Bad Apple (17 page)

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Authors: Laura Ruby

Tags: #Juvenile Fiction, #General, #Social Issues, #Adolescence, #Girls & Women

BOOK: Bad Apple

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“You do?” he says. His voice is weak but not as weak as it was. “Is it something dramatic?”

“Way dramatic,” I say.

“And unusual?”

“Take a look for yourself,” I say, and pull a small wrapped canvas from my backpack. I help him rip the paper.

It is a brand-new piece. Not one I rushed, but one I’ve been working on for a while.
Cenerentola Buys New Shoes.
Cenerentola’s in a shoe shop surrounded by piles of high heels and sneakers and clogs. Empty boxes litter the chairs and the floor.

But she’s trying on a special pair, a pair made just for her.

Glass slippers pronged just like bird’s claws.

Well.

If the shoe fits.

Grandpa beams. “That’s mighty unusual, Tola. Mighty unusual.”

“Yeah, okay,” says Madge. “We get it. She’s an artistic genius. But on to more important stuff. I’m starving. Anyone up for a trip to the cafeteria? Tola?”

And before I can answer, it occurs to me that, for the first time in a long long time, I feel full.

(
comments
)

It looks like no one’s posted on “my” blog for a while. Not surprising considering I’ve now got competition like TheTruthAboutChelseaPatrick.blogspot.com and that prom video they can’t even put on the ten o’clock news without getting fined by the FCC. But if there’s anyone out there still reading this, I thought you might want to know that some reporter is actually writing a book about my story. Or what people think is my story. This is from the press release, which some helpful neighbor shoved into our mailbox:

“The book will concern the scandal that rocked Willow Park High School, leaving a teacher jobless, a teenage girl bullied and devastated, and a community in shock. The book will use interviews from various sources, including school officials, family, friends, neighbors, and classmates, as well as commentary from the victim herself.”

Commentary from the “victim.” I think they mean me, but if they were interested in talking to
the real victim, it would be Mr. Mymer. He’s the one who lost his job when the whole world lost its collective mind. After I went to the next school-board meeting and spilled my guts, I sent him a picture of the mural I painted at the school (it stayed up for two whole days). I told him how sorry I was. He didn’t write back. At least, he hasn’t yet. I suppose I don’t blame him.

Even though I’ve been talking to reporters a lot lately—they’re all over this “cyberbullying” thing, which is funny considering they’re like a decade too late—I admit the book idea is a little weird. But then so many people have said so many things about me you could write a million books and they’d all be different. What do I care? Will this book really be about me? Or will it be about what other people have decided I am? Am I really “talking” to you now, or is this just some other random idiot killing time before their favorite show is on? Is what they say about Chelsea Patrick true, or is she just another “victim”? Prom video: the unvarnished truth or someone’s nasty home experiment with Photoshop and iMovie?

I guess it’s like everything else.

You have to figure out what you believe all for yourself.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I started this novel more than a decade ago, so I owe a huge debt of gratitude to a ridiculous number of people. Thanks to Ellen Levine, über-agent, and to Clare Hutton, editor and friend. To Catherine Onder, for her patience, her good humor, and the near-heroic effort that went into the editing of this book, and to Amy Ryan and Ray Shappell for their equally heroic efforts with the design. To Gretchen Moran Laskas, Anne Ursu, Audrey Glassman Vernick, Rosemary Graham, Gina Frangello, Cecelia Downs, Karen Halvorsen Shreck, Zoe Zolbrod, Tanya Lee Stone, Esme Raji Codell, Carolyn Crimi, Esther Hershenhorn, Myra Sanderman, and Franny Billingsley for reading early (and middle and endless) drafts, giving advice, and/or providing snacks. To Cynthia Leitich Smith, Greg Leitich Smith, Katie Davis, Sharon Darrow, Gail Giles, Kathi Appelt, Sean Petrie, and everyone else at the Austin retreat back in June of ’04 who read whole or part of the book in one of its infinite incarnations (and made me laugh so much). Thanks, too, to Sheila Kelly Welch and Jessica Metro, who shared their thoughts about making art. To Linda Rasmussen, Annika Cioffi, Tracey George, and Melissa Ruby for…oh, you know. And thanks to Steve, always, always, always.

About the Author

LAURA RUBY
lives in Chicago with her family. She spent much of her misguided youth writing angry, angsty poems and dyeing her hair lots of colors not found in nature. She is the author of GOOD GIRLS and PLAY ME as well as several other books for children and adults. You can visit her online at www.lauraruby.com.

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Also by Laura Ruby

PLAY ME

GOOD GIRLS

For Younger Readers

THE CHAOS KING

THE WALL AND THE WING

LILY’S GHOSTS

Credits

Jacket design by Amy Ryan & Ray Shappell

Copyright

BAD APPLE
. Copyright © 2009 by Laura Ruby. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Adobe Digital Edition September 2009 ISBN 978-0-06-192711-9

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