The Little Girl Who Did Not Like Homework

Larisa Toader
A heavy smoke took over the meadow in which 12 beings with scarlet capes were silently mixing in 12 magical cauldrons. You, show us your homework, an acrid teacher's voice suddenly squeaked. A wand was put forth. A thunder, a lightning and a pink storm burst from the cauldron, filling the meadow with glitter. Ouch. It's burning me, the hag croaked in a high voice, brushing the pink stream that had invaded her off. Then she jumped on her enchanted broom and she vanished into the sky. A happy dance immediately started taking place around the girl who sabotaged the homework of the junior witches class.

Paul Dârvariu
I used to like them because I liked him. A true gentleman. When Vandam pinched my tits, he was scolded and kicked out of class. I wanted to thank him, so I sneaked into his car after class. When he came, I breathlessly told him that I loved him and that he could take me wherever he wanted. He said no. He was supposedly not allowed, because he was married. So what? Am I not married as well? Actually, we will sign the documents after Romică gets out of jail. He made me get out of the car. I don't like him anymore. I don't like his broken Logan either.

Florin Tamaș
Daddy, can you help me with this difficult exercise? Later, I'm watching the game now. Mommy, look, I don't understand the poem, what does the author mean? Leave me, don't you see I'm cooking? Vlad, I can't do it, would you help me with my drawing for geography? Leave me, I'm listening to music now. Mommy, daddy, can I go outside, the girls are calling me to play hopscotch. You are not allowed to go anywhere until you finish your homework. I asked you to help me a little. Crying, she found out what the author meant. Then she understood the exercise. With tears in her eyes, she drew the map. During the night, the moths were playing hopscotch.

(Translated by Claudia Cioplea / University of Bucharest, Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures, MTTLC, year II / Corrected by Silvia Petrescu, coordinator of the translations)


Real Fiction is a collective project started in 2013 by Florin Piersic Jr. The concept of Real Fiction continued to exist as a Facebook group, after a volume of stories was published at Humanitas Publishing House. (In July 2023, the group has 11,540 members.) The authors write ultra-short stories, with the texts limited to 500 characters (in Romanian, so the length of the English translation might be a little different) - a flash-fiction exercise on a topic that changes every few days. The group's coordinators are Florin Piersic Jr., Gabriel Molnar, Răzvan Penescu, Luchian Abel, and Vlad Mușat. (Drawing by Adrian T. Roman)

Versiunea în română a acestui text se poate citi aici, în rubrica Ficțiuni Reale.