The Student Who Was Never There

Cal Stoll has a perfect attendance record. So when his teacher marks an empty desk present, Cal notices.

The name on the list is John Stiles. The teachers know him. His grades are in the system. But nobody can describe him, and nobody has ever seen him sit in that chair.

Then Cal is marked absent. He’s standing right there.

With a determined yearbook editor and a new kid who isn’t on any list, Cal starts looking for proof. But the more school records he checks, the less certain anyone seems to be that Cal belongs in them. His photograph vanishes. Familiar faces begin to look past him. And somewhere in the school, an old typewriter is working on a student file.

Cal has to find out who’s being counted, and what the school is forgetting, before there’s no one left who remembers his name.