Paige is bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as usual: makeup on, hair done, a whole raring-to-go-I'm-just-happy-to-be-alive look on her face. 'Rise and shine,' Paige says, singsongy, 'no naps allowed. I wrestle with my duffel, stuffing it into the tiny space next to me, and then take the coffee and bag from her. Paige tries to hand a cup of hot coffee and a paper bag back to me. Paige has shotgun so I stuff all five-foot-nine of me into the cramped, but thankfully empty, backseat. Clowns, contortion artists, and Kirsten Lee Vanderhoff-these are the people who buy MINI Coopers. It's a car designed specifically for amusement or torture. I grab my stuff and head toward the clownmobile that sits all candy-apple-red at the end of my driveway. My mom came in and shook me awake- Get up already, jeez, it's all you've talked about for weeks-then stalked back to her room like a zombie.įinally they pull in. When the alarm went off, I didn't even hear it. I just laid there imagining Kirsten, Paige, and me on the slopes, ski bunnies on the rampage no parents, hot guys everywhere. I should go back inside where it's warm and wait by the window, but I'm more tired than I am cold, so I guess I'll just stay where I am, hunkered down like a frozen gargoyle.

The streetlight casts a pale glow over my yard and I'm so exhausted that the snow is starting to shape-shift into an enormous feather bed and soft cotton sheets.

Witty and poignant, Colleen Clayton's debut is a stunning story of moving on after the unthinkable happens.It's four in the morning and I'm sitting on my porch steps waiting for my friends. Now, if only she could shake the nightmares, everything would be perfect. But as she gets to know Corey-slacker, baker, total dreamboat-Sid finds someone who truly makes her happy. He takes everything from Sid-including a lock of her perfect red curls-and she can't remember any of it.Īfter the ski trip, Sid is an insomniac and an obsessive late-night runner, unable to relate to her old friends.Ĭaught in a downward spiral, Sid drops her college prep classes and takes up residence in the A/V room with only Corey 'The Living Stoner' Livingston for company. 'Come to a party with me,' he tells her, but Dax isn't what he seems. When Sid finds herself on a ski lift with hunky local college guy, Dax Windsor, she's thrilled.

How can you talk about something that you can't remember?īefore the ski trip, Cassidy 'Sid' Murphy was a cheerleader (on the bottom of the pyramid, but still.) and a straight-A student, with two of the best friends a girl could ask for.

What Happens Next by Colleen Clayton