Chapter 1

I was in the bathroom at school, sitting down on the toilet, humming my favorite song by Duran Duran. I had my pants on. I'd come in near the end of English 1, feeling sick from the medication I'd taken that morning. My teacher, Mr. Davis, is great about things like that. He's smart and knows when you're faking and when you're being serious. He took one look at me when I raised my hand and said I was ill, then nodded his head and told me to go to the bathroom.

"Throw up whatever's making you sick, Blair," he said, "then get your hide back in here."

I wish every teacher was as understanding as Mr. Davis.

In the end I didn't get sick, but still felt queasy, so I stayed on the toilet. I heard the bell ring for the end of class, and all the high school kids came rushing out on their lunch break. I wanted to join them but knew Mr. Davis would be angry if he saw me on the court so soon. He doesn't get mad if you trick him but he goes quiet and won't speak to you for a while, and that's almost worse than being shouted at.

So, there I was, humming, watching my watch, waiting. Then I heard someone calling my name.

"Blair! Hey, steel legs! Have you fallen in or what?"

I grinned. It was Daisy Cougar, my best friend. Daisy's real last name was Cooper, but everyone called her Daisy Cougar. And not just because the names sound alike. Daisy used to be what Jane calls "a wild child." She raised hell wherever she went, got into fights, stole from stores. One time- she was still in a stroller- she found a hard stick and whacked passing men with it (no prizes for guessing where she hit them!)

She was feared and despised everywhere she went. But not by me. I've been her best friend since kindergarten, when we first met. My mom used to say I was drawn to her wildness, but I just thought she was really cool to be around, and she didn't make me feel like a total weirdo because of my crutches and all my health issues. She had a fierce temper, and threw scary tantrums when she lost it, but I simply waited them out elsewhere when that happened and came back when she'd calmed down.

Daisy's reputation had softened over the years- her mom took her to see a lot of good counselors who taught her how to control herself- but she was still a minor legend in the schoolyard and not someone you messed with, even if you were bigger and older than her.

"Hey, Daisy," I called back. "I'm in here." I hit the door so she'd know which one I was behind.

She hurried over and I opened the door. She smiled when she saw me sitting down with my pants on. "Did ya puke?" she asked.

"No," I said.

"Do ya think you will?"

"Maybe," I said. Then I leaned forward all of a sudden and made a sick noise. Bluurgh! But Daisy Cougar knew me too well to be fooled.

"Give my boots a polish while you're down there," she said, and laughed when I pretended to spit on her cowgirl boots and rub them with a sheet of toilet paper.

"Did I miss anything in class?" I asked, sitting up. I was forever missing things because I was absent so much.

"Nah," she said. "The usual horse shit."

"Did you do your history homework?" I asked.

"It don't have to be done till tomorrow, don't it?" she asked, getting worried. Daisy's always forgetting about homework.

"The day after tomorrow," I told her.

"Oh," she said, relaxing. "Even better, I reckon. I thought…" She stopped and frowned. "Hold on," she said. "Today's Thursday. The day after tomorrow would be…"

"Got you!" I yelled, punching her on the shoulder. "You looked more worried than a pork chop in a room full of hungry dogs."

"Ow," she muttered. "That hurt." She rubbed her arm but I could tell she wasn't really hurt. "Are you coming out?" she asked then.

"I thought I'd stay here and admire the view. Maybe read the walls and catch the latest gossip," I said, leaning back on the toilet seat. "Hmm. It says here that Brandon was caught red handed with Stacy's momma. Load of horse manure if ya ask me."

"Quit joking," she said. "We were down five-one when I came in. I reckon we're probably down six or seven now. We need you." She was talking about basketball. We play a game every lunch time. Even though I can't run around the court, I can still make some goals on a good day when my legs aren't super weak. I can even make them from half way down the court. My team usually wins but we'd lost a lot of our best players. Greg Michaels broke his leg. Samantha Brown transferred to another school when her family moved. And Rachel Curtain had stopped playing basketball in order to spend lunch with her lame-brain boyfriend James Hardesty. Idiot!

I'm our best scorer. There are better defenders and offense players, and Tammy Johnson is the best point guard in the whole school. But I'm the only one who can stand up front and make four or five shots a day without fail.

"Okay, " I said. " I'll save you. My legs have been staying under me all this week. It would be a pity to stop now."

I grabbed my crutches, which were leaning in the corner of the stall, and lifted myself off the toilet, sliding my arms through the armrest and grabbing the hand grips tightly. Daisy stood back and let me out and we passed the senior girls- smoking around the sinks as usual- before hurrying outside.

We were down eight-three when I got on the court. It wasn't really a court, just a long stretch of concrete with two rusted goals at either end. Whoever built them was a total idiot because they put the basket really high on one of them and low on the other!

"Never fear, long shot Hughes is here!" I shouted as I hobbled onto the court. A lot of players laughed or groaned, but I could see my teammates picking up, and our opponents growing worried.

I made a great start and scored two three-pointers, I didn't have to worry about to many of the players getting rough with me, and it looked like we might come back to draw or win. But time ran out. If I'd arrived earlier we'd have been okay, but the bell rang just as I was getting into my groove, so we lost nine-seven.

As we were leaving the court, Amy Morgan ran towards us, panting and red-faced. They're my three best friends: Daisy Cougar, Tammy Johnson, and Amy Morgan. We must be the weirdest group ever because only one of us- Daisy- has a nickname.

"Look what I found!" Amy yelled, waving the piece of paper around under our noses.

"What is it?" Tammy asked, trying to grab it.

"It's-," Amy began, but stopped when Mr. Davis shouted at us.

"You four! Inside!" he roared.

"We're coming, Mr. Davis!" Daisy roared back.

Daisy is Mr. Davis's favorite and gets away with stuff that the rest of us couldn't do. Like when she uses cuss words in her stories. If I put some of the words Daisy has, I'd have been kicked out long ago. Sometimes we tease her and call her Davis's Daisy.

But Mr. Davis has a soft spot for Daisy, because she's special. Sometimes she's brilliant in class and gets everything right, while other times she can't even spell her own name. Mr. Davis says she's somewhat of a idiot savant, which means she's a stupid genius!

Anyway, even though she's Mr. Davis's pet, not even Daisy can get away with showing up late for class. So whatever Amy had, it would have to wait. We marched back to class, sweaty and tired after the game, (my legs were starting to give out a little too), and began our next lesson.

Little did I know that Amy's mysterious piece of paper was to change my life forever. For the worse or for the better, I'm still not sure.