Here's an excerpt from the new novel I'm working on. I've been spending the last weeks re-writing and re-writing and re-writing again my first manuscript Racists, Boys, Butthole and Old Lady Water Aerobics and haven't had time to work on anything new. I'm so incredibly sick of re-writing. I started this manuscript that I hope to turn into a YA novel in April. I currently only have 3 chapters done. 

For school, I've been focusing on revising RBBOLWA, but the characters of this potential novel and my story about Zander (see prior posts--another piece I hope will evolve into a YA manuscript) have been calling to me and so I thought I'd share them with you. 

This story, so far untitled, is narrated by Jaisa, a senior in high school who has hopes of becoming a cross country star. 

Chapter 2

            “Uh, hey, mind if I sit with you?” a voice, a dude voice, asked me in second day of Advanced Placement Physics.

            “Huh?” was my glorious response. I had been scribbling a dark mess that may have started out being some kind of flower with a pen in my notebook.

            “Can I sit with you? Cooper. I’m the new kid from cross country? I met you yesterday?”

            “Yeah, yeah, sorry. Of course, sit down, sure. I know you. I’m sorry, I just, you know, was busy scribbling,” I murmured sitting up straighter and moving my chair over so he could share my lab table. Lame ass I thought to myself. How rude can I get? “I’m Jaisa,” I said, extending my hand and smiling.

            “I know,” he responded. “I met you yesterday. Remember?”

            Lame ass to dumbass, way to go, Jaisa, I thought. He now thinks your rude and a dipshit.  “I know,” I said. “I just thought, you know, being new there’s probably a ton of names you learned yesterday and maybe you wouldn’t remember mine. I didn’t want it to be awkward for you if you forgot.”

            “Thanks. But it’s cool. I remembered it.” He laid out his planner open to this week, a pen, a pencil, a notebook open to a fresh page headed with the date, and his physics book.

            I had a chewed-on black pen that’s missing its cap in my hand and a thick spiral notebook I use for every class open to a page mostly covered in scribbles. I’m not sure how the scribbling started. I didn’t even notice I’d been doing it until now, but looking back through my notebook and the syllabuses I’d been given yesterday apparently it started yesterday. That’ll need to stop.

            “So, do you like physics?” he asked.

            “Huh? Physics? Oh, yeah, it’s ok, I guess. It’s easy enough.”

            “Great! So I picked a good seat!” He smiled at me.

            I smiled back. “Yeah, you did. Actually, I kind of love physics. And not just because it’s easy.”

            “I do too. I love just plugging in the formulas. It’s so clean and simple. I also like, you know, shooting things and flinging things and making things fly.”

            “Exactly. I love how there’s one right answer. No crap about opinions and interpretations. The force of gravity is the force of gravity. I mean yeah, there’s all the string theory and those kinds of hypotheses, but really this is just a chance for me to do more math with the added fun of shooting rockets and building cars.”

            Mr. Miller came in then and started lecturing. Mr. Miller is kind of amazeballs. He’s super old with hair like he stuck his tongue in a toaster and cowboy boots and he always tells dirty science jokes or mutters a “that’s what she said.” Most people hate him because he’s really smart, too smart really, so he’s kind of hard to follow sometimes. He doesn’t always know how to dumb some things down.

            “Attach yourselves to whatever succubus you may be sitting with because that’s the sucker you’ll be stuck with for the rest of the semester. Hopefully, you didn’t choose an idiot,” he told the class.

            “Well, looks like you’re stuck with me, Succubus,” Cooper whispered to me.

            “Whhhaaat?” I hissed back. “Who said I’m the succubus?”

            “You have to be. You’re the girl.”

            “Huh?”

            “A succubus is a female demon that takes advantage of men while they’re sleeping.”

            I gave Cooper a what-the-fuck look.

            “Kash is an English major. He reads a lot and likes to share cool words,” he explained.

            “Wow. Fantastic, a succubus,” I said, nodding. “I guess there are worse things to be. Like an idiot. If I’m the succubus in this pair, you must be the idiot.”

            “Haha! I’m glad you can take a joke. I didn’t mean to call you a succubus. As it came out, I was really worried you’d freak out on me or think I was a dick,” he said laughing.

            “Oh, hold on. Let’s be clear here, I never said I didn’t think you were a dick. I just said I’m glad I’m not the idiot in our partnership,” I replied, laughing.

            “Haha, ok. I probably deserve that.”

            “I’ll suspend judgment on your assholeness for now,” I said, narrowing my eyes and looking at him with mock seriousness.

            “I suppose that’s all I can ask,” he said, still laughing.