B10: YA CONTEMPORARY: DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL'S BEST FRIEND

Title: Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend

Age Category: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary

Word Count: 78,000

Pitch: When Mattie tries out for the baseball team, she learns who she can trust to stand up for her. But can she learn to stand up for herself before her Tourette’s makes her strike out?

First 250 Word of Manuscript:

“How do you get out of this forsaken maze?” My dad rarely gets angry. He says it messes with his chi. But today his chi is pissed.

I catch up to him just as he turns helplessly down the freshman hall, which leads to the gym, so I tug on the sleeve of his paint-flecked t-shirt in the opposite direction, toward the office.

“We’re gonna sue the daylights out of this school,” he grumbles.

“What?” I grab his sleeve, bringing him to a halt in the doorway to the secretary’s office.

“They can’t do this; it’s not lawful—”

“Dad, we are *not* suing my school! I have to *go* here, you know!”

“Mattie, this is bigger than—”

“No, it’s not! It’s not bigger than me. It’s exactly the size of me! It is me! It’s about me!” Now, I know that sounded like the start of a monologue by the most spoiled brat in the history of humanity, but come on! High school is hard enough without a pending legal battle. Not ten minutes ago, I overheard a junior basketball player tell his friends that a freshman’s angry dad had called the office to rip into the secretary about his daughter not being allowed on the baseball team. He called it “The Battle of No Bulge” loud enough that I know he meant for me to hear.

“Just wait here, Mattie.” Dad points to the line of fold-out chairs outside the office and disappears. I let my face fall into my hands as I plop down, defeated.