You Wanted Muscles I Wanted Peace

Dan and Lola have bickered since childhood, and in one life that bickering turned into marriage, children, and decades of noisy devotion. Then Lola dies in a hospital bed, teasing him that in her next life she will find a strong, handsome man. Dan wakes to find himself eighteen again, back on the day a transfer student named Zack confesses to her.

This time Lola says yes. She calls Dan a soft pretty boy with nothing to him, moves Zack into the seat beside her, and tells Dan to sit at the back. Dan, carrying the memories of a whole shared lifetime, walks to the last row and asks the cold, aloof Maeve if he can sit with her. He tells himself he must let go and move forward, even as Lola's indifference cuts deeper than any insult.

Two lifetimes, one classroom, and a girl who chose differently.