Richardson Academy

An isolated school for delinquents. An unsolved murder. And an eccentric club of miscreants that could hold the answers. But they could be facing worse than expulsion by unearthing buried secrets.

One misstep, and they'll be the next victims.

Estelle Hazelwood has two choices when she's arrested: juvenile detention or Richardson Academy for troubled youth. She used up her sympathy benefits. Now she's being shipped off to the mountains so her mother and stepfather don't have to deal with her anymore. Merit points define privileges. And she's forced to join a club that's in the bowels of the basement, beside a rickety boiler room, with a teacher who's certifiably insane.

She should have chosen juvie.

Broderick Winslow is in his second year at Richardson Academy for troubled youth. He doesn't need to be here. He's not troubled. He's prone to violence and may forget afterwards, but he's a model student otherwise.

After a debilitating injury, he's been told he'll never run again.

But that's not what keeps him off the field. He's been threatened with a bloody thrashing if he even tries to step onto the track. No longer holding the privileges of a jock, he's forced to join a mandatory extracurricular. He's not following the girl that he snubbed on the first day. It's a coincidence that they've chosen the same club for the year.

And if he gets to spend his abundant free time bothering her into a fury, that's also a coincidence.