Her Best Friend’s Guy – by N.E. Rule

The final pic, October 31st, has the caption “He’ll be the death of me.” The photo is a close-up of Stephanie’s face.

The Weight of My Own Voice – by Finnian Burnett

“We saw you look,” the girls’ voices echo in my head as I run out of school, all the way home, panting and crying by the time I reach the front door and, “Boys don’t go to dances with fat girls,” my dad tells me.

Weary Willie – by Bethany Bruno

The band leader saw the flame first, signaling his musicians to begin playing “Stars and Stripes Forever,” or what circus folk used in code for “emergency.”

My Mother’s Ladder – By Finnian Burnett

My mother is building a ladder. She says she needs to change the bulb in the hallway, the one she has asked my father to change only a dozen times. I stand in the doorway of the garage and listen to her banging and swearing, the thundering bellow of her voice shaking the doorframe.

The Night Nanny – By Brianne Sommerville

Amelia thought Lola resembled a pig in a blanket, swaddled tightly and nestled in the crux of her arm. Perhaps the appetizer came to mind because she was hungry after nursing her baby.

Victim – by Bonnie Joyce Hamilton

Becoming an adult in a beer bottle is small and limiting…