Erica Swafford was your every day teenager looking for popularity in all the wrong places. One day, when her "friends" brought her to the end of a trail near the park, she regretted being around those people at all. They beat her and abused her in every way you could imagine. No one heard her screams. She was muted to the world.

Ella Pike is very popular. Everyone knows and loves her. She has a twin brother who is on the football team. She has a best friend, Layla, who has known her for her whole life. Layla is the only person who knows the real Ella. Ella is a goodie goodie and nerd. She has never been to a party, never been kissed, never been late for class, and has never skipped school. This all changes when Jake Lore lives with her. Jake Lore is the school's bad boy. He could really care less about anything. He has two best friends, Nathan DeMille and Josh Miller. They don't talk to anyone except each other. Everyone at school knows them but are too scared to talk to them, and they should be. Jake, Nathan, and Josh aren't people you mess with. When Jake moves in with Ella, he didn't expect to be her friend. He was planning to ignore that she was even there, but things don't always go the way you plan.

Typical. That's all that comes to mind when I say this: the bad boy and the nerd don't even know each other that well, they are merely friends. Until they find out they share a secret that only causes them to grow closer... Or apart. Gangs are the sight of mayhem in this small, Michigan town. While not many know of them, once you're in you're never out. In the heat of the moment though, anyone can make a mistake. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~•••••~~~~~~~~~~~~~ He was a popular. I was a nerd. He was a player that hooked up with different girls almost every night. I stayed home, alone, and did nothing. He was Ryder. And I? I was just Kayla. *Contains sexual content, and possibly triggering events that tie to suicide, anorexic tendencies, along with speak of self-harm. Mature readers only.*

Lindsay Wilson was born different from everybody else. No, she's not a vampire, werewolf, or some super hero. But she can use her whole brain to function. Lindsay knows everything about everything. She has a perfect, photographic memory, and she has mastered every single sport under the sun. She graduated high school when she was seven. Yeah, seven. But now, Lindsay's mom is forcing her back into high school so she can live a normal teenage life. Too bad the only thing that Lindsay can't do is fit in.