How I Learned to Hate the Shadows

Publisher Marketing: Freak. Ugly. Jaimie Murphy and her friend, Bennie, have been called all sorts of names. What their classmates don't know is that she and Bennie can read minds and can make the other students believe whatever they want - temporarily - a talent Jaimie sometimes uses to amuse herself at the expense of her enemies. However, when strange Shadows start threatening them, she's the first one to realize that lives are in danger - friends and enemies alike. Aided by Bennie and her friend Katelyn, she follows the clues given to her by a strange ghost who she calls Disco Dude. At the end, she discovers her courage and her true heritage after being accused of murder. Excerpt: I looked back at the girls, who were looking at me and pointing. With what Disco Dude told me, I didn't dare do anything, which sucked, big time. I now could imagine what Bennie went through before he learned how to hide. "I really hate being a 10th grader," I said under my breath. There was someone looking at me. It was someone I had never seen before. It was something I had never seen before. Its skin was black. Its eyes were blacker. And when I say black, I mean dead of the night black, no brown tones in this skin at all. It smiled and licked its lips. Its tongue was black. I felt a huge chill and backed up into my locker, which was still open. If I could have managed it, I would've crawled in and closed the door, like I did when I was a toddler. Kids just flowed around the guy, without noticing him, like they didn't even see him. Somebody walked through it. Holy... It smiled again --- --- and disappeared. Crap. Somebody touched me, and I bolted out of the locker and across the hall.