It's my favorite kind of week here: we're celebrating a new book release. Tina's JUST YOUR AVERAGE PRINCESS, out in stores tomorrow, is a novel about Jamie in constant competition with her cousin Milan. Milan moves to town and takes over Jamie's life, from getting Jamie's family's attention, to trying to steal the guy she has a crush on and even entering the Pumpkin Princess competition that Jamie has planned on competing in since she was a little girl. So we Author2Author authors asked each other: which family member did you compete with as a teen?
Well, I didn't have any sisters or cousins close in age. That was a real bummer in my small Catholic town. EVERYONE I went to school with had brothers and sisters and cousins to watch their backs. Everyone but me. Why, my best friend had cousins in every grade in high school. My other best friend had so many siblings, we could walk to almost any town hot spot and find someone to give us a ride home. So I did what any other reasonable person would do: I lied about having cousins.
It started with my mother's best friend's niece. Mom's best friend had been my day care growing up, so I knew all the family gossip and had attended the parties. I started calling Michelle my cousin when I saw her in the hallways. "Hey, we are like cousins!" she said. There was only one problem with my plan. Michelle actually DID have cousins in our high school. (Remember, everyone but me.) Before I knew it, though, they were calling me cousin. It turned out everyone was just as competitive about having the biggest posse as I was.
My adopted cousins and I took it seriously enough that they only dated my friends and never me. When one of them moved to another town, he drove back for my high school graduation. Thanks, "cousins"! It was an honor just to be allowed to compete in the cousin contest. Only, you know, most people knew they weren't really my cousins, so that part was kind of pathetic. But I made some great cousin-friends along the way.
You probably didn't compete FOR fake family members. But did you compete WITH family members, like Jamie and Milan? All you have to do to win an autographed copy of JUST YOUR AVERAGE PRINCESS is leave a comment today through Thursday! We'll pick the winner on Friday. So tell us about your competitive side and maybe you'll win!
-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages
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