Stephanie Wardrop | Snark in High School

Georgia Barrett is a sensible sixteen-year-old girl.  She knows that her lab partner, Michael Endicott, is a preppie snob - even if his dark eyes make her insides melt a little and her heart race like a hummingbird's. Sure, his refusal to join in on a non-date with Georgia's sister and her boyfriend stings, but she knows they don't belong together anyway. A stiff-backed blue blood and a quirky vegan feminist? That's ridiculous. Everyone should know that.

"Sounds like you're a perfect team," Trey says, which proves my suspicion that he has a tin ear for irony.  He adds, "Hey, Tori and I are going to a movie tomorrow night.  You guys should come, too!"

I look at Tori for a second to make sure that this is okay with her. She smiles like she just received a generous and unexpected gift and not at all like a big sister confronted with a pesky little-sister tagalong.  I turn to Michael then, just as he says, rather sharply, "No."

Just, "No."

Not, "No, I have to wash my grandmother's back that night."

Or, "No, I read to orphans at the library on Fridays."

Or, "No, my religion strictly forbids the viewing of moving images."

Or even, "No, thank you."

He has the grace to add, "Sorry," but it's a few seconds too late. I can feel myself turning red and my body temperature has shot up to sub-Saharan levels.  I duck my head and begin digging in my lunch bag as if something is in there that I desperately need—like a bigger bag to put over my head.  Normally I'd feel indignant at his rudeness, and I do, a bit, but mostly I just feel mortified.  I can't even speak because I'm too busy concentrating on squelching that tingly feeling in my nostrils that comes before tears, and loathing myself for feeling it. 

So why does Michael seem so disturbed by the attention senior hottie suddenly gives to Georgia? And if he dislikes her so much, why does he ask her to dance at the Harvest Ball - until Jeremy cuts in? It's like something out of a Jane Austen novel, but Georgia lives in the real world. The twenty-first century. Though a romantic rescue at a New Year's Eve party could change the way she sees everything.

CHARM AND CONSEQUENCE (Swoon Romance, May 2013) is the second installment in the SNARK AND CIRCUMSTANCE series of YA romance e-novellas. A contemporary retelling of Jane Austen's PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, the story follows Georgia as she discovers that she has a lot to learn about people. And about love. It takes a boy like Michael to help her see past her own assumptions and insecurities. They do belong together - but what will it take to get them to see that?

Have YOU ever met someone who drove you absolutely bonkers, but there was just something about them that you couldn't shake off? Or have you ever grown close to someone who defied everything you ever would have thought about them? Leave a comment below about your experience and win the first two ebooks in the SNARK series.  The last two enovellas release in August (PRIDE AND PREP SCHOOL) and December (PROM AND PREJUDICE).

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Author Bio

Stephanie Wardrop grew up in Reading, Pennsylvania, a town most people know only from the Monopoly board game, where she spent a lot of time in city's libraries.  She started writing when she'd run out of books to read and now lives in New England with her husband, two kids, five cats, and one gecko. Like Georgia Barrett, she loves baking, traveling, animals, and snark of all kinds.