The Anonymous Notes
A free B1-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
Sage keeps receiving small anonymous compliments and traces a tiny cartoon bird drawing back to a boy from her seventh-grade class.
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Sage finds the first note taped to her locker on a Monday, folded into a small square. It says: "Your project presentation last week was really good. Just thought you should know."
There's no name attached. Sage reads it twice, checks the hallway for anyone watching, and slips it into her bag.
A second note appears three days later, this time in her backpack pocket. "You always hold the door for people. Most people don't notice that kind of thing, but I do."
By the fourth note, Sage has started actually looking forward to finding them. Someone is paying closer attention to her than she realized, and whoever it is clearly means well. She just can't figure out who.
She starts a mental list of suspects. Her best friend Winston denies it immediately, looking genuinely confused by the question. "If it were me, I definitely wouldn't be subtle about it," he says, which is probably true.
Her lab partner seems too shy to write anything like this at all. A girl from her art class seems like a possibility. But the handwriting doesn't match anything Sage has seen from her before.
The fifth note finally gives her something to work with. There's a tiny drawing in the corner, a small cartoon bird. It looks oddly specific, like an inside joke Sage doesn't remember being part of.
Then it clicks. In seventh grade, she sat next to a boy named Wilder. He used to doodle the exact same bird on every worksheet, every test, every note passed in class. They haven't spoken much since he switched to a different friend group in eighth grade.
The next day, Sage finds Wilder at his locker before first period. "Nice bird," she says, holding up the note.
Wilder's ears turn red almost instantly. "I wasn't sure you'd remember that."
"I didn't, at first," Sage admits. "But once I saw it, it was pretty obvious."
"I've noticed things about you for a while," Wilder says, not quite meeting her eyes. "I just didn't know how to say any of it out loud without it being weird."
"Well, it worked," Sage says. "Weird, but in a good way."
