While living very different lives on opposite coasts, seventeen-year-old Elizabeth and eighteen-year-old Lauren become acquainted by email the summer before they begin rooming together as freshmen at UC-Berkeley.

"Five high school freshmen-- the Phoenix Five-- reveal their friendships, crushes, school and family dramas, and big secrets, as told in their unique voices through journal entries"--

"The second-quarter journal entries of five freshmen at ultra-competitive Noble High detail the students' ongoing quest to become the Phoenix Five - the most outstanding first-year students in the school"--

Told in two voices, Ally and Jake, back together and both "Cresties" again as senior year begins, are shocked when Chloe tells Jake he is the father of her child.

For Lucy the Jersey Shore is home, and she knows not to get attached to the tourists. But when charming Connor Malloy and his family spend every summer next door, she longs for their friendship to turn into something deeper. Then Superstorm Sandy sweeps up the coast, bringing Lucy and Connor together for a few intense hours. Except nothing is the same in the wake of the storm, and Lucy is left to pick up the pieces of her broken heart and her broken...

Feeling left out since her long-time best friend started a serious relationship, sixteen-year-old Emily looks forward to a summer program at the Philadelphia College of Art but is not sure she is up to the challenges to be faced there, including finding herself and learning to balance life and art.