Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

Sorry I've missed his other two YA books - Down the Rabbit Hole and Lights Out.  I instantly bonded with the main character, Cody, as he struggles with a bad home life and not much money.  His girlfriend Clea is at the other end of the socio-economic ladder, she's rich.  She gets a bad grade and her father removes her from this small town high school and sends her to an elite school out east.  Cody leaves home when he finds out she's missing and can't be found.  He arrives in the small Vermont town and starts searching.  What makes this book interesting is that it constantly shifts who is good and who isn't. Just when you think you know who the good guys are, Abrahams stirs things up.

Sophomore Undercover by Ben Esch

Wow.  A book that makes you laugh out loud.  And even though you know some of it is preposterous, it's easy to relax and see where is the author taking you next.  Dixie Nguyen, small for his age, has been adopted by a family that loves him - however, his brother is a football player and his father is a cop - so he isn't an easy fit.  He witnesses one jock injecting another jock with a hypodermic needle and Dixie has decided that this will be the story of the decade for him in the school newspaper.
Unfortunately he is tackled by one of the security guards before he can hide the syringe.  The security guard ends up with the needle sticking out of his neck and Dixie is up to his neck in it.  Soon he is destined to be sent away to a 3 month outdoor camp to cure him and he needs to prove his innocence in less than a week.
My favorite of his adventures:  sneaking under the bleachers trying to get the drug packet out of the jeans of the jock.  Yes he does get his hand in the pants, but then ...  Of course, there's always the scene with him in a bar with a fake beard, and I could go on and on.