It’s LumberLegs. Holy bananas, it’s LumberLegs.
His slick black hair practically sparkles with gel as he looks up at Kat and me, who are just standing there, staring at him. “Um, hi?” he says.
Kat’s mouth clamps shut. The muscle or whatever it is under her chin moves, as if she’s trying ventriloquism. Trying and failing. She looks at me, wide-eyed, as if to say, “Dude, it’s the world’s most hilarious video-game player, LumberLegs, our idol, remember? You’re the voice of this operation. Hurry up and say something before he thinks we’re a couple of creepy, mute stalkers and calls the police.” Or something close to that.
I put on my toothpaste-commercial-iest grin. “Hi,” I say. “We are big fans. Like, the biggest. Can we get a picture with you?”
He shrugs. “Sure.” He gets to his feet, shoving his duffel bag under his chair. I pull out my phone and recruit the curvy white woman two seats down, who’s watching us with a grin, to take a picture.
She has to back up to get us all in the shot. As she does, Legs turns to me. “Hey,” he says, “weren’t you at my autograph signing Friday night?”
It’s all I can do to keep from squealing. He remembers me.
I shake my head. “Nope. Wasn’t me.”
“Say cheese,” says the woman with the phone. Legs puts his arms around each of our shoulders, and all three of us—me and Kat and LumberLegs!—say, “Cheeeeese.”
The woman hands the phone back to me. “I snapped a couple,” she says.
“Thanks,” I say. Then to LumberLegs, “Thanks so much.”
He nods. “No problem.” He lowers himself back into his seat, checks for his duffel bag, then, almost as an afterthought, flicks us a two-fingered salute. “Be awesome.”
“We will be,” Kat says, finding her voice.
“We are,” I say. Then I take hold of my best friend’s arm, and together we cross the airport to board a plane back home.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is the part of the book where I thank only a small fraction of the multitudes of people I’m grateful for, simultaneously making me feel like a jerk and like one of the luckiest people alive. If I don’t explicitly name you here, don’t think that you don’t make my heart beat with gratitude every day.
I am certain I hit the jackpot and won the editor lottery, because my editor, Stephanie Stein, has been nothing short of perfection. Stephanie, thank you for embracing the nerd in Kat and Meg, for your notes that always made me wonder why I hadn’t done it that way in the first place, and for always pushing me to dive deeper and go farther. Thank you to everyone at HarperCollins who’s touched Kat and Meg in big or small ways, especially copy editor Renée Cafiero, who helps save me from making too much of a fool of myself, Stephanie Hoover in publicity, Tyler Breitfeller in marketing, and the fabulously talented Michelle Taormina and Alison Donalty in design.
Thank you to my agent, Lauren Abramo at Dystel, Goderich & Bourret, who has been equal parts agent, therapist, and friend. Lauren, you are better than a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie with lactose-free milk. Thanks to the entire team at DG&B, including Mike Hoogland and Kemi Faderin, who make magic happen with numbers and money, and Sharon Pelletier, who social medias all the things.
Thank you to my family. To Mom, who loved Kat and Meg from the beginning like they were her own blood. To Em, who is my blood, but who I would choose as a friend. To Dad, Will, Anyu, Dan, Bear, Monkey, and the rest of my immediate and extended family, who send all their love and support to me from basically across the world.
I am so grateful to my critique group. I owe pretty much everything I know about writing novels to the years we’ve spent together. Leann Orris, you always saw what I was trying to do and helped me get there. Kat and Meg are as much yours as they are mine. Terri Bruce, thank you for all your tough-love pep talks. And Aimee, Teresa, Jeremy, Beth, and Sean, I am thankful for all your feedback and support.
To the Kats to my Meg and the Megs to my Kat, thank you thank you thank you. Katelyn Larson, you are the Sam to my Frodo. Laura Geddes, thank you for every friendship date we’ve had and for every one to come. Emily Bain Murphy, you are the heart on the crook of my elbow. I love you all dearly.
Sometimes I wonder how I’m possibly still standing, and then I look down and see all the people holding me up. Bree Barton, Caitie Flum, Chelsea Sedoti, Erin and Chris Dawson, Isabel Van Wyk, Jilly Gagnon, Kayla Olson, Keira Drake, Nic Stone—thank you for keeping me from falling into the abyss.
Thank you to my writer family, including K, Greggles, Morgan, Rachel, Jo, Josh, Katie, Jess, LL, Carrie, Tasha, Jason, and others already mentioned. You are my team, my strength, my cheerleaders, my silliness, my happiness.
Thanks to Allisha Ena Short, who let me steal the fine details of her life and give them to Meg. I am so grateful for my early readers, Dhonielle Clayton, Leah Henderson, Rebecca Barrow, Brianne Hoines, and Monica Bellous, without whom Kat and Meg would be stuck in just two dimensions, when they belong in at least seven.
Thank you to my fab swankies and electrics and sixteeners and Twitter peeps and every other beautiful soul I’ve met in this writerverse. Nothing can convince me that there are fewer of you than there are stars in the sky, because even when it’s dark, I feel surrounded by light.
To YouTubers VintageBeef, Guude, Aureylian, and the rest of the current and former Mindcrackers. Thank you for providing years of entertainment, suspense, personality, and laughs for my obsessive fangirl enjoyment.
And to my rock, Lorne. Thank you for sticking with me even when I’m a workaholic, exhausted, nervous wreck. More than that, thank you for supporting me and loving me and helping me know that everything will be okay. Oh, and thank you for the turtle. I love you.
Finally, thanks to God—for everything, forever and always.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Courtesy Anna Priemaza
ANNA PRIEMAZA is a contemporary young adult author and a practicing family and immigration lawyer in Edmonton, Alberta, where she lives with her husband. She can never quite remember how old she is, as she knits like an old lady, practices law like an adult, fangirls over YouTubers like a teen, and dreams like a child.
www.annapriemaza.com
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BOOKS BY ANNA PRIEMAZA
Kat and Meg Conquer the World
CREDITS
Cover art by BOOM CGI
Cover design by Michelle Taormina
COPYRIGHT
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
KAT AND MEG CONQUER THE WORLD. Copyright © 2017 by Anna Priemaza. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, 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 hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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ISBN 978-0-06-256080-3
EPub Edition © October 2017 ISBN 9780062560834
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