Book Description
Lily learns what it means to be a child of God and how to develop Gods image in herself.


From the Back Cover
Lily and Shad are into it again. But this time, Lily and her friends are fed up with his teasing, and decide to give Shad a taste of his own medicine. When Lily and her friends play the ultimate prank on Shad, guess who’s left to take the fall—Lily. Lily and Shad get assigned a project that they must complete TOGETHER after school. Will this finally bring an end to the infamous feud between Lily and Shad? Or is it the beginning of something much worse? See what happens when Lily makes an unpleasant discovery and has to decide what’s important—becoming someone she can like or someone God can like.


About the Author
Nancy Rue has worked as a public school teacher, church youth director, theater workshop developer, and camp director. She has written more than sixty books for young people. Nancy lives with her husband in Lebanon, TN.


Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Hey, Robbins, Leo Cooks hissed in Lilys ear.
Dont answer, Lily Robbins told herself sternly. Its a trick.
She concentrated on not touching his sweaty handeven though Ms. Gooch had said join hands with your partner.
Ms. Gooch is lookin at ya, Leo whispered.
His breath was hot, and it made Lily want to slap her hand over her ear, but she ignored him.
Shes givin you the eyebrow, Leo persisted.
That was not a good thing. The teachers eyebrow was usually the last warning sign before a name went on the board or something. Dont fall into this absurd little creeps trap, Lily thought.
Leo wasnt actually little. He was even bigger than his buddy Shad Shifferdecker, who was at this very moment managing to step all over the feet of his partnerLilys best friend, Reni Johnson. Even as Lily watched, he caught Reni on the side of her Nike with his left Timberland. She jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
Dont let him know hes getting to you, Reni, Lily thought.
Right. Just then Leo jabbed her in the side and hissed, You better take my hand. Ms. Goochs got both eyebrows goin!
Both eyebrows and the dont-start-with-me tone. Join hands, people, she called out over the blaring of Italian music.
Taking a breath full of dread, Lily slid her hand into Leos. He squeezed it like he was wringing out a dishrag, and suddenly, Lily felt a jolt go up her arm. Before she could stop herself, shed let out a yell.
The music came to an abrupt halt, and Ms. Gooch planted her hands on her hips. Both black eyebrows were in full gear.
All right, whos yelling? she said.
It was Lily, Marcie McCleary said.
Lily tucked a curl of red hair behind her ear and otherwise tried to look innocent.
All right, you two, Ms. Gooch said. Whats going on?
Iwasnt doing anything! Lily wanted to protest. It was him!
Still, Lily pressed her full lips together and kept quiet. Shed die before shed be a tattletale like Marcie McCleary.
So whats the story? Ms. Gooch said.
I dont know, Leo said. You told us to join hands, so I grabbed hers and she started yelling.
Is there a problem, Lily?
Lily is a problem, Shad Shifferdecker said.
Daniel Tibbetts snorted. Ms. Gooch waved both of them off with an impatient hand. She didnt lose patience often, and the class got that uncomfortable kind of quiet like when they were waiting to see if somebody was going to get sent to the office.
Lily, she said again, is there a problem?
Lily rubbed her fingers into her palm where moments ago Leo had set off some kind of buzzer-shock thing. But she shook her head no.
No, she said. Everythings fine.
Do you always yell when everythings fine? Ashley asked.
Ashleys best friend, Chelsea Green, let out her shriek of a laugh, and Marcie joined in because she always joined in when Ashley and Chelsea laughed, whether she knew what they were laughing at or not. Lily noticed with relief that her friends continued to glare at Leo and Shad.
Were about finished here anyway, Ms. Gooch said. Lets go back to the room.
Leo left Lilys side with a flailing of long arms and legs. Lily did her most poised walk up to the tape recorder where Ms. Gooch was busily pushing buttons.
Ms. Gooch? Lily said. Im really sorry.
Ms. Gooch frowned down at the tape deck. Im sure you were provoked. You want to tell me what was going on?
It wasnt that big of a deal. I just overreacted.
Lily could see Ms. Gooch was trying to smother a smile. Overreacted? she said.
Yes, Lily replied. It was a term her mother used all the time when she was talking about the way Lily responded to her two brothers.
So what were you overreacting to? Ms. Gooch said.
I dont want to say. Could I change partners?
Nope. Sorry, Ms. Gooch said. If I let you switch, Ill have everybody and her dog up here whining. I ought to just let you girls all dance with each other, but then Id have to let the boys dance with each other, and wed have even worse chaos. She shook her head at Lily again. Just tough it out, Lily, she said. If anybody can do it, you can.
At any other time, a compliment like that would have had Lily walking out of the multipurpose room with her spirit soaring. But right now, she didnt care how tough she was. She was sick of dealing with Leo and Daniel and, worst of all, Shad. He was the one who had put Leo up to it, that was plain.
Whoa, she really must have yelled at you, Zooey said as Lily pushed her way through the double doors and out into the courtyard where the Girlz were gathered.
They were all therethe whole Girlz Only ClubReni and Zooey and Kresha and Suzy. It made Lily feel better already to have them around herRenis black face set to get revenge and Zooeys round one flushed with concern, Suzys tiny eyebrows all puckered up in worry, and Kreshas pale eyes peeking hopefully through her straggly bangs.
Men, Zooey said in disgust.
Theyre the worst, Reni said. I thought I had it bad having to dance with Shad, but you got it even worse. The whole time I was waiting for him to do something to me, and all the time it was Leo he had doing the dirty work. I shoulda known.
What do we do? Zooey said. I have to dance with Daniel, which means Im probably next, which means Zooeys voice was starting to wind up into a whine.
Don vorry about it, Kresha said. Her eyes were crinkling behind her bangs, and she flung a skinny arm around Lilys neck. Kresha was the most touchy-feely of all of them. The Girlz had decided it must be because she was Croatian. They probably did a lot of hugging in Croatia or something.
Lee-lee will think of something, she said now. She alvez does.
Well, you better think of something fast, Reni said, before I have to smack somebody.
Would you really hit one of them? Zooey said, eyes round.
No, I would not, Reni said. But Id sure like to.
Okay, so Ill think of something, Lily said. Tomorrow.
Not today? Kresha said.
Noremember today we got to clean the clubhouse, Reni said. Or my mama says shes gonna close us down.
It is getting kind of disgusting in there, Lily said.
They met every day after school in the playhouse-turned-clubhouse in Renis backyard. Renis mother decreed no more meetings until it was cleaned.
Besides, Lily thought, itll give me some time to think of something.
It was always up to her to come up with solutions to their problems. She didnt mind thatin fact, she kind of liked it. It was time she started looking for a new direction for her life anyway, she decided. It was the never-ending quest ... trying to figure out who she was.
The trouble was, this thing with the boys had been going on all year, and although shed learned a lot since last fall, she still hadnt figured out how to keep Shad, Leo, and Daniel from constantly messing things up for the Girlz. Looking better, feeling betterthose were cool things. But so far, they hadnt cracked the boy problem.
Hey, Snobbins, Shad Shifferdecker hissed as she passed him on the way to the street.
She didnt answer.
All right, but dont blame me if you walk all the way home with that big piece of toilet paper stuck to your shoe.
Lily looked down in spite of herself. There was nothing stuck to her shoe.
Ha-hamade ya look! Shad said.
The Girlz were right. She had to think of something before the boys got control of them completely.

ANNOTATION

When Lily and her sixth-grade friends turn to self-esteem books, they find the results cause more problems until they discover where to seek true self-image.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Lily and Shad are into it again. But this time, Lily and her friends are fed up with his teasing, and decide to give Shad a taste of his own medicine. When Lily and her friends play the ultimate prank on Shad, guess who's left to take the fall--Lily. Lily and Shad get assigned a project that they must complete TOGETHER after school. Will this finally bring an end to the infamous feud between Lily and Shad? Or is it the beginning of something much worse? See what happens when Lily makes an unpleasant discovery and has to decide what's important--becoming someone she can like or someone God can like.

Author Biography: Nancy Rue has worked as a public school teacher, church youth director, theater workshop developer, and camp director. She has written hundreds of short stories and articles for youth magazines and more than sixty books for young people. Nancy has a grown daughter and lives with her husband in Lebanon, Tennessee.

SYNOPSIS