Marni Bates

KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP. www.kensingtonbooks.com

Chapter 1

obody notices the best friend of an overnight Internet sensation. Which in a lot of ways is a really good thing. Thousands of people around the world dont rate the hotness of my every outt. No magazines pass judgment about what Smith High School nobody Jane Smith wears on a daily basis. At most, I get a handful of puns tossed my way because of the unfortunate coincidence that leaves me sharing a last name with my school. Best of all, I dont have to deal with unfounded rumors that Im cheating on my hockey-captain boyfriend. Not that I have a boyfriend. But thats why I was perfectly happy leaving the title of Americas Most Awkward Girl to Mackenzie Wellesley, aka my best friend since elementary school. And I was thrilled that my other best friend, Corey ONeal, was now dating the lead singer from the rock band ReadySet. Sure, I had my doubts about how long his secret long-distance relationship with Timothy Goff would last . . . but I was still excited for Corey. Psyched for them both. Really. But even though I was happy for them, that didnt mean it wasnt a huge adjustment for meone that came with ab-

Marni Bates

solutely no warning. After all, nobody at Smith High School could have anticipated my two geeky best friends going from Invisible to famous in under a week. They had somehow managed to even out-Notable the Notablesthe effortlessly popular kids that every school has but which every guidance counselor assures incoming students dont really exist. You know the type: girls with short skirts and big, erm, pompoms, and athletic guys who drool over the aforementioned girls skirts. Kenzies overnight-sensation status skyrocketed her well beyond their level of popularity, making her a regular geek superhero: going where no Invisible had gone before. Which was great for her. But for me? Not so much. The whole time Kenzie and Corey were going to parties and traveling with rock stars and appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres ShowI was doing my homework. Its not that my two best friends ditched me . . . though it was hard not to see it that wayits just that they were busier now. Thats why they had less time for me. Correction: why they had no time for me. Because their new relationships required both care and attention. Which left me . . . alone. Thats when my Invisibility started to annoy me. Back when we were a band of geeks, everything was ne. I didnt care if nobody at Smith High School could pick me out of a lineup, because my best friends were in the exact same position. Thats what made it fun. We could revel in our geekdom, secure in the knowledge that no matter what high school threw at us, our friendship would remain intact. Until Mackenzie became famous for attempting some seriously unnecessary CPR on a football player who just wanted the crazy girl to stop trying to jump-start his heart. And I was left as the last nerd standing.

INVISIBLE

Thats why I decided to try getting a little attention for a change. Only . . . well, I never expected it to happen the way that it did. To be fair: Nobody warned me about how easy it is to get in over your head when your best friends have backstage passes and unrestricted access to all things Hollywood. Probably because . . . well, almost nobody has that problem. And I really should have gured it out myself. Of course, when you piss off (even accidentally) the rich, powerful, and famous, theyll come at you with everything in their arsenal. I just didnt consider that part of the equation until it was too late. Not until I experienced rsthand just how easy it was to go from a newspaper byline to a headline . . . and how fully one story could blast my well-ordered, well-regulated, wellplanned life to hell.