Dark Masks

What if the best day of your life turns out to be the last day of your life?

And what if there is no one who cares enough to find out what really happened, except your best friend?

Fifteen-year-old Vickie Bartolucci knows The Blueberry Hill Home for Troubled Youth is where all the rich families quietly warehouse their kids. Raised by a working-class, single mother, Vickie is half-Korean, half-Italian and 100% herself and thinks she has no chance of fitting in.

But, what she doesn't expect is that she will make a best friend who not only accepts her just as she is but actually likes her as well. And, like a bodega cat, once Vickie decides to be your friend, you have to try really hard to get rid of her. Yep, you have yourself a friend for life, a friend to the end.

When teenagers disappear from "Blueberry Hill" and her new best friend dies, Vickie and her reluctant band of fellow patients must discover what's happening before one of them is next. It's a motley crew, but all she's got...

Tracy, the heartthrob

Eagen, the Goth kid

Squirt, the nerd

Annie, the weird one

Julie, the pretty one

If nothing else, Vickie owes it to her friend to do everything she can to find out the truth, even if it means risking her own life-or worse. That's what friends do.

"We are all here for different reasons, but we have one thing in common. There is something about us that the adults in our lives can't manage. And if they couldn't handle it, how can we be sure that we can?"