Like It Never Happened

Gr 9 Up—Beautiful and talented Rebecca Rivers is the star of her high school's theater department. She, along with four other thespians, who call themselves The Essential Five), take the stage and their roles very seriously. But being the star has a dark side. Many of her classmates think Rebecca is untouchable, a golden child who is somehow immune to critique from the demanding director. Then the protagonist and her leading man, the handsome and charismatic Charlie, begin dating. From the outside, her life seems to be something out of a fairy tale. But as Rebecca grows as an artist, she also matures in her relationships in the real world, and she realizes that performance isn't just actors on a stage. Intermingled with past trauma, a fraught home life—including a sister she hardly knows—a boyfriend who isn't always who he appears to be, and a disastrous false accusation, Rebecca's story is about complex interpersonal relations for which there are no easy answers. Readers are shown from the start that she is serious and thoughtful but a bit shortsighted.