Before I Fall

by Lauren Oliver

does anybody want to relive the first day of middle school? Add in all of the boring family vacations, pointless algebra classes, period cramps, and bad kisses I barely lived through the first time around . . .

The whole point of growing up is learning to stay on the laughing side.

You don’t remember to tell your parents that you love them or—in my case—remember to say good-bye to them at all. If you’re like me, you wake up seven minutes and forty-seven seconds before your best friend is supposed to be picking you up.

She’s so real for this

and pray to God you left your makeup in the bottom of your messenger bag so you can do it in the car.

There are only two days of the year when Lindsay, Ally, Elody, and I deliberately dress the same: Pajama Day during Spirit Week, because we all bought cute matching sets at Victoria’s Secret last Christmas, and Cupid Day.

That’s not to say that our high school doesn’t have its freaks—it does—but even the freaks are freaky in the same way. The Eco-Geeks ride their bikes to school and wear clothing made of hemp and never wash their hair, like having dreadlocks will somehow help curb the emission of greenhouse gases.

I lean forward, trying to apply mascara without gouging my eye out. Lindsay’s never been the most careful driver and has a tendency to jerk the wheel around, come to sudden stops, and then gun the engine.