by Jessie Rosen
Release Date: November 11th 2015
Full Fathom Five Digital
Summary from Goodreads:
From the moment Laura Rivers steps foot into Englewood High, she notices the stares—and they aren’t the typical once-overs every pretty new girl endures. The students seem confused and…spooked. Whispers echoing through the halls confirm that something is seriously off. “That new girl looks just like her,” they say.
It turns out Laura has a doppelgänger, and it isn't just anyone—it's Sarah Castro-Tanner, the girl who killed herself by jumping into the Navasink River one year ago.
Laura is determined not to let the gossip ruin her chances of making a fresh start. Thanks to her charming personality and California tan, she catches the eye of Englewood’s undisputed golden boy, Charlie Sanders, and it’s only a matter of time before they make their relationship official.
But something is making Charlie and his friends paranoid—and Laura soon discovers it has to do with Sarah Castro-Tanner.
What really happened to Sarah? Why is Charlie unraveling? And how does Laura Rivers fit into it all?
After all, she’s the dead ringer for a dead girl.
EXCERPT;
September
1
Laura
Deep
breath, big smile, and remember: it’s all about swag.
Laura
laughed at her reflection in the little compact she kept in her bag
for touch-ups and pep talks. The word “swag” sounded so
ridiculous. That’s what made it the perfect mantra for day one of
her senior year of high school—the very first time she would be
“the new girl.”
Laura
had been dreaming about her entrance into Englewood High since it was
decided that’s where she would spend this year—three thousand
miles away from her previous home. The move was a big change, but she
welcomed the clean slate. It was time to focus her energy on
everything but
the demons of the typical high school girl—the kind she’d been
her whole life: a wallflower and a pleaser. She was over the
precarious balance between wearing something trendy but not so “out
there” that people might talk. She was tired of being meek because
battling the Queen Bees seemed too scary. And the days of hiding her
natural smarts were over. Laura felt like high school was a tricky
series of hoops she had to jump through before she could finally live
on her own. So
if high school isn’t for me,
she’d decided, why
let all its silly rules run my life?
That
was Laura’s final thought as she stepped out of her vintage, black
BMW convertible and glanced around at the other cars in the student
parking lot. She’d debated the car purchase as soon as she arrived
on the East coast. Convertibles
are so obnoxiously California,
she’d thought, but then she reminded herself that worrying about
what everyone else thought was exactly the spiral she was trying to
avoid. Besides, she worshipped that car and had saved every penny she
could for almost two years to buy it. So what if people assumed it
was a gift from her parents? She’d inform them that she bought it
with a combo of waitressing tips from Joe’s Café right on the
Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, and money saved from fit modeling
for the Rosefox denim line in downtown LA. No one would expect that.
From what Laura knew of Englewood, most of the other BMWs in the lot
would be brand-new sweet-sixteen gifts.
And
yet the very first thing that caught her eye when Laura drove into
the senior parking lot was another old car with its convertible top
down. This one was cherry red and looked like it drove right out of a
90s music video, but it was in almost perfect condition. Apparently
at least one other person in this town had to buy their own ride,
Laura thought as she gave her reflection in the car window one final
check.
For
the first time in forever, she had decided to wear her long, blond
hair down and parted on the far-left side so a waterfall of curls
danced over her right eye, the slightly bluer one—the one that
usually made her self-conscious. Today she let the curls do their
thing instead of making sure every piece of frizz was locked down
with an army of gooey hair products. She wore simple makeup paired
with a shocking pink lipstick she’d seen on the girls strolling the
pier all summer long. It was wild, but it made her feel powerful. Her
first-day outfit was a 1960s floral shirt belted over a flirty, white
sundress to make sure her tan legs showed, because why not milk the
Cali-girl vibe? On her feet were cork-soled wedges in a neon-colored,
striped print from 1989—one of her favorite vintage finds besides
the car, of course. She was pretty sure she wouldn’t look like
anyone at this posh, brick-and-ivy-covered, suburban New Jersey
school, and she loved that fact. She was ready to start out on a
totally new foot.
But
just as Laura’s first-day confidence finally locked in, it
vanished.
Across
the parking lot, she caught the glance of two girls getting out of a
shiny, white Corvette. Laura smiled in their direction, but something
was off about the way they both looked back at her. Their faces were
frozen in a strange, almost confused look that made her instantly
uncomfortable. It was more than just the usual new-kid-in-school
stares.
It
wasn’t until the shorter, curly-haired girl glanced back and
quickly turned away again that Laura saw the real feeling behind her
eyes: she was scared.
*
* *
“Rivers?
Do we have a Laura Rivers? Hello, hello? Miss Rivers?”
Laura
slipped into first period AP English just as the bell rang. Ms.
O’Malley stood at the front of the room, just as skinny and
evil-looking as all the online reviews claimed. She barely looked up
from her attendance sheet as she barked. If she had, she would have
seen twenty-four sets of eyes staring directly at Laura, and she
would have also noticed that something was off.
As
with those girls in the parking lot, there was something about these
stares that gave Laura instant goose bumps. It was like everyone who
saw her had the exact same thought. The only way she could think to
describe the looks on their faces was spooked.
“Yes.
Hi!” Laura said, trying her best to push through the awkward
moment.
“Try
to get here before the bell rings tomorrow,” Ms. O’Malley said.
“I have you all seated alphabetically, so go take a seat
behind…hmm, let me see…”
Laura
scanned the room for empty desks. There were two open seats where
students with last names beginning with R
might fall. One was directly behind a way-too-friendly looking
cheerleader type. She gave Laura a fairly convincing fake smile, but
Laura took it with a grain of salt. Girls like that were skilled at
the art of playing instant besties.
Then
Laura’s eyes hit the person sitting behind the only other open
chair, and instantly locked. It was as if there was a magnetic field
around him; if you stayed far enough away it wouldn’t suck you in,
but once you looked, you were done.
“Charlie
Sanders,” Ms. O’Malley finally bellowed. “Charlie, raise your
hand for the new girl to see.”
That
wasn’t necessary—Laura had already found him. In the time it took
him to lift his hand, she’d already stared through his dark-brown
eyes, his knife’s-edge cheek bones, his messy-but-not-on-purpose
chestnut hair, and his wide, toothy smile. She had to clench every
muscle in her body to stop herself from giggling as he smiled
politely in her direction.
But
in the time it took for Charlie’s hand to fall back at his side,
that smile was gone. Laura saw the switch go off in his head and the
confusion land on his face. It was the same creeped-out reaction
she’d prompted so far that morning. Charlie’s version of the gaze
was by far the most intense, but it was also the shortest. He almost
instantly reverted back to a wide, comfortable smile. Either
he has better manners than the rest of my classmates, Laura
thought, or
he’s the best actor.
“I’m
Charlie,” he said as she took her seat.
“So
I’ve heard,” she teased. “I’m Laura…the new girl.”
“So
I’ve heard,” Charlie shot back. “Welcome to Englewood. It isn’t
all that bad. Where’d you move from?”
“Los
Angeles.”
“Oh.
In that case, this place sucks,” Charlie said.
“Way
to welcome the newbie…” Laura joked, and Charlie smiled back.
Then Ms. O’Malley demanded all eyes on the front of the room and
started rambling about the fact that Shakespeare was probably a
woman.
Laura
breathed a sigh of relief. For the next forty or so minutes she
didn’t have to worry about what Charlie was thinking of her, or try
to hide what she was thinking about him. It wasn’t until Charlie
tapped her on the shoulder to pass him a copy of the homework
assignment circulating around the room that Laura’s heart started
pounding again. She caught him off guard when she turned around, and
he had that same instant reaction to her face. For the first time,
Laura put her finger on what was so strange about it.
He
was looking at her like he knew her.
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About the Author
Jessie Rosen is a writer, producer, and performer. She grew up in New Jersey, attended Boston College in Massachusetts, and began her writing career in New York. Her live storytelling series Sunday Night Sex Talk has received national attention. She was named one of “The 25 Best Bloggers, 2013 Edition” by TIME magazine for her blog 20- Nothings, which was also named in “The 100 Best Websites for Women” and “The Top 10 Best Websites for Millennial Women” in 2013 by Forbes.
Rosen is the oldest of four girls, which gives her a special window into the minds of teenagers. She now lives in Los Angeles, where she’s working on film and television projects, as well as her next novel.
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