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    Perfect You
    Perfect You
    Perfect You
    Ebook280 pages4 hours

    Perfect You

    By Elizabeth Scott and Lisa Fyfe

    3.5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    • Friendship

    • Self-Discovery

    • Personal Growth

    • Identity

    • Family Relationships

    • Love Triangle

    • Coming of Age

    • Friends to Lovers

    • Misunderstandings

    • First Love

    • Unrequited Love

    • Sibling Rivalry

    • Childhood Friends

    • Opposites Attract

    • Secret Relationship

    • High School

    • Communication

    • Financial Struggles

    • Parent-Child Relationships

    • Relationships

    About this ebook

    Kate Brown's life has gone downhill fast. Her father has quit his job to sell vitamins at the mall, and Kate is forced to work with him. Her best friend has become popular, and now she acts like Kate's invisible.

    And then there's Will. Gorgeous, unattainable Will, whom Kate acts like she can't stand even though she can't stop thinking about him. When Will starts acting interested, Kate hates herself for wanting him when she's sure she's just his latest conquest.

    Kate figures that the only way things will ever stop hurting so much is if she keeps to herself and stops caring about anyone or anything. What she doesn't realize is that while life may not always be perfect, good things can happen -- but only if she lets them....
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
    Release dateSep 21, 2010
    ISBN9781442423015
    Perfect You
    Author

    Elizabeth Scott

    Elizabeth Scott grew up in a town so small it didn't even have a post office, though it did boast an impressive cattle population. She's sold hardware and panty hose and had a memorable three-day stint in the dot-com industry, where she learned that she really didn't want a career burning CDs. She lives just outside Washington, DC, with her husband; firmly believes you can never own too many books; and would love it if you visited her website, www.elizabethwrites.com.

    Read more from Elizabeth Scott

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    Reviews for Perfect You

    3.5/5

    303 ratings25 reviews

    What our readers think

    Readers find this title to be a mix of emotions. Some reviewers appreciate the relatable teen stuff and life lessons, while others find the characters poorly developed and the writing terrible. The book is criticized for its anticlimactic plot and lack of resolution. However, there are positive reviews praising the well-developed characters and secret attraction between Will and Kate. Overall, the book receives mixed reviews, with some readers loving it and others finding it disappointing.

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      Not one of the better Elizabeth Scott books that I have read. The main character Kate was whiny and annoying, her parents were just as annoying. I did enjoy the book, though I skipped the paragraph whenever Kate started with her "nobody cares about how HARD my life is" stuff.
      Kate's world seems to center around the fact that her old best friend will no longer speak to her and seems to look right through her, and to top it all off, Kate has to work at the mall helping her father "try to" sell Perfect You vitamins. Things slowly go downhill for Kate, and her parents end up splitting up, and her mom, grandmother and she all move into an apartment after they have to sell the house. The only good thing that came out of it all was that Kate finally started standing up for herself and let people know what she was thinking instead of just keeping it all inside.
      There of course was a love interest and that came in the form of Will, Kate's classmate, and crush. Will seems to annoy Kate a lot and while I saw it as him flirting, Kate didn't see it till the end of the book when he explained it to her.
    • 2/5
      Beware of spoilers:
      This book is really anticlimactic in my opinion. Sure there was some plots and sure the characters are well developed, but they were all at the same level. Kate, the narrator, speaks pessimistically throughout the book. Only at the end did she realize herself and that was like the last two pages. That actually felt like the falling action if you could call their family separation the climax. Even if there was a climax, there really wasn't a resolution at all. It felt like the author ended this hastily and like some reviewers have stated, didn't tie up all the loose ends. I had thought there would be an amazing wrap up of all the negativity, but it just ended as a I-realized-everything's-not-so-bad-after-all as the last sentence of a book, which personally is the worst why to end a book.
    • 3/5
      it's ok but it had alot of relatable teen stuff and life lessons
    • 1/5
      The characters were poorly developed and the writing was terrible. I would not recommend it to anyone.
    • 3/5
      This was okay, but I found most of the main characters rather irritating, especially Kate and her father. The book was too clique and depressing for me to really enjoy it, but I think it will be popular with its intended audience.
    • 4/5
      I really loved Will and Kate. I loved their secret attraction but I was devastated with how the book ended.
    • 5/5
      Love this story just love.
    • 5/5
      Great book
    • 5/5
      I love it.
    • 2/5
      terrible ending
    • 2/5
      stupid! ugh........
    • 5/5
      Lovely
    • 5/5
      If I'm honest, I have no idea why I read this book. I'm not a fan of the cover at all, since it seems kind of boring and pointless and too brown to me, but I've read some other of Elizabeth Scott's books, and I think she's starting to become one of my favorite authors.



      A lot of Perfect You takes place in the mall where Kate works to help out her dad after he quit his job. For some reason that I still don't understand, Kate's dad thought selling "Perfect You" vitamins was his dream. And while I think this was creative, I didn't understand his motives. Kate's dad does a lot of smiling and faking in this book, and I never really understood why.

      I also didn't understand Kate's grandmother. While Kate's family sinks farther and farther into debt because her father won't step up and get a real job, Kate's grandma comes for a visit. All she seems to care about is appearances and money, but that wasn't my problem with her. My problem was that one moment she was talking about her shopping trip, and the next she was scolding Kate for the self-pitying she was doing and giving some odd piece of advice. The transition between Vain Woman and Real Grandma didn't seem natural to me.

      Anna, Kate's ex-best friend, was probably the worst part of this book. Kate lets Anna walk all over her and then pretend she doesn't exist whenever her other friends are around, just because she wants to be popular. Sure, in the end, Kate realizes this, but through almost all of the book, Kate is pretty pathetic whenever it comes to Anna.

      However, those are the only bad things I can seem to find about the book. Kate's relationship with Will involves a lot of making out, sure, and at times it didn't seem like it could be a real relationship, but Will wasn't some perfect guy, and he provided for some comic relief. :D Also, I actually knew what the characters looked like. Really knew. Because unlike most of the YA contemp. fiction I've been reading lately, Scott actually described what the characters looked like.

      Overall: This is one of my new favorite books.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      very good book. describes some families problems that they have but never want to talk about. did not want to put it down.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      The Little Bookworm
      After Kate's dad quits his job to sell infomerical vitamins, her whole life starts a downward spiral. Her best friend has ditched her to be popular. She's stuck working at her dad's vitamin booth in the mall, her parents are having martial problems and her grandmother has come to visit. And to top it all off, the cute book that Kate loves to hate, seems to have taken an interest in her. Too bad Kate doesn't believe that his interest is genuine.

      Let's chalk this one up for a winner. It was very absorbing and a quick read. I loved the humor and it didn't make me feel old unlike another book I could name. I really liked it. There were parts that, as an adult, made me roll my eyes. But it was such a good book that the little things didn't bother me.

      Kate is sort of typical for this type of book. She is very self-absorbed and complains a lot. But she is funny and is genuinely going through a hard time so I excuse her. I really liked Will, the love interest. He was so sweet and funny and they had a good dynamic even though she is typically clueless. I really could not believe the dad though. It was just so horrifying, his inability to cope with arguments or unpleasantness, even though he was the biggest cause of it in their family. I was like wow, seriously wow. Now that would be a difficult parent to have. But Kate handled it all really well and I wasn't too surprised by the ending though I had hoped for something else.
    • 4/5
      "Vitamins had ruined my life."

      So begins Kate Brown's story. Life isn't easy for anyone when you're a sophomore in high school, but Kate might have more than her fair share of angst. Her dad's quit his job to follow his dream of opening up a vitamin kiosk in the mall. Her best friend Anna lost a ton of weight over the summer and is now ignoring Kate and hanging out with the popular girls they used to make fun of. And Will, resident hottie, can't help but make jibes at her every day in biology class. Although sharp-tongued Kate holds her own, she harbors a secret crush on him which makes it heartbreaking to know that he thinks so little of her.

      What's a girl to do? Kate's answer is to freeze everybody out and keep herself from caring about anyone. After all, people only let you down. Or do they?

      What I love, love, loved about this book is what I've loved about all of Elizabeth Scott's books. Her characters are so real that sometimes I wanted to shake them. They don't have easy, uncomplicated problems. Even when things are going well, they're messy and sloppy, just like a real relationship or a real family dynamic.

      Hand this one to fans of Sarah Dessen.
    • 2/5
      Perfect you was really boring, and the ending was bad because it didn't really complete the story it seemed like there was more than should have been there.
    • 1/5
      Could not get into this book at all. Kept reading "just one more chapter: hoping that it would improve, but it just didn't get any better. There just wasn't enough going on to base an entire BOOK on what was there. Boring with a capital B. i just might not even put this one out on the shelves I disliked it that much.
      Obviously I'm in the minority since it has a fairly high rating. That's why books are so awesome; they are read differently by readers and what doesn't work for one person works beautifully for someone else. I certainly won't be buying another book by this author, but I know many others will.
    • 4/5
      Kate's life can't possibly get any worse. For starters, her dad quit his job to start selling vitamins in the mall, she's stuck helping him and, oh yeah, her former best friend acts like she doesn't exist anymore. Over the course of several months of the school year, Kate narrates what she's dealing with: school, friends, popularity, family, and just about everything life throws her way.

      The characters and their struggles were very real, especially the main character's, but Kate gives away more than she realizes about others like her mother, her brother, and her crush. This was sometimes frustrating because I could usually figure out what was going on faster than Kate did. The other thing that frustrated me was how quickly Kate's problems are resolved. Up until then, a lot of her issues with friends and popularity had struck me as very real and problems I could relate to remembering my own teen years, so the sudden epiphany seemed a bit contrived. Other than that, I found this an enjoyable, realistic read about high school and wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to teens.
    • 4/5
      Kate's life is rotten - her best friend has gone over to the popular side and pretends she doesn't exist, her father is chasing a chasing a dream to sell vitamins, and it's not only mortifying, but breaking up her family. And why does she keep on imagining kissing Will, the gorgeous but slutty boy she despises at school.
      I really liked this, I especially enjoyed Will - and while Kate sometimes seemed a little bit think about relationship things, I could really feel for her. Kate's family was also well drawn. I'd give this to highs chool romance, or family drama fans.
    • 4/5
      This was my first novel by Elizabeth Scott, and I can tell you I'm looking forward to reading more in the near future. This was a story that felt realistic. The descriptions and dialogue felt true to teenagers, not overly dramatic or far fetched. Kate is a character I think many teenage girls can easily relate to; with embarrassing parents, a friend she feels betrayed by, and that one boy who you can't help crushing on.

      While reading this book I found that I could place myself in Kate's shoes without any difficulty, feeling what she felt when reacting to what was going on around her. I cringed at the bee costume and the carrot hat. I got butterflies when Will grinned at her. I felt a bitter knot in my stomach when Anna blew her off.

      Elizabeth Scott has a real talent at creating characters that are rich and complex. I loved Will and Grandma, who both unfolded in a way throughout the story that allowed my appreciation for them to grow. Characters are the most important aspect of a novel to me, and in this instance they definitely built the story.

      I loved this book, and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who hasn't had the opportunity to read it yet.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoy this book. Elizabeth Scott is an excellent writer. I can't wait to read Bloom. This really is a good book on how girls can be in High School.
    • 3/5
      I'm a little conflicted about this book. I thought it was written well and that the plot was fine and interesting... but the main character bugged me. A lot. I guess that's not a bad thing if she was written intentionally that way; I guess I just prefer reading about people who make the decisions I would make and who respond to situations in the way that I would respond. She just said so many dumb things that she drove me nuts. But otherwise I liked the book pretty well.
    • 3/5
      Sophomore year is not going particularly well for sixteen year old Kate Brown. Her father quit his job to sell infomercial vitamins at the mall, and has turned it into a family business (and not a successful one). Her best friend Anna quit talking to her at the beginning of the school year after undergoing a transformation, and she now pretends that Kate doesn't exist- unless she is laughing at her. And she can't quite figure out why Will Miller, player and jackass, is so interested in talking to her... and why she can't seem to stop thinking about him. Over the course of the novel, Kate is forced to come to some realizations about herself and the people in her life, from her family, to Anna and Will.

      There are many points throughout the novel where Kate comes across as being quite selfish, but she's sixteen, and it's easy to see where she gets it from, as her father and older brother are quite selfish as well. She's also a bit of a doormat; no matter how poorly Anna and her new friends treat her, she still wants nothing more than to be friends with Anna again. And sometimes, she is just plain mean, particularly in the way she treats Will. But all of her behavior points to one thing: she is a teenage girl whose life is rapidly changing, and she's struggling to deal with these changes. And there lies Scott's talent: she has accurately depicted the very real emotions teenagers experience, without trapping them in material objects and concerns. Overall, I thought this was a great read, and would recommend it to anyone interested in reading realistic young adult novels.
    • 4/5
      Kate's life sucks. Her dad just quit his job to sell vitamins at the mall, her old best friend, Anna, hates her, and her brother, who has a college degree, spends his life laying on the couch at home. With no friends and no one to talk to, Kate is on her own. That is, until she and Will start hanging out at the mall together during their breaks. Oops, did I say hanging out? More like making out. Too bad Will's been with, like, half the school so it's not like this is anything special. It's just another hookup to him. Right? Unwillingly, Kate starts to fall for Will. But back at home, things aren't going so well. Life isn't so prefect anymore.

      I liked this book. I thought it was a little hard to get into at first but after I got to the exciting part, it ended up being great. (If you look at the girl's feet on the cover, they're paler then the rest of her legs...weird....) I thought that Kate was a little annoying at times. And Anna was awful. I hated her a lot (though I think I hated Kate more for wanting to still be friends with her even though she was such a jerk to her!) Overall, it was a really good book and I would definitely recommend this book.

    Book preview

    Perfect You - Elizabeth Scott

    one

    Vitamins had ruined my life.

    Not that there was much left to ruin, but still.

    I know blaming vitamins for my horrible life sounds strange. After all, vitamins are supposed to keep people healthy. Also, they’re inanimate objects. But thanks to them I was stuck in the Jackson Center Mall watching my father run around in a bee costume.

    I sank into the chair by our cash register as Dad walked up to two women. They looked around when he started talking, searching for a way out. They wouldn’t find one. In our section of the mall, there wasn’t much around, which was how we could afford our booth.

    I watched the women smile and step away, an almost dance I’d seen plenty over the few days I’d worked here. After they left, Dad came over to me, grinning, and said, Kate, I think I made a sale! Those two women I just talked to said they’d tell their husbands about the reformulated B Buzz! tablets. Isn’t that great? Now I think I’ll fly—get it?—down to the department store and see if I can give samples to people as they walk out.

    I handed over the samples—small plastic bags stamped with the Perfect You logo—and watched him lurch down the hallway, off balance because of his costume. As soon as he was gone, I got out my history homework.

    This was not how I’d pictured my sophomore year. Not that the first half had been wonderful so far, but this was definitely an all-time low.

    Four hours and one history chapter later, the mall closed. Dad and I boxed up the extra vitamins he’d been so sure we’d sell, and then I waited while he ran the box back to the storage space we rented from the mall.

    Pretty good day, right? he said when he got back. The antennae he was wearing bobbed up and down as he talked. Todd and I sold one bottle of B Buzz! in the morning, and I bet those two women come back tomorrow. Don’t you think they will?

    I shrugged, because it was much easier than telling Dad I was sure they wouldn’t. It was also easier than mentioning that we owed eighty bucks for the rented bee costume, and that was far more than the amount we’d taken in from the one bottle of vitamins it supposedly sold.

    When we got home, Mom was sitting at the kitchen table flipping through the checkbook and frowning. She’d been doing that a lot lately.

    How did it go? she asked, putting the checkbook down.

    I left before she could say anything else, heading back to my room. I took a second to stop in the living room and stand in front of the television though, watching as my brother, Todd, lifted himself up off the sofa long enough to say, Kate, you freak, move. I’m watching something important.

    Last week Todd decided he wanted to be an actor. So far all it meant was that he spent even more time than usual watching television. For a college graduate, he sure was on the fast track to nowhere.

    You can’t learn to act watching basketball.

    You can’t. I can. Now move.

    I started singing and kept it up until he lunged at me.

    I have a terrible singing voice, and not in the I’m saying it’s terrible to be modest kind of way. Last week, when I quit the school choir, the director tried to keep the joy off his face but couldn’t quite contain it.

    I hadn’t cared about that, though. I knew my voice sucked, and quitting was a relief. The only reason I’d stayed as long as I had was because of Anna. All fall I’d suffered through practices, hoping she’d come back. That she’d want to be in choir again. That she’d want to be my friend again.

    That maybe she’d at least talk to me again.

    In the fall, I thought there was no way life could get any worse.

    I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

    Almost a month ago, my father got up and went to work at Corpus Software like always, running late because he’d gotten caught up in his latest video game, forgetting about his job in favor of slaying dragons or driving cars or whatever it was that had him obsessed that week.

    But then, when he got to work, his desk was broken. Really broken.

    It had split right down the middle, and everything breakable—picture frames with photos of all of us, his coffee mug, and the clay thing my brother made during the two weeks he wanted to be a potter—was broken.

    The one thing that hadn’t broken was a small brown glass jar of vitamins. Perfect You vitamins. Dad had bought them from a secretary who was moving out of town and spent her last day at work selling them. He’d only bought them to be nice.

    But, long story short, Dad decided that the whole desk-breaking thing was a sign he needed to change his life, and that the unbroken vitamin bottle meant something.

    So he quit his job to sell Perfect You vitamins.

    Yes, really.

    He cashed in his retirement fund, bought box after box of vitamins, and then rented a tiny freestanding booth in the mall. He even hired someone to work with him, but Gary quit last week, after Dad told him he couldn’t pay him. That’s when I had to quit choir and start working with Dad after school.

    So now I had no best friend, and I had a job at the mall selling vitamins with my father.

    Life had definitely gotten much worse.

    two

    I saw Anna as soon as I got to school the next morning. When Dad dropped me off, she was standing on the sidewalk holding hands with her boyfriend, Sam. She waved in my direction as I walked toward her, and for a second I hoped she was waving at me even though I knew she wasn’t. I hated how easy it was for her to act like she’d never known me.

    I hated how I still hoped she would notice me.

    No one ever asked me why Anna and I weren’t friends anymore. I guess everyone automatically understood that when Anna became popular, there was no way she had room in her life for me. Even the Jennifers, three girls I’d tried to be friends with in the fall until I realized they drove me crazy, never asked what happened.

    Actually, one person had asked about Anna. Will Miller said, So what’s up with you and Anna? about a week after school started, but I knew he was just being an ass. Will was like that, one of those guys who was cute and knew it. He’d hooked up with at least half the girls in school, and last year, I swear that every week he made out with a different girl before class. I hadn’t liked him since the day I met him.

    I tried to avoid him, in fact, but this year he was in my first-period class. It was bad enough I had to start every morning with biology, and Will just made things worse.

    For instance, when class was over, we ended up walking into the hall at the same time, and he said, Hey, what did your frog ever do to you? I saw you hack its legs off.

    I sighed. Will always seemed to take some sort of perverse delight in talking to me, but lately he’d been even more annoying about it than usual. I didn’t hack its legs off. My scalpel slipped.

    Wow, promise me you aren’t going into medicine.

    I glared at him and he grinned, unleashing his dimples. I looked away and saw Anna coming down the hall, walking in the middle of a group of girls we used to make fun of. Two of them waved at Will, and one said, Any chance we can get you to go shirtless for the next pep rally?

    He shrugged, still grinning, and Anna said, Think about it, will you? Her gaze moved over me like I wasn’t even there.

    I walked away, telling myself I didn’t care and wishing I could forget her like she’d forgotten me.

    Of course Will caught up to me. What do you think? Should I do it? I know you’ve secretly been dying to check me out.

    Right, because if I see your scrawny chest I can die a happy woman. Will actually had a very nice chest. The thing was, he knew that too, because he was always willing to run around shirtless with JHS RULES! painted on him during stupid pep rallies.

    I like that a glimpse of my chest could provide you with the equivalent of a rich and full life.

    The key words in my sentence were ‘see your chest’ and ‘die.’ The ‘happy’ part was me trying to be nice.

    So you say. He unleashed the dimples again, smiling like he knew something, and I felt my face heat up because Will really was cute and I wasn’t as immune to him as I wanted to be.

    I didn’t want him to guess that, though, so I forced myself to look at him. Or at least look at his forehead.

    All right, you caught me. I’m secretly obsessed with you and spend all my free time writing about you in my journal. ‘Dear Diary, today Will was an ass for the 467th day in a row. He’s so dreamy.’

    He laughed and then leaned in toward me, touching the tip of my nose with his index finger. For some reason, I felt a little breathless. Are you okay?

    Aside from you, yes.

    Okay, here’s the truth. I knew exactly why I felt breathless. I had, let’s say, thoughts about Will, and not the kind of thoughts I wanted to have, where I was able to forget he existed and also meet an amazing guy who really liked me. No, I had thoughts like me and Will somehow getting trapped in a classroom and Will realizing he wanted me, and I … well, let’s just say I had a vivid imagination and leave it at that.

    The problem was, I had these thoughts a lot. A LOT.

    Will put a hand on my arm. It was very warm, and I stared at his fingers resting against my skin, cursing my overactive brain and reminding myself to breathe.

    Seriously, I’m sorry about everything with Anna.

    That snapped me out of any thoughts I might have been thinking, and I shoved his hand off and walked away. I hated the way I felt around him, the way I wanted him. I hated that he was the only person who’d ever asked me what happened when Anna and I stopped being friends.

    I hated that he was the only person who’d acted like her forgetting me meant something.

    three

    Dad picked me up when school was over, leaving Todd in charge at the mall. We went home, so I could change and pack myself some dinner, and he sat on the sofa and played the video game he and Todd had bought and started a few days ago.

    I thought it was weird and pathetic that Dad sometimes acted like he was Todd’s age or worse, my age, but Mom didn’t seem to care and always thought it was funny when he used to call in sick to stay home and finish whatever game he was playing. She said Dad was young at heart, and that he reminded her it was important to have fun.

    I would have settled for his kind of fun being less about quitting his job to sell infomercial vitamins, but then I hadn’t gotten a say in any of that.

    You want me to pack you something to eat? I asked him.

    He shook his head. I’ll eat when we get home so I can catch up with your mother. She said she’ll make pancakes. He grinned at me. You and me can split a stack. Get it?

    Funny. And I can’t. Homework. I smeared peanut butter on a piece of bread and looked in the fridge for jelly.

    You almost ready to go?

    Almost. All I could find was orange marmalade. Ick. I finished making my sandwich anyway. With all my homework, plus the fact that I had first lunch block at school, which meant eating before eleven each morning, I needed to eat dinner before I got home from work.

    You look a little stressed, Dad said when we got to the mall. You want to close up early tonight and go the movies? I want to see the one about the guy who moves into the cursed house.

    I really do have a lot of homework. Besides, Mom’s making pancakes, remember?

    Oh, right, I forgot. He looked disappointed, but then he spotted Todd talking to two girls and darted off in the direction of our booth, waving his arms to try and signal something. I slowed down and hoped no one had seen me come in with him. Sometimes being around Dad was like being with a little kid.

    Todd left about ten seconds after I got to the booth, as usual, and when the mall finally closed, the register had twenty dollars less than it had the night before. (Todd and I forgot to eat breakfast before we came in, so we had to get food and stuff, was Dad’s explanation.)

    We also hadn’t sold a thing.

    Hey, maybe we should take some samples down to Sports Shack and catch people leaving, Dad said. It’s a potential customer base with a built-in interest in staying healthy, plus they always let people shop late.

    Homework, I reminded him again.

    Just for a few minutes? You can even pull the car around while I do it. Okay?

    A chance to drive wasn’t something I would pass up, and Dad knew it. I’d gotten my license when I turned sixteen, but Mom refused to let me drive unless she or Dad were in the car until I was seventeen because Todd had driven our car into the garage door two weeks after he’d gotten his license.

    And because I’d failed my driving test the first time I took it. But driving over all those cones could have happened to anyone, really.

    I went and got the car, then drove over to the parking lot by Sports Shack. Dad was standing by the exit to the parking lot, trying to talk to everyone who came out. I drove around the mall twice, enjoying the feel of being in the car by myself, and when I got back, Dad was talking to an older guy in a Sports Shack uniform, holding his hands out like he did whenever he was sorry about something, and all the employees were standing by the huge floor-to-ceiling windows, watching.

    Great. As if the bee costume wasn’t enough of an embarrassment. I drove to an unlit portion of the parking lot and waited, hoping no one could see the car. Or me.

    Wow, was that guy uptight, Dad said when he finally got to the car. I explained that I worked in the mall too, but he didn’t care. Hey, how come you parked way out here? And how come you’re sitting all hunched over? Are you sick?

    Just tired, I said, and was careful to keep my head down as we drove away.

    The house smelled like pancakes when we got home, and Mom was on the phone with Grandma. I could tell because she kept rubbing her fingers down the space between her eyebrows like she had a headache.

    No, things are fine, she said, and waved at me, then blew Dad a kiss. Look, can I call you tomorrow? Great. No, really, please forget what I said before. We’ll get by.

    She hung up and blew out a frustrated breath. I think I might have burned some of the pancakes. Sorry. She looked at Dad. You know how my mother is.

    Dad went over and gave her a big hug, lifting her up off the ground. She laughed, and on that almost happy note, I left before she could ask him how sales were. Or before she could really start talking about Grandma.

    four

    Todd took me to school in the morning because Dad had spent all night working on a Perfect You project and wanted to catch a few hours of sleep before the mall opened.

    Project? I said. What kind of project?

    I don’t know, Kate, Todd said, frowning at the dashboard and tapping the gas gauge with one finger. I was kind of asleep when he told me. It’s inhuman to be up this early, you know.

    You think? I only have to do it five days a week.

    Yeah, but you’re in high school. I’m not, and I didn’t sign up to be your chauffeur. I mean, it’s bad enough that now I have to get up before ten so I can be at the stupid mall when it opens.

    Oh, poor freeloading baby who has to get up and work for a few hours. Maybe if you didn’t stay up all night talking on the phone you’d be more rested.

    You want to walk to school?

    Please. Mom would kill you.

    Todd grunted, because we both knew I was right, and then slammed on the brakes as the light up ahead turned red. While we waited for it to change, he ran his fingers through his hair, grinning when he noticed a girl in the car next to us watching him.

    Aside from having the same hair color, a dark reddish-blond, Todd and I don’t look very much alike. This is because I’m average-looking and he’s so good-looking that girls in cars next to us at traffic lights see him and give him their phone numbers. He gets more calls in a day (and at night) than I get … well, ever.

    When we stopped at the next light, the girl in the car next to us asked Todd if he wanted to get coffee.

    I don’t have a lot of time later today, but how about now, before work? she said.

    I snorted, thinking about Todd’s definition of work.

    Todd elbowed me and said, I’d love to. Then he drove to school like he was in a race.

    Great, now I’m here early, I said as he dropped me off. What am I supposed to do before first period starts?

    I don’t care what you do as long as you get out of the car.

    You suck.

    I’ll be sure to think about that when I’m drinking coffee with … um …

    Sarah.

    I knew that. Anyway, I’ll be sure to worry about it while I’m with her and you’re stuck in school.

    I slammed the car door as hard as I could when I got out, but he didn’t even notice. Figured.

    I went to the library and finished the English reading I hadn’t done last night, and then went to first period.

    Jennifer M., who sat across from me, grabbed my arm as soon as I sat down. I’m freaking out!

    I sighed. This was one of the many reasons I had stopped hanging out with the Jennifers. They were all constantly freaking out about something. What’s wrong?

    The PSATs. I’m taking them again, I think, but what if I do worse than last time?

    You’ll do fine, I said, and Jennifer T. leaned toward us and said, See, I told you.

    That made the third Jennifer, Jennifer S., look nervous. Jennifer M. was Jennifer S.’s best friend, or at least she had been in the fall. Now she was spending a lot of time with Jennifer T.

    I looked down at my desk and wondered if I could get away with putting my head down and taking a nap.

    What about you, Will? Jennifer M. said, letting go of my arm in order to grab his. He sat across from her too, one desk in front of me. Oh, wait, you did really good, didn’t you?

    Yeah, but I was just trying to keep up with certain people. Will looked back at me and grinned.

    Kate, I thought you said you just did okay, Jennifer M. said.

    I did, I said through clenched teeth. Will’s trying to be funny. Laugh so he’ll shut up.

    Jennifer M. said, Kate, you’re funny, in the same tone of voice she always used whenever she didn’t understand why I’d said something, and then started talking to Jennifer T. as Jennifer S. watched, still looking nervous.

    Will looked at them for a second and then turned back around again, whispering, Kate, don’t be like that. You know I only did so well because I yearn—see, SAT word—to follow you to college and steal your heart.

    Uh-huh. Too bad for you I don’t plan on attending clown college.

    He grinned. Only you would ignore the incredibly sweet thing I just said.

    Only you would describe one of your asinine comments as incredibly sweet.

    Asinine? Now there’s an SAT word. In fact—

    Mr. Miller, do you mind? Our teacher, Mr. Clark, had come in, reeking of cigarettes like always.

    Nope, Will said, and then shook his head in apology when Mr. Clark glared at him.

    Don’t worry, I whispered as Will turned back around. "You can always look up what asinine means in the

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