The Best Laid Plans(100)

I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know if Andrew and I will stay together forever, if he’ll always be my best friend, my favorite person, my most important somebody. I hope so. I hope I’ll be eating pizza with him until we’re too old to chew. But I know I can’t plan it all out right now. I can’t look for answers in a book, can’t map everything out before it happens.

Sometimes life isn’t perfect. It isn’t a movie. I can’t direct it, can’t edit out the scenes that I don’t like. Life is messy and complicated and full of misunderstandings. And that’s okay. Whatever happens, I can’t wait.

I’m so ready.





ACKNOWLEDGMENTS




As a kid, when I imagined the ideal writer version of myself, it looked like this: me, alone in a cabin somewhere, on an island, or a beach, or on top of a mountain surrounded by trees. And while part of that has come true (I have written on several different islands), the truth is that writing is not something you do alone; there are so many people who have helped and cheered me along every step of the way.

First, I must thank my parents, who have always been supportive of my love of the arts (whether that meant driving me to rehearsals, plying me with piles of books each Christmas, or encouraging me to write on weekend mornings instead of watching cartoons). I’m thankful that the words “I’m bored” were always met with suggestions of how to fill my time with art and music. Thank you for understanding that I was never going to take a typical path and for cultivating my creativity. To my dad for inspiring in me a love of stories by reading to me each night before bed. To my mom, who, when I was feeling down about my music, said “I think you should be a writer” and changed the course of my life.

A huge thank-you to Shirin Yim Bridges. I started your class with an idea for a story, and now I get to share it with the world.

To my original writers group and the rest of the Richmond gang: Amanda, Jessica, Sara, Joey, Irene, Remi, and Erich. Thank you not only for your brilliant writing expertise, but for letting me text you endlessly about my anxieties, and in general for your magical unicorn friendship.

To the other writers who read my first drafts and helped me shape this story: Cassia, Cady, Jenn, Julie, and Marjorie. You’ve been with Keely and Andrew since the beginning. And to the rest of Shirin’s Army, thanks for your company and support and late-night glasses of cognac.

Thank you to Jody Gehrman, Sabrina Lotfi, and Renée Price for your beta reads and your enthusiastic championing. You fairy-godmothered this book and got her ready for prom.

I am incredibly lucky to have so many amazing friends. To the Doobs—with a friend like you, I play the right part. To my magical book club, thank you for being hilarious, intelligent, feminist queens who are always ready with a Harry Potter reference. Endless love to 4th Floor South, the Gauchos, and the whole Bae Area crew! You’re all my family and I am so thankful to have so much laughter in my life. If high school me—who was lonely and insecure and afraid of the future—could have seen you all coming, she would have been so proud. I know we will all stay friends forever and I can’t wait to eat pizza with you until we’re too old to chew. If this book sells well, I promise to buy the commune.

And of course, thank you to my amazing agent, Taylor Haggerty, and the rest of the Root Literary team (special shout-out to Melanie Figueroa for picking me out of the slush!). Thanks to my incredible editor, Julie Rosenberg, and to everyone else at Razorbill, for believing in this book and making my dreams come true. Thank you to Heather Baror-Shapiro for bringing this book abroad, and to Mary Pender-Coplan for film. Thanks to my designer, Maggie Edkins, and my illustrator, Carolina Melis, for my beautiful cover. To the marketing and publicity teams at Penguin for everything you’re doing to share my story.

Last, but certainly not least, thank you to the readers. Without you this would all be meaningless.