Mandy woke an hour before the sun came up, and listened to the birds as they began their day. It wasn’t supposed to rain, but you couldn’t always count on th...

"Who was that?” Lisbeth asked as Allie came in. “Who?” “Allie!” “It was… one of my teachers. I missed my bus.” Allie put her purse on the chair, then realize...

Tim came by on Christmas day, celebrated a little bit with the Aprils, then took Mandy out. They drove to his apartment because his roommate was out of town ...

“What’s with you these days?” Lisbeth asked, hurrying to keep up with Allie. “You always hated school, and lately it seems like you can’t wait to get there.”...

“The boys need to go for a walk while the girls clean up,” Allie announced after lunch. Everyone looked at her, surprised; “Speak for yourself,” Jules said, ...

“It’s really perfect here, Simon,” Jules said, breathing in the balmy woodsy air. “I’m going to get lots of writing done.” Preston, pulling his bass guitar o...

“When you said fancy… wow!” Lisbeth whispered to Simon as they were shown the way to the ballroom. “I can’t believe someone lives here!” “I know. It’s insane...

When Mandy mentioned that the owners of Russel-Berries was looking for a part-time bookkeeper, Tim promptly suggested that she apply. “Bookkeeping?” She made...

Jules and Michael began spending more time together, and they talked about everything—philosophy, art, literature, politics, the meaning of life, religion, k...

“I guess it’s safe to say I am never going to have breasts,” Lisbeth said to Allie. “They should have grown by now.” “It’s not such a big deal.” Lisbeth turn...

More and more, Allie met Zeke at the playground in the middle of the day. She tried to be strategic about which classes to skip—mostly study hall and gym. An...

Jules tried to participate in the conversation about Karen Carpenter’s recent death; she shook her head when PJ asked, How could someone be so skinny and thi...

Allie stepped off the train, squinting in the glare of a new spring’s sun. Her fellow passengers, including the middle-aged orthodontist whose dental discour...

Simon hung up and sighed. He was one of those rare students who had a phone in his room (Grandfather had insisted) and for several minutes he lay on the bed,...

Simon pulled up to the dorm. “Got time for pizza or something?” he asked hopefully. But Jules already had her door open. “Can’t. Have to get ready for class ...

“Most of us,” began Professor Griggs, Jules’ writing teacher, “draw on personal experience for our stories. We can’t help it.  We love telling people about o...

Alone most of the time, Allie tried to keep busy drawing for two hours a day. She took art books out of the library and studied perspectives and different co...

Mandy sat at her desk, trying to look busy, but it was impossible to stop looking at her watch. Two o’clock? How could it only be two o’clock? Everything was...

Mom’s arm was around Jules’ waist as they stood in the driveway preparing to say goodbye. Her mind shot back to Jules’ first day of kindergarten: the way she...

As Jules accepted her diploma, she heard Simon shout her name in the crowd, and laughed; she’d shouted his name when he graduated the week before. After the ...