Destinata [Freshman Fifteens Winner]

Dear Freshman Fifteens,

I am writing to enter my short story "Destinata" into your Common Room Teen Mentoring Contest. "Destinata" is a contemporary fantasy short story complete at 2,974 words.

Pitch (one hundred sixty-six words): 

Destinata: Latin for "destined, intended".

Sixteen-year-old Evie is a Lancaster girl, cursed by her lineage to drive herself mad and drown if she ever kisses her true love. Until now, she's obeyed her overprotective mother; she's never given herself the chance to meet this love, wherever he or she is. Until now, she's been uncatchable. But when Elliot Morgan - the boy she's been crushing on from afar for five years - asks her if she'd like to have dinner with him, Evie says yes before she can stop herself.

Her mother and her better judgment write her off as doomed, and it doesn't help that Elliot's mother is rumored to be descended from the witch who cursed the Lancasters in the first place.

It's the most suicidal first date a girl could ask for, and a battle against fate that Evie doesn't want to fight. But what starts off as blind defiance of old magic that no one can shake might soon become something so much more.

First Hundred Words:

He waits for my answer, and the spaces between his breaths seem to spell out my name. 

Fire, fire, a thirst to slake, all my fair ladies have drowned in the lake, I recite in my head, heart hammering, lips aching. A patch of blue, a flash of sky, sears itself behind my eyelids. Seal yourself. Dream no more.

Uncertainly, he rubs his hands together like he's trying to make sparks. He's a witch's son, I remind myself. Maybe he can. 

"Are you... busy on Friday or something?" he asks. "Or is it me? Because I can, y'know, back off."

Bio (ninety-seven words): Christina Im is a fourteen-year-old aspirant wordsmith and ardent believer in ghosts. She was awarded a gold medal in the 2014 Scholastic Art and Writing Awards, and her novel-in-progress On the Midnight Streets received a silver medal in the 2014 PUSH Novel Contest. Her work has appeared in several publications, including Hogglepot, The Plum Collection, and Foxglove Hymnal. In her writing, Christina works with fairy tales, clockwork hearts, and girls who don't take no for an answer. Outside of her writing, well - she doesn't do much, except possibly eating, binge-reading, and barely getting homework in on time.

I don't have a specific mentor preference, as all of the Freshman Fifteens sound like delightful teachers, writers, and people.

Thank you for your time and consideration, and for hosting such a unique opportunity!

Best regards,

Christina