You reach your desk and find a folded piece of paper. There is no name on it. No one saw who left it.
Inside, in handwriting that looks exactly like yours, are six words:
“Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.”
You have no idea what that means—until later, when someone asks you to choose between a blue envelope and a yellow one.
What happens next?
Write a short story about the choice and what follows. You decide what the envelopes contain, who left the warning, and whether your character listens. Your story can be mysterious, funny, realistic, or science fiction.
Here’s the twist: By the end, readers should understand why the warning was written—but they don’t have to know whether it was good advice.
Before you write, make three quick decisions:
- Who is your main character? Give them something they want today.
- What is inside each envelope? Make the choice matter to your character.
- Who wrote the note? Keep this secret from your reader until the right moment.
Write at least three paragraphs. Start with the discovery of the note or jump straight to the moment your character must choose. Include a detail readers can picture and show your character’s reaction through what they do or say.
Before you post, reread your ending. Does it reveal something that makes a reader want to go back and read the note again?
Share your story in the comments. Afterward, read a classmate’s story and reply with a specific moment that caught your attention. You can also ask the writer a question about the choice their character made. Keep your story fictional and leave out real classmates’ names or personal information.
When you’re finished, check out the rest of our blog for more tips, ideas, and activities to help you learn and grow. Be sure to follow our classroom Instagram page for behind-the-scenes moments, project highlights, and fun updates. Let’s work together to make learning fun, exciting, and something you look forward to every day!
19 Responses
First I’m going to wait for the person to ask me to pick one and I’m going to pick blue immediately. And after that alien cats come out of nowhere and take over the world. My plan is to fight off the aliens and go to McDonald’s. So first I obviously need weapons to get rid of the alien cats. So all the weapons I have are a fork, spoon, butter knife, and a ray gun that can kill ANYTHING. And the weapon I’m choosing is a spoon, it’s so powerful so I’m obviously picking it. Now I’m outside and its CHAOS the alien cats are eating women, men and EVEN KIDS. I then start crawling because I’m not trying to get killed, I’m too young to die!!! Then I noticed an alien cat that was distracted so I decided to sneak up on it and I did and killed it with the spoon. And I somehow won the fight, and then I cut it open and I wore the alien cat’s body. I had to take out the organs and that was kinda gross but it’s life or death so I had to. I then walked around and an alien cat noticed me and walked up to me and started speaking in this language I didn’t understand so I started to throw hands but I ended up being body slammed and my head got stomped on and that really hurt. But anyways I need to go to a power plant to blow up the alien cats but it’s really far away. I ended up stealing a plane and flying there I may have crash landed but I SURVIVED. I found the power plant but there were alien cats guarding the place so I attacked all of them and I lost an arm and a leg but they were all dead so I crawled to the nuke and I set it off and I ended the world. But I woke up in my bed it was all a dream and I saw a blue paper and it said, You’re just delusional it was all a dream and then an alien cat attacked me AND THE END.
When I got to my desk, I noticed a folded piece of paper sitting on top of my homework. I looked around, but nobody seemed to be watching me. I opened it and saw six words written in handwriting that looked exactly like mine “Whatever you do, not open the blue envelope.” I stared at it for a few seconds. It didn’t even make sense. I put the note in my pocket and tried to forget about it. But later someone said if you ever had to choose between a blue envelope and a yellow one which would you pick. So i said tell me what is in the yellow envelope then in the blue one. They said if you pick the blue envelope you get 1 million dollars instantly but with a twist you age twice as fast. And the yellow one you get a notebook and what ever you write on it becomes true. So i will ask again yellow or blue I pick yellow. Nice choice….. so then then the person said you got lucky this time then he revealed that the blue one deletes you from this world. The end
One day I walk into class. Then I see a envelope on my desk. I walk up to the envelope there is no name. when I open it I see 6 words. “Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.” And then I see it is in my handwriting. So i put two and two together. it is from me then i think to my self. Is this envelope from the future. Then school is over I walk over to my program and someone asks me . ¨Do you want the yellow one or the blue one ¨ I tell him to let me think the only thing I can think of is the envelope I said ¨I will take the yellow one.¨ Then he says ¨Then I will thke the blue one.¨ Then he says what did you get I open the yellow envelope and it says ¨the next word you say you will get infinit of that.¨ then I say money. I ask the guy what did you get he simply said I don´t know then he teleport.
If someone would ever ask me to choose between a blue envelope and a yellow envelope, I’d choose the yellow envelope because what if its a good thing. Blue or yellow, I chose yellow. Yellow was ” you turn into a billionaire ” The blue one was ” you are a billion dollars in debt ” I wonder who would write this note? With the money I have I can go on trips, I can buy designer clothes , retire my parents and buy luxury cars. One day my mom and dad were talking to me about how I got this money. I told them someone put a envelope and I didn’t know what the choices were but I chose yellow. My parents said ” it was me and your father who put those envelopes we knew you were going to choose yellow so we did a good thing for it. You deserved it
Once upon a time I walked into class and walked to my desk and saw two envelopes on my desk I was so confused I asked my whole class have they seen who put those envelopes on my desk every one said no I opened one and it said what ever you do don’t open the yellow envelope I was really confused. I was scared to open it I opened the note and it said now I know where you live I scream I was so so scared that it was true I got home from school I couldn’t stop thinking about it I was trying to go to sleep but it was like it was stuck In my hand I waited a couple more day nothing happened then boom in the middle of the night I heard someone knocking on my window I ran as fast as I can to my mom’s room I said mom wake up someone is knocking on my window she looked outside to see if anyone was there she said go back to bed no one is there then I went back to sleep I wasn’t scared anymore everything was locked and closed no one can get me I said.
One day I walk into class,I see a envelope on my desk. I walk up to the envelope there is but theres no name.I open it, I see 6 word ”Whatever you do don’t choose blue”I just stand there in confusion.”Why does it say,don’t choose the blue envelope,What does it say inside?”I open it…millions of aliens pop out in the sky then they crash into cars,buildings,I get kidnaped by aliens and they tear me apart piece by piece blood gushing everwhere,the only thing that left of me was my head.They turn my into a alien but until I woke up and it was all a dream.
I walked into class to see a folded piece of paper on my desk. There’s no name, I asked around but no one saw who left it.I decided to read the note and it said “Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.” I notice that whoever wrote had a similar handwritten as me. I was so confused by it because why not blue? Who even wrote this? Later in class a random girl asked me ” Pick an envelope” She was holding two envelopes, a blue one and a yellow one. I thought about what the note said, then I thought about the girl background. She was a super talkative girl and wore light clothes, she was always happy but right now she looked so sad.So I started to wonder why not the blue envelope, but I thought if that random person told me not to pick the blue one I shouldn’t pick it then. I told her the yellow one then she started to smile, I read the yellow envelope and it said “You now owe me 250 dollars” I was in shock I had the exact same amount of money in my backpack right now. I was going to use that money to buy myself a brand new phone since I didn’t really like my old one. I thought about what the note said so i gave here the money and her face lit up, She thanked me so many times I lost count, the money didn’t really matter to me since I didn’t need a brand new phone. Then I asked her “Why do you need the money?” she said ” I really needed the money to pay for my apartment I’m renting, I will get kicked out if I don’t pay 250$ to the landlord, I just wanted to thank you so much for giving me the money for it.” I smiled then left the room I asked her what was in the blue envelope and she told me “Nothing really it just said chicken butt.” Sooner or later we became best friends and we hang out everyday, I’m still very grateful for the person we told me not to pick the blue one, I still wonder who wrote that note anyway.
If someone would ever ask if I would choose between a blue envelope or a yellow envelope I would choose the yellow envelope because on the yellow envelope I am able to make 1 thousand dollars each time someone lies to me, and i am also able to read minds of others. I would not choose the blue envelope because on the blue envelope I will have to go back in time to WW1 and have to train daily to fight and survive. Choosing the yellow envelope would change my life I will be able to buy whatever I want also whenever I get money when someone is lying I could know who is lying to me way easier, with the yellow envelope I can see how people are thinking about me or if they wanna say something to me but not wanting to say to my face. So then, the person who wrote this note was my mom.
When I see the message and he says dont pick blue I’m going to pick blue because what if he lied to me and he want me to pick the yellow and trying to kill me. I pick the blue one I see rats and there like 20ft tall so i start to run for my life there like fast to like 50mph. Then something good happens I get way faster
When I saw the blue envelope I knew that it wouldn’t be good, But I still choose the blue envelope, and when I open it said ” you buy a monkey ends up being a EVIL monkey takes you in your sleep takes you to a graveyard you get buried with snakes”. The Yellow envelope said ” you run into someone and you have to play a game and if you win you get 4 wishes and get your dream vacation and take who ever you want.” When I saw the yellow envelope I broke down, After I stop the mysterious man told me that he forgot to put in the Blue envelope that I HAVE to buy the monkey, When I heard that I was mad because why didn’t he put that in the envelope but now I know that need to buy a monkey, so I went to the closest pet shop and got a monkey, I didn’t went choose carefully because either way I get a evil monkey, when I went to buy the monkey the cashier said to me “good luck” when I heard those words I already knew that its going to be hard to controlled the monkey. when I got home I went to my room and put the monkey down, when it turn night I was scared because I don’t know when hes going to get me. when i went to sleep he got me. Then I realize that it was my friend who wrote those envelope.
One day I walked into class. Then I saw an envelope at my desk. I walked up to the envelope with no name on it. When I opened it I saw 6 words that read “Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.” And then I see that it has my handwriting on it. So I put two and two together. It was from me, then I thought to myself. Is this envelope from the future. When school was over I walked over to my program and someone asked me . ¨ Do you want the yellow one or the blue one ” I tell him to let me think for a minute, the only thing I can think of is the envelope. I said ¨I will take the yellow one.¨ Then he says ¨Then I will take the blue one.¨ When he asks me what I got I open the yellow envelope and it says ¨the next word you say you will get infinite of that.¨ So then I say money. I asked the guy what he got. He said I don ´ t know and then he teleported somewhere else.
*Yawn* I just got to school and I already have to do work. Oh well. I went to get my pencil when this happened: Huh? What is this? A…note? I opened it and it just said, “Don’t choose blue.” That’s all. “Uh, okay,” I said.
Later, as I was walking home, a 8th grader came up to me and showed me two envelopes. One was yellow, the other…blue?! He asked me, “Yellow or blue?” I remembered the note. It said to not choose blue. So of course, naturally, I choose blue.
He gave me the blue one, then he dissapeared. I turned around and saw that Tung Tung Sahur was after me with his bat. I ran for my LIFE. I eventually went inside a store and camped there. But when I looked down, I saw the yellow envelope. I opened it, and I was granted that anything I drawed would come true.
This was AMAZING power. I drew Tung Tung Sahur dissapearing, and when I looked outside he wasn’t there anymore. If anyone t=ever tells me to not pick something I will listen because I DO NOT want something to happen to me.
I chose the yellow envelope. I slowly opened it, to see, ” You passed.” on the sheet of paper. Shocked I asked, ” What was in the other one”!? They smile and say, ” Nothing.” I turn to leave and go to P.E., but when I come back I find another note that says, “Good job.”
One day I was minding my business when suddenly a random envelope saying “Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.” And later on the day went on normally. When a girl showed me 2 envelopes saying ”yellow or blue?” I decided to choose the yellow one because earlier a letter was on my desk saying to not choose the blue envelopes. The yellow card had 1 million dollars but there was catch each time someone tells a lie I lose 1 dollar each time. The blue letter was a dark haunted place that had loads of clowns and monsters but they were extremely scary so if I chose the blue envelopes I would’ve been in the haunted place.
When I got to my desk, I noticed a folded piece of paper sitting on top of my homework. I looked around, but nobody seemed to be watching me. I opened it and saw six words written in bad handwriting that looked exactly like mine “Whatever you do, not open the blue envelope.” I stared at it for a few seconds. It didn’t even make sense at all. I put the note in my jeans pocket i tried to forget about it. But later someone said if you ever had to choose between a blue envelope and a yellow one which would you pick. So i said tell me what is in the yellow envelope then in the blue one. They said if you pick the blue envelope you get 1 million dollars instantly but with a twist you age twice as fast. And the yellow one you get a notebook and what ever you write on it becomes true. So i will ask again yellow or blue I pick yellow. Nice choice so then the person said you got lucky this time then he revealed that the blue one deletes you from this world lucky me heh.😼
if I walked in the class room and I saw a folded paper I would ask how paper is it because It does not have a name but no one answerd I would read and inside of it said do not chooses blue and a little after I read the paper someone came up to me and asked what color do you pick yellow or blue I was silent for a moment because I reameberd they the paper said do not choose blue they asked me again staring at me in the eye I slowly started back and they chose blue but then I said I chose yellow they looked at me with angry eyes I worried that they were going to hurt me because I did not chose blue after school came up to me and said I will regret my choice I was supper worried because I toght she was going to beat me up the next day came and I so sacred but the she said so you want to be my friend when she said that I was so realived.
One normal school morning, I walked into class and saw a envelope on my desk it had no name and once I opened it, it had my handwriting and written in six words were ” Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.” As I was confused, I asked everybody in the room if they saw anyone leave that envelope on my desk they replied no so I continued with my day. Until near the end of school a student came up to me with two cards one blue and one yellow. I tried identifying their face but they had some type of mask on and there hoodie was covering there head. He said “choose one” as I remembered what that envelope said I hesitated and said yellow he gave me the card and left I opened the card and it said congrats you won a ticket to forever world I thought “forever world?” it also said go to the stop sign two blocks away after school so I could tell you where to go. After school I got to spot where we were going to meet at, once I got there nobody was there so I gave it 5 more minutes. Until someone showed up they handed me a note the note gave me the directions to forever world. I was hesitant but still went once I got there they asked for my ticket so I handed it to them and when I went inside it was amazing!!!!. There was everything I could ever ask for I was having fun but they said the fun was over and they gave me a desicion if I wanted to stay there forever or If I wanted to go home The End.
One day, in my desk was a folded note with handwriting that looked exactly like mine. In the note, it said, “Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.” The next day, someone comes and asks me to choose either the yellow envelope or the blue envelope. I remember the note I found telling me to not choose blue, so I decide to listen to it and choose Yellow. I would listen to the note because whoever wrote it was probably trying to warn me of something that will happen if I were to choose the blue one. Then once I open the yellow envelope, It turns out that the Yellow envelope actually gave me the power to never be sick another day in my life. I was relieved because this meant that I wouldn’t have to keep missing school which also meant assignments, and also I wouldn’t have to go thru being sick and not feeling too good. But then when I choose that the person who gave me the envelopes told me that the blue envelope makes me stuck in a time loop in the past, which then I understood that the person who wrote the note to me earlier that said to not choose blue was me from the future who chose blue, and thatś why they wrote the note to me so I wouldn’t have to go through that.
Leo stared at the folded slip of paper on his desk, his palms sweating. Written in his own uniquely messy scrawl were six words: “Whatever you do, don’t choose blue.” He didn’t have time to ponder it before Mr. Harrison stepped up, holding two thick, wax-sealed envelopes—one a bright sunflower yellow, the other a deep ocean blue. “Choose one, Leo,” the teacher whispered, his eyes gleaming with an eerie intensity. “One holds the key to passing your final history exam today so you can go on that summer camping trip you’ve been desperate to join. The other holds something far greater, but at a steep cost.”