I'm not like them. I hurt, and they don't. I'm weird, and they're not.

Fourteen-year-old Ricky Bloom is pretty pissed off. Her body hurts constantly (thanks, chronic illness), her family's a mess (thanks, Disaster-Formerly-Known-As-My-Parents), ninth grade is a nightmare (thanks, Glorious Grant Middle School), and her crush is completely clueless. What's a girl to do but cuss (a lot) and skip school (also a lot)?

But it gets worse. When her truancy—a.k.a. The Charade—is discovered, Ricky might have to do the unthinkable: repeat a grade. Ricky will do anything to get the hell out of middle school—even if it means changing the person she's become.

This brilliantly funny, foulmouthed story of chronic illness, messy post-divorce families, and teen romance will resonate with anybody who fights to keep it together when everything, even their own body, is falling apart.