Young Adult Story by Sylvia Plath. A candidate declines membership of an elite high school sorority after successfully completing its demeaning initiation process. Her reasons for doing so reflect the major themes of the story: friendship (fear of being distanced from a friend) and the desire to maintain her individuality.
Novelette by Doris Lessing. A pregnant, runaway teen is taken in by a compassionate London call girl. Unfortunately, the call girl is traveling with a client when the baby comes and the teen carries out a grotesque self-birthing plan and faces the difficult choice regarding the baby’s future alone.
Novelette by Edith Wharton. After a recently widowed man remarries, he begins to receive a series of disturbing letters addressed in obviously feminine handwriting. When the man disappears and the secret of the letters is revealed, it appears that his dead wife may have won a ghostly contest.
Short Story by José García Villa. A seventeen-year-old Filipino boy from a poor farming family insists on marrying his girlfriend. Amid the daily grind of farm life and the responsibilities of raising a family, neither is happy in the marriage. When their oldest son turns eighteen, the cycle begins again.
Short Story by Herman Bosman. A young Boer soldier riding off to fight the British promises the girl he is engaged to that he will be home when the moepel fruit are ripe (yellow). A native witch-doctor tells her the same thing, but leaves out an important piece of information.