Lydia McKenzie once lived as a typical seventeen-year-old—worrying about outfits, chasing grades, navigating crushes—until a catastrophic school incident and traumatic brain injury forced her to shield herself behind emotional walls. For three years, she becomes a functioning automaton, executing tasks flawlessly while feeling nothing. Her arrival at Rosewater University threatens to expose what she's spent years concealing. David Lyric Donovan embodies Rosewater's most infamous rebel. Street fighting, arrests, endless conquests, and relentless rule-breaking define his reputation. Guys aspire to be him; girls obsess over "fixing" him. Yet nothing rattles him like Lydia's arrival. She refuses to play his games, speaks her mind without filter, and somehow penetrates his armor without breaking a sweat. Her indifference intrigues him as much as it infuriates him. What secrets does she harbor? Why does she fascinate him so completely? As their worlds collide, an unexpected connection forms between two people who seem designed to destroy each other. Can David reach past Lydia's fortified defenses? Will she allow herself to feel love again, or will her past keep her frozen forever?