Down below / Rita Williams-Garcia -- Initiation / Ellen Hopkins -- Just once / A.S. King -- The next next level / Torrey Maldonado -- Running man / Charles R. Smith Jr. -- Making up the dead / Nora Raleigh Baskin -- Two-a-days / Chris Barton -- I have a gun / Will Weaver -- Connections / Marina Budhos.

How could one teenage boy's life elicit other kids' first experiences -- even after he dies?. Kev's the first kid their age to die. And now, even though he's dead, he's not really gone. Even now his choices are touching the people he left behind. Ellen Hopkins reveals what two altar boys (and one altar girl) might get up to at the cemetery. Rita Williams-Garcia follows one aimless teen as he finds a new life in his new job -- at the mortuary. Will Weaver turns a lens on Kevin's sister as she collects his surprising effects -- and makes good use of them. Here, in nine stories, we meet people who didn't know Kevin, friends from his childhood, his ex-girlfriend, his best friend, all dealing with the fallout of his death. Being a teenager is a time for all kinds of firsts -- first jobs, first loves, first good-byes, firsts that break your heart and awaken your soul. It's an initiation of sorts, and it can be brutal. But on the other side of it is the rest of your life.