She Came Back Different - Hardcover

Willing, Stephanie

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0593465601 ISBN 13: 9780593465608

Verlag: Viking Childrens Books, 2026

Inhaltsangabe

Underneath the beautiful world of ballet lurks the dark side of perfectionism in this eerie tale!

The Stadler School for Young Ladies prides itself on turning out not only perfect ballet dancers, but perfect pupils—each girl exactly the same as the next. First-year student Gemma has been sent to sort out her daughter’s larger-than-life personality. Mina, on the other hand, is there to find out what really happened to turn her once-rebellious big sister into a smiling, empty shell of herself.

Alternating between their perspectives, She Came Back Different follows the two girls as they enter a world of rules and conformity. One in which beauty hides a hideous truth and a sinister enemy that will consume their very souls if they can't overcome their differences. It's only by working together that they can dig up the school's rotten roots and unmask what's really growing—and feeding—behind Stadler’s walls.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Stephanie Willing is a writer and audiobook narrator who hasn’t been able to find good Tex-Mex food since she left her home state. She has an MFA in writing for young people from Lesley University. Originally from Texas, Stephanie now lives in New York City.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

A Nothing Girl
Gemma
The trees outside the train windows grow so close together that they make one long, unbroken wall. If I watch them too long, my brain gets muddled and I start to think that I’m sitting still and the trees are the ones racing away, headed back the way I came.
I pull my eyes from the window and back to my phone. The screen shows videos of ballet dancers. Some are in their warm--up clothes, and others are onstage in full makeup and costume.
I tap on one and watch a girl just a little older than me launch into a pirouette and stay up on pointe—four, five, six turns—and land it. Her face bursts into a huge smile while her friends off--camera cheer and clap.
I scratch at my elbows and rewatch it. That must feel amazing. To move like that, and to have a whole group of people excited for you.
Maybe I’ll get that at the Stadler Ballet Conservatory. My mom says this is my chance to learn how to fit in and make “lifelong friendships.” I’d settle for one good friend.
I pull the Stadler brochure out of my purple roller suitcase, smooth out the creases, and read it for the hundredth time. The cover picture is of a white clapboard school building on a huge lawn of green grass. It’s really pretty, but my eyes keep slipping to the dark forest wrapped around it.
Ever since my mom told me two weeks ago that I’d gotten into Stadler, I’ve been trying to figure out what it’ll be like there. But I can’t find anything online—-it’s like their current students don’t exist. The school’s name pops up in lots of famous people’s bios, especially dancers, but there’s nothing from actual kids.
A thud on the window makes me jump. It must’ve been a tree branch, but when I look, whatever made the sound is gone.
Taking a deep breath, I go back to studying the brochure. My finger traces the school motto and its translation: simul perfecti sumus. Together, we are perfect. Underneath it is a promise to take the average girl and elevate her to her full potential.
Well, I’m definitely average. If that’s the requirement, I understand why I got in.
My grades are fine. My curly hair is sort of brown, sort of red. The only thing extra about me is that I’ve always been a little bit bigger than the other girls in my class. Not taller, just bigger. “Big--boned,” my grandfather always said, like that explained anything.
“Tickets,” the train conductor calls. She clipped mine already back in Boston, but when she pauses next to me, I look up.
“Belleville next stop,” she says. “You’ll have to exit through the last car.”
“Okay, thanks,” I say, and tuck the brochure back in my suitcase.
She tilts her head at me. “You going to that ballet school out there?”
“Yep,” I answer.
“You’re a dancer?” she asks. Her nose scrunches a bit as she takes another look at me.
Her tone could make me feel small, but that’s the one thing I’ve never figured out how to be. I push into the aisle and roll away from her questions. “I guess I am now.”
She doesn’t say anything else, but I can feel the question that she wants to ask. It’s the same one I’ve wondered since my mom told me I’d been accepted.
Why’d they choose me? I took ballet, tap, and jazz when I was five,and I loved it, but my mom had pulled me out when I was stuck in the back row for every dance recital. I think it embarrassed her that I wasn’t front--row material.
The train comes to a stop, and I lug the suitcase down onto a wooden platform. The AC whooshes one more time as the doors close, and then I’m baking in the sun.
The train zooms off as if it wants to get away as fast as it can. I don’t blame it. My bright pink leggings and sparkly silver dress are rumpled from traveling 1,700 miles in one day, and the deodorant I put on in the dark this morning—-the one that promised “strong protection for strong girls”—-has met its match in me.
At least my silver cowboy boots are still gleaming.
Thump thump thump. My purple suitcase thuds down the wooden steps behind me as I try to get enough signal to call a car.
I lean the suitcase against a sign to use both hands. welcome to belleville, the prettiest town in vermont!
Doubtful. The downtown looks as lively as a butterfly with a pin through it. The wooden sign’s faded words are hard to read underneath all the pollen caked on it. My nose itches just looking at it.
The phone pings as it pairs me with someone named Achara who’ll be here in—-geez—-fifteen minutes. Still, it’s the last fifteen minutes to myself before I get swallowed up by the Stadler Ballet Conservatory.
With my suitcase rattling behind me all the way, I stroll toward the picture--perfect storefronts. Belle’s Bookstore, Lovely Locks, Grace’s Tavern, Charms ’n’ More Jewelry Store. What’s with this town’s obsession with cutesy names?
The pollen coats all the windows yellow, and pines grow tall behind the buildings and cover them in shadows. Maybe 3 p.m. is a dead time of day, but still, it’s strange that there doesn’t seem to be anyone inside any of the stores.
I push through the door of SweeTea and let out a long breath as its cool air chills my sticky skin. I deserve a treat. I’ve been traveling all day, by myself, and the day isn’t even over yet. The familiar pastel drinks with delicious boba pearls pictured on the mint--green walls are exactly what I want. And without my mother here to drop little comments about “sugar and calories and baby fat” while she drinks an oat milk latte, I might actually be able to enjoy it.
“Taro bubble tea, large,” I order. The bored--looking teenager behind the counter barely glances at me as he heaves himself off his elbows and starts mixing.
“More boba,” I call out when I see the paltry pour he’s given me.
He brushes his dark hair out of his eyes. So unhygienic. “Have you ever heard of the word please?” he says.
“Have you ever made one of these before? ’Cause I’ve seen more tapioca in a biscuit.”
He rolls his eyes but throws in another scoop.
“You a new Stadler girl?” he asks. “Pretty sure I’ve seen everyone in this town, and I’d remember a smart aleck like you.”
I redden, even though he doesn’t say it in a mean way. Still, I can hear my mother in the back of my head shushing me for being mouthy. I press my arms to my sides so my BO can’t waft his way.
“Yeah, I guess so,” I say. “Although I haven’t even gotten there yet. So I’m a nothing girl right now.”
He runs the cup through the sealing machine and hands it over to me. “Interesting.”
“What is?” I ask. I dare to move an arm as I stab the seal with a bright green straw.
He takes my debit card and holds it up questioningly.
“It’s loaded, just like my grandfather,” I say dryly.
He snorts and runs it through. “You just don’t look like one of them.”
I cut my eyes at him to see if he’s teasing me, but he looks only slightly less bored than before.
I slurp down a gush of lilac--colored tea. “What do they usually look like?” I say with a sour edge. “Wait, lemme guess. Blond? Skinny? Cute as a button?” All the things I’m not.
He slouches against the counter. “Sometimes, yeah. But no, I mean, you’re just . . . not a pushover. The girls from there are sweeter than, well, these drinks.”
I pop a pearl between my teeth. “I...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Viking Childrens Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2026
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593465601
• ISBN 13: 9780593465608
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 304
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: VTech Electronics Europe B.V; https://www.vtech-jouets.com/; ; Fahrenheitstraat 22; DC Weert; 6003; Niederlande