Welcome to the time where memories are made and hearts get broken.
Collin Atwood is a sophomore at Everly High School and the all-American boy in an all-American family. It's his first year on the varsity team and the pressure is on, from his dad and the town. For the first time in over twenty years his hometown could be in line for a state championship title and he’s their ticket to get there.
That is if he can get his grades up enough to play.
Enter the daughter of the last guy that held the town's hopes and dreams of state titles, who turned into a drunk after he blew it all. Paired up with Joelle Prescott as his tutor, these two are far from being in the same social circle. She's an honor student and a badass on the drum line. In her family full of athletes, she feels invisible. Which is good sometimes...makes it easier to keep her secrets. Will he keep her secrets? Will she help him make the grade?
WARNING: This book is a Mature YA book. It is intended for people 15+, it is not suitable for those younger.
NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR
This series is very special to me. For a long time I wanted to try my hand at Young Adult, now my hometown has inspired me to do it.
The small town I grew up in had two schools, an elementary school for Pre-K – 5th and a high school for 6th-12th. All of the surrounding towns are pretty much the same way. Growing up in a place like this is special. Every Friday night during the fall you can hear the noise and see the lights from the football stadium and once you get close enough, you can smell the boiled peanuts and grilled hamburgers from the concession stand. During the winter and early spring, the high school gym is packed out a few nights a week with the smell of popcorn wafting out the door. Spring time brings baseball and softball to life. With parents somewhere between the school fields and the recreational fields, many nights of supper are eaten from the concession stands.
Our school wasn’t your typical high school with cliques. We didn’t have enough people, so we were like one big clique. I graduated with just under one hundred people. That doesn’t mean that we didn’t have the couple of small groups of snarky people who thought they were better than everyone, but our school just wasn’t segregated that way. Most of the kids in our school were on multi teams. They may cheer, but they could also be marching with band at half-time. At the end of football season a player may be leaving that practice to go straight to basketball practice. I had a great principal who thought the students shouldn’t have to choose. The adults had to learn to work with the students and each other on scheduling.
So this book I hope brings a little bit of the small town world to life for you. The town where your parents know what you did before you got home from thinking you got away with doing it. You can’t go anywhere without someone knowing your parents, the words “do I need to call your (insert…parents, Mama, Daddy, Grandma)” are scarier than the idea of getting a paddling or any other punishment and most of the time, also, the cops are just going to give you a ride home.
So here’s that glimpse. I hope you enjoy it.
XOXO
S.M. Donaldson
DEDICATION
To my band director, Marty Clark, for telling me my eighth grade year that I was trying out for color guard and not accepting the answer that I was trying out for cheerleading. LOL Some of my best memories come from those four years I was in marching band, even if I didn’t play an instrument. I wouldn’t be the person I am today without it. So much of the discipline in my life comes from then. And last, I’m not sure how many innocent bull horns and cordless microphones lost their lives during those years, but it was so worth it.
To my English I and English III teacher, Tammy Jones. Thank you for always being open to see things the way I did. Thanks for not trying to commit me to the state hospital when I said that Romeo and Juliet were stupid to kill themselves