (18377 total)

First line: As it turned out, it wasn’t Billy who ratted me out.

1137 words (17814 total)

First line: “It’s not just about a coat. …”

1671 words (16677 total)

First line: About sketching a slight boy in a white T-shirt in charcoal on a sheet of manila paper, the cheap kind art teachers give you to practice, except I wasn’t in art, I was in math, and then Léna walked in the classroom with a basket of laundry and proceeded to place it in the washer that I realized was at the back of the room when I turned around to see what she was doing with it, and right alongside it was the dryer, which she was opening to take out Kami and the twins, who she placed in the basket and they giggled and giggled as she picked the basket up and carried them out of the room, tucked under her arm like laundry, and at the door she turned and grinned, waving at me with her free arm, and as she did her face melted and it was Dad standing there, waving, waving, and I tried to jump up to go to him except I was tangled in my desk, and as I struggled to get free, he disappeared into the hallway, and I called, “Wait!” and that was when I knew I was awake because I heard myself say it—out loud.

258 words (15006 total)

First line: It was spending the day with the kids.

331 words (14748 total)

First line: It only took me 5 minutes to run home.

469 words (14417 total)

First line: He was standing just out of the pool of light cast by one of the streetlights, so when I looked up at him, he was backlit with an orangey-pink glow.

630 words (13948 total)

First line: Léna was home early that night, but she was futzing around in the kitchen.