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"I really love to write," said the student, who is more familiarly known as "Claire."
She said found out about the competition from a teacher and gave short story writing a try because "we could write about anything we wanted."
"Missing You" is "about a girl who falls in love with two different guys who are best friends. It's about her choices and about friendship," said Claire.
She thought she had "a general idea" of what the ending would be, "but it changed along the way," Claire said, noting that the finished manuscript turned out to be 54 pages in its printout.
The girl in her story is a teen-ager, said Claire, the younger daughter of Debbie and Michael Burch. Her older sister, Bridgette, 17, is a senior at the high school.
"I wasn't writing about myself-there's very, very little resemblance-but to give the story more life I had to put in things about my life," Claire said.
However, she added, people who know her recognize similarities "in the way the main character cared so much about friends and family."
"I used a lot of dialogue," Claire said, noting that she was influenced by the writing style of Stephenie Meyer, the author of the "Twilight" series.
Her teacher was among the first to look at "Missing You. "She edited it for me," said Claire.
"About 100 students" have seen it since then, she added, noting that there's a copy of her story in the classroom for anyone to read.
Claire was among those honored April 23 at ceremonies for Litchfield and Fairfield counties' winners at Western Connecticut State University.
Each received a $500 prize and will next attend a ceremony May 31 in Hartford, where the state winners of the competition will be named.
No matter what happens there, Claire said, "I'd like to learn more about writing," adding that it is "possibly an option" she'd like to explore for her future.
