Don’t Look Back

The night of her stroke, Tilda Chantyman saw the future of her timid aboriginal grandsons. She hardly recognized them; they were influencing world leaders. What she didn’t see was the fire they would walk through to do it. After her death, Tyler and Chester would be forced to leave the tranquil Nazko Reserve and live with their estranged mother and her new husband in Quesnel, a bustling British Columbia forestry city. Their worst fear, not fitting in at West Side High, an overcrowded school for white kids, was quickly dispelled the first day. Waiting for the doors to open, they found themselves in a sea of Aboriginal, Asian and Caucasian students. They also found themselves under the microscope of the Warriors and Machetes. To curb the growing number of clashes between these gangs, West Side High School had hired a new principal over the summer, Ms. Conrankie. With ten years of prison management under her belt, she was supposed to restore order. Chester said her flaming red hair reminded him of the devil. Then Chester’s mouth was always getting him into trouble. Like the first time he met Fang, leader of the Warriors, and refused to call him Lord. But it wasn’t gangs that posed the greatest threat to the Chantymans’ destiny, it was their bitter rivalry over Tonya Clement. Though she’d been Tyler’s best friend since the fifth grade, nothing was going to stop Chester from trying to win her heart - until the bridge. Nobody left the bridge unchanged.