"Thirteen-year-old Rain, who struggles with low self-esteem, must overcome sadness after her older brother Xander is severely beaten up at a frat party, but through the help of an after-school circle group, Rain finds the courage to help herself and her family heal"--WorldCat.

While serving in Afghanistan, Ben writes about incidents from his senior year in a small-town Wisconsin high school, when a neighbor he was trying to help out becomes the victim of an apparent hate crime and Ben falls under suspicion.

Told in several voices, a group of Long Island high school seniors conspire to protect eighteen-year-old Jimmy after he brutally assaults two Salvadoran immigrants, until they begin to see the moral implications of Jimmy's actions and the consequences of being loyal to a violent bully.