P7: Young Adult Contemporary #ownvoices: FOR WHATEVER WE LOSE

Title: For Whatever We Lose

Age Category: Young Adult

Genre: Contemporary #ownvoices

Word Count: 65,000

Pitch:

Day one: they leave Miami.

Day three: the ship stalls as a hurricane approaches.

Day five…all hell breaks loose.

Diverse Breakfast Club meets Titanic when high school students’ dream trip turns nightmarish.

First 250 Word of Manuscript: 

“Did you pack your medicine, mija?”

Alex’s palms itched with sweat, and she rubbed them on her shorts. Did she unplug her flat iron? Did she pack enough underwear? Did she lock her bedroom door? Why hadn’t she heard from Miles yet? Did he get her last eight texts? Maybe he got into an accident. Maybe the trip had even been cancelled.

“Alexandra, I asked you a question,” her abuela trilled through the car’s speakerphone, tongue thick with a Cuban accent.

“Si, Abuelita. The medicine is in my bags.” She probably missed her trip. Now she’d never get the scholarship. She plucked a few white threads from the rip in her fraying shorts and wound them tightly around her fingertip until it plumped and reddened. Wincing at the pain, she yanked the threads tighter.

Her abuela sighed. “Nina, did you check?”

After a few seconds of silence punctuated by static, Alex nudged her sister’s arm.

Nina pulled to a stop at the red light. “No,” she said, smacking her gum and picking up her phone. She updated her Instagram with a quick selfie—all cleavage and duck face. “Pero I made sure she packed tons of condoms.”

Alex shrank into the passenger seat, her ears reddening, and mouthed, “I’m going to murder you.”

“¿Como?” Abuela’s voice curled up at the end.

“Bottoms, Abuelita. You know, for her bikinis?”