My New Crush Gave to Me

by Shani Petroff

  “Behind-the-scenes work, acting—”

  “Showing up to watch?” Cody Burns butted in.

  “Okay,” Mrs. Heller said. “I’ll give you something for that. I’ll give you an extra ten points on your lowest quiz.”

  “Sweet,” he said.

  Maybe it was for him, but for me, ten points wasn’t going to do anything. I got a solid fifteen on my last quiz; turning that into a twenty-five still equaled an F. I needed that score dropped; it was killing my grade.

  Mrs. Heller gave us more information about the show and passed out flyers detailing how we could get involved.

  “Are you going to do it this year?” Wes asked.

  I played with the edges of the sheet. “I have no choice.” Although I had no idea what I was going to do. Backstage seemed tedious, but performing wasn’t really an option. I still had nightmares from second grade, the last time I was on stage. I was a horse in some silly, little Old MacDonald play. All I had to do was say “neigh” and walk seven steps to the left, but I panicked and ran to get away. I wound up knocking over half the scenery with my gigantic costume, then to top it off, I fell off the stage and broke my wrist. I have shied away from performing ever since. But like it or not, I had to be involved in the production somehow.

  “I kinda figured as much,” he said. “I saw your last quiz.”

  “Yeah, it wasn’t pretty.” (I swore I was never going to put off my reading to watch another Kardashian marathon again. Although, to be fair, it was for a very good reason. My cousin didn’t make her school’s varsity basketball team and was majorly bummed. She lived too far away to go visit, so, to cheer her up, I called her, and we stayed on the phone all night, turning on our respective TVs and dissecting and commenting on each episode. It got kind of addicting—and it made her seem to forget what happened. Family first, right? That should count for something.) “What about you?”

  His eyes glanced over the choices listed on the paper. “I think I’ll try out for one of the scenes and see what happens.”

  “Cool,” I said. “Which one?”

  “Romeo and Juliet.”

  Romeo and Juliet?! Was he serious? That was supposed to be the most romantic play ever. I couldn’t let this opportunity pass. I could be his Juliet. I quickly weighed the pros and the cons in my head. The pros were awesome. They were, basically, Wes. But the cons were, well, too huge to ignore. Still …

  Don’t do it, Emily. Don’t do it, Emily. Don’t do it, Emily. But there was no stopping me. “Nice. That’s what I was planning on trying for, too.” And just like that, with a few simple words, I found myself in way over my head.

  About the Author

  Shani Petroff

  is a writer living in New York City. She’s the author of Romeo & What’s Her Name and the Bedeviled series, and the coauthor of Ash. She also writes for television news programs and several other venues. When she’s not locked in her apartment typing away, she spends a whole lot of time on books, boys, TV, daydreaming, and shopping online.

  Visit her online at shanipetroff.com, or sign up for email updates here.

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  A SWOON READS BOOK

  An imprint of Feiwel and Friends and Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010

  MY NEW CRUSH GAVE TO ME. Copyright © 2017 by Shani Petroff. All rights reserved.

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  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

  ISBN 978-1-250-13032-7 (trade paperback) / ISBN 978-1-250-13051-8 (ebook)

  First edition, 2017

  eISBN 9781250130518

  swoonreads.com

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  One

  Two

  Three

  Four

  Five

  Six

  Seven

  Eight

  Nine

  Ten

  Eleven

  Twelve

  Thirteen

  Fourteen

  Fifteen

  Sixteen

  Seventeen

  Eighteen

  Nineteen

  Twenty

  Twenty-One

  Twenty-Two

  Twenty-Three

  Twenty-Four

  Twenty-Five

  Twenty-Six

  Twenty-Seven

  Twenty-Eight

  Twenty-Nine

  Thirty

  Thirty-One

  Thirty-Two

  Thirty-Three

  Thirty-Four

  Thirty-Five

  Thirty-Six

  Thirty-Seven

  Thirty-Eight

  Acknowledgments

  Swoonworthy Extras

  Romeo and What’s Her Name Teaser

  About the Author

  Copyright