Thousand Words
Page 21
But there are a great many more cases of teens who’ve had to deal with emotional fallout of sexting gone awry. There are cases in which teens have had their nude texts go viral, have found themselves ridiculed to the point of having to move to a new school, have been suspended. And, sadly, there are even instances of teens committing suicide as a result of bullying due to nude texts.
That’s why it’s so important to think before you hit Send. Anything you send out into cyberspace is out there forever. You can’t take it back, and you never know when you might sorely want to.
WHY DOES KALEB DO SOMETHING SO MEAN TO ASHLEIGH?
Revenge, plain and simple. He is angry with Ashleigh and wants to get back at her for what he thinks she did to him. His thinking is short-term, as we so often tend to be guilty of when we’re angry, and he doesn’t realize the lasting effects his actions might have. He doesn’t think about how quickly or how far things can spread; nor does he think about the trouble he can get himself into. Whether or not he intends for Ashleigh to be as humiliated as she is (certainly, he wants her to experience some humiliation), he definitely doesn’t intend to put himself in the line of fire like that.
WHY DON’T VONNIE AND CHEYENNE AND ANNIE STAND BY ASHLEIGH WHEN SHE GETS INTO TROUBLE?
Vonnie and Cheyenne and Annie aren’t sure how to deal with all the fallout. Vonnie feels guilty for her own part in what happened, but she also believes that it isn’t the huge deal Ashleigh is making it out to be. Vonnie thinks it will all blow over eventually, and in the meantime she wants to distance herself from it so she won’t get any fallout of her own.
Plus, Ashleigh is suspended, so for weeks the others are at school without her, their lives going on, and eventually they just kind of… drift apart.
But they don’t turn away from her in a sense that they will never be friends again. Everyone just needs some space and time. I think that’s important to remember, too. Grudges benefit nobody, and a little time to think may be all that’s needed to repair a wounded relationship.
YOUR STORIES ARE SO SERIOUS. DO YOU THINK YOU’LL EVER WRITE A COMEDY?
I actually can write comedy, and in fact wrote a humor column for the Kansas City Star for more than four years. However, comedy writing, while easier for me than “serious” writing, was never comfortable for me. I have been quite happy to leave it behind. So at the moment I have no immediate plans to write comedy—especially YA comedy—but you never know what the future holds.
MANY OF YOUR BOOKS FOCUS ON A BOYFRIEND-GIRLFRIEND RELATIONSHIP GONE BAD. WHY?
Because these are the relationships that I remember most vividly from when I was a teen. Best-friend and boyfriend relationship problems caused me so much pain and angst! So a part of me may be still trying to work out relationships-gone-sour circa the 1980s, but also a part of me knows that I was definitely not alone. Boyfriend-girlfriend relationships cause angst for everyone! The complexity of relationships, in general, intrigues me. There’s so much to talk about. I could write a thousand books and never touch on it all.
Contents
Welcome
Dedication
Day 1: Community Service
August
August
Day 4: Community Service
August
Day 6: Community Service
August
Day 10: Community Service
August
August/September
Day 18: Community Service
September
Day 19: Community Service
Day 20: Community Service
September
September
Day 22: Community Service
September
September
Day 24: Community Service
September
September
Day 27: Community Service
Day 28: Community Service
Day 29: Community Service
The Meeting
Day 30: Community Service
Last Day: Community Service
Acknowledgments
Author’s Note
A Conversation with Jennifer Brown
Copyright
Copyright
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2013 by Jennifer Brown
Cover design by Erin McMahon
Cover art © Shutterstock, Sergy Nivens
Cover © 2013 Hachette Book Group, Inc.
All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
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First ebook edition: May 2013
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ISBN 978-0-316-20971-7