Tori Johnston

On the verge of depression following the murder of his father, Cory, a nervous, guilt-ridden 12-year-old "altar boy", is coaxed by his adventurous best friend, Ben, to prove their manhood by embarking on their first overnight fishing trip out in the wild on the Mississippi Bayou's Wolf River; but their trip goes awry when the hapless "altar boys" become targets of a mob hit in progress by a cold-blooded assassin who is determined to collect on a gambling debt.

When Emery was 6 years old, an alien spacecraft crash-landed in her small town. Whether they came in peace or with more sinister intentions didn't matter: a fierce battle erupted as humans fought for control over their new rivals, an alien species called the Atrians. In the midst of the conflict, Roman, a 6-year-old Atrian boy, found his way to a shed behind Emery's house, where she temporarily protected him from harm, bringing him food, comfort - and friendship. Ten years later, the Atrians have been acclimated to life on Earth, but they are interned in a heavily-guarded camp known as the Sector to keep them separate from humans. Now, for the first time, a group of Atrian teens will enroll in a suburban human high school, with the goal of testing the feasibility of human/alien integration. Emery and Roman find each other again in a school and a society that distrusts everything about the Atrians. While the world around them rages with anger and prejudice, their bond becomes increasingly strong and increasingly dangerous.