Tears of a Class Clown — Sara Faith Alterman

Just when you thought you'd put the past behind you-; the forlorn crushes, the awkward fashions, the cliques, the pigeonholes, those rampant, raging hormones-;it sneaks up on you when you least expect it, and suddenly you're invited to turn back the clock ten years. Your high-school class is reuniting, and it feels so . . . bad.

What happens when you're forced to choose between dwelling in the past and living for the future?

Nina Kurtz is every guy's gal. A bartender at Boston's Bellyaches Comedy Den, Nina's got the swiftest wit and a truckload of zingers, a combo that makes everyone from her Cockney sleazeball boss to her ruddy, good-natured regulars wonder what's keeping Nina behind the bar instead of up on stage. Nina's more concerned with her status as the Funny Girl-;she seems resigned to a lifelong role of the girl "friend."

When that fateful piece of calligraphied mail arrives, that invitation to relive the high-school glory days, Nina's conflicted and somewhat mortified by the cards fate has dealt her. After all, though she was voted the Most Likely to Work in a Comedy Club, slinging cheap beer at a dingy dive probably wasn't what her classmates had in mind. Still, the only successful relationship Nina's had to date was with her high-school boyfriend, Jacob Ryan. Maybe slinking down memory lane isn't such a bad idea, if it means figuring out what the heck she did right romantically, all those years ago. . .