Payton Gritas is a bit of an organizational genius and she's always gotten great grades in school, but when she finds out that her dad has MS and has been hiding it from her for 6 months she goes a bit off the deep end. Her room is a huge mess, she doesn't care what she wears, or about being organized and don't even get started on her grades. She also won't talk to either one of her parents, she feels as though they've lied to her for 6 months and doesn't feel as though she can trust them anymore. Her parents don't know what else to do, so they have the school counselor talk to Payton, and her first assignment of her therapy sessions is to find a focus object. Something that Payton can focus on to get her mind off her dad's MS and help her to figure out her feelings toward her parents. She tries to think about things to focus on, but has a really hard time finding anything at all, until she looks at the desk directly in front of her and finds the one person who has sat in front of her since the third grade, Sean Griswold. She starts by analyzing his hair and the back of his head, but soon, with some pushing from her friend Jac she becomes basically a stalker and decides to get to know him better. But how will Sean feel about her when he realizes that she was just using him for his head? I liked this story, I don't think I would have gone out of my way to read it, but since it was on the Whitney nominee list, I was glad to have a decent story to read! I thought that Payton was a little bit crazy and a bit self-destructing, but all in all it was a good story.Labels: Whitney Nominee, Young Adult
