a young adult contemporary novel complete at 70,000 words, in which a platonic girl/guy best friendship is tested when each begin dating someone the other dislikes. It would appeal to fans of Kathleen Glasgow’s novels and THIS IS WHAT IT FEELS LIKE by Rebecca Barrow.

Seventeen-year-old Tessa is definitely not the overachieving golden child her older sister is, and she’s certainly been involved in enough messy situations—like totaling her mom’s new car—to be considered a Screw Up. If there’s one thing she’s got a solid grip on, though, it’s drumming for her punk band. Too bad her mom thinks it’s a noisy time suck and the jerks at the club treat her like a cute gimmick instead of a serious musician. Which is exactly why she plans to enter her band into an opening act competition for a chance at studio time and a summer tour. Maybe then she’ll get the recognition she deserves. With plenty of time to create a kickass demo, and her best friend Derek by her side (and on guitar), she’s positive they’ll rise to the top.

But then Derek keeps ditching practices to hang with some girl, and their bassist quits the band, taking three of their four songs with him. Tessa can feel the competition slipping out of reach before it’s even begun. Unwilling to give up, she begs Derek’s older brother to fill in on bass, and convinces Derek to invite his new girlfriend to practice. Problem solved. When the new girlfriend turns out to be none other than Grace McGuire—who made fun of Tessa throughout middle school—she expects Derek to dump her. He knows how much the bullying sucked for Tessa. And yet, he wants her to forgive and forget! Grace was prissy and rude then and she clearly hasn’t changed much in three years. Now Tess must decide whether she can tolerate Grace long enough Now Tessa must decide which is more unbearable: losing her best friend, her band, and her chance to prove herself as a musician OR dealing with Grace.