Girls Like Me
3/5
()
About this ebook
Fifteen-year-old Shay Summers is trying to cope with the death of her father, being overweight, and threats from a girl bully in school. When she falls in love with Blake, a mysterious boy online, insecure Shay doesn't want to tell him who she is. But with the help of her two best friends, as well as an assist by Kermit and Miss Piggy, ultimately Shay and Blake’s love prevails.
Girls Like Me is a fun and fresh poetic take on teen angst, social media and online anonymity, and high school romance.
Yves Lola StVil
Lola StVil was seven when she first came to the US from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. She attended Columbia College in Chicago, where her main focus was creative writing. She is the author of the best-selling Guardians series and the Noru series.
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Reviews for Girls Like Me
18 ratings1 review
- Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5I really liked the cover of this book but I couldn't get 5 pages into this book. The way the lines were broken up made absolutely no sense and distracted from the story being told. And I'm saying that from the perspective of a poet. I also didn't like what I saw of the main character so far. Anyone who thinks everyone is out to get her because they want her to be healthy is not the sort of person I am interested in reading about. She seems like she's going to be a brat.
Book preview
Girls Like Me - Yves Lola StVil
Contents
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
Girls Like Me
About the Author
Connect with HMH on Social Media
Copyright © 2016 by Lola StVil
For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to [email protected] or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.
www.hmhco.com
Cover illustration © 2016 by Noelle Stevenson
Cover design by Whitney Leader-Picone
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows:
Names: StVil, Lola, author.
Title: Girls like me / written by Lola StVil.
Description: Boston : Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016. | Summary: Fifteen-year-old Shay is trying to cope with being overweight and getting bullied in school, but when she falls in love with mysterious Blake, insecure Shay needs the help of her two best friends to make love prevail.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015033387
Subjects: | CYAC: Novels in verse. | Self-esteem—Fiction. | Bullying—Fiction. | Love—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Humorous stories. | BISAC: JUVENILE FICTION / Stories in Verse. | JUVENILE FICTION / Love & Romance. | JUVENILE FICTION / Humorous Stories. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Bullying. | JUVENILE FICTION / Girls & Women. | JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Adolescence.
Classification: LCC PZ7.5.S78 Gi 2016 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015033387
ISBN 978-0-544-70674-3 hardcover
ISBN 978-1-328-90102-6 paperback
eISBN 978-0-544-86814-4
v2.0618
This book is for my family:
Ricaldo I’m okay with takeout—again
Cherubin,
Cindy The wheels are in motion
St. Vil,
Arnold How much is this going to cost me?
St. Vil,
And most important, my mom, Marie Did you eat?
St. Vil.
I love you.
O! be some other name:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
—Romeo and Juliet
Aftermath
I whip out fake smile reserved for
Monday mornings, cheerleaders
Stepmoms
Kara stitches series of mom-esque words
Forming dubious praise
Your face is so pretty this morning
= You look fat
I made egg white omelets and wheat toast
= So you will no longer be fat
It’s nice out. You should walk home today.
= So you can be less fat
Kara is stuck
With me
Shay Summers: pretty-faced fat girl who
Reads. Writes. Thinks.
Too much
Dad died
Selfish, Dad, very selfish.
Don’t be late for school
= Don’t stay behind, pig out, get more fat
Flashes her best fake smile
The one she keeps in the freezer
So that it stays
Frozen
In
Place
See you later
Finally alone, I call on my friends:
Breakfast burrito. Banana cream pie. Butter.
They are all missing
There’s been a massacre
Kara’s soldiers:
Fat-free
Sugar-free
Reduced
Lite
Skim
Wiped out all my friends
Not even condiments
Remain
I recall
My love
Could it survive savage, unprovoked attack?
Scour area
Attempt rescue
No survivors
Rest in peace,
Apple-wood bacon
Flash of red packaging
Resembles my lover’s face
A prayer
A hope
Fragile but real
Pull in closer
Oscar Mayer Bacon!
Turkey bacon?
All is lost . . .
Betrayed
By the time I got to school I was
Fully enraged
I plotted various ways to get rid of Kara
Ways that were
Painful. Slow. Public.
Met up with my best friends
Dash and Boots.
Told them about
Horrific event
Expecting
Outrage. Anger. Protest.
M
A
R
C
H
E
S
Hell no, we won’t go! Hell no, we won’t go!
Followed by roar of rebels
Determined not to be subdued by
Fascist taste-free establishment!
Um . . . I kind of like turkey bacon
Dash is right; you should try it
And the (fat-free) cheese
Stands . . . alone.
And Here They Are
Meet the traitors
I mean my friends.
D A S H
And I became best friends in a matter of minutes
Two years ago
First day of school at
Chester A. Arthur High.
He walked into homeroom wearing a
Bedazzled T-shirt that said
I’m not gay but my blow-up doll is.
He was sent to the principal’s office
I would share
Similar fate
When
Teacher made us
Sit in
ABC order.
Shay Summers sits next to arch nemesis
Kelly Stokes
K E L L Y
Is what happens when Beauty sleeps with
Empty
We went to the same junior high.
At face value
Her face had
Value
Her eyes, cobalt-blue orbs of
Perfect
Her lips, heart-shaped
Masterpiece
Her skin, flawless
Radiance.
But Kelly was a road trip to the
Grand Canyon
No matter how much it promises to
Enchant. Amaze. Delight.
Once you get there
You realize
It’s just an empty hole
She never says anything that doesn’t come out of
Teen Cosmo
Popsugar.com
Never reads anything that doesn’t have
Super-high-gloss finish
And
I’m fairly certain her ego has its own
Orbit
Enough, Shay
Make an effort
Jump into the chasm . . .
Why?
Maybe she was
Miss Understood
Cool Chick
Deep Deep Deep
D
O
W
N???
So I Smiled
Turns out deep down
Is not that deep
After all
Kelly looks at me
Like I’m a hobo
Trying to pee on her
I have done the unthinkable
She mumbles loud enough for
E V E R Y O N E
On the
P L A N E T
To hear
"Quick, get up, Shay! The chair can only hold
A ton"
Rage Bubbled
Up from throat
Prepared to erupt and melt the smug flesh off her
Perfectly sculpted bones
Prepared a litany of profanity that would make any
Truckers. Sailors. Mobsters.
Proud
I SHOUTED
The Grand Canyon is just a hole!
What???????
Where’s the alphabet soup
Of curses?
The string of profanity that’s supposed to wrap
Itself around her neck till she turns
Blue?
The Only Color in the World Now
Is tomato red
Spreading across my cheeks
Hands
Are frozen
Shaking
Shivering
No control over breathing
Can’t find rock to crawl under
The teacher sent me
To the principal’s office.
There I found
Dash waiting also
He was scribbling doodles and letters on scrap paper
I admired his M
It could have come out of a penmanship workbook.
Except he added more loops than were needed
He said, That’s me: more loops than needed.
I told him about my run-in with
Kelly Canyon
The principal/chef
Served us two boilerplates of
What-we-expect-from-our-students
I had a side of glazed
How-a-lady-should-act
And Dash had the stuffed
We-will-not-tolerate-tomfoolery
For dessert we both had the caramelized
Next-time-I-will-call-your-parents
Next morning, Canyon
Found a magazine cutout of a model
Taped to her locker
Someone had made an air bubble above the model’s head
It said Feed Me
The M had an extra loop
Like I said
Friends for life.
My Other Best Friend
And I met at the nurse’s office
When I was there to avoid
Gym
I am the CEO of
Getting Out of Class Inc.
My excuses are
Prompt. Polished. Perfect.
And what’s more
I have amazing range
I’m not like your average
Teen going AWOL
I don’t kill off
Grandmothers or get cramps
My excuses come complete with
Actors. Script revisions. Dress rehearsals.
That day I was faking stomach pains
Had full written menu
Of all things that could have caused my
Pain
I did the well-rehearsed brave face
so that they knew how much
I really wanted to stay in gym class.
The suffer in silence face
Is the meatloaf and mashed potatoes of excuses
I saw her as soon as I entered
She was beautiful. Beaming. Bald.
She wore
Army
everything, including
Combat boots
Punk rocker cool?
I asked.
Brain tumor chic,
she said.
I looked around for a rock to crawl under
To hide shame
With no rock to be found anywhere
I sat a few chairs away from her
In my