S A Fanning

It was only supposed to be a high school football game, but when racial tensions spill from the bleachers, one person is left bleeding on the field. Senior linebacker, Ben Hoy, is still reeling with emotion when the local news arrives and asks what he's feeling. His answer changes his life.Ben's call for peace and unity spark a firestorm. His coach urges the team to put the "incident" behind them, calling the victim a thug and placing the blame on the other school and town council for their decision to relocate a confederate statue. For Ben, it's not so simple. As a White person, he's never given much thought to the statue but is jolted by the violence at the stadium. So when the school superintendent requests he take part in a press conference with opposing linebacker, Devin Calloway, who is Black, Ben reluctantly agrees. He isn't even out of the parking lot before his first death threat rolls in.No longer welcome at his own school, Ben enrolls across town, where he and Devin find resistance from all sides, and Ben finds he's not the only one making sacrifices. A pro-monument demonstration is gaining traction. Soon Ben and Devin are thrust into the thick of violence, once again, where they can only hope their calls for unity have made any difference at all.

The sound of her voice pitches me forward. I nearly go head over heels before I catch my balance and whirl around. My gaze climbs with wonder, from the sneakers to the smooth, shapely legs, to the tight-fitting t-shirt, and eventually to a face I've dreamed about almost every night for the past three years. Another stumble, this time back a step as I wipe my eyes, fix my hair, and stand before her. Lia's smile drops, and her eyes widen. I can't say what my face is doing because I'm not sure that what I'm seeing is real. She recovers with a laugh. "Hi," she says with a little wave, like she's been gone for a weekend.It's been three years.Three summers ago, Lia arrived in Matt's neighborhood and turned his world upside down. They spent the days down at old Preacher Higgins' property, canoeing in the pond, roaming the woods, and chasing fireflies into the night. Then she left without a trace.Now a senior, Matt Crosby has a cute girlfriend, plenty of friends, and is on his way to a football scholarship when Lia returns out of the blue, claiming to have found clues that will lead to a treasure on the preacher's property. Telling himself he's helping an old friend, Matt drops everything to join the treasure hunt, but is soon struggling to juggle the past with the present as a childhood crush becomes something much bigger. And when it happens all over again, and Lia has to leave without a goodbye, Matt is caught between following his senior plans or his heart.

Seventeen year-old Nat Reams was on his way to a basketball scholarship when he walked into chemistry lab after school and found his teacher assaulting a female student. So he decked the teacher. Now he's facing expulsion. Awaiting the school board hearing that will decide the fate of his senior year, Nat spends his summer cutting grass with Molly Martinez-the girl from chem lab. Nat has an idea why Molly-a shy, straight-a student-refuses to speak up about what happened at school, and so he's given up on trying to change her mind. But when he sees firsthand the hostile environment in which Molly's family lives, he invites them to move into his spacious, yet highly dysfunctional house.

Only one summer sits between Matt Crosby and high school, and it feels like his middle school friends are leaving him behind. But when a comet of a girl moves in up the street, Matt discovers a side of himself that's dying to break free and try something new. Lia doesn't see the Matt Crosby everyone else sees: the shy, awkward kid with the stammer, but instead a friend. With Lia, the long, summer days are action-packed with wonder. From scavenger hunts at the grocery store to midnight canoeing under the moon at Preacher Higgins' pond. Or maybe just staring at the sky and feeling completely comfortable in his own skin. But in a small town like Maycomb, a girl like Lia doesn't go unnoticed.Matt's old friends make jokes about the way Lia dresses, her hair, even her darker skin. As a correctional officer, Matt's father has already run into Lia's mother at the jail. But it isn't until Matt discovers Lia sleeping in his treehouse that he realizes things might be worse for her than she's letting on. Having found the courage to follow his heart instead of his friends, Matt realizes that somewhere along the way, he became the Matt Crosby Lia saw all along.