AHHHH!! Tres exciting!! Jess posted the first chapter of FAMOUS on her blog! I reposted it below. EEEK! Soooo hope you like it!
xx,
~LT
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From Jess:
Hi, all!
Here's an exclusive first look at FAMOUS! I'm sharing chapter one
tonight. YAY! But . . . I don't think *one* chapter is enough. Do you?
If you want me to post chapter two this week, let me know in the
comments section! :)
xoxo
~J
FAMOUS
1
TELL ME EVERYTHING
Everyone—Mom, Dad, Becca, and Brielle—grinned at me. They all
stared at me, waiting for my reaction to Brielle’s sudden proclamation. But I
stood frozen in the Canterwood Crest parking lot. Brielle’s words from seconds
earlier rang through my head: Now your bestie from home is
here!
Brielle didn’t live in Union anymore.
She wasn’t a student at Yates.
She didn’t take riding lessons at Briar Creek.
As of today, Brielle Monaco was an official Canterwood Crest
Academy student.
Blond Brielle, who’d just released me from a hug, put both hands on
my upper arms and gently shook me.
“Laaaureeen? Hello?! Omigod, are you speechless or what?!” Brielle
asked.
I nodded, furiously trying to form words. “I—oh my God—Bri—” I
stopped and took a deep breath. Everything was finally starting to sink in.
“Brielle Monaco, you go here now! This is the biggest surprise ever!”
Brielle laughed. “I can’t believe I pulled it off. There’s no way I
would have without your parents and Becca.”
“So many things make sense now,” I said. “I couldn’t figure out how
you’d really gotten on campus for a family-only weekend. Or why you seemed so off at times. I can’t believe two of my Union friends are
here now.”
Brielle frowned a little at my last sentence. I remembered her earlier fight
with Taylor, my ex-boyfriend who was also from Union, and felt bad for bringing
him up.
“We’ve got a lot to talk about,” I said,
slinging my arm over Bri’s shoulder. I wiggled my fingers into my fleece
jacket—the late November air was cold, and I wondered if we’d see snow at the
Connecticut boarding school soon.
“We’re going to leave you girls to catch up,” Mom said from the
passenger seat in our SUV.
“Have fun, you two!” Becca, my older sister, called from the
backseat.
Dad waved, backed up the SUV, and guided the vehicle out of the
parking lot and down Canterwood’s driveway.
I hugged Bri, laughing. I tugged on her coat and pulled her in the
direction of the dorms.
“Let’s go inside before we freeze, and you
are going to tell me everything,” I said.
“Lead the way,” Bri said.
Giggling, we made our way through the mass of students and parents
who were headed for the parking lot and walked back to Hawthorne—my dorm hall.
“Take it all in,” I said, breathing deeply. “Looking at this campus
never gets any less exciting.”
Bri’s eyes were wide as she nodded. “I had a feeling that was true.
Even though I was here all day, I don’t really think I saw
the campus for what it is.”
We went up a winding sidewalk away from the stable. As we walked, we
passed a pasture with turned-out horses. Two horses, blanketed, lay down next
to each other.
“Aw, nap time,” I said, smiling.
Bri asked me to point out buildings to her—even ones I’d told her
about this morning when I’d given her the tour with my family.
“Of course,” I said. “It would be insane to think you’d remember
where everything is after an afternoon. It took me days of getting turned
around to finally be able to stop sending SOS texts to Khloe that I was lost.”
We passed the media center, administration, tennis courts, and
finally reached Hawthorne Hall. The three-story building was home to dozens of seventh-grade girls.
Bri’s eyes were wide as she stared up at the building. I could tell the
realization was hitting her that this was her home
now.
“As if this dorm isn’t awesome enough, it also happens to be
adjacent to Orchard Hall,” I said. Goose bumps ran up and down my arms, but
they weren’t from the cold.
“What’s the big deal about Orchard?” Bri asked.
“Sasha Silver lives there.”
Bri’s mouth formed an O.
Inside my dorm hall, I shook off shivers and stopped when we
reached Christina’s door.
“This is Christina’s office,” I explained. “She’s our dorm monitor.
Looks like she’s gone right now, but I know you’ll like Christina once you get
to meet her.”
“She sent me a few welcome e-mails,” Brielle said. “It’s so weird
to be living without my parents. That part hasn’t hit me yet.”
“Oh, it will,” I said as we made our way down Hawthorne’s hall. “You’ll miss
them a lot, but being on your own is pretty cool. Except the stuff like
laundry!”
Brielle and I walked into the common room, kicked off our shoes,
and plunked down on the couch, facing each other.
“I almost texted all my friends, but I want some alone time with
you first,” I said. “Then we’ll tell Khloe, and Clare, and everyone.”
Brielle’s brown eyes were wide. “Hopefully, they’ll be as happy as you are that
I’m staying.”
“Of course they will be,” I said. “They barely had five seconds
with you, but I could tell they loved you.”
Today had been the definition of insanity. Parents who had decided
to go out on their own had wandered around with lost looks on their faces. Some
had reminded me of what my mom and dad had taught me to do when I was little.
The parents had sat on a bench, not moving, just waiting for their kid to find
them. It was like I’d been taught—stay where you are and Mom and Dad will find
you.
I’d barely seen any of my friends today, and we’d all had a lot
less time together than we’d planned. It seemed like parents took over as
priority, and everyone had a different way of handling their family.
I stood, unzipped my coat, and tossed it onto a nearby recliner. I
was happy that the common room was empty. Brielle and I could openly talk in
private.
“Before we start talking,” I said, “want a cup of tea?”
“There’s my LT!” Brielle said. “I’d love a cup of whatever you’re
having.”
With a smile, I made us both one of my fall favorites—apple spice.
“Okay,” I said. I pulled an orange throw blanket over my legs and
raised my mug to my lips. “Start at the beginning and tell me everything.”
First Aladdin M!X edition June 2013
Copyright © 2013 by Jessica Burkhart
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole
or in part in any form.
