Cindy and the Prom King (13 page)

Book Two in the Manderley Prep series:

CAN’T BUY ME LOVE

“’It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.’”

Victoria Lee read the first sentence of A Tale of Two Cities over for the fourth time before it penetrated her tired brain. For her it was the best of times, considering her parents had finally left that morning. After spending two weeks with her at their suburban San Francisco McMansion, they were on their way back to Hong Kong.

On the other hand it was also the worst of times. Second semester of her junior year at Manderley Prep, the school where the progeny of Silicon Valley’s movers and shakers went, if they could pass the stringent entrance exam or if their parents donated a new stadium or at least a new state-of-the-art theater. Her old friends were left far behind, she had a huge Dickens novel to read, and not much of a new social life in California.

Instead of reading any further, Victoria got out her case of cedarwood colored pencils and sketched the outline of a dress on a blank page in her notebook…

“Homework already? The semester hasn’t even started.”

It was Cindy, her best friend at Manderley – her only friend really—who’d joined her on the second floor of the T.J. Ransom Memorial Library.…..

“When you were Miss Junior Hong Kong, you must have had guys falling all over you so you could have your pick,” Cindy said.

“Yes, but they were all either dorky or too smooth. Besides, my mother was always watching me like a peregrine falcon.”

“Isn’t that an endangered species?”

“So’s my mother….

Her plan is for me to marry well like she did. Well means smart and rich, of course. And to remain a virgin until my wedding night like she did. She made me practice looking down my nose at guys who would come on to me. She told me to act like I had an invisible shield around me. Like I’m too good for them….I told her I couldn’t promise anything.”