When their father is jailed for embezzlement and their mother suffers a nervous breakdown, four young people try to cope with the many changes in their lives and the new responsibilities thrust upon them.
During the summer before her senior year, a Catholic girl runs away from her well-meaning but narrow-minded mother and finds a job as a mother's helper.
Julie MacNeil feels threatened both in the family and on the soccer field when her widower father begins to date the mother of her arch-rival Benji True.
On the eve of their ninth birthdays and living in a new town, Zoe and Columbo find themselves drifting apart when Columbo decides he wants to keep secret the fact that he is adopted.
Thirteen-year-old Amanda Bates goes from goody-two-shoes to goth troublemaker to fit into the most exclusive clique at school, and attract the attention of Slade, a ninth-grader with a bad reputation.
Eleven-year-old Joshua, worried about fitting in at school, feels awkward when the new student he is supposed to be helping becomes the target of the fifth grade's biggest bully.
Eleven-year-old Joshua, worried about fitting in at school, feels awkward when the new student he is supposed to be helping becomes the target of the fifth grade's biggest bully.
Ben's troubles at school get progressively worse when he starts hanging around Trout, a new boy in his fifth grade class, who is also labeled as learning disabled.
