My life in the city of Ba'se.

NOW PUBLISHED BY SOURCEBOOKS FIRE! Sixteen-year-old Jackie Howard knows nothing about her new guardian Katherine Walter when she moves from New York to Colorado. After discovering that Katherine has twelve boys, Jackie fears that living in the Walter house isn't going to be easy. It's just icing on the cake that the boys look like models... Cover design by pizzazz-

n. one who has ideas or conceives projects regarded as impractical Marion De Fiore isn't one to dream. She has been raised by her parents to be that perfect child: beautiful, smart, and talented. However, this combination doesn't particularly leave Marion with any time to dream, especially when she's busy fulfilling her status as the top student at Bishop's Academy, keeping the student body in check, and being, well, Marion. Sawyer Henson has easily earned the title of "Marion's Polar Opposite". Easy-going, happy-go-lucky, and impulsive, he's the type of person Marion could never be, which is also possibly the reason Marion feels uneasy when they become partners for their year-round art project. With Marion's poetic writing skills and Sawyer's breathtaking photographs, they could easily grace Bishop's Academy with the best art project it has ever seen. But then what kind of story would this be without Sawyer's blinding radiance and Marion's severe allergic reactions toward it, a recipe that creates disaster, a possible World War III, and a love story? Oblivious to the possible outcomes of their partnership, Marion's goal is to survive this project and obtain a perfect score. Sawyer's goal, on the other hand, is to teach his type-A, cynical, and icy partner how to dream.

unspoken stories in only six words. /// 11.11.15 #2 in Short Story ///

"Even from a distance, Nixon Young has an aura of maturity. The way he carries himself, the rolled back of his shoulders, his tall and confident posture, the lazy way his eyes skim his surroundings- it's hard to explain and to formulate into words, but it just shows. All of Nixon Young screams maturity. It's hard to believe this is the guy that tied a live goat to a pole in the gymnasium." xxx Chantelle Géroux thought people like Nixon Young only existed in books and movies. Ever since freshmen year, stories about the legendary Nixon have circulated throughout the student body. Stories about his glorious escape from the cops, of the time he stole a car and promptly almost crashed it, of how he had jumped from one roof of a house to another during a crazy party. For the last three years at Princeton High, Chantelle had listened to the stories, even if they were painfully exaggerated, in awe. She spared small glances at Nixon, taking in his confident smile and loud voice, his blue eyes that sparkled like no others, and tried to understand. Understand how one person could stir such talk among such an easily-distracted group of teenagers. But Chantelle knew how: Nixon Young was simply extraordinary, in a way that simply couldn't be understood. But then junior year came around. Two years of stories full of fascinated stories turn into heated whispers in the hall. Looks of awe when he walks by turn into hurried avoidance. Nixon's easy-going smiles turn into scowls, his fist making a dent in the lockers as he lashes out once more on someone. Nixon Young's personality does a complete 180 degree turn, and no one has any idea why. Eventually, Nixon Young is nowhere to be seen. Until he turns up at Chantelle's doorstep, three weeks after he got kicked out of Princeton High, asking for one hell of a favor.

Olivia Harris has one dream: to become a professional photographer. She’s determined and even went out of her way to intern at a well known photography company. Olivia knows that doing so may give her an opportunity to pursue her dream a step further. What she doesn't know is that, sometimes, expectations don't go as expected. When her dream takes a detour, Olivia finds herself running out of time since she’s graduating high school in less than five months. Her situation doesn’t get better when she has a bitter encounter with her locker buddy she has never spoken to. The two are like fire and ice. But, doesn’t heat have the ability to melt the frost? Olivia claims she will never spare a breath with her locker buddy ever again, yet somehow, she ends up saving him. And the more time Olivia spends with her locker buddy, the more she wants to discover what his compositions are all about.

"Sorry--Annie's a bit busy trying to figure out her life at the moment." After high school and a long list of denied college applications (and one too many headaches), Annie Horne has just about had it with trying to meticulously plan out her life down to the very last detail. And in lieu of a college education, she decides to pack up her things and move north for the year to work for her uncle's book shop in his small New England community. But it's been years since Annie's actually visted him, and the community has certainly changed since she was younger. And in a town that actually reads, manning the phones at her uncle's shop can be quite the task for an eighteen year old. But when her uncle enlists the part-time help of Theo, the obnoxiously excitable neighborhood paperboy, Annie finds her job to be a bit more complicated than she'd anticipated.

"Sometimes happiness feels like a chore." A short story chronicling the relationships (and lack thereof) of Drew; in which nights and days are spent curled up in the tear-and-food-stained sheets, with and without the warmth of another living soul, because he has lived like this and he'll probably die like this -- whether he likes it or not. (As if life ever bothered to ask). Otherwise known as: Sleep is for the weak, and love is for those asleep. So Andrew shouldn't wonder why he's virtually a self-induced insomniac who might just very well die of loneliness one day.

The Diner has seen its fair share of the people of Midland, New York. There's Andrea, who doesn't quite know why she keeps coming back, save for the fact that it's the only place she doesn't feel constantly watched. There's Gregory, who people-watches, filling everyone around him with stories instead of filling himself with food. There's Milo, who often zones out as he waits on his patrons, dreaming of the day he can finally escape. And there's Monique, who simply likes the pancakes (and her waiter) a little too much.

When it comes to seventeen-year-olds Aurora “Rory” West and Kale Mathews, there is no such thing as the concept of ‘common ground.’ Their interactions (the few that they have) are always filled with overly-sarcastic remarks and countless number of trips to the principal’s office. One day, when a particular interaction goes a bit too far, their principal decides to punish them with The Baby Project- a month long project, worth more than half their grade, that requires them to parent a fake baby. In the beginning, the partnership is discarded as a joke by both students. However, when threatened with the possibility of expulsion, Rory and Kale reluctantly agree to make peace for the sake of their education. Over time, something changes, making them question their thoughts and feelings. They say there's a thin line between love and hate, but will a baby be the last push? (Editing but still updating)