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Part One

The Warm-Up Band

CHAPTER ONE

“He looks exactly like Tyler Vincent, I swear to God!”

“Who is she talking about, Sara?” Carrie looked atdeal of it My stolanced at Carrie’s tray—a Hostess blueberry pie, French fries and a Pepsi Like most institutional food, Iselin Acade plopped out of an Alpo can If it wasn’t for fast food and federal subsidies, the whole place would go bankrupt

“I don’t know Soh theat an enticing slant of Septe to pretend I wasn’t interested in seeing the Tyler Vincent look-alike, but just the sound of his naave me a thrill And of course Aimee knew it

Nineteen-years-old and still infatuated with a rock star

I couldn’t have been more pathetic if I’d tried Butridiculously andabout Tyler Vincent Not that I wasn’t most of the time anyway

“I don’t knoho he is” Aih a mouthful of Yoplait That was blueberry too and it , even though rowled in protest, and I looked away She was dieting Again Even though she wasn’t supposed to “All I know is he is so fine Like, a total stud He ht even be cuter than Tyler Vincent”

I glanced over and tried to give Airinned and licked her spoon I went back to looking out the , pretending I couldn’t hear either of thenated patio outside where half the acade cancer like their GEDs depended on it

Of course, if any of us had worked that hard on anything in high school, ouldn’t be stuck trying to graduate from the academy Aimee called it The Mental Academy, which was partly true There were lots of kids, liketheir teen years to pay much attention to academics, and many, like our new friends Wendy and Carrie, who took the word “high” quite literally in “high school” Noere all paying for our et soun

Officially though, Iselin Acadees seventeen to twenty-one, four hundred “non-traditional students”—that’s what they called us—who could either attend day or night classes, as schedules allohile working full-tiirls who had babies at hoers at Mickey D’s on the

I think all of us just wanted to get the hell out of New Jersey, but I was pretty sure no one wanted it more than me

“So who is this bohunk?” Carrie asked, nudging me Like I knew?

I nudged Aimee “Well?”