First Lines Fridays #9

First Lines Fridays is a weekly feature for book lovers hosted by Wandering Words. What if instead of judging a book by its cover, its author or its prestige, we judged it by its opening lines?

• Pick a book off your shelf (it could be your current read or on your TBR) and open to the first page
• Copy the first few lines, but don’t give anything else about the book away just yet – you need to hook the reader first
• Finally… reveal the book

Lines

Claire?” he repeats, drawing out the vowels. “Claire. It’s a family name,” she replies indignantly. “It’s a fat girl’s name,” he pronounces, mapping out her destiny with a raised eyebrow and only a minor hint of consolation. I was in fifth grade when that movie came out, but I remember a high school student on my bus astutely pointing out that John Bender’s comment indeed rang true, at least where I was concerned. At the tender age of eleven, I wasn’t sure whether to take offense or be flattered that a high-schooler knew my name. I just gripped my Trapper Keeper tightly to my chest and looked out the window as the winter-barren fields buzzed by. That was also the year my body betrayed me. It was the first time but certainly not the last. This is where you, the (most likely) female reader, roll your eyes and ask if I’m really going to talk about getting her period in the opening paragraphs of my story. And this is where I tell you it’s my story, and I’ll do as I please. You can close the book at any time, you know. My mother, a teacher, delivered The Talk at age nine, so I was well aware, at least in a scientific way, of puberty. I remember brushing my fingers across the springy coils that sprouted overnight between my legs. I wasn’t filled with a sense of wonder, but rather dread, as the growth seemed a harbinger of Ominous Future Events. Only a few months later, I discovered reddish-brown stains on my panties.

And The Book Is…

What I’m trying to do with first lines Friday is to choose a less known book or a book that I don’t see around in the book community, in the hopes that I pique your interest and make you give a try to that book.

Alex