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I was behind in my literature class in like, 7th grade. The books were boring as hell and I couldn't make myself read the chapters at night.

Our teacher gave us a list of bonus titles to catch up for like, 1.5x the points of a normal book, so I jumped on the first one on the list.

I don't remember the title of the book unfortunately, but about one or two chapters or so, the either the main character or their neighbor or something...

Proceeded to put the book down and hand it back into the teacher and ask for a different one. I don't think she was aware of the content of the book

i wasn't assigned it but i would read all the stories in my english book instead of whatever i was supposed to be doing and 'The Red Pony' burned its way into my brain forever. I probably read it in junior high? i dunno. That poor pony.

I remember "To Build a Fire" and another one I can't name about a sniper duel during the Irish Civil War. The ending was wild.

“The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" by Gabriel García Márquez would have been that, but it lost its impact because my generation associates the name Esteban with the silly bellhop from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

Blood Music absolutely terrified me as a freshman in high school

Harrison Bergeron, in like 7th grade

I don’t remember the name of the short story, but I remember that it was about a town that abused someone they kept in a dungeon, and through their abuse they stayed unified. The teacher said it was a lesson in utilitarianism.

An occurrence at owl creek bridge - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/375

And then “The Cold Equations” https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/the-cold-equations/

Both are downers and have stuck with me for 35 years

A Worn Path, The Test, and a story I haven't been able to find about kids who go into a carnival fun house but it's really set up to kill them (vats of acid, snakes hanging from the ceiling).

This was 6th grade. I seemed like all the short stories in middle school made the Tell Tale Heart seem cheerful.

And Bartleby, the Scrivener.

"A Country Doctor" by Franz Kafka. The whole thing is just one disturbing nightmare.

For me that is 'The Dreams in the Witch House', but that was 100% self inflicted.

I liked The Yellow Wallpaper

For me the school book short story that grabbed me was The Smallest Dragonboy by Anne McCaffrey. Not super scary, just sticky.

Been looking for this book for a long time, maybe someone here can help? It was in french, no idea if it was ever translated. The whole story is a guy in room alone with his dad, the dad is in a coma and expected to die (I believe the familly decided to unplug him). The guy is bitching to his dad, telling him how much he hates him for being an abusive asshole or something. It was really crude and emotonial. At the end, instead of dying when he's unplugged, the dad wakes up. Maybe it was not a novel, but a part of a book, and maybe the title had the work Duck in it.

The short story that sticks with me from junior high, that I have not been able to track down in the last 40 years or so, was if I remember right another lottery style tale. I think it was just the husband and the one chosen was eaten by the rest of the community - the twist was that the eatee got to choose the method of preparation, and in the story, he chose to be served raw. Anyone recall this story? I'd love to track it down.

Earliest short story I can remember is Monsters are Due on Maple Street in middle school. Didn't quite get the historical context at the time. But the theme of rampant senseless paranoia stuck with me.

The Scarlet Ibis by James Hurst