Loner — Faith Iadarola

In Glastonbury, Connecticut, school is different from normal. In a school where cliques are taken to the extreme, there are three cliques. The brainy Nerds, the artsy Theaterheads, and the cruel Populars. The three cannot associate with each other at all; they must stay completely separate. The Clique Code controls all, and if you break it, you become a Loner - the outcasts of the cliques. They are shunned by the rest of the school, kicked around and bullied, not even allowed to sit at the tables at lunch; forced to sit on the floor. Life as a Loner is hell. Laylah Shiresman, a thirteen year old Popular, is living her life inside the middle school of strict laws and seclusion. She seems to be a perfectly normal girl, quiet and kept to herself, staying mostly away from rumors and the prying eyes of her so called "friends." But she hides a dangerous secret: She is dating Austin Sears, a Theaterhead boy, behind her clique's back. Dating someone outside your clique is strictly forbidden; an act worthy of immediate exile. And then there is Jade Ross. A Loner girl of many secrets, no one knows of her past life or connections. She moved to Glastonbury in the fifth grade and never spoke to anyone about the times before then. Exiled for reasons unknown, Jade in herself is a mystery. Then there is Dahlia Russel; a Nerd, disrespected and mistreated. She is not like the typical Nerd, she doesn't like comic books and math or get straight A's in all her classes. She secretly likes to sing and and act; a Nerd with the heart of a Theaterhead. But instead of being praised for it, she is teased for it and put down repeatedly by her Nerd "comrades"; and she is beginning to get sick of it. Then, the four teens come together in a way none of them thought possible; and they begin their uprising against the code. But they know that it is not over yet. No, it is not over. IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUN.