North Park College

Detective Keith O'Dell carried a large suitcase in each hand as he struggled up the stairs to the third floor. He dropped the suitcases with a thud and smiled at his seventeen-year-old daughter, Annie Mercer O'Dell. She wore blue shorts and a white t-shirt with a Fridays At Five logo on the front and a list of concert dates on the back. Her short, curly brunette hair, though covered at the moment by a blue baseball cap with the initials SHPD on the front in capital letters, accented her doe-like brown eyes. She stood five feet, two and a half inches tall in her bare feet. "Annie, would you had chosen the top floor if there had been an elevator?" "No, of course not. This is the last trip, Daddy." "Thank God for that. I won't be able to sleep tonight, I'll be so sore." "I could have carried one of the suitcases." "Now you tell me." A blind date set up by Annie's friend, Cindy, leads to a romance with an older man. He's twenty-two. The difference in their ages proves to be the downfall of the relationship. But then an old friend reappears at her door one night. Annie opened the door and smiled. "Matty! What are you doing here? I didn't know you were coming over." "I'm sorry to just stop over without calling, Annie. Can we talk? Somewhere private." "Okay." Annie could see Matt had something serious on his mind. The "Annie Mercer O'Dell" series begins when Annie is a junior in high school in the midwestern city of South Hampshire and continues to her college years. In this second book, "North Park College," Annie heads off to college with many of her friends from Roosevelt High.