The shy ones are diamonds in the rough.
QUINN THOMPSON
When I walk into a room, the popular kids whisper about me. I donāt own designer clothes or name-brand shoes. I donāt wear low-cut shirts or tons of makeup either. Iām 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 itās winter; then I trade my T-shirts for heavy sweaters and a parka. Baggy is my style.
But Iām 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 jocksā butts. I do everything I can to avoid the in crowd at Kensington Highāuntil a new boy waltzes in. Heās tall like my brothers, handsome like Zach Efron, and disrupts my belief that boys only want one thing. My only problem is heāll never notice me, not if my arch-nemesis has any say.
MAIKEN MAXWELL
Basketball has been my life until my dad died. Iām trying not to get depressed, but itās hard to breathe sometimes. Heāll 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 itās time to be the man of the house.
Only Iām torn between playing for the Kensington High basketball team and finding a jobāuntil the girl with butterscotch hair snags my attention. Sheās pretty, quirky, and her presence takes my mind off my troubles. Above all else, she makes me feel things that Iāve never felt before. In my mind, girls are just a distraction. Theyāre nice to look at, they talk too much, and theyāre extremely pushy. Yet Quinn Thompson might change my opinion that all girls are created equal.