Island (novel series)
The series consists of: In Guam, six kids (Luke, Ian, J.J., Charla, Will, and Lyssa) are assembling for a reform programming called "Charting a New Course" (CNC), all sent there by their parents to build character for certain reasons.
They meet Captain Cascadden and the first mate Mr. Radford and set sail on the Pacific on the CNC schooner the SS Phoenix.
He is stopped by Luke and they fight, but during this, a wave knocks J.J. down and an angry captain Cascadden accidentally presses the button that raises the sails.
Realizing they have to do something, Lyssa attempts to get the motor working again and briefly succeeds, but a freak accident causes the engine to explode, setting ablaze most of the boat.
J.J. and Lyssa are lost in the flames and chaos, but Luke, Will, Ian, and Charla escape on a piece of the main cabin's top.
On the island, Luke, Ian, and Charla are revived by a downpour of rain and have a toast to their fallen comrades and set off into the jungle to find food, leaving the still-unconscious Will on the raft.
Just as Ian explains that the chances of being rescued this early is almost impossible, a plane flies over-head and lands on the other side of the island.
Believing they are rescuers, they run to the other side of the island only to witness a murder and learn that the men are illegal smugglers.
They run back to camp and decide keeping a low profile is the only way to avoid capture, although it is inevitable.
They plan an escape, requiring J.J. to stow away in the smugglers' plane, be ransomed to his rich father, and arrange for the rescue of the castaways.
He is nearly shot, before managing to prove that he is the son of a Hollywood director using his designer sunglasses, and can be ransomed for a significant amount.
Meanwhile, on the island, Will's fever from the infected bullet wound grows worse, and Luke removes it with Charla's help and Ian's Discovery Channel knowledge, with supplies from the army camp near atomic bomb Junior.
After sailing for six hours, a U.S. Marine scuba diver contacts them and gets them onto a helicopter that is carrying J.J. Back in civilization, all are present when the scientists open up Junior, to find the uranium core replaced by a piece of paper with the word "KA-BOOM!!".
The reasons for Charla's enrolment in the Charting a New Course program are not immediately evident, but she is eventually revealed to be under intense pressure from her father to overachieve in the field of athletics and suffer from burnout.
After he was wrongly convicted of possession of a firearm, he is forced to decide between serving time in a juvenile detention center or enrolling in the Charting a New Course program.
He is revealed to be an incredibly lonely person who spends most of his spare time watching television obsessively, most notably the Discovery Channel.
While exhibiting moments of boldness, he is usually timid and shy and is distressed when he is forced to abandon his laptop computer for the duration of the trip.
He put a tremendous amount of effort forth to do damage control after each of J.J.'s incidents, but eventually lost his patience and did not argue when Jonathan Lane chose to enroll him in Charting a New Course.
