By the time the buzzer sounded over the Bookside Middle School gym, Jay Ellis had already decided that tonight, absolutely nothing—not homework, not…
The first time Sean Dixon tried to sign his name into wet cement on a backlot in Burbank, California, he ruined a day’s…
By the time the car door slammed in the hospital parking lot, the Friday night lights from the high school down the road…
By the time the first fist hit the front door, the street outside their neat little cul-de-sac house in suburban Ohio was dark…
By the time the girl in the oversized hoodie spilled her mocha all over the marble floor, every phone in that Los Angeles…
By the time the third ambulance screamed into the student parking lot of Riverside High, everybody in that sleepy California suburb knew something…
The first time they see me, I look like a runaway hamster rolling down a shiny American high school hallway. Fluorescent lights, lockers…
By the time Mateo hit the tiles, the sound was louder than the bell. One second he was standing in the middle of…
By the time the lunch tray left Sebastian’s hands, every head in the Edison High cafeteria had already turned. The plastic clattered against…
By the time Joel’s back hit the mat, the gym was already chanting for his enemies. “Ve-nom! Ve-nom! Ve-nom!” The bleachers of Jefferson…
The first thing Miles noticed was the shine of the medal. It caught the light every time the man shifted—an almost theatrical glint…
The metal tray of cupcakes tilted in Jenny’s hands, and for a split second it felt like time slowed down. Frosting swayed in…
The hardcover math book left Raj’s hand so fast it was just a blur of blue and white flying through the air. For…
The first time Jay Lawson begged to go home, he was locked in a concrete box in the middle of the Arizona desert,…
On the night the burglars chose Jay Lawson’s house, the plastic reindeer on the front lawn was still blinking in the California heat,…
The first time Jay Lawson ordered a drink at a bar, the glass wasn’t real and neither was he. Neon lights pulsed around…
By the time the first bell rang at Westbrook Middle School, everyone in the eighth-grade hallway already knew two things: One, it was…
The bees hit the principal’s office before the bell did. One moment the hallway at Westview Middle School in Southern California was its…
By the time the babysitter sprinted out of the house yelling that Jay was “crazy,” the takeout on the kitchen counter had gone…
On the morning the new nanny arrived, a grocery cart full of plums became a battlefield. The automatic doors of the suburban California…
On the morning his life tilted off its axis, Miles Garcia stood in the hallway of St. Mary’s Children’s Hospital in California, holding…
By the time the bell rang for last period at Jefferson High, the California sun had turned the row of parked cars into…
The morning the trouble truly began, the rising sun over Columbus, Ohio struck the windshield of my brand-new RV like a spotlight, as…
The first thing Sloan Parker saw was fear—raw, unfiltered, and trembling in the eyes of the elderly woman wobbling beside the row of…
At 8:43 a.m., the Manhattan skyline glinted like polished silver behind the high-rise windows of Ascend Creative Agency — and Peyton Hart was…
By the time the police lights painted red and blue across the chrome of her brand-new Mercedes, Tasha Morales had already decided the…
he scream tore through the hallway like a siren—sharp, startled, and utterly convincing. Students jerked their heads, lockers slammed, a teacher dropped her…
The first time they called him “Special Needs Sam,” the word bounced off the cinderblock walls of the California middle school gym…
The knock on the front door sounded wrong on a Sunday morning—too sharp, too rushed, like it knew it was about to break…
The candles on the birthday cake were still flickering when Brenda’s world caught fire. She stood in the doorway of her husband’s corner…