The Life of Payne — Shelia E. Bell

Fifteen-year-old freshman, Payden Lamar Washington, who everyone calls Payne, attends Fairley High School. Unlike most teenagers, Payne anxiously looks forward to getting up and going to school every day. It is his only getaway from a mother addicted to drugs, five brothers and sisters, one of whom is mentally challenged, and a life that he wishes was just a nightmare that he could wake up from. School, his love of art, and music, plus his girlfriend, Marissa Johnson, are the only means of escape he seems to find. But even in that, there are times when love, happiness and normalcy of a teenager elude him no matter what he does, or where he tries to escape. What will it take for things to change for him and his brothers and sisters? Will God answer his prayer and let him have a normal life, or will he always be destined to live a life of pain?