Dust Jacket of "Beware the Ides of November"

This dust jacket is basically a snapshot of the moment right before the climax. It is also the moment that most defines the story as a whole. At this point, Nikki’s waiting in the locker room for her friend Bess with Nikki’s jacket to cover up her back. Nikki needs to cover up her back because the backside of the yellow sweater she’s wearing has completely unraveled. The reason is because a loose thread got stuck in Nikki’s gym locker. Hence, the yellow line trailing down from Nikki’s sweater to a locker in the back in the picture. Speaking of, the setting of this picture is supposed to be the gym locker room with the wall of lockers in the back and benches in the front. Nikki’s eyes are wide open and she’s biting her lip because she’s so embarrassed and worried that someone’s going to walk in and ridicule her. Although not specified in the story, I drew a pair of jeans for Nikki because I assumed that they’re the most practical bottoms to a yellow sweater. The wrinkly lines on Nikki’s bottom right stomach are supposed to indicate the unraveling of her knit sweater. While Conford only mentioned the backside of the sweater being ruined, I removed some of the fabric from Nikki’s front as well to clearly show the damage done to the sweater. I chose magenta for the color of the title because I feel like it is a very feminine color and the story would probably only be enjoyed by girls, as all the stories in the anthology would be.