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Email12 Days of Kickass Christmas – A deleted scene from Dear Cassie by Lisa Burstein
Posted Dec 11 2013, 7:23 am in 12 days of kickass Christmas, Dear Cassie, Deleted scenes, Lisa Burstein
Happy Holidays Everyone!
Join us in celebrating Entangled Teen’s 12 Days of Kickass Event!
We are joining together to share some exclusive content with you all! There will be 2 teams, The Smartass Team who will post a good or swoon worthy deleted scene or an excerpt and The Badass Team who will post a villainous deleted scene or excerpt. And the cool part is we’ll be posting on each other’s blogs! The party goes from December 2nd all the way to December 13th! We will wrap up the event with our monthly twitter party on December 13th9 PM EST/6 PM PST as well! Each day will have 2 posts from us along with an EPIC giveaway!
So how do I join in you ask? It’s easy just follow along with the tour and find the hidden word (it will be highlighted) in each post and fill out the Rafflecopter form! What can I win you ask? You can win one of 2 Kindles (valued at $69) and we’re giving away 5 sets of 5 Entangled Teen Print Books US Only, and 10 Entangled Teen eBooks International! Also we will be giving away more books and Amazon and Barnes & Noble Gift Cards during the twitter party!That means 2 people will win a kindle, 5 people will win 5 of our amazing print titles, and 10 people will win eBooks!
Today I’m hosting the awesome Lisa Burstein! She popped by with a deleted scene from Dear Cassie, and trust me, you don’t wanna miss this. Lisa’s books are a killer mix of ferocious feels, super spunk, and characters that will stay with you long after you’ve turned the last page. But don’t take my word for it. Check out the blurb (and freaking awesome cover) for Dear Cassie!
What if the last place you should fall in love is the first place that you do?
You’d think getting sent to Turning Pines Wilderness Camp for a month-long rehabilitation “retreat” and
being forced to re-live it in this journal would be the worst thing that’s ever happened to me.
You’d be wrong.
There’s the reason I was sent to Turning Pines in the first place: I got arrested. On prom night. With my
two best friends, who I haven’t talked to since and probably never will again. And then there’s the real
reason I was sent here. The thing I can’t talk about with the guy I can’t even think about.
What if the moment you’ve closed yourself off is the moment you start to break open?
But there’s this guy here. Ben. And the more I swear he won’t—he can’t—the deeper under my skin he’s
getting. After the thing that happened, I promised I’d never fall for another boy’s lies.
Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble/The Book Depository
And here’s the low-down on Lisa:
Lisa Burstein is a tea seller by day and a writer by night. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from
the Inland Northwest Center for Writers at Eastern Washington University and is glad to finally have
it be worth more than the paper it was printed on. She lives in Portland, Oregon with her very patient
husband, a neurotic dog and two cats.
She wrote her first story when she was in second grade. It was a Thanksgiving tale from the point of
view of the turkey from freezer to oven to plate. It was scandalous.
PRETTY AMY May 2012 Entangled Publishing THE NEXT FOREVER January 2013 Entangled Publishing
DEAR CASSIE March 2013 Entangled Publishing
Where you can find her:
Website/Blog/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads
Now for the goodies… 😀
From the ultimate Bad Ass Cassie: a deleted scene from Dear Cassie. This chapter was
removed because my editor felt like it was too cruel and gross not to let them shower more than
once a week. See what you think ;).
**********
I was lying in my bed staring at the flypaper on the ceiling and the names carved under
the shelf above my bed. People who’d written they “wuz here” and the year. My guess was none
of them ever had to wonder whether it would only be them and their duffle bag when they left
this place. Waiting at the bus station or airport for someone to pick them up and having no idea if
someone would.
That sucked to think about, so instead I started counting the flies stuck like dead raisins to
the flypaper, the sun starting to rise and light coming through it like sickly stained glass.
I heard Rawe’s door open and closed my eyes trying to pretend I was still asleep. Even
though I was awake, I wasn’t ready to be yet.
I keep my body still, making Rawe go through the process of kicking my bed to wake
me up. I still pretended to be asleep as she marched through the cabin, kicking Troyer’s bed and
Nez’s, each of them moaning and covering their heads.
It was possible they had been awake and thinking too. Even thinking was better than
whatever we were going to have to do that day.
Rawe walked to the center of the cabin, like she did when she had things to tell us. Most
mornings she had things to tell us. Usually it was the way she was going to make our lives hell
that day.
“I have a special treat for you guys,” she said.
I could only guess. She considered our new pit-toilet a treat and well, considering that it
didn’t smell nearly as bad as our old one, I guess it kind of was. Of course, it was only a relative
break in our usual level of torture.
No one responded. Nez rolled her eyes. Troyer held herself tight in the sleeping bag. I did
a combo of both.
“Don’t you want to know what it is?” Rawe asked, her lips quivering with what for her I
guess was excitement. Honestly it looked like her face was going to cave in on itself.
“What?” I finally responded only to not have to see that.
She paused, because that’s what someone does when they think the news they are about
to give you deserves it. “You get to shower today,” she said, and I could hear a sort of smile
in her voice. She wanted us to understand she was doing us a favor. Of course, even I knew no
favor here came without strings attached.
Well more like the chains on a ship’s anchor attached.
We waited. I think like me, Troyer and Nez had learned that there would be a catch. Yes,
you get to shower today, but in a shark infested waterfall.
Troyer wrote something on her pad and held it up, with soap?
“Yes Troyer,” Rawe said, smiling a Christmas morning smile, “with soap and water and
towels.”
“Conditioner?” Nez asked, because she was Nez. She sat up in her bed. “My hair needs
conditioner or it gets all tangled.” She splayed it out like a vampire’s cape.
“Don’t push it,” Rawe said.
“Why is it special today?” I asked. Not that I should have. I should have gotten dressed in
four seconds and kissed Rawe’s dirty boots, but like I said there had to be a catch. It wasn’t the
first time she’d brought us to the shower house, but she was making a big enough deal about it
that you would have thought we were going to shower in gold; of course considering the way she
parsed out showers, I should have considered them gold-like.
I guess that was what eighteen-days without MTV got you— insane paranoia.
“Do you want to ask questions? Or scrub the stench off of you?” Rawe asked.
We all stayed silent. Given the choice of asking questions, or a shower with soap and a
towel, it was obvious what our choice would be.
“Get dressed and meet me outside,” Rawe said, leaving us to get ready.
We all waited on our cots until the cabin door closed behind her. It was almost like we
afraid if any of us moved, she would change her mind.
“I didn’t think I’d ever be this excited to take a shower alone,” Nez said, her voice lilting.
“Sick Nez,” I whined.
“What? It’s true,” she said, pulling her hair back in a rubber band
I looked at Troyer, she rolled her eyes.
I guess Rawe realized how rank we smelled if she was actually letting us into the shower
house to take a real shower. Of course, I also couldn’t help but notice we were far more than
halfway through our stay, so this most likely was going to be our only shower. I’d better make
the most of it. Not that I really knew how I was going to do that.
Rawe stood in front of the cabin waiting for us with three folded towels and three new
bars of white, white ivory soap. She gave a towel and a bar to each of us.
“Time to get clean ladies,” she said.
I couldn’t help feeling a little giddy. We were actually doing something I could
conceivably enjoy.
Rawe led us over to the shower house. She bent over at the door and unlocked the
padlock with a key around her neck.
“Okay, go on, you have ten minutes,” Rawe said.
We all stood there looking at our soap. It had those sharp, sharp edges and the word
IVORY perfectly engraved in.
“Now you have nine minutes,” Rawe said looking at her watch.
Forget savoring the moment. The three of us ran into the shower house, almost knocking
Rawe over. Whatever was supposed to be “special” about this particular shower, when we got
inside, light didn’t pour through the windows and angels did not sing. It was as dark, dank and
disgusting as ever. The walls were covered in green yuck and the whole place smelled like
mildew.
It was one big room with no stalls, shower nozzles lining the walls.
“Who’s ready to get cozy,” Nez said, whipping off her boots, uniform, underwear and
bra without even thinking about it. Her body was as long and beautiful as her hair. I pictured it
through Ben’s eyes and wondered why in the hell he was even attempting to still come after me.
If that’s what he was really doing. Looking at Nez and her body, as long and brown as warm
caramel sauce being poured my guess was he was playing with me, like a cat played with a ball
of yarn.
Nez got under one of the nozzles and turned it on full blast.
Troyer and I both stared at her. I think I was amazed, even though I shouldn’t have been,
about how quickly she got undressed and I think Troyer was probably jealous of her boobs;
which were perfect coffee cream colored cantaloupes on her chest.
“When you guys are done looking at my butt, you should probably take showers,” Nez
said through the shower stream, so it sounded like she was gurgling her words. “My guess is at
this point you have seven minutes.”
I looked at Troyer, her body motionless.
“At least the guys aren’t here,” I said, shrugging off my uniform. I stopped at my bra,
underwear and boots. I left them on, not like anyone could tell what had happened to me if they
could see my whole body, but I still couldn’t help feeling like they could. Like there were scars
there. And also, there was no way I was letting Nez know she had way nicer boobs than I did
The last person to see me totally naked was Aaron. Even at the clinic, I’d had a paper
gown to cover me. I would never have thought the next two people to see me semi-naked would
be a crazy-mute girl and a sex-a-holic Native American.
Troyer stood there holding her arms over her chest, as I turned on the nozzle. The water
felt amazing. Kind of like the way it feels when you go to the hairdresser and she washes your
hair for you—the needles of heat and pleasure at the base of your skull.
I lathered up the soap and scrubbed away, but Troyer still hadn’t gotten in.
“Troyer, we’re probably down to five minutes,” I said, the warm water hitting my lips
and teeth.
She shrugged and walked over to a nozzle. She turned it on, stepping under it in her
whole uniform. That girl had some problems.
Of course, I was still wearing my boots.
I looked down to the water pooling off my body. It was brown like tea, disgusting. I
worked that ivory soap down to a nub, so every piece of me smelled like it; that clean, clean
smell that makes you sick. I would have swallowed it if I could have, to keep it close.
Rawe was waiting for us outside the shower house when we were done. I had to admit I
felt pretty good being so fresh. I should have known I was about to get fucked.
“Troyer what the hell?” Rawe asked.
It was obviously a rhetorical question. Every question you asked Troyer had to be,
because she didn’t answer anyway.
She was dripping wet, her uniform stuck to her skin like more skin.
“Well,” Rawe said, “at least you’ll have time to dry off.”
I waited, pushing my feet down so water squirted out of my boots.
“Time to run,” Rawe said, clapping her hands together, like we were birds and she was
trying to scare us into moving.
“Run where?” Nez said.
“Around the camp,” Rawe said, “we’re going for six miles today.”
“You have to be fucking kidding me,” I mumbled.
Haven’t read today’s other post? Stop by Lisa’s blog and check out my excerpt/deleted scene.
Giveaway Details:
2 Kindles (valued at $69) US ONLY
5 sets of 5 Entangled Teen Print Books US Only
10 Entangled Teen eBooks International!
(no purchase necessary)
Enter by clicking the link below:
And here’s the post schedule so you can follow along each day!
12/2/2013 Kendra Highley will host Rachel Harris with a Smartass post.
12/2/2013 Rachel Harris will host Kendra Highley with a Smartass post.
12/3/2013 Christine O’Neilwill host Vivi Barnes with a Badass post.
12/3/2013 Vivi Barneswill host Christine O’Neil with a Badass post.
12/4/2013 Karri Thompson will host Danielle Ellison with a Smartass post.
12/4/2013 Danielle Ellison will host Karri Thompson with a Smartass post.
12/5/2013 Princess Sophiewill host Cecily White with a Badass post.
12/5/2013 Cecily Whitewill host Princess Sophie with a Badass post.
12/6/2013 Jolene Perrywill host Lea Nolan with a Smartass post.
12/6/2013 Lea Nolanwill host Jolene Perry with a Smartass post.
12/7/2013 Victoria Scottwill host Sara Hantz with a Badass post.
12/7/2013 SaraHantzwill host Victoria Scott with a Badass post.
12/8/2013 Kelley Yorkwill host Tiffany Truitt with a Smartass post.
12/8/2013 Tiffany Truittwill host Kelley York with a Smartass post.
12/9/2013 Melissa Westwill host Cindi Madsen with a Badass post.
12/9/2013 Cindi Madsenwill host Melissa West with a Badass post.
12/10/2013 Rebekah Purdy will host Shea Berkley with a Smartass post.
12/10/2013 Shea Berkley will host Rebekah Purdy with a Smartass post.
12/11/2013 Lisa Burstein will host Jus Accardo with a Badass post.
12/11/2013 Jus Accardowill host Lisa Burstein with a Badass post.
12/12/2013 Renee Collinswill host Tracy Clark with a Smartass post.
12/12/2013 Tracy Clark will host Renee Collins with a Smartass post.
12/13/2013 Chloe Jacobswill host Brooklyn Skye with a Badass post.
12/13/2013 Brooklyn Skyewill host Chloe Jacobs with a Badass post.
We’re super excited to share all of these awesome posts with you and make sure to follow along on twitter and Facebook using the hashtag #12DaysOfKickass!
4 Comments
None of the words or phrases seem highlighted or to stand out. ????
Oops! My bad, Linda. I copied and pasted, and it didn’t transfer over. Should be fixed now 🙂
thank you! It’s showing up now… :-)))
[…] Haven’t read today’s other post? Stop by Jus’s blog and check out my excerpt/deleted scene from DEAR CASSIE! […]