Sneak Peek Saturday: Nice And Mean

Nice And Mean

By: Jessica Leader

Pub date: June 8th, 2010

Marina is mean. Sachi is nice. Marina is Barney's. Sachi is Burlington Coat Factory. It's bad enough that they have to coexist in video class—but now they're being forced to work together on the big semester project. Marina's goal? Expose her wanna-be BFF as a giant kiss-up to the entire middle school. Sachi's goal? Prove that she's not just another honor-roll Indian student and broaden her classmates' cultural horizons. Work together in harmony? Yeah, that would be no. How can Sachi film something meaningful, and Marina, something fabulous, if they're yoked to each other?
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Chapter One: Marina’s Little Black Book, Entry #1

Most Suspicious Behavior: Rachel Winter
A tin-foil shirt, a popularity poll. What exactly is Rachel up to?
Worst Mother: Bianca Glass, a.k.a. Mom
Those pants? That attitude? This mother’s truly in a category by herself.

When I realized I was about to flip through the Seventeen Back-to-School Fashions for the third time that afternoon, I slammed the magazine shut and hurled it across the room. It flew through the air and landed against the garbage can with a big loud smack.

Exactly.

Where were my friends? Play practice ended at five. Even adding time for Rachel to do an extra shimmy, Elizabeth and Addie to straighten chairs and the three of them to snag snacks, they should’ve gotten here twenty minutes ago. And I should’ve been snacking with them, not sitting alone on my bed like someone who forgot to order a life.

I got up to grab my magazine, since my ninja throwing moves had bent the cover. I couldn’t believe how the play had turned into such a time-suck. Elizabeth was the only one with a real part—did all of them really need to spend three afternoons a week in that sweaty dramabasement? I had no desire to join the Grease cult—they’d already started quoting the songs so often that I’d had to tell them, “Hold the cheese, this is not Burger King.” But if I’d known that my only company would be the blast of the AC and the thump of my iTunes, I wouldn’t have blown off the audition so hard. How was I supposed to know that the lines in the play weren’t the same as in the movie, or that they’d make us sing alone in front of everybody? Why hadn’t
anybody told me these things?

Ding-dong.

Took them long enough. I threw my magazine on the bed and ran down the hall to open
the door...
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This sounds like a really fun story. The cover is really cool too. :) To read the remainder of the excerpt you can do so here. Visit Jessica Leader at her official website and blog.

Have a great weekend everyone!