Things seem to be going well in Landry Albright’s world—she’s getting invited to be on local talk shows to talk about her modeling career, her best friends have her back, and her boyfriend Vladi has becoming someone she can truly count on…and then everything changes.
Suddenly it seems like most of the girls in school are into hanging out at a new teen dance club, while Landry just wants to spend her weekends playing video games and baking cup-cakes at sleepovers. Then, Yasmin McCarty, the most popular girl in school, starts to come between Landry’s friendship with her best friend Ashanti. Things take a turn when Yasmin tells Vladi that Landry is interested in another boy. Can Landry get her relationships with Ashanti and Vladi back or will she be left out and left behind?
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Krysten Lindsay Hager is the author of the Landry’s True Colors Series, a clean reads young adult series and the new Star Series. Krysten writes about friendship, self-esteem, fitting in, middle school and high school, frenemies, modeling, crushes, values, and self-image in True Colors, Best Friends…Forever? And Landry in Like, as well as in, Next Door to a Star (Star Series). Her sequel to Next Door to a Star will be out March 22 2016.
Krysten is a book addict who has never met a bookstore she didn’t like. She’s worked as a journalist and writes YA, MG, humor essays, and adult fiction. She is originally from Michigan and has lived in Portugal, South Dakota, and currently resides in southwestern Ohio where you can find her reading and writing when she’s not catching up on her favorite shows. She received her master’s degree from the University of Michigan-Flint.
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Excerpt #1:
I wanted to call my friends and tell them about being on the talk show, but Mom said we had to be at the TV station super early — even before school started. She said I could text them, but I had to turn off my phone and go to bed.
“I’m waking you up at four a.m.,” she said. “You have to be there at five-thirty.”
“Can I just call Peyton and Ashanti? Please?”
“Fine, but you have five minutes and then that phone is mine and you’re in bed.”
I dialed Peyton, but her mom said she was in the shower. I told her mom about the show tomorrow and said my mom wouldn’t let me stay up any later to call Peyton back.
“How exciting! I will make sure Peyton knows, and I will be watching you tomorrow. Good luck, honey,” Mrs. Urich said.
I called Ashanti next and told her.
“Get out. Get. Out. No way. This is so exciting!”
“I’m so nervous. My stomach is already doing cartwheels. I can’t do one, but my stomach can. Seems unfair. What if I throw up before I go on? I did that right before I went on at the statewide Ingénue competition in Detroit, and my mom had to give me a cough drop to cover up the smell.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine, but… just in case, take a cough drop with you,” Ashanti said. “Good luck. You’ll be great and I’ll go set the DVR now.”
I hung up and sent a text to Vladi, India, Devon, Thalia, Tori, and Ericka, so no one would be mad and feel left out. Then I shut off my phone. Mom poked her head in the door to make sure I was in bed.
“Night, hon. Try to get some rest,” she said.
Easier said than done. I stared at my ceiling while thinking about all the things that could possibly go wrong tomorrow. Seeing as the show was on in the morning, I never got to watch it, so I had no idea what the set was like — did it have super high chairs and I’d struggle to get into them? And what if it had those higher stools that were kind of tippy and my rear overshot the seat and I fell off? Or what if the prep questions got lost and the interviewer asked me random things like my feelings on nuclear war or asked me about some foreign political leader who I had never heard of before, and I appeared stupid? Why did I say I’d do this? I tried to get comfortable and it felt like I had just dozed off when I felt my mom shaking my shoulder.
“Rise and shine, TV star,” she said.
Excerpt #2
“This is going to be so much fun!” Devon said as she opened the door. We all walked in and instantly my head felt weird and I tripped. My eyes had to adjust to the light as it was way darker inside, and everything was outlined in neon and lights. It was like a huge warehouse, and it was noisy and crowded. I wanted to turn around and call Mr. Allen to save me from this big, scary mob. But the other girls were all smiling. Even Peyton. Great, I was the only one wetting my pants in fear. Liv saw some guys she knew so we walked over to watch them play pool. Almost immediately a group of boys came over and bought sodas for Kendall, Liv, Valine, India, and Devon. I went to say something to Peyton when I noticed she had a soda in her hand, too.
Just then one of the guys bumped into me. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t see you there,” he said.
“No worries,” I said. I’m just the invisible soda-less one. Don’t mind me, I wasn’t thirsty anyway.
Kendall glanced at her phone. “My brother texted me that he and Vladi are here already. Do you want to go find them?” I nodded.
“Does he know I’m here?”
She shook her head. “No, I wasn’t sure if you were coming or not when I talked to him, so I just told him you might be coming. They usually hang out over at the air hockey table.”
I tried texting Ashanti again, but no response. Was it too loud in here for her to hear her phone, or was she too busy having fun to care? Liv and Peyton came with us to go look for Steve and Vladi. Liv spotted them over by some couches. Vladi was sitting on the edge of an ottoman and a red-haired girl was leaning over and whispering in his ear. He was nodding and looking around. She put her hand on his arm and leaned forward.
“Oh man, that does not look good,” Liv said.
“He doesn’t seem interested in her,” Kendall said. “He’s looking everyplace but at her. I’ve known him for years, and if he likes a girl then he has razor focus. Trust me.”
I felt a little queasy when she said that. How many girls had she seen him be interested in?
Peyton put her hand on my arm. “It does seem like she’s more into him.” We watched as Vladi pulled out his phone and started texting.
“See? You don’t text when you’re with someone you like,” Kendall said, folding her arms. “That would just be rude.”
The redhead moved closer and now had both her hands on his upper arm. My eyes stung with tears.
“Clingy, much?” Liv said. “She’s, like, a stalker.”
“Do you want me to go over there?” Kendall asked. I shook my head, willing myself not to throw up on the floor.
