The story “You Are a 14-Year-Old Arab Chick Who Just Moved to Texas” by Randa Jarrar is the winner of storySouth’s first Million Writer’s award. It was originally published in Eyeshot, and you can read it there now.
The fall you moved with your family to America, you were diagnosed with TB, and the old white doctor pointed at the five inch red rectangle on your forearm and said, “That should be three inches smaller.” He put you on a battery of medications which worsened your acne, made you gain thirty pounds, and gave you an overall sense of impending death. As usual, your Mama was jealous of you, and wanted to be the one dying instead; it was her first time without a piano, and your first time without friends to comfort you.