Prologue

As I stood in the gathering dusk, watching the dark clouds gather on the horizon, I breathed in the cool air that smelt of rain and pretended, for a moment, that I was a normal girl; that I had friends who adored me, that I went go to parties and kissed boys and gossiped.

When I opened my eyes I was still me. Still plain old me. I went inside.

Ciara Matthews was your standard introvert. She read, she got straight A's and she stuck on the outskirts of her small group of friends, not allowing anyone too close, not that anyone really noticed.

Life was pretty normal for her, until the end of her Grade 9 year, when new feelings arose, and her world started to crumble. The catalyst?

A boy, of course.