Vaught, Susan

A mentally ill teenager who rides the "short bus" to school investigates the sudden disappearance of his best friend.

High school senior Jamie Carcaterra tries to win a scholarship by sharing her experiences as a fat girl in today's appearance-obsessed high school culture, but as she opens her life up to the criticism of her classmates and the media, she begins to wonder if she is being truly honest with herself.

Follows the intertwining adventures of Leyr Mab, high prince and heir to the throne, Aron Brailing, a farm boy with a destiny greater than he can imagine, and Dari Ross, a mysterious halfling with ties to a powerful race of shapeshifters long believed to be extinct.