by Rachel Cohn
I actually jumped into his arms for a hug. “I’m sorry, Dad!” There was this tense moment from him. His body stiffened, like he didn’t know what to do with my affection. Then he relaxed, gave me a nice pat on the back, and, like a typical uptight New Englander, pulled free of me and proceeded with his walk. I caught up with him and took his hand, whether he liked it or not. He clenched.
Dad said, “You’re not going to leave that preposterous vehicle at the restaurant, are you?”
I said, “I’ll go back for it. Nice to have a little Devonport-y walk. The cold Cape air feels nice, all clean and salty, like home.”
“I thought you hated Devonport.”
“Eh, love-hate. It’s an evolving relationship.” The sound of his small laugh was one I hadn’t heard in forever.
We walked on toward our house. I let go of his hand just as we approached the lawn. I could hear Cash barking.
“Where are you going?” Dad asked.
I pointed to Henry’s house.
This one-hit Wonder had renounced her nunnery prospects and had a proper date with the boy next door. She asked him.
RACHEL COHN is the author of Gingerbread, which Teen People proclaimed “unforgettable,” and the middle-grade novel The Steps, which Publishers Weekly, in a starred review, cited for its “funny and feisty narrator caught in the middle of a complicated family situation.” Rachel lives in Manhattan, although through a complicated web of sublets, frequent-flyer miles, and couch-crashing in San Francisco and Los Angeles, she tries to consider herself bicoastal. Visit her Web site at www.rachelcohn.com.
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SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
Simon & Schuster
NEW YORK
ALSO BY RACHEL COHN
Gingerbread
The Steps
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2004 by Rachel Cohn
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cohn, Rachel.
Pop princess / Rachel Cohn.
p. cm.
Summary: Yearning to escape the small Massachusetts town where her family retreated after her sister’s death, Wonder Blake gets her chance when her sister’s manager offers Wonder a record contract on her sixteenth birthday.
ISBN 0-689-85205-3
eISBN 978-1-4814-5573-2
[1. Singers—Fiction. 2. Music trade—Fiction. 3. Popular music—Fiction. 4. Family problems—Fiction. 5. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 6. Massachusetts—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.C6665 Po 2004
[Fic]—dc21 2003000171