TOMORROW WENDY

A Long Island teenager develops a crush on her boyfriend's twin sister in this steamy tale of emergent sexuality from the author of Wannabe (1997). Cary stands out at the aptly named Babylon High School both for her carefully maintained Audrey Hepburn look, and for her hot bedmate Danny, a generous source of pot, alcohol, Ecstasy, nameless mushrooms, and extra-curricular sex. What Danny doesn't know, though, is that Cary is obsessed by his permanently stoned, bad-apple sister Wendy—no secret at all to what Cary considers the school's ``Lesbian Collective.'' Nor is it a secret to Raven, a new friend who is openly out of the closet and on the rebound. Beneath Cary's dissolute exterior beats a good—if tortured— heart that manifests itself as Rad, an imaginary companion who speaks only in song lyrics. Cary finds more substantial friends- -Raven in particular—after she seduces a drunker-than-usual Wendy (who promptly disappears) and confesses to Danny (who breaks off with her in a rage). Though the cast's adults are negligent or completely clueless, Stoehr gives her young narrator a saving sense of irony, and displays a keen appreciation for love's ambiguities and complexities. (Fiction. 14+)