#4 THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SLOANE STEVENS, YA Contemporary

TITLE: The Disappearance of Sloane Stevens
GENRE: YA Contemporary

After years in witness protection, seventeen-year-old Sloane Stevens’ wish is coming true: she’s getting released. Someone confessed to the murder she witnessed and as soon as she graduates, she’ll be Sloane for good. But when she runs into Jason, her old best friend, she has a choice: inform the Marshals and risk remaining in protection, or stay quiet and risk being found by mobsters who, despite what the Marshals say, might still want her silenced.

Out of all the names she’d had in the last seven years, she liked this one the best: Sloane Stevens. It looked right, printed there at the top of her new class schedule. Good thing too, since it was the last one she was ever going to have.

“There’s just one more thing I have for you and then you’re all set,” the secretary said gently. She was a little hard to hear over the buzz of voices coming from the hall on the other side of the glass wall behind Sloane and the incessant ringing of phones inside the front office.

Sloane glanced up from her schedule to find the secretary smiling kindly. Her short, curly white hair and the deep crow’s feet around her sympathetic eyes screamed helpful grandmother. She actually looked a little like their neighbor eight towns back who was a grandmother of eleven.

“I figured it must be hard to transfer so late in your senior year,” the secretary continued, “so I marked up a map of the school with the location of all of your classes. That way, at least you won’t get lost on your first day.”

Aw, Sloane thought. Out of all the schools she’d attended, no one had ever done that for her before. She peeked at the nameplate sitting on the side of the tall counter separating her from the rest of the office. “Thanks, Mrs. Zalinsky. That’s really thoughtful of you.”