Wrong in All the Right Ways

hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th Wrong in A ll the R ight Ways hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th —-1 —0 —+1 207-71043_ch00_2P.indd 1 02/08/18 3:25 am hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th —-1 —0 —+1 207-71043_ch00_2P.indd 3 02/08/18 3:25 am hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th Henry Holt and Com pany, Publishers since 1866 Henry Holt® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC 175 Fifth Ave nue, New York, New York 10010 • fiercereads . com Copyright © 2018 by Tiffany Brownlee All rights reserved. Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available. ISBN 978-1-250-13053-2 Our books may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact your local bookseller or the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at (800) 221-7945 ext. 5442 or by e- mail at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan . com. First edition, 2018 / Designed by Danielle Mazzella di Bosco -1— Printed in the United States of Amer i ca 0— 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 +1— 207-71043_ch00_2P.indd 4 02/08/18 3:25 am hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th To my mom, Benfordnetti; my siblings: Kenny, Brittny, Tyler, Kennedy & hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th Colston; and my love, Will. Thanks for never getting annoyed when I hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th would constantly ask you to listen to my stories. And also to bacon cheeseburgers and french fries, for being the greatest food combo to eat while writing. —-1 —0 —+1 207-71043_ch00_2P.indd 5 02/08/18 3:25 am hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th chapter 1 hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th et me be clear: I am not the biggest fan of small children. Now, L I don’t dislike all of them— the cute ones are hard to hate, and my seven- year- old brother is sort of awesome, too— but most of them I actually do loathe. They’re obnoxious, they’re messy, and they have not yet acquired the level of self- discipline I think is necessary to function in this world. Like I said, I hate them. So when my parents told me they were thinking of fostering a young kid, I wasn’t exactly overflowing with joy. And rightfully so. I mean, they already have two beautiful and highly intelligent children. Do they really need another one? No, they don’t. But it’s not my place to tell them that. Why not? Well, because I’m a people pleaser. I believe that there are two kinds of people in this world: those who live to make others happy, and those who live to make themselves happy. You can’t be —-1 both; you have to choose one. Because let’s face it: you can’t please —0 —+1 207-71043_ch01_2P.indd 1 02/08/18 3:26 am hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th every one and yourself at the same time. It’s impossible. If that was in hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th the realm of possibilities, we would all be living in a problem- free hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th world, and God knows that’s never going to happen. hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th I, myself, fall into the first category, which brings me back to hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th square one: I’m a people pleaser. Actually, let me correct that: I’m a hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th parent pleaser. I like to make my parents happy, and acquiescing, the hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th act of being compliant, makes them happy. So even though my insides completely object to their decision to foster some wrong- side- of- the- tracks kid, I wear a smile as if every thing is okay, because it’s what I’m supposed to do. It’s what they expect me to do. “Time to wake up, Emma,” my mom says on the intercom sys- tem that is hooked up in my room. When my parents first told me that they were fostering some kid, I volunteered to give up my room for him or her. I didn’t want anyone else to have to sacrifice one of their rooms. My dad would die if he had to give up his man cave, and my mom and I didn’t want Matthew to have to give up his playroom. According to my mom, “a playroom is essential to the growth of cog- nitive and motor skills in a child, and blah blah blah . .” So I— along with my vintage furniture and floral wall paper— relocated to the pool house. I told them that it would free up a room so they could keep an eye on my new sibling, and that because I’d be moving out of the house for college soon, this arrangement would make the transition easier on them, and on me. That’s what I told them, anyway. Truth is, I don’t want to be anywhere near the kid who is replacing me in their hearts, and twenty feet of distance is going to achieve just that. “I’m getting up now,” I lie as I pull the covers back over my head to block out the sunlight. This is the point in my day that I love the -1— most, and I’m not going to let her wake-up call ruin it. 0— According to Folgers, the best part of waking up is having their +1— 2 207-71043_ch01_2P.indd 2 02/08/18 3:26 am coffee in your cup, but I beg to differ. It’s actually the stage right before hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th we wake up, or the Middle, as I like to call it. To me, it’s as if my mind hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th has registered that I’ve lived to see another day but it’s not ready to hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th pull away from its dreamland yet. It’s the overlapping of waking and hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th dream states, and every day, I take a few minutes to relish this moment. hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th I use this time to do my deepest thinking. It’s usually something hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th nonsensical or philosophical, like how many stars are in the sky, or hn hk io il sy SY ek eh fi fl ffi ffl Th why glue doesn’t stick to the inside of the bottle. I never really answer these questions, but they wake my mind up just enough to get my day started.

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