WTF . By, Peter Lerangis , Simon Pulse 2009 Genre : Fiction .

-Lerangis tells a story of 6 kids looking for a way out on one Friday night.

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In this realistic fiction book, WTF, everyone is sort of connected to each other. So, I’ll break it down person by person, Jimmy. Jimmy is, basically the 17 year old virgin that know one wants to talk to. He gets picked on, and is most of the time avoided and ignored. Ge gets good grades and is basically the goody two shoes. His best friend, Byron, is the boy who is so “perfect” he doesn’t really get in trouble. But lately, Byron has been getting close to Cam, the guy Jimmy can’t stand. Cam, is the popular athlete of the school and he captures everyone’s eyes with his good looks and good grades. He’d also the one known to barrow drugs and ‘nd sell them to others to pay back his dealer which, he never does. Cam, has Reina’s heart. Reina is a smart, pretty girl who everyone knows about. She’s naturally sweet and kind, and sort of shy, but she knows how to stand her grounds and isn’t exactly easy to take advantage of. Waits, has this dream of being with Reina. He’s sort of the Mystery guy, who has all the girls lined up to hook up with next. If one girl doesn’t work out, well he’s on to the next. But, he’ll never have a chance with Reina being he’s a drug dealer who graduated from high school a year ago and did nothing with his life besides work for the mafia. Oh, don’t forget his life is in danger if he doesn't pay his boss back before 12 am. Mc, who comes along at the end of the book is a hyper active, annoying little teenage girl who if isn’t careful can ruin everything. She’s a country, North Dakota child on the inside and gets involved in a big drug deal and basically holds Byron’s life in her hands with the pills she stole from him. She’s just an idiot minor character in the story and annoys me to no ending and I don’t understand her point in being in the book. BY now, you should know this book is about a major drug deal, that goes very wrong very fast. Don’t they all?

The setting is in NYC, present day. I’ll tell you the short story that doesn’t give the ending away. Cam barrows drugs from Waits who got the drugs from the Mafia for half price and if he doesn’t get the money back to them before midnight, well he’s dead. Waits tells Cam and Byron about the party about an hour away from them and tells them to go buy drugs to sell at the party for a bigger price. Byron and Cam agree and when Byron leaves, Waits tells Cam a few secrets. The only problem with getting to the party is Cam and Byron don’t have licenses, but Jimmy “does” .. So they tell Jimmy that the party will have mad girls there and it’s the perfect way to get screwed up and laid. So, he agrees, of course. What the boys don’t know is that Jimmy doesn’t have his license, he just knows how to drive. So they’re on their way to the party, Jimmy hits a deer, kills Cam, moves Cam to the drivers side making him look like he was driving and then they flee the scene. They drop their phone, arrive at the party, and Jimmy is arrested by the police. Jimmy tells them Cam was driving and they were heading to the party, got scared and continued on,a dn the police brought him to Cam showing him he was alive. Cam and Jimmy talk, bada boom, bada bing, and Jimmy knows about the drugs. On the other hand, Byron meets MC, and they go to a club to start selling drugs, Byron chickens out and leaves and becomes an Illegal taxi service. Wtf? Byron wrecks the car, and flees the scene again heading back to the club to MC. Byron tells Reina the whole story, and her and MC cry in the bathroom of Gino’s club. Reina goes out, throws everyone Waits money and tells him off, Cam walks in the club with Jimmy and tells everyone he’s okay. Everyone hugs, kisses, and makes up and no one gets arrested for their actions. Cam’s family pays for the car, and the drugs. Waits gets out of the game and becomes a good guy and everyone lives happily ever after. Literally.

“This book is the best thing ever” says an anonymous character. I can agree with this book, I really like it and how it relates to teenagers common day problems in a way. The only thing I disagree with is it wasn’t realistic with the consequences of their actions.

I’ve never read a book like this before. I’ve seen shows like skins but never read books like it. Wtf makes me want to read more about the subject and more books from the author. He’s probably an adult but knows exactly how teenagers who grew up too fast are like and that’s why I have a connection with his writing.

My favorite quote from the book was, “ ‘If I close my eyes....’ It felt good to hear music. It felt good to be indoors. It felt good to have found a bottle of single-malt scotch hidden away in the kitchen cupboard, let’s not forget the mary being passed around with x-tasy.”

I can relate to this story because I’m young and looking to love in any possible way and just have fun, but every time everything begins to get really good, something bad happens and ruins it. But just like the teens in thi s book, I’ve learned from my mistakes and am moving forward trying to do the best I can to succeed, sometimes I just need an extra boost to get me back on track. My mistakes though, don’t stop me from doing what I do, and neither do people. Just like the kids here. I really do love this book, and I give it a “4- pounce on it” , only because the ending was so simple with no consequences to their actions even though they all broke laws. It’s almost like the author got sick and tired of writing the book and had to think of a quick conclusion to get it done and over with.

Life Without You

Em Thorne

Daisy - How I live now
Alfred - The Contender

How I Live Now - Part Two .
As much as I love you “I can’t stay here, with you” .. The room stayed silent after those few words. It’d been 2 years after Daisy came back to London, and things had changed after the war she’d experience at first hand. She had fallen in love with her surroundings. She had fallen in love with her cousin who had shown her much emotion 8 years ago, but he hangs on to the fact that she “left”. “Then leave..Again” he said. First words I’d heard in 3 months from him, thought Daisy, I would have expected a fight. But he said 3 words, and I was kissing Piper on the forehead goodbye, and left for the United States. “Well, back to the city life of New York.” she said. She’d fought for a while the tears, held them back, locked them away, but she couldn’t fight how much she’d loved him. How much she wanted him, but he didn’t try, so why should she? ..So she cried, for a while. And wished Piper were with her to comfort her sobbing, but when she turned to her right a snotty child was playing her Nintendo DS kicking the seat ahead of her which seemed to be her father. Next to her sat a man, who appeared to be upset too. “Damn, is everyone upset..?” She thought to herself. She couldn’t stand it, so she stood up and left and as she walked down the aisle he said, “Excuse me ma’am. My name is Alfred Brooks..” “Oh, uhmm.” She’d stopped crying for some reason. Maybe it was the look of innocence in his eyes. Maybe it was because she felt welcomed, but either way she had stopped crying. She smiled, said Hello very politely and walked to find the nearest bathroom. In the bathroom the smell was so horrid she couldn’t take it, was everything going to be wrong today? After all she went through to find this man she loves and he kicks her out of the country. She left the bathroom and when she came back, Alfred was gone. She wished she’d never walked away from him, the look he gave her made her feel special. It made her feel comfortable. It confused her and so she kicked the thoughts out of her head and ordered some sparkling apple cider and a nice little dinner. She soon fell asleep.
    She woke up a few hours later and to her surprise Alfred was back, but this time the little girl was gone and seated ahead with her father sound asleep. Alfred looked at her with a funny smile and Daisy realized she was drooling in her sleep. Embarrassed she wiped it off like nothing happened. He laughed. Oh, such a sweet laugh. He began to talk and whiles later they were just finishing a debate about how Movies are better than books and vice versa. But it was his stop and he needed to go home to Denver, Colorado. They exchanged numbers and soon began to talk over phone conversations and frequent video chats. He’d become her best friend, and she became his. She discovered that life doesn’t need to be about silence. She got back into the city life and found a job. She didn’t need London, and London didn’t need her...

The Contender- Life after a Dream.
“What if we were all a dream, and when we died it was the person who was dreaming us waking up” Alfred said to Daisy over an ooVoo video chat. They both had ordered Chinese food hoping it would come at the same time but of course, NY was faster and she was already half done when he received his. She moved her china food around a white container with chopsticks trying to find the right lump of noodles to eat. “HELLO, Woman.” he said..”Did you hear me?” “Oh, calm down Alfred, I was thinking.” She replied. “I think it would be quite amazing, maybe when we die we meet her in our next life” ..”Well, what if it was a he, He stated” “Oh my goodness, Alfred, Where did you hear about this?” “I don’t know, honestly” he said, thinking at the same time. He’d always done this, he’d gone from a Brooklyn hoodlum to a study type college kid, and he liked it. He had his group of friends and Daisy, that was all he needed. He wanted to see Daisy so bad, her long black hair and big blue eyes were always on his mind, but he never would show the indication that he totally loved her. He’d send her gifts and she’d send him gifts, they’d have Chinese get together when they ooVoo’ed, and surely she only liked him as a guy friend. Typical though. “Well, I have to get going, I don’t want to be late for work. I’ve got night shift.” She said. But he didn’t want her to go, he wanted to stay for a long time. Maybe forever, but that was impossible. She was always on the move. He accepted her though, she did what she had to do and he admired that. “Alright, no problem” he said, “Chat ya’ tomorrow” and CLICK she was gone. and the computer screen was black once again. Alfred grabbed his boxing stuff, head for the door and as he got ready to close the door he said “Love you.” As if she were his wife and he was still ooVooing with her. He shut the door. He walked down the apartment hall, down 3 flights of stairs and out the door into the cold winter night. It was snowing. And he could barely see anything. He heard some gun shots and everything was over. Alfred was dead.
    How I live now2 - I got a call, with news I’d hoped I’d never have to hear. They said Alfred was gone, and I refused to believe, but when i arrived in Denver, Colorado it was true. She walked into a quiet room and looked at the vase that holds her best friend. She held her faced and sobbed. “I never got to tell you I love you.” She said.