Excerpt:
I twirled my pencil and checked the clock,
focusing on what students in the class were wearing, what they were doing, who
they were looking at. Anything to keep my mind from drifting off into clouded
corners of thought. Almost forty minutes had passed and Chelsea hadn’t shown
up. I furrowed my brow.
Across the room, Terrell Watson and Murphy Klein
flicked wadded balls of paper at each other like they were still in high school,
not seniors in college. Science nerds. I stifled the giggle that bubbled up in
my throat. Chelsea always called us science nerds. We were the only science
majors in DG and that had made us instant BFFs three years ago when we first
met. If we could take a class together, we did. We helped each other with
everything, but were highly competitive, too. Her grade in this class was
slightly higher than mine right now, but I was owning Physical Biochem.
Someday, she and I would take science academia
by storm, with our brains and our fashionable redesigned lab coats. Because we
were girls who wanted to have it all.
I jotted down some lab notes, then looked up to
find Professor Griffin glance anxiously at Chelsea’s usual spot next to me. He
and Chelsea had always been kind of flirty. He caught my eye when he noticed me
looking at him and looked away quickly. I frowned. It wasn’t like Chels to miss
class, and she had been gone from our room before I was awake this morning.
Where was she? I pulled my phone into my lap, sneaking glances at Griffin, and
turned it on with one hand while writing more notes with my other hand. Once
fired up, I sent her a text full of question marks.
Professor Griffin cleared his throat and I
thought I was done for. But his planned words were cut off by the slightly
muffled sound of a ringtone behind us. The whole class paused and looked up,
turning towards the tall cupboards at the back of the room.
I knew that ringtone. That bell sound that made
Chelsea stop whatever she was doing to see who was thinking about her at that
moment.
But loads of people would have had the same
ringtone, surely. My thumb moved lightly over my phone screen. A heavy feeling
built in the pit of my stomach. I looked down. Typed Hey woman! and sent it to Chelsea. My ears pricked up.
The ringtone came from the cupboards again.
Had Chelsea come late last night to study and
left her phone behind? That would explain why she was missing classes. She
always relied on my alarm to get us up in the morning, but if she’d stayed over
somewhere else and forgot her phone, she probably overslept.
So why hadn’t she come back here to look for
it?
The class was still puzzling over the sound in
the closet, but no one moved toward it. Instead, one person after another
looked at me, realizing I held my own phone in my palm. I set the phone on the
top of my table and rose. Locked eyes with Professor Griffin, whose face was a
mixture of curiosity and apprehension. Thought about telling him that I’d check
out the sound. Laughing about how Chelsea was always losing something. But I
couldn’t get my throat to work properly. My swallow was thick.
The screeching of the legs of my chair against
the linoleum floor made me wince. I stood and crossed the few steps to the back
of the room, the silence in the room causing a vacuum in my ears, like the
retreat of an ocean wave. I couldn’t explain the way my hand shook as I lifted
it to the door handle, or the way my heart raced like a manic hummingbird. I
tried to shake off the feeling. Just a missing phone. But I bit back a whimper
caused by something sinister in the air and opened the closet.
For a split second, the world froze. All was
silent. Light filled my vision.
Then, a buzzing started between my ears. My
head spun. I took a step backwards to avoid the sickening thud of one hundred
and twenty pounds of flesh slamming into the floor.
Within seconds, people leaped out of their
seats and toward me. Professor Griffin tried to make his way through the band
of students cloistered around the body.
My hands swayed at my sides, feeling
weightless, disconnected from the rest of my body, my stomach seemed to exist
outside the tiny space allotted it beneath my skin, filling with everything in
the room, with a heaviness that threatened to bury me under the thin linoleum
floor. I was positive of what I’d seen, yet wasn’t quite sure what was happening,
couldn’t believe in the truthfulness of it. I looked to the ground behind me,
to the same place everyone else was looking, I could see a swirl of something
that I could have sworn looked just like Chelsea’s thick mahogany hair spread
out on the floor, even if it was matted in places. I turned without a thought
and pushed through my classmates. Reached down to touch that beautiful hair.
What was happening here?
“Oh, God,” I heard someone say. Someone with a
deep, teachery kind of voice. “Oh, God. Chelsea.”
Chelsea? No. Why would he say her name? She
would be here soon enough, making up time, laughing at herself, her slowness,
her unusually lagging schedule.
But then Professor Griffin turned the body over
and even with the pale, bruised skin I could see who was lying on the floor. Air
flew from my lungs. Empty chest. No oxygen. I felt arms around me, tight,
pulling me away from my best friend.
“Get back,” I heard. Someone screamed. Then
someone else. Spots burst before my eyes, bright spots against a black
background. Chelsea? Oh my god. That was her on the ground. Her body and her
hair. And her face but it looked so strange and I had never seen her looking so
strange before. That’s my best friend on the floor, I told the thick air around
me with lips that wouldn’t move and sound that wouldn’t form.
We couldn’t move, like wax figures in a horror museum. But it
didn’t last. There was a sound. A loud, high-pitched one. And the newest scream
that pierced the eerie silence, I was pretty sure later, when I thought back on
this moment, was my own.
Kristin Halbrook Author Q&A
You have a Young
Adult novel out now (NOBODY BUT US) and another one coming out next year (EVERY
LAST PROMISE), in addition to your New Adult debut, SURFACING. What are some of
the differences between writing YA and NA?
I love writing both Young Adult and New Adult. It’s been
interesting seeing some of the differences in my writing style between the two,
but also noticing what is the same. My Young Adult novels are upper YA, so
there’s not a lot of disparity in content. Having said that, my New Adult
projects definitely feature more sexytimes as an essential part of the plot. I
also feel like the plot itself takes a bit more spotlight in my New Adult
projects, which is fun, while my Young Adult books feel a bit more character-driven
and perhaps more crafted at the line level. Still, whether I’m writing New
Adult or Young Adult, the books are definitely “me” and are getting the best of
my ability.
What are your
inspirations?
SURFACING, in particular, is inspired by two of my favorite
things to watch: Veronica Mars and the movie, Clueless. I like writing
emotionally complicated characters who have to face their own demons as they
are also trying to come to terms with an event that doesn’t have easy answers.
There is a mystery element to this book, but it isn’t quite at Nancy Drew
levels. It’s a little more about finding oneself than about finding a villain,
even though there certainly is a villain!
I have also been inspired by the setting. I love the beach
as much as Katie does, which is why it plays such a role in this story. And I’m
a huge fan of female friendships and of women living together and interacting
on a daily basis, which is why I chose to set this, and all the companion
books, in the Delta Gamma sorority. It’s a good place to explore female
dynamics in a real and empowering way.
SURFACING has a
mystery element. Do you think that makes it different from other New Adult
books?
SURFACING does have a mystery element, and I think it’s
something that’s a little different than a lot of what’s out there right now in
New Adult. But it also has a lot of the elements that I think New Adult readers
like to see: identifiable female characters, great men, sexual tension and
personal growth in a turbulent life stage. I like to think I’ve taken the
popular contemporary romance and given it a little twist with the mystery.
Do you have favorite
characters in your books?
Not usually. I sometimes like my characters, I sometimes
dislike them. Either way, I always love writing
them. I do have to admit, though, that Josh is a really, really, really good guy (in so many ways) and
also, you know, hot, and if I had to
pick a book boyfriend, it would be him.
What are your future
New Adult plans? Any previews you can give us?
I have lots of fun plans for my future New Adult projects!
Right now, several more books featuring the ladies from Delta Gamma are in the
works. Some of the characters you’ll see in SURFACING get their own turn in the
spotlight, and there will even be a change of setting for a couple of them to
some of my own favorite places to visit (Scotland! Snow-capped mountains!).
Hopefully, I’ll be able to share previews soon, so stay tuned! A good place to
keep up with what’s new is my twitter @KristinHalbrook or my Tumblr page:
www.tumblr.com/KristinHalbrook
Surfacing Dream Cast:
Katie: She’s cute and motivated. Into the beach and the
sciences. The perfect actress effortlessly pulls off her big brains and her
great heels, plus a steely gaze that hides her vulnerabiilty. Easy, right? Ha!
But I think Claire Julien fits the bill. Photo: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/5910571
Chelsea: The best friend of best friends, Chelsea’s
beautiful, dark looks are from her mix of Hispanic and Italian heritages.
Odette Annable’s hauntingly lovely eyes are a good fit. Photo: http://www.listal.com/viewimage/3896479
Carolina: She picks up the role of Katie’s best friend,
offering a shoulder and some love when Katie needs it most. Michelle Ang’s work
on several popular international teen dramas is great training for this role.
Photo: http://www.thebigidea.co.nz/files/imagecache/display/images/MichelleAng1_0.jpg
