True-to-life series from Hamilton High

Because her partner continues to abuse her, seventeen-year-old Melissa takes their young child and goes to a shelter for battered women where she begins the healing process.

On the day before her abortion, Autumn's father and grandmother die in a car accident, leaving her feeling lost and alone, especially after her best friend's family kicks her out after they discover that she is pregnant.

Erica has always been a serious student but when her boyfriend's life starts spinning out of control, she does not anticipate the tragic consequences his behavior could have on her future.

After being sexually abused by the father of the children she is babysitting, twelve-year-old Cassie faces a difficult journey before she finds the strength and insight to deal with the problem.

Includes six short stories that deal with crisis situations faced by teenagers, including racism, abuse, sense of failure, aging relatives, drunk driving, and abortion.

Racially mixed seventeen-year-old Lauren, the daughter of drug users, is pressured to have sex with her boyfriend and questions her promise to herself to stay a virgin until she is married.