Just Another Girl
Page 20
She was released from rehab after a month. I always take time every morning to admire the coins she gets for every sober milestone. I also make sure she knows how much I appreciate her.
“How was school?” she asks as she gives me a hug.
“Good. How was work?”
She got her job back at the salon, where she works four days a week. Hope’s dad gave her a part-time job at the dealership in the office doing paper and computer work on the weekend. She’s saving money. She’s been talking to the guidance counselor at school about finishing her last few classes at college when I leave next year. She’s talking about the future.
The future. For so long, Haley and I had been trying to run away from our past. We let our past define us, although in many ways it was hard for it not to. Now we are both truly looking ahead—to things we can control. While nobody knows what the future will bring, there’s always a chance something amazing can happen.
I’m not delusional. Things aren’t perfect, far from it. We have a long way to go. But at least we’re heading in the right direction.
After Hayley and I finish our daily catching up, she heads to her bedroom to change for dinner over at the Kaplans’.
My phone beeps. It’s a message from Brady. Have fun tonight. Eat all of Gabriela’s food for me.
I smile. Who knew breaking up would be the best thing for us? Now when I hear from him or he does something for me, it’s because he wants to. Not because he feels sorry for me. Same with Hope. We might actually be considered friends.
And honestly, as painful as it was to have my parents up and leave, it ended the biggest lie in my life: that we were a family.
What I had wasn’t a family. My mom wasn’t a mom. My dad wasn’t a dad. It wasn’t real. In a way, they were the ones who did things out of obligation. They fed me, they clothed me, because that’s what parents are supposed to do.
None of it was out of love.
Now every relationship I have is because the person wants to be in my life. Hayley’s here because she wants to be with me. We’re in this together. We’ll get through it.
Somehow we will. But it will take time. Bit by bit. Cent by cent. Day by day.
Things are going to be okay.
The idea for this novel came to me way back in 2012, when I had the good fortune to tour with fellow authors Jackson Pearce and Jen Calonita. During our events, Jackson talked about her modern retelling of The Little Mermaid, Fathomless. She mentioned that in the Hans Christian Andersen version, the princess who was set to marry the prince wasn’t this wicked creature portrayed in the Disney version. She was just another girl.
That led me to think about all the contemporary love triangles in books, TV shows, and movies. Often the girlfriend is portrayed as a mean girl. It made it easy for the reader or viewer to know who to cheer for. But what if it wasn’t that simple?
When I began developing the two girls at the heart of this story, I wanted to play with the perception people have of each other. You truly don’t know somebody until you’ve spent a day in his or her shoes. Even when I was in high school, I thought I knew my fellow classmates. I lived in a small town. My parents were involved in the community. My mom was even my high school librarian. Years later I discovered that one of my friends’ home life was extremely fragile. Another lived in a trailer park. I had no idea. None.
In the age of social media, we all have private and public lives. People are more savvy about the images and perception they put out there. I’m certainly guilty of it. I’m not going to post pictures of me sobbing in my office when I’ve had a bad day (although maybe I should—being an author is awesome, but it can also be difficult, like any job). Nobody’s life is perfect. It’s easy to think you know someone if you follow them, but it’s a filtered version of his or her life.
Now whenever someone says something rude or acts in a selfish way, I try to give him or her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the person is having a bad day. Maybe someone he or she loves is sick. Sure, there are still horrible people in the world, but if we act with a lot more compassion with each other, we can all get through this crazy thing we call life. After all, we are all just another girl (or guy) to others.
When you’ve been thinking about/working on a book for five years, you’ve got a lot of people to thank.
First, to my amazing agent Erin Malone for being Hope and Parker’s biggest champion and answering my SOS emails. I’m sorry that this story has made you reevaluate how you treated people in high school—my bad! Special thanks to Sabrina Giglio and everybody at WME for their support.
While my editor, David Levithan, refused to do a Hamilton-style rap battle when we had different ideas, he did push me to dig deeper and go there. The book is stronger because of him, even if I may require therapy. (I’ll be sending you the bills.)
Elizabeth Parisi has, once again, gone above and beyond with my cover. Thank you for taking my tiny idea and turning it into something even better.
Scholastic has been my home through seven (say WHA?) novels, and I’m especially grateful to Erin Black, Sheila Marie Everett, Kelly Ashton, Tracy van Straaten, Lauren Festa, Lizette Serrano, Emily Heddleson, Antonio Gonzalez, Alan Smagler, Leslie Garych, Rebekah Wallin, Liz Byer, Sue Flynn, Roz Hilden, Nikki Mutch, Terribeth Smith, and all Scholastic sales reps.
I’ve had to call in friends with special expertise while working on this book. Mary Cele Boockmeier answered all my questions (and did some story brainstorming) about social services and Parker’s family life. Andrew Harwell helped me with the D&D references and has a very high charisma score in his own right. I called on Cecilia Barragán and Dania Mejia at Penguin Random House Mexico to add some flavor to Hope’s mom. Dawne Frickson Pafford wasn’t alarmed when I asked her about money laundering (which is more a reflection on my character than hers!). And, of course, Kirk Benshoff for keeping my website running smoothly.
I’m so fortunate to be part of a wonderful community of YA authors. For years, I would talk about this book with friends who offered their support, especially when I knew I was making things worse for Parker (and therefore myself). Big, sloppy kisses to Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Sarah Rees Brennan, Rose Brock, Ally Carter, Carrie Ryan, Kieran Scott, and Jennifer E. Smith.
Writing about Parker made me appreciate how lucky I am to have the family that I have. As much as I probably gave my parents and siblings reasons to want to abandon me as a teen, they stuck with me.
Finally, huge thanks to the booksellers, librarians, bloggers, and readers who have shared my books with others. The best gift you could ever give an author is to tell another person about a book you love. This career is a gift, one that I will never take for granted.
ELIZABETH EULBERG is the author of The Lonely Hearts Club, Prom & Prejudice, Take a Bow, Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality, Better Off Friends, and We Can Work It Out. You can find her on the web at www.elizabetheulberg.com.
ALSO BY ELIZABETH EULBERG
The Lonely Hearts Club
Prom & Prejudice
Take a Bow
Revenge of the Girl with the Great Personality
Better Off Friends
We Can Work It Out
Copyright © 2017 by Elizabeth Eulberg
All rights reserved. Published by Point, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920. SCHOLASTIC, POINT, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Eulberg, Elizabeth, author.
Title: Just another girl / Elizabeth Eul
berg.
Desription: New York, NY: Scholastic Press, [2017] | Summary: Sixteen-year-old Hope has known Brady most of her life, and they are close friends and members of the Rube Goldberg Club at high school, but Hope has always believed they would be more than friends, so when Parker becomes his girlfriend, Hope views the newcomer as a rival--but Parker has secrets, and when circumstances force the two girls together Hope realizes that Parker is really just another girl.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016037799 | ISBN 9780545956284 (hardcover) Subjects: LCSH: Interpersonal relations–Juvenile fiction. | Dating (Social customs)–Juvenile fiction. | Friendship–Juvenile fiction. | High schools–Juvenile fiction. | Science clubs–Juvenile fiction. | Secrecy–Juvenile fiction. | CYAC: Interpersonal relations–Fiction. | Dating (Social customs)–Fiction. | Friendship–Fiction. | High schools–Fiction. | Schools–Fiction. | Science clubs–Fiction. | Secrets–Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.E8685 Ju 2017 | DDC 813.6 [Fic] –dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016037799
First edition, April 2017
Cover image © 2017 by Michael Heath
Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi
Author photo by Liz Ligone
e-ISBN 978-0-545-95630-7
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