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Book One

UNACCOUNTED

FOR

IT BEGAN WITH President Coyle’s Children, Ethan and Zoe, both high-profile personalities since they had arrived in Washington, and probably even before that

Twelve-year-old Ethan Coyle thought he had gotten used to living under the microscope and in the public eye So Ethan hardly noticed anymore the news caates, and he didn’t worry the way he used to if some kid he didn’t know tried to snap his picture in the hall, or the gymnasium, or even the boys’ bathroom

Sometimes, Ethan even pretended he was invisible It was kind of babyish, kind of bs, but who cared It helped One of the ested it He told Ethan that Chelsea Clinton used to do the sa Who knew if that was true?

But when Ethan saw Ryan Townsend headed his way that , he only wished he could disappear

Ryan Townsend always had it in for hi He had the purplish and yellowing bruises to prove it — the kind that a good hard punch or muscle squeeze can leave behind

“Wuzzup, Coyle the Boil?” Townsend said, charging up on him in the hall with that look on his face “The Boil havin’ a bad day already?”

Ethan knew better than to answer his tormenter and torturer He cut a hard left toward the lockers instead — but that was his first o, and he felt a sharp, nauseating jab to the side of his leg He’d been kicked! Townsend barely even slowed down as he passed He called these little incidents “drive-bys”

The thing Ethan didn’t do was yell out, or stumble in pain That was the deal he’dinside

Instead, he dropped his books and knelt down to pick theain It was a total wussfor a second without letting the whole world knoas Ryan Townsend’s punching and kicking dummy

Except this time, someone else did see — and it wasn’t the Secret Service

Ethan was stuffing graph paper back into his math folder when he heard a familiar voice

“Hey, Ryan? Wuzzup with you?”

He looked up just in tiht into Townsend’s path

“I saw that,” she said “You thought I wouldn’t?”

Townsend cocked his head of blond curls to the side “I don’t knohat the hell you’re talking about Why don’t you just mind your own —”

Out of nowhere, a heavy yellow textbook came up fast in both of Zoe’s hands

She swung hard, and clocked Townsend with it, right across the middle of his face The bully’s nose spurted red and he stureat!

That was as far as things progressed before Secret Service got to theed himself between Ethan and Townsend A crowd of sixth, seventh, and eighth graders had already stopped to watch, like this was some new reality TV show — The President’s Kids