IN MY HEART & IN MY HEAD
By: Rachel Kramer
11.5.08

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious"
-Albert Einstein


Author's Note:
This is a little something I wrote nearly a year ago. For those of you who've read my story "Angels in the Alleyways" this is completely different story - still supernatural - but overall very dissimilar.
IN MY HEART & IN MY HEAD is a YA (young adult) novel about a senior named Jodie who wants to move on with her life and leave her high school years behind. To do this, she must make it through her senior year with a "C" average and her life intact; which is a lot easier than it sounds if you don't consider the new hottie distraction -Adam Reeves - and the paranormal chaos that seems to follow him.
I'm sure I've made some errors, so if you could point those out too, that'd be great. I tend to miss my own mistakes even when I read back over it. So, let me know what you think. Feedback and criticism is highly encouraged and appreciated :D.
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Chapter One
"Jodie please, please, please come with me to the bonfire! You're my best friend, you're supposed to help me out in times of need," Taylor was relentless.
It was going to be the beginning of our senior year and to celebrate going back to school some people from school were having a bonfire out in the desert. I personally wasn't one for parties and Taylor knew this. Hence the begging and the low blow best friend card.
"Taylor, seriously, you know that the bonfire will be torture for me! You only want to go because Jake will be there and I am not okay to get ditched for some boy. Just take someone else, you know, someone who likes these kinds of things," I pleaded with her to let me off the hook.
"But I want you there. You have nothing to worry about. I promise I won't leave your side. Just come with me for a little bit, and then when you can't stand it any longer we will leave!" When I didn't say anything more begging ensued, "This is our senior year; don't spend it being totally lame! Even if it's just tonight, do it for me. Please."
There was nothing I could say. After all, Taylor had a point. I never did anything too "exciting". Besides, she was my best friend and I just couldn't stand to hear her beg, "Fine."
"Really? Yay! Okay, I'll be there in like... ten minutes!" She squealed with joy and hung up.
I couldn't believe I was doing this.
Maybe Taylor was right. I practically never took chances and because of that my first three years at Palm Desert High School had been pretty dull. Those years were spent studying non-stop, sticking to all my responsibilities and I never broke one rule - not intentionally anyway. Having sort of secluded myself, I ended up cutting out everything else in my life; and because of that I felt like I completely did not fit in. Fortunately for me, it seemed that my classmates had not noticed my loser-like habits. They were usually too busy cheating off my work or on some kind of high to figure it out. Of course, not everyone was this way.
Whitney and Courtney are book-smart. They do their work and they are fairly responsible. They are also very social, very rich, and very pretty. They could do just about anything and every boy at our school would still consider them goddesses. Me on the other hand, well I was sort of invisible. I was simply average: average height, average weight, and average looks. I didn't really stand out. On top of all that I was brunette (which made me feel like the ugly duckling of my blond group of friends) and worst of all, I was shy. Shy is bad when you go to Palm Desert High School, which holds the reputation of the biggest party school for about 50 miles (maybe more). This bonfire would just be the first of many of the parties my classmates would throw.
If I was going to go through with this I was going to have to change. Running upstairs to my room, I raced to exchange my oversized sweatshirt for something more appropriate: a light yellow cotton blouse (which I paired with cut off jean shorts). Yes. This was much cuter.
Next, I made a pit-stop at my bathroom to brush my teeth and freshen up. Unless I was in the mood for a frizzy hair-do and a side of humiliation I never brushed my hair. It was a little too wavy to maintain with a brush so I left it the way it was. Luckily I didn't need to wear make-up either because about the only thing not average about me was my complexion and eyes. I had my father's porcelain skin and my cheeks had a natural flush about them. As for my eyes, I had my mother's stormy grey ones and her forest-thick lashes. There was no mistake that any attempt at eye shadow would only take away from their natural beauty rather than enhance it.