by Oli White
“Agreed, one hundred percent,” Ava says, saluting.
“Agreed!” Austin, Ella and Sai call out in unison.
“Agreed,” AJ smiles.
Sai hits play on his phone, and as Calvin Harris blares out of his Bluetooth speaker, there’s more cheering and more dancing, during which Ella grabs my hand and pulls me in for a kiss.
“Are you happy, Jack Penman?” she says, smiling up at me.
“Yeah, I’m happy, Ella Foster,” I say.
We stay up there for another hour, laughing, dancing, reminiscing and, of course, ripping it out of one another, which is what we seem to do best. But that’s good, right? That’s what real friends do. You have a laugh together, you have one another’s back and you never give in to the bullies. If I’m really honest, I have no idea what’s going to happen next or where the future is going to take me or Ella or any of us. But right now, up on this roof with all my best friends . . . life feels good.
Author’s Note
Where do I even start? I never dreamed I’d be given the opportunity to write a book by the time I was 21. I’ve poured my heart and soul into it, and although it’s a work of fiction there are a lot of my own experiences and real life situations in the story that are very close to my heart.
Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone reading this for supporting me and for buying Generation Next; you keep pushing me to create bigger and better things and you’ve helped me grow up—fast! The last couple of years, developing my channel and posting videos on YouTube, have been the best of my life and none of it would of been possible without you, my amazing viewers.
I would like to thank my mum and dad for always being there for me, encouraging and inspiring me to work hard to achieve my ambitions and dreams and, of course, my awesome brother James who, despite being only 13, is a lot cooler and smarter than I am.
I would like to thank my management James Grant for believing in me and signing me as one of their first Internet talents and for putting up with me for over a year now.
Emily Kitchin and the awesome team at Hodder—you guys know who you are. I couldn’t have done any of this without your brilliance.
I would like to say a huge thank you to Terry Ronald, my co-writer—you absolute legend! You managed to help me get all my thoughts and visions onto paper and turn them into a terrific book.
The boys: Caspar, Joe, Josh, Mikey, Conor and Jack for inspiring me to always do better and making my job so much fun.
So yeah, that’s just a few of the many people I want to thank for quite literally changing my life and helping me enjoy every step of the way. Thank you!
