The Karma Club (27 page)

Of course, I’d like to say that nothing will change. That at the end of the summer my friends and I will go our separate ways to college and still manage to stay close, and that Spencer and I will be able to survive a cross-country relationship without any unforeseen glitches or kinks in the plan. But I know now that change is inevitable. In fact, it’s the only thing that’s constant. So I really can’t fight it. There’s just no point. All I can do is continue to live my life the best way I know how and trust that everything will work out fine.

I believe that good Karma is not something that can be achieved alone. I’m grateful to the following people, who have helped contribute to mine. My parents, Michael and Laura Brody, you must be bruised from all the bad ideas I’ve bounced off of you over the years. Charlie Fink, thank you for putting up with all my writer mood swings. I would promise you the next book will be different, but we both know that’s a promise I can’t keep. I love you. My fantastic agent, Beth Fisher, who encouraged me to write this book and sold it with such finesse. Everyone at Levine Greenberg, thank you for everything you do and the spectacular way you do it. Janine O’Malley, you’re the kind of editor every writer dreams of working with. Congratulations on Callum! Everyone at FSG and Macmillan Children’s, without you this would just be a sloppy and grammatically incorrect pile of unread pages. Thanks to Bill Contardi, my brilliant and savvy film agent. Mark Stankevich, the most nonlawyer lawyer I know. My sister, Terra, the social butterfly of the family, thanks for filling up my New York readings with such an international assortment of book buyers! Alyson Noël, your inspiring prolificacy is the only reason I can finish a novel. And last but not least, thank you to you. Yes, you, the one holding this book. Writers’ dreams come true every day because of you.