Gloria, an impulsive, naïve and likeable teen with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), tries to keep her family together while their mother's addictions threaten a move to foster care. Willa, an older teen with a learning disability (LD), wants to play in a rock band where her gifts truly shine, but her mother's controlling and perfectionistic personality — and Willa's increasingly abusive boyfriend — cause her unhappiness. When Gloria and Willa are partnered in a school club, they soon come to appreciate and depend on each other in a world that at times seems counter to their dreams. This is the 5th book in Lorna Shultz Nicholson's One-2-One series about a diverse group of fictional teens connected through a Best Buddies high-school program.

Seventeen-year-old Holly Callahan desperately wants to make the national rowing team so she can compete overseas, but she is the last rower cut. Her summer dreams are shattered, and she finds herself back at home, living with her mother's annoying new boyfriend, Super Stew. Holly's not a quitter. She lands a summer job, and then is handed an unexpected lifeline in the person of a man who offers to coach her in a single rowing boat. For a girl raised without a father, the coach's generosity — and rigorous demands — are a gift. But where did he come from and who is he, really? Discovering the answer plunges her into sadness — but then he inspires her to work beyond her comfort zone. Lorna Schultz Nicholson's compelling account of a teen athlete's life-changing summer will keep readers riveted until the last page is turned.