Copyright © 1999 by Michael Hornburg

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to Grove/Atlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York, NY 10003.

First published in 1999 by William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York

Published simultaneously in Canada

Printed in the United States of America

FIRST GROVE PRESS EDITION

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Homburg, Michael.

Downers Grove / Michael Hornburg.

p. cm.

eBook ISBN-13: 978-0-8021-9957-7

1. High school students—Fiction. 2. Teenage girls—Fiction. 3. Illinois—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3558.O6873 D69 2001

813′.54—dc21 00-066345

Grove Press

841 Broadway

New York, NY 10003