Welcome to a bran new week. Last week was Victoria Day in Canada, and today is Memorial Day in the US. This is the time of year for holidays. If you’re in the US, hopefully you have the day off and have time to write a story!

The challenge of Muse on Monday is to write a short story and use the prompt below. If you’re 18 years old or younger, you can submit your story using this link for a chance to have it published next Monday when the new prompt comes out. You just need to submit it before 12:00pm EST next Sunday.

If you have an idea for a prompt for a future week, please send it to me at greenwalledtreehouse@gmail.com! It can be in this form or anything else.

Story Prompt: May 31, 2021

SETTING: a stone circle

CHARACTERS: any

CONFLICT: any

GENRE: mystery

TONE: serious

OTHER ELEMENTS: any

And now, a story based on last week’s prompt, this picture:

Homework Stones

It was Friday afternoon and the class lined up in front of the teacher’s desk. The room was silent except for the clink as each student stepped up and dropped a stone into the bowl in the middle of the desk. When they had all put a stone in and were sitting in their seats, Mr. Tipton emptied the bowl onto his desk and began counting. The tension was unbearable.

“Okay,” he said a minute later. “The vote is 23 to 1.” The other students glared at Lawrence, the teacher’s pet. “For the sixteenth week in a row, the class has voted not to have homework this weekend. See you all on Monday!”

It was a good experiment in democracy, Tessa thought as she walked out of class. Still, she suspected the real reason was that Mr. Tipton did not want to grade the homework.

Happy writing and have a wonderful week! Come back next Monday for another story prompt.