Dead Ringer by Jessie Rosen
Release Date: November 11th 2015
Full Fathom Five Digital
Summary from Goodreads:
From the moment Laura Rivers steps foot into Englewood High, she notices the stares—and they aren’t the typical once-overs every pretty new girl endures. The students seem confused and…spooked. Whispers echoing through the halls confirm that something is seriously off. “That new girl looks just like her,” they say.
It turns out Laura has a doppelgänger, and it isn't just anyone—it's Sarah Castro-Tanner, the girl who killed herself by jumping into the Navasink River one year ago.
Laura is determined not to let the gossip ruin her chances of making a fresh start. Thanks to her charming personality and California tan, she catches the eye of Englewood’s undisputed golden boy, Charlie Sanders, and it’s only a matter of time before they make their relationship official.
But something is making Charlie and his friends paranoid—and Laura soon discovers it has to do with Sarah Castro-Tanner.
What really happened to Sarah? Why is Charlie unraveling? And how does Laura Rivers fit into it all?
After all, she’s the dead ringer for a dead girl.
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September 1
Laura
Deep
breath, big smile, and remember: it’s all about swag.
Laura
laughed at her reflection in the little compact she kept in her bag for
touch-ups and pep talks. The word “swag” sounded so ridiculous. That’s what
made it the perfect mantra for day one of her senior year of high school—the
very first time she would be “the new girl.”
Laura had
been dreaming about her entrance into Englewood High since it was decided
that’s where she would spend this year—three thousand miles away from her
previous home. The move was a big change, but she welcomed the clean slate. It
was time to focus her energy on everything but
the demons of the typical high school girl—the kind she’d been her whole life:
a wallflower and a pleaser. She was over the precarious balance between wearing
something trendy but not so “out there” that people might talk. She was tired
of being meek because battling the Queen Bees seemed too scary. And the days of
hiding her natural smarts were over. Laura felt like high school was a tricky
series of hoops she had to jump through before she could finally live on her
own. So if high school isn’t for me,
she’d decided, why let all its silly
rules run my life?
That was
Laura’s final thought as she stepped out of her vintage, black BMW convertible
and glanced around at the other cars in the student parking lot. She’d debated
the car purchase as soon as she arrived on the East coast. Convertibles are so obnoxiously California, she’d thought, but then
she reminded herself that worrying about what everyone else thought was exactly
the spiral she was trying to avoid. Besides, she worshipped that car and had
saved every penny she could for almost two years to buy it. So what if people
assumed it was a gift from her parents? She’d inform them that she bought it
with a combo of waitressing tips from Joe’s Café right on the Pacific Coast
Highway in Malibu, and money saved from fit modeling for the Rosefox denim line
in downtown LA. No one would expect that. From what Laura knew of Englewood,
most of the other BMWs in the lot would be brand-new sweet-sixteen gifts.
And yet
the very first thing that caught her eye when Laura drove into the senior
parking lot was another old car with its convertible top down. This one was
cherry red and looked like it drove right out of a 90s music video, but it was
in almost perfect condition. Apparently
at least one other person in this town had to buy their own ride, Laura
thought as she gave her reflection in the car window one final check.
For the first
time in forever, she had decided to wear her long, blond hair down and parted
on the far-left side so a waterfall of curls danced over her right eye, the
slightly bluer one—the one that usually made her self-conscious. Today she let
the curls do their thing instead of making sure every piece of frizz was locked
down with an army of gooey hair products. She wore simple makeup paired with a
shocking pink lipstick she’d seen on the girls strolling the pier all summer
long. It was wild, but it made her feel powerful. Her first-day outfit was a
1960s floral shirt belted over a flirty, white sundress to make sure her tan
legs showed, because why not milk the Cali-girl vibe? On her feet were
cork-soled wedges in a neon-colored, striped print from 1989—one of her
favorite vintage finds besides the car, of course. She was pretty sure she
wouldn’t look like anyone at this posh, brick-and-ivy-covered, suburban New
Jersey school, and she loved that fact. She was ready to start out on a totally
new foot.
But just
as Laura’s first-day confidence finally locked in, it vanished.
Across
the parking lot, she caught the glance of two girls getting out of a shiny,
white Corvette. Laura smiled in their direction, but something was off about
the way they both looked back at her. Their faces were frozen in a strange,
almost confused look that made her instantly uncomfortable. It was more than
just the usual new-kid-in-school stares.
It wasn’t
until the shorter, curly-haired girl glanced back and quickly turned away again
that Laura saw the real feeling behind her eyes: she was scared.
* * *
“Rivers? Do we have a Laura
Rivers? Hello, hello? Miss Rivers?”
Laura
slipped into first period AP English just as the bell rang. Ms. O’Malley stood
at the front of the room, just as skinny and evil-looking as all the online
reviews claimed. She barely looked up from her attendance sheet as she barked.
If she had, she would have seen twenty-four sets of eyes staring directly at
Laura, and she would have also noticed that something was off.
As with
those girls in the parking lot, there was something about these stares that
gave Laura instant goose bumps. It was like everyone who saw her had the exact
same thought. The only way she could think to describe the looks on their faces
was spooked.
“Yes.
Hi!” Laura said, trying her best to push through the awkward moment.
“Try to
get here before the bell rings tomorrow,” Ms. O’Malley said. “I have you all
seated alphabetically, so go take a seat behind…hmm, let me see…”
Laura
scanned the room for empty desks. There were two open seats where students with
last names beginning with R might
fall. One was directly behind a way-too-friendly looking cheerleader type. She
gave Laura a fairly convincing fake smile, but Laura took it with a grain of
salt. Girls like that were skilled at the art of playing instant besties.
Then
Laura’s eyes hit the person sitting behind the only other open chair, and
instantly locked. It was as if there was a magnetic field around him; if you
stayed far enough away it wouldn’t suck you in, but once you looked, you were
done.
“Charlie
Sanders,” Ms. O’Malley finally bellowed. “Charlie, raise your hand for the new
girl to see.”
That
wasn’t necessary—Laura had already found him. In the time it took him to lift
his hand, she’d already stared through his dark-brown eyes, his knife’s-edge
cheek bones, his messy-but-not-on-purpose chestnut hair, and his wide, toothy
smile. She had to clench every muscle in her body to stop herself from giggling
as he smiled politely in her direction.
But in
the time it took for Charlie’s hand to fall back at his side, that smile was
gone. Laura saw the switch go off in his head and the confusion land on his
face. It was the same creeped-out reaction she’d prompted so far that morning.
Charlie’s version of the gaze was by far the most intense, but it was also the
shortest. He almost instantly reverted back to a wide, comfortable smile. Either he has better manners than the rest
of my classmates, Laura thought, or
he’s the best actor.
“I’m
Charlie,” he said as she took her seat.
“So I’ve
heard,” she teased. “I’m Laura…the new girl.”
“So I’ve
heard,” Charlie shot back. “Welcome to Englewood. It isn’t all that bad.
Where’d you move from?”
“Los
Angeles.”
“Oh. In
that case, this place sucks,” Charlie said.
“Way to
welcome the newbie…” Laura joked, and Charlie smiled back. Then Ms. O’Malley
demanded all eyes on the front of the room and started rambling about the fact
that Shakespeare was probably a woman.
Laura
breathed a sigh of relief. For the next forty or so minutes she didn’t have to
worry about what Charlie was thinking of her, or try to hide what she was
thinking about him. It wasn’t until Charlie tapped her on the shoulder to pass
him a copy of the homework assignment circulating around the room that Laura’s
heart started pounding again. She caught him off guard when she turned around,
and he had that same instant reaction to her face. For the first time, Laura
put her finger on what was so strange about it.
He was
looking at her like he knew her.
About the Author:
Rosen is the oldest of four girls, which gives her a special window into the minds of teenagers. She now lives in Los Angeles, where she’s working on film and television projects, as well as her next novel.
Author Links:
Website│Goodreads│Twitter│Facebook
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