Sonia Jayme isn't sure whether there's more drama in William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet or in her own unfortunate life. She's willing to bet the play she's writing to replace the Bard's as her school's winter production (because she, like the rest of the world, is tired of Renaissance heterosexual tragedies) that it's the latter.

Reece Bremer goes through life with a scowl and cold personality. Jessica Andrews goes through life with a glowing smile and positive outlook. Reece looks at life with dull, judgmental eyes that make him hate the world and the people living in it. Jessica, well... She looks at life through a camera. Literally. They're polar opposites, and that's what sparks Reece's immediate hate for Jessica the moment they meet. All he sees is a girl with the best life, put in the category of those who get everything handed to them on a silver platter. But who says Jessica's life is like that? Just like a photograph, there's more to the story than what you see. Stumbling across one of Jessica's hidden portfolio might reveal that her happiness isn't all that true. Behind that smile and each picture she takes, holds a thousand words of a very big secret - one that Reece is determined to find out. And who knows? It just might change everything between them. cover by dysanic || 2015 watty's winner for talk of the town ||

Caleb Diaz is not an animal lover. At all. So when his friend Marnie shows up on his doorstep with a birthday card and a kitten for his big 1-8, he's more than a little peeved. Cats stink, no questions about it. And with graduation less than a year away, Caleb's hardly got the time (or patience) to cope with running around after a deranged and messy fur ball. Marnie refuses to be swayed, though. In fact, she's already gone and enlisted the help of her brother Daniel, an animal enthusiast who's convinced he can convert Caleb once and for all. Armed with kitten milk and scratch posts, the trio venture down the road of parenting - a journey that may or may not involve sleepless nights, pet-oriented fights and infinite weirdness. [cover by -sykes]

Seventeen-year-old Reed had never believed in the concept of destiny and love, so when her best friend dragged her in a search for their "soulmates" one Saturday night, Reed knew it wasn't going to end well. She couldn't have been more right, seeing as: a.) Her best friend, convinced she had found her soulmate, disappeared with some random guy. b.) Said best friend had Reed's purse and the car keys, leaving her no choice but to accept said random guy's friend's offer to look for their missing companions together. c.) Said random guy's friend was annoying, arrogant, and recklessly impulsive. d.) Oh, and he was hot, too.

The year is 1965: a year thrumming with promise and hope and change all around the globe. But for two people, change seems out of the question. Their worlds are rigid, stuck, fixed—and completely contradictory to one another. Holly is a frazzled and reclusive mess from the wrong side of the tracks—well, the wrong side of everything, really—struggling to keep herself afloat as she copes with the loss of her nursing school scholarship two years before. Simon, on the other hand, is charming, arrogant, smart-mouthed and spoiled rotten—the only thing he has ever wanted for is a pair of proper lungs, as his own have been slowly ruined by the effects of Cystic Fibrosis. When Holly joins a peculiar non-profit agency in hope for nursing experience, their worlds are suddenly conjoined a little too close for comfort. Through bickering, old maps, collect calls and a great many letters, Holly and Simon are intertwined in a journey to find a future they never knew existed, suspended in the transience of yesterday, today and tomorrow.

"Not just a flavour, but a way of life." When seventeen-year-old Flo Kennedy is forced to up sticks and trade her life in London for a sleepy seaside town on the south coast, she's anything but excited. Walden-on-Sea could win awards for being Britain's dullest town, and with a population consisting almost entirely of over sixties, teenagers are an endangered species. Silently struggling with her parents' death and separation from her sister, Flo's convinced she's in for the worst summer of her life. But when she meets the guy in the ice cream shop, things start to change. It's not long before she lands herself a job, a new set of friends and maybe even the beginnings of first romance. For the first time in several years, she's happy. But Flo knows all too well that things can't stay perfect forever, and after all, being on top of the world only gives you further to fall.

Yesterday, Mona Lieber saw something she shouldn't have. Now she's got an ignorant boy wrapped around her finger, teaching him a lesson about the arts of entertainment. Today, Adrien Finkwell is suffering through 28 nights of classic movies. If he doesn't, one very snarky girl will spill a dark secret of his. They both might learn something about tomorrow.

During her 7th year at Hogwarts, Hermione is intrigued right from the start by the new Astronomy teacher, Professor John Smith. This strange man has captured all her attention and she seems to have done the same to him. As the year goes by, talking to someone on a more intellectual level becomes something of a drug for her. Letters from Ron become less frequent and conversation with John are more often. The student-teacher wall falls to allow a great friendship to form. But Hermione’s feelings are much more than that. She is falling for the wizard with the metal wand. But an affair isn’t the only thing happening is the castle. Strange things are happening to Hermione that even her great mind cannot explain.

Growing up in a world related to everything Potter, Libby Rowling decides that she has had enough. Ready for a change, she packs her bags and embarks on her journey to the states. Her plan blows up when she meets Mason, a Harry Potter fanatic who might just turn her world upside down. [#31 short story 1.23.14]