White Deer

Steven has just started high school and already he's feeling overwhelmed. The kids are changing, they're not as nice as they used to be, and everyone is trying to be so adult now. He misses the old days, the way things used to be before. He has lots of things to do though and plenty of good friends, including Mark, the wacky Italian kid with the wicked sense of humor, Dan, the Jewish kid with the fiery temper who's the star of the tennis team they both play on, and Aaron, the Israeli whiz kid who's only recently moved to the U.S. but is so brilliant he can already digest full-sized novels in under an hour. Steven goes to class and does his work and plays his tennis after school, but all the while his attentions are firmly and hopelessly riveted on Emily, the pretty little blonde girl with the bright blue eyes and the cheerful perky disposition who has occupied both his mind and his heart from the very beginning of time. The pretty girls come and go but Emily remains above them all, the brightest star in the firmament and Steven's very reason for being.