title: In Your Arms
author: Andrews, Becky
description: Samantha Baker, 17, has a crush on one of the most popular students around, Phillip Corinodi. Phillip’s athletic and chiseled body, along with his sporting abilities means everybody knows who he is. He also happens to be going out with Tracy, the girl ‘every guy wants to be with’. Confident, popular and bitchy, she is everything Samantha feels she is not. When the two spend an hour together in detention Phillip strikes a friendship with Samantha. They were friends once before, many years ago, before Phillip got popular and ditched her. Why is he suddenly talking to her again now, after so many years? She wonders if it could be a cruel joke, maybe organized by Tracy. Phillip has a lot to prove to earn Samantha’s trust again, and after she witnesses a school shooting, her self-esteem is battered further as she tries to silently cope with what she saw. With only one friend and little experience with boys, Sam battles to believe in herself, to trust and open up again, and to explore her emotions and sexual desires for the first time. All while facing a darkness that haunts her daily. Will she find the brave spirit deep within or succumb to her insecurities and those keeping her down?