Todd Mitchell

The Secret to Lying Todd Mitchell

James was the guy no one noticed - just another fifteen-year-old in a small town with a repairman dad and an ex-beauty-queen mother. So when he gets into an academy for gifted students, James decides to leave his boring past behind. In a private boarding school full of nerds and geeks, being cool is easy. All it takes is a few harmless lies to invent a new James: fighter, rebel, punk. Everyone's impressed, except for the most beautiful girl on campus, "Ice Queen" Ellie Frost, and the even more mysterious Ghost44, an IM presence who sees right through his new identity. But James is riding high, playing outrageous pranks and hooking up with the luscious Jessica Keen. There's just one thing awry: he's starting to have unnaturally vivid dreams of being a warrior in a dark city, hunting demons in his sleep - a thrill that is spilling over into more dangerous and self-destructive acts while he's awake. As he's drawn deeper into his real-life lies and his dream-world conquests, James begins to wonder: What's the price for being the coolest guy around?