Why couldn’t I just have everyday ordinary neuroses like everyone else? Instead I got saddled with Social Anxiety Disorder. When I go across a room, I get so self-conscious thinking that everyone is staring at me and judging me that I forget how to walk. Any time I'm around people I blush and my hands sweat and I start shaking like I've got hypothermia, and on bad days I get full blown panic attacks. I cope in school--barely--by being that girl that nobody notices. Over the last year I've made myself as invisible as the plastic potted plants they stick in the classrooms. But at home I become Valkyrie, the mystery girl who plays online shooter games with the boys from our school. She's everything I'm not, everything I'd be if I could. I started playing when I overheard Quinn talking about it one day. Quinn is our quarterback, the gorgeous guy who has fangirls fawning all over him like puppy dogs after every football game. He's also the one who's trying the hardest to find out who I really am, because he wants me to go out with him. You'd think that would be a dream come true, right? Except he doesn't want me. He wants Valkyrie. And she's not really me at all.

Life is complicated when your best friend is your ex-boyfriend. When I broke up with Ashton a year ago I expected things to get easier. We stayed best friends, but keeping our relationship strictly just friends is a lot harder than I thought. All the old feelings are still there hiding just below the surface, and it doesn't take much to bring them out again. I know it won't work, though, so I do my best to keep them under control no matter how much I'd like to give in to them. And there are days when I really, really want to give in. On top of that I've got a major art project due while my creativity seems to have gone on permanent vacation and three overly supportive friends trying to drive me crazy with their help and advice. And now there's Dylan to complicate my life even more. He's smoking hot, smart, funny, and into me. I really like him a lot and I think he's just what I need - or at least he would be if I could manage to stop thinking about Ashton. Somehow I have to get Ashton out of my head. It's time to move on after the break up, time to live my life. It's time for more than just friends.

Everyone knows that your best friend's ex is totally off limits. I didn't want to date Dylan, my best friend's ex-boyfriend. I just felt bad for him because the last two girls he'd gone out with had dumped him to go back to their exes. He was a sweet guy who deserved better, and in a moment of insanity I decided to make it happen for him. I was going to discover everything there was to know about him and then find the girl who was his perfect match. It all sounded so easy, until I started hanging out with him. But things got complicated really fast, and the more time I spent with him the less interested I was in matching him up with someone else. Dylan is afraid that I'm going to be like the other girls, though, and dump him to go chasing after Seth first chance I get. And I'm scared that he's going to be like every other boy I've gone out with and drop me without a backwards glance. Plus there's that whole issue of him being my best friend's ex, which would be majorly awkward. There's just no way that the two of us could possibly work out, so the safest thing to do is to stick with my plan and get him out of my life as soon as possible. Even though deep down I know that he's my perfect match.

Worst. Summer. Ever. My best friend moved away at the end of the school year. Now my family has moved into a house that looks a thousand years old and could pass for the Addams Family's summer home. I'm pretty sure it's haunted, and I'm about to be the star of my own paranormal reality show whether I like it or not. But the worst part is that Walker Dean lives next door. Walker Dean is heartbreak just looking for a victim. The boy tears through girls' hearts like a tornado through a trailer park. Sure, he's one of the hottest guys in school, but he's also a player who lives for hookups and doesn't know the meaning of the word relationship. A girl would have to be crazy to even think about getting mixed up with him. Wouldn't she?

Why couldn’t I just have everyday ordinary neuroses like everyone else? Instead I got saddled with Social Anxiety Disorder. When I go across a room, I get so self-conscious thinking that everyone is staring at me and judging me that I forget how to walk. Any time I'm around people I blush and my hands sweat and I start shaking like I've got hypothermia, and on bad days I get full blown panic attacks. I cope in school--barely--by being that girl that nobody notices. Over the last year I've made myself as invisible as the plastic potted plants they stick in the classrooms. But at home I become Valkyrie, the mystery girl who plays online shooter games with the boys from our school. She's everything I'm not, everything I'd be if I could. I started playing when I overheard Quinn talking about it one day. Quinn is our quarterback, the gorgeous guy who has fangirls fawning all over him like puppy dogs after every football game. He's also the one who's trying the hardest to find out who I really am, because he wants me to go out with him. You'd think that would be a dream come true, right? Except he doesn't want me. He wants Valkyrie. And she's not really me at all.

Life is complicated when your best friend is your ex-boyfriend. When I broke up with Ashton a year ago I expected things to get easier. We stayed best friends, but keeping our relationship strictly just friends is a lot harder than I thought. All the old feelings are still there hiding just below the surface, and it doesn't take much to bring them out again. I know it won't work, though, so I do my best to keep them under control no matter how much I'd like to give in to them. And there are days when I really, really want to give in. On top of that I've got a major art project due while my creativity seems to have gone on permanent vacation and three overly supportive friends trying to drive me crazy with their help and advice. And now there's Dylan to complicate my life even more. He's smoking hot, smart, funny, and into me. I really like him a lot and I think he's just what I need - or at least he would be if I could manage to stop thinking about Ashton. Somehow I have to get Ashton out of my head. It's time to move on after the break up, time to live my life. It's time for more than just friends.

Everyone knows that your best friend's ex is totally off limits. I didn't want to date Dylan, my best friend's ex-boyfriend. I just felt bad for him because the last two girls he'd gone out with had dumped him to go back to their exes. He was a sweet guy who deserved better, and in a moment of insanity I decided to make it happen for him. I was going to discover everything there was to know about him and then find the girl who was his perfect match. It all sounded so easy, until I started hanging out with him. But things got complicated really fast, and the more time I spent with him the less interested I was in matching him up with someone else. Dylan is afraid that I'm going to be like the other girls, though, and dump him to go chasing after Seth first chance I get. And I'm scared that he's going to be like every other boy I've gone out with and drop me without a backwards glance. Plus there's that whole issue of him being my best friend's ex, which would be majorly awkward. There's just no way that the two of us could possibly work out, so the safest thing to do is to stick with my plan and get him out of my life as soon as possible. Even though deep down I know that he's my perfect match.

Worst. Summer. Ever. My best friend moved away at the end of the school year. Now my family has moved into a house that looks a thousand years old and could pass for the Addams Family's summer home. I'm pretty sure it's haunted, and I'm about to be the star of my own paranormal reality show whether I like it or not. But the worst part is that Walker Dean lives next door. Walker Dean is heartbreak just looking for a victim. The boy tears through girls' hearts like a tornado through a trailer park. Sure, he's one of the hottest guys in school, but he's also a player who lives for hookups and doesn't know the meaning of the word relationship. A girl would have to be crazy to even think about getting mixed up with him. Wouldn't she?