Here is an excerpt from
A New Year, A New Beginning, the first novel in the
Welcome to Keystone series. It should help give you an idea of what my writing style is so that you can decide if this is a book you might enjoy!
Like Jody, Caterina had also just been handed an unpleasant task in exchange for the future she hoped to carve out for herself as she sat across from Cahuenga in one of the Sunset Café’s white-and-yellow-checked booths with her mouth hanging open in shock. “You want me to do what?” she finally managed to squeak out.
Across the white table from Caterina, Cahuenga, who was as calm and relaxed as could be as she sat drinking a glass of soda and listening to Matchbox 20’s “Real World”, which was playing from the sound system, just smirked. “You heard me,” she said as she began to fiddle with the straw in her soda glass. “Part of being cool and popular means not being afraid to let everyone around you know that you’re better than them at all times. So what I want you to do tonight is prove that you can do that by totally humiliating whatever worthless little waitress ends up serving us.”
“But-but what if the person doesn’t deserve it?” protested Caterina.
Cahuenga just shook her head as she set her glass down on the table and pulled herself forward a little on her seat. “Doesn’t matter,” she said. “Because that’s just the point, Caterina. The people who work in this place are nothing compared to you and me. They’re just here to do what we say and for us to mess with when there’s nothing better to do.”
Letting out a pained sigh, Caterina looked down at the table and began to nervously lace her fingers together, glad, for the first time all day, that she still hadn’t had time to wash her hair because it’s slightly unruly state was now proving to be very useful at hiding the conflicted expression on her face. Mom and Dad will totally kill me if I do something terrible to a waitress for no good reason, and they find out, she thought. But then again, if it helps me get into Cahuenga’s group, it can’t hurt just to do it once, right?
Across the table, Cahuenga, who had pulled a nail file from one of the chest pockets of the white muslin jacket that she was wearing open over khaki low-rise flare pants and a pale blue velvet deep V-neck camisole that had sheer white lace trim that matched her white heeled sandals, looked up from boredly filing her nails and asked, “So do you have a plan?”
Miserably nodding, Caterina pushed her hair back from her face and looked up at the girl again. “Yeah,” she replied as she reached for the bottle of ketchup that was sitting inside a little basket of condiments. “Just let me know when the waitress is coming.”
Nodding, Cahuenga turned her attention out to the center of the restaurant and began to look around for any waitresses who appeared to be heading in their direction. Finally spotting a dark blond one who had a face that was slightly similar to Caterina’s, she turned back to the girl and smirked. “Okay,” she said in a low voice. “I think this is her now, so be ready.”
Nodding, Caterina flipped open the bottle of ketchup and laid in wait for the opening line that she knew all waiters and waitresses commonly said in every restaurant.
Finally, a shadow fell over the table, and a young woman’s voice said, “Hi, I’m…”
“Someone who’s totally beneath us!” exclaimed Caterina as she whirled around with a big grin on her face and squeezed hard on the bottle of ketchup.
But the minute a big blob of the sticky red stuff escaped from the bottle and began to soar through the air, Caterina immediately regretted what she had just done. Because this wasn’t just any waitress. This was…
As the ketchup blob hit her just above her apron and exploded into a large red circle that left a large portion of the left side of her uniform completely stained, Keri Ann stood staring at the spot for a moment. Then she slowly looked up at her sister, her blue eyes flashing with a mixture of bewilderment and anger.
Now in complete shock over her unfortunate bad luck, Caterina slowly raised a hand to her gaping mouth. “Oh my God,” she mumbled from behind her hand as she slowly put the ketchup bottle down on the table. “Keri Ann.”
Keri Ann nodded. “Yes, Cat,” she said, tucking a strand of hair that had come loose from her braid behind her ear. “It’s me. And you can bet that we’re going to have a very long talk about this when I get home later. But in the meantime, let me get you a waitress who you hopefully won’t consider to be totally beneath you.”
As Keri Ann turned and began to storm off to the restaurant’s break room, Cahuenga burst out laughing. “Oh my God!” she happily exclaimed, slapping her hand against the table with joy. “I didn’t think you had it in you, but that was great!”
Caterina just nodded as she slowly lowered her hands into her lap. “Yeah,” she muttered, looking down at her hands. “It will be great until she gets home tonight, totally rips me apart, and then tells our parents about it.”
Cahuenga frowned. “Wait,” she said. “Our parents?”
Caterina nodded. “Yup,” she confirmed. “Because that waitress wasn’t just some random person.” Looking Cahuenga straight in the eye, she declared, “She’s my sister.”
For a moment, Cahuenga sat staring at Caterina with a gaping expression of her own. Then she burst out laughing again. “Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “Your own sister? Wow!” Shaking her head in astonishment, she stood up and grabbed her small khaki purse. “Task accomplished, Caterina,” she said. “You passed with flying colors.”
Despite the fact that she knew she should feel relieved and excited to be one step closer to official initiation, Caterina could only force a slight nod. “So am I in?” she asked.
Putting a finger to her chin, Cahuenga thought for a moment. “Mm,” she said. “Not yet. But don’t worry. I’ll let you know when it’s time for your final task. So bye for now. And thanks for the show. It was a total riot!”
As Cahuenga turned, confidently tossed her loose waves over her shoulder, and began to head for the restaurant’s exit, Caterina sighed. “Just yesterday, having the chance to be in Cahuenga’s clique seemed like the greatest thing ever,” she muttered. “But now I’m starting to wonder if maybe Natasha is right after all. Maybe they really are just making me do all these things so that I wind up in big trouble, and they can laugh at me for it in the end.” Shaking her head in discouragement as she grabbed her bag, she stood up, smoothed down her striped T-shirt, and began to head for the exit herself.
Copyright 2016 by Stephanie Peterson
The novel that includes this passage is available for purchase at the following link:
www.amazon.com/New-Year-Beginning-Welcome-Keystone/dp/1491256591/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499208566&sr=1-2&keywords=Stephanie+Peterson+welcome+to+keystoneEnjoy!
