The Sight
By: Marianne LiVolsi

“Loneliness is about the scariest feeling there is. Worse than fear, more frightening than love, more debilitating than anger; loneliness is felt by everyone at one time or another. It is doubtful that there is one single person on this planet who can truly claim that they have never felt alone, abandoned by the world and its inhabitants. No, loneliness touches us all, despite our life situation. Even those people with seemingly perfect existences have felt the emptiness of being alone.

Emma has always been alone. No one has given her the security of caring enough about her for that feeling of loneliness to dissipate, even for a moment. Abandoned by her mother, and shunned by her peers, Emma had grown used to relying on herself and no other. That was until she moved here.”

***

Fifteen-year-old Emma Poderoso was born in the United States, but after being abandoned by her mother at birth, she’s lived in what seems like every country but the one in which she entered this world. Constantly on the move, Emma has never felt safe and secure in any of the amazing places she has lived.

Nearing her sixteenth birthday, Emma has been uprooted yet again. She’s headed back to the city she was born in: New York.

Determined to make a go at fitting in, Emma struggles to hide the reason she believes she was unable to not only stay in one place, but to secure friendships and a new family. Emma possesses the uncontrollable ability to see the future and witness the past, a gift that has caused her to be an outcast throughout her fifteen years.

Upon arriving in New York City, Emma meets the easy-going proprietor of the New York Girls’ Care Facility(NYGCF), Jennifer Cole. She stumbles across the inseparable Sarah Peto and Aurora Bin, best friends who readily accept Emma as a friend, and she even develops a crush on the mysterious Xander, the cutest boy in New Manhattan High School. Twenty-something Zoey Bescherman, volunteer worker at NYGCF, kindly takes Emma under her wing, easily slipping into the role of a well-needed big sister, advising Emma on school, boys, and handling the school’s resident bitch, Allison Van Pelt, a rich, fake snob who has taken it upon herself to make Emma’s life a living hell.

Just when Emma feels her life has become what she always wanted it to be, normal, a startling encounter reveals there is more to her friends than meets the eye. A family heirloom in Emma’s possession is discovered to be much more, and a deadly enemy is exposed. Now, the clock is ticking for Emma to discover that she is “stronger than she thinks she is”.