The Lovely One

#1 Have an adventure

#2 Find confidence

#3 Experience real love

Yeah, those are the three reasons why I signed myself up as a foreign exchange student.

Little Emily Klein, the popular girls' pet, going along with whatever, never speaking her mind.

Puppe, they called me. "Little doll."

But I was through with being a doll, through with being a background character in my own life.

Everything was going to change-even if I had to cross an ocean for it. Bring on a year of bright lights, nightlife and parties in the USA.

Except my plan didn't work. I was shipped off to the smallest of small-town America, a place where nothing ever happens, host families treat you like a maid, and nobody talks to shy German girls.

That is, until I met them.

Paul Shields. All-American football player (the kind with the pointy brown ball, not what people here call "soccer"). He's actually kind of sweet . . . or is he?

Jon Denson. Paul's best friend, the brooding, leather-jacket type. We get along like a house on fire. Literally.

They're my two tickets to an adventure that's way beyond what I can handle. The trouble with coming out of the shadows is that I start getting noticed. And now I need to make a decision that'll cost me either my mind . . . or my heart. No matter what, I'm sticking to my list. I'm not Puppe any longer. So who exactly am I?