Today on the blog, I am happy to host Alexa Martin, author of GIRL WONDER, with a scene from her book.
Scene from Girl Wonder (© Alexa Martin)
“Milton—It’s Charlotte,” I said, my voice raw and hoarse. “James Henry’s
sister?”
“Oh. Um. Hello,” he said. There was a long silence.
“I didn’t know who else to call,” I said. “It’s not an emergency. But kind of.”
“What’s going on? ”
“It’s…well… I need a ride.”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I said too loudly.
“You don’t sound fine. Where are you?”
By force of will I gained enough control of myself to give him my
location “Don’t tell anyone about this,” I added.
“I’ll be right—”
I cut off my phone.
Unable to sit still, I went outside to pace. No one gave me a second glance.
Strange behavior was par the course in this neighborhood. A long line of cars
snaked around the McDonalds drive thru. The street bustled with shoppers out to
make the most of a rare sunny day. I bummed a cigarette off of one of them. My
hands trembled when I lit it. Miraculously, Milton arrived within twenty
minutes. I didn’t want to know how fast he’d driven.
“You look like hell,” he said as I got into the car.
“You have a real way with girls,” I said, turning my head toward the
window.
“You reek,” he continued obliviously. “Don’t you know that
smoking’s—?”
I interrupted. “Stop.”
Something in my voice got his attention. “I was just trying... Sorry.”
“I know. It doesn’t matter.”
Out of the corner of my eye I caught Milton glancing at me, his brow
furrowed with fake concern for my wellbeing, the not-entirely unpleasant smell
of whatever wheaty cereal he’d had for breakfast emanating from his breath.
Though I tried to ignore him, it was all too much.
Finally, I snapped. “What? What’s the problem?”
“Excuse me?”
“Why are you staring?”
He made this clicking noise with his tongue. “You seem edgy.”
“Yeah? Here’s a thought. Feeling like a specimen in a Petri dish doesn’t help.”
We rode in silence for a while after that, me trying not to retch at the smell
of myself, Milton thinking god-only-knew-what about me. When we crossed the Lake
Washington floating bridge, whitecaps slammed against the side. It was a windy
day. There were a lot of boats out on the water. To the east you could see the
Cascades, rising above the landscape like giant teeth. To the south you could
see Mt. Rainier. It looked extra clean today. White-washed. It must have snowed
up there recently.
“You’re shaking,” Milton remarked. “Are you cold?”
“No.”
He reached into the back seat. “Here,” he said, handing me his
jacket.
When I started to protest, he said, “I wasn’t asking. Put it on. You’re
freezing.”
A few minutes late Milton popped a disc into his stereo. To my
amazement, How to Disappear Completely, one of my all time favorite Radiohead
songs began streaming from the speakers.I grabbed Milton’s CD case and started
flipping through his stuff. He owned every Radiohead album ever recorded… and
some bootlegs I’d never heard of. I shook my head. Unbelievable.
“What?” he asked.
“You like Radiohead,” I said dumbly.
“That’s an understatement,” he said. “Is there any other band?”
“No.”
“I could burn you some stuff,” he suggested.
“I’m good.”
He frowned.
“It’s not you,” I said. “It’s… Thanks for the offer. And for picking me up.”
“Do you want to talk about what happened last night?”
“You can drop me off here,” I said. We were just a few blocks away from my
house. “I don’t want anyone to see…” My voice trailed off. See what exactly?
“I’m not the enemy,” he said.
Already out of the car, I spun around. “You were right.”
He looked blank. “Huh?”
“About me. About my fatal flaw.”
He started to protest. “I was just teasing you about that shit.”
“No,” I said. “It’s true. I prefer beauty to substance.”
Our eyes locked. In the icy light of late afternoon, his grey ones looked brook
clear. Something sorrowful caught in my throat. I waved him off as he tried to
come after me, and turned around before he could see my tears.
“Not a word,” I said, my voice just a hint of a whisper.
From Goodreads. As if transferring senior year weren't hard enough, Charlotte Locke has been bumped to lower level classes at her new school. With no friends, a terrible math SAT score, and looming college application deadlines, the future is starting to seem like an oncoming train for which she has no ticket.
Then Amanda enters her orbit like a hot-pink meteor, offering Charlotte a ticket to something else: popularity. Amanda is fearless, beautiful, brilliant, and rich. As her new side kick, Charlotte is brought into the elite clique of the debate team—and closer to Neal, Amanda's equally brilliant friend and the most perfect boy Charlotte has ever seen.
But just when senior year is looking up, Charlotte’s life starts to crumble. The more things heat up between Charlotte and Neal, the more Neal wants to hide their relationship. Is he ashamed? Meanwhile, Amanda is starting to act strangely competitive, and she's keeping a secret Charlotte doesn't want to know.
Alexa Martin holds an MFA in Writing and Literature from the Bennington Writing Seminars. She lives near Seattle and complains about the weather a lot although she secretly likes the rain (don't tell!) For fun and torture she runs long distances on muddy mountain trails. Over the years she's worked a lot of random jobs in trying to keep the writing dream alive, such as the time she worked in a steakhouse even though she's a vegetarian. Initially GIRL WONDER was about a story about a horse, which just goes to show you that art is what happens when you are making other plans.
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