The shy ones are diamonds in the rough.
QUINN THOMPSON
When I walk into a room, the popular kids whisper about me. I donât own designer clothes or name-brand shoes. I donât wear low-cut shirts or tons of makeup either. Iâm as plain Jane as a girl can get. I live on a farm, where the uniform of the day is boots, jeans, and a T-shirt unless itâs winter; then I trade my T-shirts for heavy sweaters and a parka. Baggy is my style.
But Iâm considered one of the nerds in school for reasons besides my wardrobe. I have my nose in books while the popular girls have their noses up jocksâ butts. I do everything I can to avoid the in crowd at Kensington Highâuntil a new boy waltzes in. Heâs tall like my brothers, handsome like Zach Efron, and disrupts my belief that boys only want one thing. My only problem is heâll never notice me, not if my arch-nemesis has any say.
MAIKEN MAXWELL
Basketball has been my life until my dad died. Iâm trying not to get depressed, but itâs hard to breathe sometimes. Heâll never cheer from the stands at any of my basketball games or shout at me to shoot that three-pointer. I promised him I would step up if anything happened to him, and now itâs time to be the man of the house.
Only Iâm torn between playing for the Kensington High basketball team and finding a jobâuntil the girl with butterscotch hair snags my attention. Sheâs pretty, quirky, and her presence takes my mind off my troubles. Above all else, she makes me feel things that Iâve never felt before. In my mind, girls are just a distraction. Theyâre nice to look at, they talk too much, and theyâre extremely pushy. Yet Quinn Thompson might change my opinion that all girls are created equal.