"Special Ops soldier Griffin Reid doesn't exactly have happy memories of growing up in Sunshine, Idaho. He's only come back to recover from a war injury, and while he refuses to admit he's in a weakened state, he finds comfort in the last person he'd expect. Kate Evans teaches fourth grade science in Sunshine, the place she's always called home. Dreaming of graduate school and a happily-ever-after, she's desperate to break out of the monotony of Sunshine....

How could two hardworking people do everything right in life, a woman asks, and end up destitute? Willa Knox and her husband followed all the rules as responsible parents and professionals, and have nothing to show for it but debts and an inherited brick house that is falling apart. The magazine where Willa worked has folded; the college where her husband had tenure has closed. Their dubious shelter is also the only option for a disabled father-in-law...

George and Harold are fourth-grade buddies with a penchant for practical jokes. When the boys' latest prank drives their science teacher over the edge, their clueless principal, Mr. Krupp, quickly hires a replacement: Professor Pippy P. Poopypants. Of course, George and Harold can't resist making fun of the Professor's silly name. But then the Professor retaliates by forcing everyone in town to change their own names to be equally silly, with colossal...

Ellie buys a snake egg from the sinister science teacher Ms. Fleek in room 201, and hides it in a cage in her closet, but when it finally hatches--well, snakes are not supposed to have legs and wings, are they?

Neesha's friend Amy has been behaving very strangely since she joined Ms. Fleek's study group, ever so well behaved but remote--but Neesha misses her friend so much that she joins the group too, and immediately feels a change coming over her.