East Ridge Academy
For most fourteen year-olds, being shipped off to a reform school for troubled boys would be a nightmare. For Zeke Hallaway, however, the pros — getting away from his abusive father and his troublemaking friends — might just outweigh the cons. At his new school, East Ridge Academy, Zeke experiences grueling workouts, bad food, and uncomfortable therapy sessions, but he also earns a coveted spot on a baseball team and makes friends with a supportive group of boys. Together, baseball and his hilarious new friends make life at East Ridge bearable, if not fun. When Zeke is blindsided by developing romantic feelings for one of his newfound friends, he has to decide between acting on his feelings, which risks upsetting the comfortable balance of his new life at East Ridge, or ignoring his feelings and continuing to be someone that he’s not.