"alice?" he whispered, his voice nervous. "yeah?" she replied absent mindedly, stirring the coffee in the dark red cup with her spoon. "i love you," he said. an uncomfortable silence filled the air. "i love you, alice," he repeated, looking at her. her head was bent as she spooned the cream and only strands of her ginger hair hung from the sides of her face. "okay," she replied. [© noiembrie; cover by @aciddaisies] short story #76, romance #383, thirteenth july two thousand thirteen.

When kids are young and full of innocent wonder, they're asked the question that will haunt them far into their adult lives: what do you want to be when you're older? Kyleigh Frost's answer to this very question was that she wanted to be thin. Ever since she could remember, all she wanted to do with her life is to be the skinniest girl out of everyone she met on the streets. If she couldn't be the brightest kid in her school or win the next cycle of America's Next Top Model, she might as well be the thinnest one there. After all, to be fat is the biggest sin one could ever commit in today's society.

Delaney Escott lives in a world where popularity reigns supreme. If you want to be noticed, social status is everything. The government is run by the Superiors: a very exclusive group of individuals who are virtually flawless. They are smarter than us and stronger than us, and to join their ranks is the highest honor. The Superiors pay an annual visit to the top schools in the nation and evaluate the students, choosing one boy and one girl - the most Popular in the school - to go the Capitol and train for Superiority. Delaney thinks that she's the only one indifferent to (and perhaps even suspicious of) the Superiors, until Caleb Payne, the most popular boy in school, approaches her with a request. He has a task for her, one that he believes she is uniquely capable of completing. And as she helps him, Delaney discovers that the government is hiding many secrets - and that the truth of the Superiors is far from what people believe it to be. [Watty Awards 2012 Winner, Science-Fiction: On the Rise]

"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.

Elle Loena is a very reluctant girl. Often called a freak, or a nerd, but she doesn't care. She hardly smiles and have many talents she keeps to herself. It was only before the accident. Reece Demmings is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, he's also the son of a rich executive, so it doesn't get him to make too many true friends. With that he moved to another state and changed his last name. He loves making people smile, including his family named after chocolates. When he moved to California he encounters Elle, so the main question is, What will fate become when the worlds collide?

I met Tris on the warmest day of that Summer of 2012. He wanted me to see colours. After all, I was just a blind girl who didn't know how the outside world looked like. Little did I know that he didn't, either.

"Being reunited with your childhood best friend after eight years apart? Sounds like a heart-warming story. Finding out that said best friend is now a complete jerk who's determined to make your life hell? Not so much." Georgie and Connor were once inseparable. Best friends from birth, they did everything together - well, that was until Connor's dad got a once-in-a-lifetime job opportunity and the family was forced to relocate to New York. At age sixteen, Georgie's life is totally different - her main goal being to keep her head down and escape the brutalities of high school with as little emotional scarring as possible. Balancing school, work and her dwindling social life is enough of a challenge, but it's about to get a bit more complicated when her conceited ex-best friend gets thrown into the mix. Maybe friendship should come with an instruction booklet.