The assistant editor sat and tried desperately not to sweat as he waited for the girl to arrive. The way he tried not to sweat was to distract himself by humming out loud, as any attempt to consciously not sweat perversely resulted in increased sweating. He didn’t hum any recognizable tune or melody, and an outside listener could only come to the conclusion that this was not your run-of-the-mill...

For Cara, greatness wasn’t a choice, it was an obligation. She’d felt this way as long as she could remember – from the first time she held a number two pencil, any test scores not in the ninety-ninth percentile were met with universal disappointment. It was often explained to Cara that if she didn’t succeed, it was only because she wasn’t trying hard enough. She found that difficult to...