Carley Mattea

Carley is a fifteen-year-old girl who battled cancer at the age of twelve and has spent the intervening years with a severely deformed face as the result of surgery to remove a tumor. Carley is in the hospital as the story opens, recovering from a broken leg. Carley is a strong character who depends heavily on humor to get through life. When she fears someone might be making fun of her, she tends to make jokes in an effort to protect her feelings. Carley doesn't believe Kyle can possibly like her once he sees her deformity and this lack of faith stems from the years of emotional abuse she's suffered. When Carley meets Kyle and he seems to like her, she makes a conscious decision not to tell him about her deformity or her close call with cancer. Carley enjoys Kyle's attention so much that she is...