Num8ers by Rachel Ward

Jem's story is frighteningly depressing, but once you start reading this YA sensation, you can't put it down until you've finished it.  The good news is that the sequel, The Chaos, has just been released.  Jem has been cursed by seeing numbers in people's eyes, and she thinks it's not unusual, that everyone can see them.  Until her mum dies, and she realizes when the coroner announces the date of death, that the numbers she's been seeing are death dates.  Horrifying, but solveable...just don't ever make eye contact again, right?  Not so easy.  She's quickly labeled "different" and a "problem-child" so she begins skipping school and skipping out on life.  And then she meets Spider, a smelly, skinny classmate who just won't leave her alone.  Unfortunately, he only as a couple of months to live, according to the numbers Jem sees in his eyes.  Or does he?  Can she change the numbers, or are they inevitable?  It's an answer she must get in order to live her life.  Set in London and its surrounding countryside, Num8ers is a fast-paced, intense read that is full of modern British/Cockney-like slang, making it even more interesting to many students.