ROSE ZARELLI, self-proclaimed word geek and angry girl, has some confessions to make...
1 Iâm livid all the time. Why? My dad died. My mom barely talks. My brother abandoned us. I think Iâm allowed to be irate, donât you?
2 I make people furious regularly. Want an example? I kissed Jamie Forta, a badass guy who might be dating a cheerleader. She is now enraged and out for blood. Mine.
3 High school might as well be Mars. My best friend has been replaced by an alien, and I see red all the time. (Mars is red and âseeing redâ means being angryâget it?)
Here are some other vocab words that describe my life: Inadequate. Insufferable. Intolerable.
(Donât know what they mean? Look them up yourself.)
(Sorry. That was rude.)
âThanks for the carnation. Itâs pretty.â
âYouâre welcome,â Jamie says with that slight smile that makes the back of my neck tingle with warmth.
I donât want to be just friends with Jamie Forta.
What would happen if I leaned over and kissed him? Do I have it in me to do that? Would he stop me?
I suddenly hear myself breathing too hard and too loud. I start to feel stupid, dumb, needy. Fifteen minutes ago, Jamie Forta said we were just friends, and so what do I do? Fantasize about kissing him. Itâs crazy. This whole thing is crazy.
For Alex Bhattacharji,
who helps meâin so many waysâto do the work I love
Thanks to The Feedback PackâAlex Bhattacharji, Jean & Ron Rozett, Michael Rozett, Lynn Festa, Spencer Kayden, Elisa Zuritsky, Tim Brien, Rachael Dorr, Monica Khanna, and Becky Sandler. Youâre all so darn smart.
Special thanks to Barb & Sean Patrick, for arranging a phenomenal day for me at Fairfield Ludlowe High School. And of course, special thanks to Hamden High School, and to all the great teachers and wonderful friends I encountered there who helped make high school everything it should be. (Truly!)
Super special thanks to Natashya Wilson of Harlequin Teen, who challenged me to find out what was really making Rose Zarelli so mad, and to Emmanuelle Morgen of Stonesong. Thank you both for taking a chance on our angry girlâand on me.
PROLOGUE
THIS, DEAR READER, is a tale of the hell of high school. Of being dropped into a world where it seems like everyone is speaking a foreign language. Where friends become enemies and enemies become nightmares. Where life suddenly seems like a string of worst-case scenarios from health-class movies.
This is a story about a girl with a stellar vocabulary who is four years away from college and a year and a half away from a driverâs license. About a girl trapped in a hostile universe where the virginity clock is ticking downârelentlesslyâwith zero consideration for her extenuating, traumatic, life-altering circumstances.
This is a story about death. About the occasional panic attack, the inability to shut up and high school in the suburbs without a cell phone.
Read it and weep.
plummet (verb): to fall suddenly, sharply, steeply
(see also: to start high school)
1
âJAMIE. YOU GONNA eat that? Jame. That bagel. You gonna eat it? âCause Iâm really hungry, man. My mom threw me out before I could eat my cereal. And she didnât give me a dime.â
Jamie slides the half bagel dripping with butter over to Angelo without looking up from drawing on the back of his notebook. Angelo is silent for thirty seconds, and then heâs on the make again, looking for someone elseâs leftovers. The PA system screeches with feedback, and the din gets louder as everyone tries to talk over it.
âGood morning, Union High. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.â The brightly colored riot-proof seats welded to the cafeteria tables left over from the 1970s creak as period-one study hall drags itself to its feet to say words that we havenât thought about and donât understandâor canât make ourselves say. Jamie stays seated, his pencil slowly tracing the lines of his drawing.
âForta, is that your assigned seat?â Jamie nods at Mr. Cella, the gym teacher who would probably rather be anywhere other than chaperoning first-period study hall. âThen get out of it and join the rest of us in pledging allegiance to this fine country of ours,â Mr. Cella says kind of sarcastically as he moves on to the next table.
Jamie looks around and sees that people are in the middle of the pledge. By the time he stands up, everyone is sitting down already.
âJame, you got any money? Iâm still starvinâ, man. I just need another bagel or a piece of toast or something. Iâll pay you back tomorrow. I just need, like, a dollar. You got that? Could I have it?â
Jamie reaches into his pockets for change, coming up with a quarter. He hands it to Angelo, who looks majorly disappointed.