Thousand Words (27 page)

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Authors: Jennifer Brown

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WHY DON’T VONNIE AND CHEYENNE AND ANNIE STAND BY ASHLEIGH WHEN SHE GETS INTO TROUBLE?

Vonnie and Cheyenne and Annie aren’t sure how to deal with all the fallout. Vonnie feels guilty for her own part in what happened, but she also believes that it isn’t the huge deal Ashleigh is making it out to be. Vonnie thinks it will all blow over eventually, and in the meantime she wants to distance herself from it so she won’t get any fallout of her own.

Plus, Ashleigh is suspended, so for weeks the others are at school without her, their lives going on, and eventually they just kind of… drift apart.

But they don’t turn away from her in a sense that they will never be friends again. Everyone just needs some space and time. I think that’s important to remember, too. Grudges benefit nobody, and a little time to think may be all that’s needed to repair a wounded relationship.

YOUR STORIES ARE SO SERIOUS. DO YOU THINK YOU’LL EVER WRITE A COMEDY?

I actually can write comedy, and in fact wrote a humor column for the
Kansas City Star
for more than four years. However, comedy writing, while easier for me than “serious” writing, was never comfortable for me. I have been quite happy to leave it behind. So at the moment I have no immediate plans to write comedy—especially YA comedy—but you never know what the future holds.

MANY OF YOUR BOOKS FOCUS ON A BOYFRIEND-GIRLFRIEND RELATIONSHIP GONE BAD. WHY?

Because these are the relationships that I remember most vividly from when I was a teen. Best-friend and boyfriend relationship problems caused me so much pain and angst! So a part of me may be still trying to work out relationships-gone-sour circa the 1980s, but also a part of me knows that I was definitely not alone. Boyfriend-girlfriend relationships cause angst for everyone! The complexity of relationships, in general, intrigues me. There’s so much to talk about. I could write a thousand books and never touch on it all.

Contents

Welcome

Dedication

Day 1: Community Service

August

August

Day 4: Community Service

August

Day 6: Community Service

August

Day 10: Community Service

August

August/September

Day 18: Community Service

September

Day 19: Community Service

Day 20: Community Service

September

September

Day 22: Community Service

September

September

Day 24: Community Service

September

September

Day 27: Community Service

Day 28: Community Service

Day 29: Community Service

The Meeting

Day 30: Community Service

Last Day: Community Service

Acknowledgments

Author’s Note

A Conversation with Jennifer Brown

Copyright

Copyright

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 Jennifer Brown

Cover design by Erin McMahon

Cover art © Shutterstock, Sergy Nivens

Cover © 2013 Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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.

Little, Brown and Company

Hachette Book Group

237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017

www.lb-teens.com

First ebook edition: May 2013

Little, Brown and Company is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

The Little, Brown 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.

ISBN 978-0-316-20971-7

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