He spends the entire day wishing school would end so he can escape to his favorite sport of rock climbing. This is the only place where he feels in control, competent, and free, despite the inherent fear.Lily Small is athletic, attractive, and, despite her last name, is actually very tall. Another kid, who looks almost like a grown man, introduces himself with a long Polynesian name, but says everyone calls him "Big," and he seems to like the nickname! As they get to know each other, Paul, Big, and Small discover they have a lot in common as outsiders in their high school. As the trio's friendship forms, their unique personalities are no longer those of misfits, but complement each other.Paul and Lily decide to enter a local competition for climbers, but their plans are abruptly halted by Lily's diagnosis of leukemia. Paul is terrified of what lies ahead in Lily's medical treatment, knowing what happened to his mother who died of cancer a few short years before. He retreats back to rabbit mode and can't even visit her in the hospital. But Lily really wants Paul to go ahead with the competition and advises him to team up with Conor, the student who bullies Paul the most. Reluctantly, Paul agrees to move ahead with Lily's wish, knowing that Conor is a strong climber and their best chance at winning.

    Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger brother, and steer clear of her unstable mother.Then a school competition calls for a biome. Layla chooses her own home, a hostile ecosystem of indoor fungi and secret shame. With a borrowed video camera, she captures it all. The mushrooms growing in her brother’s dresser. The black mold blooming up the apartment walls. The unmentionable things living in the dead fridge. All the inevitable exotic toxins that are Layla’s life. Then the video goes viral.When Child Protective Services comes to call, Layla loses her family and her home. Defiant, she must face her bullies and friends alike, on her own. Unafraid at last of being seen, Layla accepts the mortifying reality of visibility. Now she has to figure out how to stay whole and stand behind the truth she has shown the world.

    JACK spent it training in "The Cage" with his tough-as-nails brothers and hard-to-please dad. By the time middle school starts, they're both ready for a change. And just as Jack's thinking girls have it so easy, Ellie's wishing she could be anyone but herself.Then, BAM! They swap lives - and bodies!Now Jack's fending off mean girls at sleepover parties, while Ellie's reigning as The Prince of Thatcher Middle School.As their crazy weekend races on - and their feeling for each other grow - Elli and Jack begin to wonder if maybe the best way to learn how to be yourself is to spend a little time being somebody else.

    Prejudice can be defined in many ways as Ray finds out when he crosses the line as a white Polish-American boy who wants to play on his high school's black basketball team.

    Never have the trenches been so deep. Never has one soda vending machine been so vital. When the high school cheerleading team takes over the machine's funds previously collected by the pep band, Gabe will not stand for it. Something must be done.

    She woke up one morning hating her parents, her body, her friends--her life. She wanted to die. What went wrong?

    But, D. J. can’t help admitting, maybe he’s right. When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.Stuff like why her best friend, Amber, isn’t so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens his mouth. Why her mom has two jobs and a big secret. Why her college-football-star brothers won’t even call home. Why her dad would go ballistic if she tried out for the high school football team herself. And why Brian is so, so out of her league. When you don’t talk, there’s a lot of stuff that ends up not getting said.Welcome to the summer that fifteen-year-old D. J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk, and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say.

    For the shy, nerdy girl-next-door that she is, high school is torture and all she wants is for it to be over. Having her heart broken by a popular, womanizing boy all those years ago doesn’t help the matters. Nor does his best friend who still has a habit of mercilessly teasing her. Now, she only has one year left, one year to be invisible before she can move on with her life.Derek King doesn’t do drama, but his life is all about drama once Maximillian Sanders steps foot into his town, his school, and into Amelia’s life. Max is always around, and he is making her smile again. But the boy who once broke her heart isn’t ready to let her go. Older and wiser, Derek isn’t about to let someone take away what he wants, and he wants Amelia.She's set on not believing in him and on not getting her heart broken once again. He is set on showing her wrong.She says she hates him, but maybe the line between past and present, love and hate is thinner than she ever realized.

    But on her first day of ballet class, she suffers a panic attack and makes a horrifying discovery. She's terrified of dancing in front of the other kids, and as for actually performing for an audience? Forget it. Yet Jenny refuses to give up her dream. With determination and a little ingenuity, she finds ways to observe ballet classes without actually participating. She trains in the safety of her room, while hiding the truth from her parents. Then Jenny meets her exact opposite: Ara Reyes, an outgoing, spontaneous, and accident-prone girl who loves dancing but has always been overlooked.The girls' friendship blossoms as they help each other uncover their real talents. Ara's dancing takes a leap forward and Jenny discovers she has an amazing gift for choreography. With the support of the school's newest teacher, Jenny's original ballet might just make it on stage ... but will she?Charming and inspiring, "Dancing on the Inside" shows how pursuing our passions can often lead to wonderful and unexpected results.

    All the big ideas of the 1960s--the civil rights movement, the sexual revolution, women's rights--have not had much of an effect on this small community. Ellen has always been more interested in studying than a social life, but that begins to change when she meets Tony Paul, an eighteen-year-old who belongs to the Shuswap Indians and lives on the nearby reserve. When school starts it is Tony's friendship that gives Ellen the strength to endure the loneliness, racism, discrimination, and antifeminism she must face during her last year in high school. As Tony and Ellen's friendship turns into something deeper, they must decide if they can break free of society's rules and forge their own future.

    But not anymore. Andrew just met April, the new girl at school and the instant love of his life! He wants to find a way to win her over, but how? When O. Douglas, the heartthrob quarterback and high-school legend, saves him from getting beaten up by the school bully, Andrew sees his chance to get in with the football squad. Is it possible to reinvent yourself in the middle of high school? Andrew is willing to try. But he’s going to have to make some changes. Fast. Can a funny fat kid be friends with a football superstar? Can he win over the Girl of his Dreams? Can he find a way to get his mom and dad back together? How far should you go to be the person you really want to be? Andrew is about to find out.

    SuperMutant Magic Academy, which she has been serializing online for the past four years, paints a teenaged world filled with just as much ennui and uncertainty, but also with a sharp dose of humor and irreverence. Tamaki deftly plays superhero and high-school Hollywood tropes against what adolescence is really like: The SuperMutant Magic Academy is a prep school for mutants and witches, but their paranormal abilities take a backseat to everyday teen concerns.Science experiments go awry, bake sales are upstaged, and the new kid at school is a cat who will determine the course of human destiny. In one strip, lizard-headed Trixie frets about her nonexistent modeling career; in another, the immortal Everlasting Boy tries to escape this mortal coil to no avail. Throughout it all, closeted Marsha obsesses about her unrequited crush, the cat-eared Wendy. Whether the magic is mundane or miraculous, Tamaki’s jokes are precise and devastating.SuperMutant Magic Academy has won two Ignatz Awards. This volume combines the most popular content from the webcomic with a selection of all-new, never-before-seen strips that conclude Tamaki’s account of life at the academy.

    More than anything, Lopi wants to find someone to really connect with, someone to love—but short of that, she wants to have sex. She’s already figured out how to graduate a year early, but the rest isn’t so easy. For one thing, her mother, Vivian, isn’t just crazy: she’s young, vivacious, and beautiful. No one can resist Viv’s charms, but Lopi knows it’s all just an act. Viv is only pretending to be happy, trying to ignore Lopi and the horrible accident that changed everything between them. Lopi tries to pretend too, as she navigates the murky waters of sex and love and growing up, but she can’t fool herself—Lopi has a secret that sets her apart: the accident was her fault, she is evil . . .

    Shy, anxious Jessie would give anything to have Annie’s beauty and confidence. And Annie thinks Jessie has the perfect life, with her close-knit family and killer grades. They're BFFs…until suddenly they're not. Told through alternating points of view, How It Ends is a wildly fast but deeply moving read about a friendship in crisis. Set against a tumultuous sophomore year of bullying, boys and backstabbing, the novel shows what can happen when friends choose assumptions and fear over each other.

    Studious and (mostly) sensible, the only thing Molly Wakefield wants to do is get through Senior Year and graduate. Well, that and hit the beach in her spare time. Okay, fine - and go shopping every once in a while for a new dress... (and who could blame her?) And things are going according to plan - until the day she spies Weston McGrath, handsome star athlete and scholar, spying on her in study hall. A tad creepy? Maybe. Thrilling? Absolutely. You see, Weston McGrath happens to be one guy no one can get close to. Despite her best efforts to avoid it (because let's face it - the guy isn't exactly "boyfriend material") Mollly and Weston form a friendship. And more.... Sort of. But it's a friendship that comes with a price - because Weston just cannot seem to stop screwing things up. Or saying all the wrong things. Possibly in that order... And who has time for an 18 year old "fixer-upper" that should know better? Not Molly. Or does she? This is book one and includes chapter one of book two, Ke Kissed Me First. This book is a stand-alone with no cliffhanger. Note: This YA book is intended for 17+ due to the vulgar language used by its male characters (and occasionally the females as well, even though they're too lady like to do it throughout the entire book). Some adult sexual situations that steam up a few car windows. This title is approx. 63,000 words.