William R. Stafford

Sammy, an uncommonly smart twelve-year-old girl, uses her gift for mathematics and enlists her frenemies to revamp the school penny drive into a major moneymaking operation.

Walter White, a New Mexico chemistry teacher, is diagnosed with Stage III cancer and given a prognosis of only two years left to live. He becomes filled with a sense of fearlessness and an unrelenting desire to secure his family's financial future at any cost as he enters the dangerous world of drugs and crime.