BY BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE CLIQUE & MONSTER HIGH

LISI HARRISON

AN EXCERPT FROM JAGGER’S JOURNAL

spilled secrets from the phoenix five:

Little, Brown and Company New York Boston

BY #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR

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I was hoping to see Audri at lunch but she wasn’t there. Second day in a row.

Did I freak her out when we doubled home? Something about her face (Blue glasses? Uneven smile?

Freckle below her right eye?) said, “Go on, Jagger, tell me everything. Trust me with the extended-play version of your story. Life hasn’t always been fair to me, either. I won’t run. I won’t ever run.”

Still. I should have known better. I should have left out the part about being followed by Pat, the

ex– navy SEAL with a history of violence and a score to settle.

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At least until she got to know me better. But she seemed so interested and it felt good to talk. Too many people know my deal. Bags of clothes appear by my locker. I never eat lunch alone.

Even the 3Ms say hi to me in the halls. But Pat knows too. I can feel it.

Bushes shake when I walk by. Camoufl age blurs whip through my line of vision when I’m in crowded places. Randy’s pets bang on their cages the moment I fall asleep.

Last time I visited Carla and Ed in prison they begged me to keep to myself. They made me promise.

Pat wants revenge. Payback for teaching Pat Jr. that lesson about bullying. And the best way to hurt my parents is to hurt me.

I should have kept my promise. I really really should have kept my promise. I should have kissed Audri instead of blabbing. That kiss- butt Vanessa just sat on the couch across from

me. She’s journaling too. She keeps looking at me. She’s scratching her arm like crazy, which makes me think she has some sort of communicable skin disease.

Contracting a communicable skin disease is no way to win Audri back.

Man, she’s itchy. Imagine if she lifted up her leg and started scratching

behind her ear like Noodle did when he had fl eas. I just laughed out loud a little.

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100

Uh-oh. She just smiled at me. What if she wants to come over and talk? What if she asks

me to join her on her infested communicable couch? I can’t let her think I am open to that. Better fake sleep.

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This book is a work of fi ction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fi ctitiously. Any resemblance to actual

events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2013 by Lisi Harrison

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of

the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes),

prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at permissions@hbgusa.com . Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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First Paperback Edition: May 2014First published in hardcover in October 2013 by Little, Brown and Company

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Harrison, Lisi.Pretenders / by Lisi Harrison. — First edition.

pages cm.Summary: “Five high school freshmen—the Phoenix Five—reveal their

friendships, crushes, school and family dramas, and big secrets, as told in their unique voices through journal entries”— Provided by publisher.

ISBN 978-0-316-22244-0 (hc)—ISBN 978-0-316-22232-7 (pb)[1. High schools—Fiction. 2. Schools—Fiction. 3. Diaries—Fiction.

4. Friendship—Fiction. 5. Dating (Social customs)—Fiction. 6. Family life—New Jersey—Fiction. 7. New Jersey—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.H2527Pqm 2013 [Fic]—dc23 2012048434

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

RRD-C

Printed in the United States of America

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