- Bedbugs (Leeor Ohayon) - The narrator and Raul have broken up during lockdown, the narrator moving in with his mother. The narrator still hopes they'll make up. He tells Raul that he thinks he has bedbugs. His mother doesn't believe him. He sees Raul active on dating apps. Raul returns his stuff on his doorstep. He shows his mother conclusive evidence of bed bugs.
- Scrounger (Sam M. Wait) - Ian left her 2 weeks ago. She's almost out of money, with a baby. She leaves the baby at a supermarket. Someone notices, knowing that she's done so before.
- Permission to communicate (Jay Kelly) - 2.5 pages. A middle aged man is told who his biological mother is but he isn't allowed to contact her. Her sees her pictures online. He leaves his partner and her son. He starts carrying the child's picture around with him.
- Rock 'n' Rock is history (Barbara Weeks) - Bob is doing Shaking Stevens (Elvis?) imitations to amuse his grandkids and new partner. He drinks all day. He recalls beautiful Anna, his (late?) wife when she was 16.
- Miss Aveline's summerhouse (Katherine Hetzel) - The narrator believes in ghosts. S/he is the live-in helper for Miss Aveline. S/he discovers that the Aveline's sister disappeared - actually murdered by Aveline, who then murdered the narrator.
- Don't feed me raw papayas (Vaishali K) - The narrator lives in modern Chennai. She has her first period and puts up with purification rituals. Then she has no periods for 2 years. She puts up with fortune tellers, healers and doctors. 6 months pregnant, her aunt bleeds and tries to kill herself. She'll need a C-section. The narrator goes to a relative who's never had periods and who has fun living with her best friend (female). The narrator wants to be like her.
- La terre promise (Danny Beusch) - Joe (who hasn't come out yet?) and his dad are on their first holiday together since his mother died years before. The french campsite they aim for has closed down. Joe finds a friendly boy to swim with. Joe's in an abusive relationship with his boss and doesn't want to go back to work.
- Low-level (Rebecca Martin) - She's lying in her hall hoping the deliveryman won't see that she's in. She's lined her rooms with cardboard boxes.
- A How to guide (Hanne Larsson) - George, 17, visits his paternal grandmother in a London hospital. He wants to know about his past. She used to be fun. Now confused, she wants to go home. But where is home? She'd come to stay with them when he was 6. His father went to get her because her other son wasn't helping. His father died when he was 14. He's now 17. She tells here where she came from in Sweden. He tells her they'll go to Sweeden together. Later she phones to say that they needn't travel.
- Hot enough to melt bones (Alan Kennedy) - Johnny, 17 y.o. Virgin starts a new factory job. He plans a holiday with girlfriend Morag. He gets a diary as a birthday present. He works so fast that the other workers (some of them ex-convicts) want him to slow down. Previous high performers have disappeared, sending postcard back to the workplace. Johnny realises that the postcards are fake. The men kill him the way they killed the others.
- Shine (Megan Holland) - Shy Izzy likes Ruby (16), the most popular girl in the school. Izzy's excited when Ruby invites her home to practise a drama piece together. They snog. When they perform their piece it's about Izzy coming out of her drab coat to be a beautiful butterfly at last.
- The Tinkerbell Effect (Aisha Phoenix) - A minor reporter researches a story about people who are so insignificant that they disappear. She decides to create a help group for them, thereby helping herself be more meaningful. (I liked this until it rushed to an obvious ending)
- Bullfrog and the juju mangoes (Marcus Jones) - A 9 y.o. market-seller gave a rough sailor free fruit when she was 7. The sailor later paid for her schooling. Her mother, once suspicious, told her younger daughter to do the same.
- Monsters (Tracy Fahey) - Lotte reads her 7 y.o. daughter Emily a story about a lonely monster in the wardrobe. Emily's abducted. She's found a year later, unresponsive. She hides in the wardrobe. The man gives himself in. Lotte recognises him as a volunteer who'd helped search. (I like this)
- Baby blue (Raluca Comanelea) - A man with baby blue eyes (who'd had psychotic moments since an accident in a chocolate factory) killed a man in 1989. During his 13 years in prison he learnt to paint and was discovered. He's in Kronstadt now.
- Clearing up (Penny Blackburn) - Helena's been with show-off Dermot for 5 years. She's washing up after a meal he's cooked for friends. He doesn't know that she's been partipicating in a cooking show that's about to be shown, and that she's going off with the celeb cook.
- The boy with the green eyes (Iqbal Hussain) - She and the boy in the shop like each other but a suddenly arranged marriage means that she goes to a cold country with a man twice her age. She never returns, feeling betrayed, but dotes on her child.
- Jakov's clothes (Joe Bedford) - The narrator (female, from London) visits her wheelchaired mother in Croatia. They're both doctors. Her mother's second husband Jakov has died. His room is locked. She didn't except to stay long but she hurts her ankle. She grows tired. The phones don't work. When she runs out of clothers she's given Jakov's. She thinks she's being drugged and that Jakov had been drugged, but see's too weak to successfully escape. She wakes tied to Jakov's bed (I like much of this. I need more backstory)
- Room of broken mirrors (Aisha Phoenix) - Tyra's mourning with friends and family, including Winston, her dead mother's boyfriend. She decides to visit the Room of Broken Mirrors on Konjac island. It's in the Museum of Wonders. In there she sees/hears moments from her life. She records an incident though she'd been told not to. When she later replays it, the words are different each time, always telling her that she's selfish. (Interesting)
- Cosmo vs the Cosmos (Sherry Morris) - Sandrine (the 10 years older sister of the narrator, Daphne, a particle physicist) is in the narrator's messy kitchen. Daphne's struggling to write up her Masters' thesis. Sandrine offers advice from Cosmo. They go to the National Gallery. Daphne's brought a mindfulness colouring book with her. Sandrine goes off looking for men. A dishy guy has come with art materials. He starts drawing the same picture that Daphne's filling in. It happens 3 times. Then he leaves. Daphne starts a new drawing and recovers her interest in her subject. Years later, she has a PhD and a job she loves. They still go to the gallery.
The endings are sometimes disappointing. Dreams come true in a YA way
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