Bailey Baxter's ninth grade year couldn't get any worse. After losing her mother to cancer, Bailey's father decides to move the family back to his hometown in Tennessee. Leaving Nelson, the only home she's ever known, is the icing on the cake. Uprooted from the familiar, with wounds left unhealed, Bailey reluctantly spends her first few days in Fulton attempting to hide in the shadows of strangers. However, as the daughter of Fulton's hometown hero, she catches the attention of many-foiling her plan to simply blend in. Worst of all, the biggest jerk in school has decided to make her his...

Some say he's a dead end. To her, he's an escape. A detour from the reality she's running from. If she takes his hand, there may be no turning back. What Bailey thought would be her perfect senior year has turned into the perfect mess. Nothing has gone according to plan. Her relationship with her new stepmom is strained. Her long-distance relationship has her tied to the phone, and the new guy in school is taking over her job as senior editor of the newspaper. To top it all off, the one person she knows she should probably stay away from is the one she can't stop thinking about. Just like the...