Frat Girl

by Kiley Roache

  The jaws on the left side of the room drop. Jackie smiles.

  Jordan stands with me, arm around my waist, as we fill out the paperwork to check out.

  My phone buzzes. I pull it out of my jeans pocket to see an email alert from the Stevenson Fund.

  Project Proposal for Next Year: Deadline approaching

  I close it. I have plenty of people to brainstorm with tomorrow, I think as we rejoin our friends.

  “Free?” Duncan asks.

  “Free.”

  Everyone stands up.

  Jordan turns to me. “What now?”

  I take his hand. “Now we go home.”

  * * * * *

  Acknowledgments

  The book that Frat Girl is today, and the person that I am as I write it, is thanks to the support and wisdom of so many amazing people.

  First I must thank Nicole Resciniti, who has at times been my cheerleader, therapist, mentor and friend, but is formally my agent. You believed in me when the phrase “I’ll finish up the draft after prom!” was one that made sense, and have encouraged and guided me from that day to this one.

  Thank you so much to the team at Harlequin TEEN and HarperCollins at large, including Natashya Wilson, Margaret Marbury and Siena Koncsol. As well, a special thanks to Leslie Wainger, who took a chance on me when Frat Girl was still just a few paragraphs, and Michael Strother, who just totally got it from our very first conversation and helped bring Frat Girl from rough draft to a much stronger version of itself. The amount of stress I am going through—and raw cookie dough I am stress eating—while writing this, the only part of the book that you will not touch, is a testament to what you have done with the rest.

  Thank you also to the authors who have been so welcoming to me, especially Joelle Charbonneau. To meet a writer you’re a fan of is incredibly exciting. For them to encourage you with your own writing is downright surreal.

  I would also like to thank by name some of the people the dedication alludes to: my college friends.

  Thank you to Nicolas Lozano, who really did run across campus when a boy was mean to me and has been one of my best friends ever since. And to AT Hall, a Hagrid-sized football player who would need no redemption story line because he is as gentlemanly and kind today as the day I first met him. Thank you to Carrie Monahan for your weird-awesomeness, insights on feminism and example of true female friendship.

  Thank you to Graeme Hewett, for all your inspiration and support—this book would probably not exist if I didn’t get to Skype you after I finished a chapter. And to Maddie Bouton, thank you for countless conversations that challenged my perspective on many things, beginning with how a blonde Southern sorority girl could also be a tattooed, bass-playing philosophy major. Lastly, thank you to Maddie Bradshaw, passionate feminist, brilliant business mind, wearer of Raise Boys and Girls the Same Way T-shirts, and expert dancer on tables—you are my person.

  And even more than my “college family,” it was the support of my real family that made this book possible.

  Thank you so much to my parents, who let my summer job be “I’m gonna write a book!” Twice. You have been incredibly supportive and I cannot thank you enough for all you have done for me.

  Thank you to my brothers, who kept me from taking myself too seriously and gave me my first insight into the pizza-rolls-for-dinner, laundry-once-a-month-if-possible world of boys in their natural habitat.

  Thank you to my sister, the first reader of this book, whose stamp of approval meant the world to me. You are younger than me but inspire me daily, as you are unapologetically smart, athletic and outspoken in a world that tells you to be otherwise.

  Finally I would like to thank my teachers—including Ms. Rodogno, Ms. Garcia, Ms. Waz and Ms. O’Mara—and my editors and mentors at The Mash and Huffington Post Teen, including Morgan Olsen, Phil Thompson, Michelle Gonzalez Lopez, Taylor Trudon and Elizabeth Perle. I’m sure that telling teenagers to write is hard. But helping them to write what they really care about, and encouraging them toward the best version of their own voice is truly an amazing feat. I am just one of many students who cannot thank you enough.

  ISBN-13: 9781488015434

  Frat Girl

  Copyright © 2018 by Kiley Roache

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this ebook 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 the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 22 Adelaide St. West, 40th Floor, Toronto, Ontario M5H 4E3, Canada.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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