Author(s): Andrew Smith

Middle Fiction 8-12-year-olds

Senior year is supposed to be easy, but for Ryan Dean West, there are no guarantees.

Ryan Dean finds himself as the rugby team's new captain and stand-off - the position once played by his friend, Joey. Plus, somehow he's inherited as his roommate Sam Abernathy, a twelve-year-old cooking whiz with extreme claustrophobia and a crush on Annie Altman, Ryan Dean's girlfriend.

And Ryan Dean has his own problems, too - he's haunted by things from his past he can't escape, fear of losing Annie, and the fact that sometimes the uncontrollable force of friendship moves under its own power.