pretenders: vanessa's journal by lisi harrison (excerpt)

8/12/2019 Pretenders: Vanessa's Journal by Lisi Harrison (Excerpt)

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Little, Brown and CompanyNew York Boston

BY #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR



September 17th

Forgive me, Journal, for I have sinned. It has been less than a

day since my last entry so that’s obviously not it. It’s something

else. And it’s worse than not journaling.27

As you know, I had an Algebra quiz today. You also know I

studied during lunch so I was prepared. What you don’t know

is that the “Before” picture sat beside me in Algebra and com-

pletely disrupted my chi.

“You’re too funny,” she said.

“I am?”

27 Way worse.



“I love how you signed up for every spot on the Phoenix

Five. Hilarious.”

“Why?”

“Why? Those blank spaces were rhetorical.”

Foe no you dizn’t! This was her trying to rile me up before

the quiz. It was a total power move. But she’ll have to fight

smarter than that if she wants to beat me to the Academic

Excellence award, the Honors Society, and the Principal’s

Award. As for the Phoenix Five, she can have one spot if she

really wants. I’ll take four.

“I really like those bracelets you’re selling.”

“SWAPs.”

“Sorry.”

“I’m sure you’ll be very happy with yours,” I snipped.

“Mine? I didn’t get one.”

“You will.”

“Huh?”

“Your boyfriend bought two.”

“Boyfriend?” She looked confused and then kind of laughed.

“You mean Blake?”

I stared at her again.

“He’s not my boyfriend. He’s—we’ve been best friends for

years.”

“I think he likes you.”

“There is nothing between us. Trust me.”

“Really?”

“Cross my heart.” She made an X over her ill-fitting shirt.

“Never has been. Never will be.”



134

“Does he have a girlfriend?”

“Nope.”

“Oh,” I said, like I didn’t really care. But on the inside my

cells were popping like kernels in a microwave. Blake was sin-

gle. He didn’t like Lily!28

I wanted more intel but Mr. Baskin started handing out the

quiz. We had twenty minutes to answer ten questions.

I tried to focus but Blake’s dark eyes waxed in my mind and

eclipsed my math knowledge.29

Still, I finished first. Eighteen minutes and twenty-three

seconds. Instead of taking our quizzes home and grading them

like a responsible teacher, Mr. Baskin had us switch papers

with the person sitting next to us. Lily got mine and I got hers.

He called out the correct answers while we, the students,

graded them. It was a total sweatshop move.

Lily got ten out of ten.

I got eight.30

When you make a choice, you change the future.

—Deepak Chopra

28 Not that I care. I have to focus on my work. It’s just nice to know he

doesn’t like her .

29 Love the image of Blake’s eyes as the moon eclipsing my rational

thoughts. So poetic.

30 I “accidentally” took Lily’s paper so I could pass it off as my own. I

needed a Benihana night. Don’t judge.



This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the

product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual

events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Lisi Harrison

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning,

uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of

the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property.

If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes),

prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at

[email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

Poppy

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Visit our website at lb-teens.com

Poppy is an imprint of Little, Brown and Company.

The Poppy name and logo are trademarks of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content)

that are not owned by the publisher.

First Paperback Edition: May 2014

First published in hardcover in October 2013 by Little, Brown and Company

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harrison, Lisi.

Pretenders / by Lisi Harrison. — First edition.

pages cm.

Summary: “Five high school freshmen—the Phoenix Five—reveal theirfriendships, crushes, school and family dramas, and big secrets, as told in their

unique voices through journal entries”— Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-316-22244-0 (hc)—ISBN 978-0-316-22232-7 (pb)

[1. High schools—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Diaries—Fiction.

4. Friendship—Fiction. 5. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 6. Family life—

New Jersey—Fiction. 7. New Jersey—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.H2527Pqm 2013 [Fic]—dc23 2012048434

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

RRD-C

Printed in the United States of America

pretenders: vanessa's journal by lisi harrison (excerpt)

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