How to cheat at Hate

There are many ways to make friends, my mother says, but there are even more to make enemies. And sometimes friends start out as enemies, and enemies start out as friends. Careful, she used to say, making an ally can be the worst downfall you'll ever make. Because allies can trick you as well as your enemies, sometimes even better.

I never took her words to heart, until all else failed. And never the less, I forgot her words, until she moved in.

14-year-old Maygan Morris has lived the life any young teenage girl has ever wanted, and any Jumper rider has ever wish of having. Living in almost complete isolation in her small town of Huntsville, TN, with only a population of 1,992. She lives happily on her parents farm, along with her horse, Melody, a Thoroughbred mix. She's never missed a day of school, and has a nice group of friends. Riding is a passion to her, almost doing it everyday with her friends and their horses. Life couldn't be better, Until a shy new girl changes everything.

13-year-old Opal Pearson has the worst life ever lived by any 8th grader. Ever. Living with her dad in a small New York apartment, Opal has never even heard of mosquitos. And when her dad get arrested, framed for something he didn't even do, Opal is taken away to Tennessee, and put in a foster home. And even when she thinks all else could go wrong, she finds a friend, a horse called Melody and when she finally thinks thing might not be so bad, her dad comes home, and she discovers what really made her father go to prison. And what he does afterward could change Opal's only view of how something truly counts as a friendship.