Pretenders [antikvár]

A Foreword by LISI HARRISON Nickel-colored storm clouds skulked across the sky above Noble High School like timid freshmen. Summer break was over. Notebooks were blank, sneakers were clean, destinies unknown. The seventh annual back-to-school downpour was all that anyone could accurately predict. Older students, and even some teachers, claimed the rain was actually the evaporated tears of terrified ninth graders. Because, along with obvious "first day" stressors (outfit regret, humidity hair, lame locker location, crush blushing, classroom confusion, lunch tray collisions, and loser abusers), students at Noble High were expected to make like Microsoft and Excel. "Achieve or Leave" was the unofficial motto; the Harvard of High Schools, its unofficial name. Ranked number one in the country for nearly two decades, the prestigious institution was the reason most families lived in Noble. Without the school, Noble would just be another drive-thru town off 1-95; a weed in the Garden State. Not that it would ever come to that. Scandals destroyed schools, and Noble High didn't do scandals. And yet in 2012, sometime during Labor Day weekend, that changed. Students returned from vacation to find bound copies of stolen journals propped up against their lockers. Journals written by five freshmen during the previous year. Journals no one was ever supposed to read. Now the clouds over Noble High will rain tears not just for one day, but for many months to come.