You are writing the story of the first time two future lovers meet. However, the story is so dark or awkward or seedy that if asked in the future, the couple is likely to tell a lie about the first time they met.

Word Limit: 250
Time Limit: 30 minutes

Emily blushed. He kept smiling at her. No guy had ever made her feel like this before. Eric was good-looking, sure. He was tall and cute. The white button-down shirt he wore made him look smart. She wondered if he liked Pleasantville. She saw that last night with her best friend Olive. She figured if he saw it, he probably did.

She was was just sitting there reading A Wrinkle In Time when he came over and sat down next to her.

“Hi,” he said. “I’m Eric.”

She smiled at him. “Yes, you said that a little while ago.”

“Just wanted to make sure you didn’t forget.” He looked down. “Whatcha reading?”

She showed him.

“Ah, good book. Do you like tesseracts as much as I do?” He winked.

“Yeah,” she spurted out. Ugh! Why did he make her feel this way?

He put a hand on her shoulder. “The story just gets better.” He smiled again and walked away.

Is this was love feels like? That sounded stupid, but she couldn’t help herself. She vowed to finish this book tonight so they could talk about it later.

“Okay!” Eric called out. “Can anyone here tell me what the bottom number of a fraction is called?

Emily shot up her hand, a little too excitedly. He pointed at her. “A denominator!”

“Correct, Emily! The denominator is a key component of algebraic equations…”

She could listen to his voice all day.

K: Wow. This is so, so gross considering the prompt. I was going to complain that the characters seemed disparate in age until I realized that this was the intention. The payoff happens at the right time, and believe me, I feel as gross as the writer hopes I do. SILVER

MN – As I was reading this, I thought “this seems normal enough” so from the prompt I knew something awful was coming. You delivered in spades. SILVER

I was inspired for this one. Finished my story in 18 minutes.

My team was also inspired. The Hidden Legends of Temple Grandin finished in 2nd place for the week and didn’t have to eliminate anyone. 21 Survivors left!