The Penny Project

By Lizzie Anne Love

Jake didn't mean to be a bully… but sometimes stupid happens.
As the prospective valedictorian and star wide-receiver, Jake knows he's on top of his game… until Penelope comes along.
He can't be bothered with that dumb girl. Jake has his sights set on Lexi, the prettiest girl in Palmdale High.
Racing to class, he knocks Penelope down. But nice guy that he is, he helps her up by holding her hand.
CLICK
"Guess who's dating the dog." The text and picture spread all over school.
Desperate to squash the rumors before Lexi returns from Mexico, he keeps doing rotten things to hurt Penelope, until he gets caught.
His chemistry teacher punishes him by making him tutor her three days a week. Her grade is now his grade. Jake sees his chance at a full-ride scholarship disappearing faster than a missed field goal.
Inspired by a true story, teens and adults will love this story!
"It brought out every emotion you could possibly feel. It is a must read for everyone!" ~Melanie Mason

• Language: English
• Publisher: LoveLightPress
• Release date: May 20, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201427511

Book preview

Chapter

One

The flower that smells the sweetest is shy and lowly.

~William Wordsworth

---

The longest summer of my life hasn’t even begun to come to an end. All the way to school, I think about her. Lexi. The girl with the raven black hair. The one with a smile I wish was just for me. Back in May, she almost said yes when I asked her to go out with me, as in my steady girlfriend, and then she left for Mexico. Of all places to spend her summer.

And now the first week of school is coming to an end, and I haven’t seen her yet, and none of her friends have heard from her. I hope she’s okay. Bad things happen down there. I don’t know why any parent would risk it.

I’m slumping in my seat, reading chapter one of my economics book.

Jake. Pierce pokes me. Look who just walked in.

My chest warms likes someone put a match to my heart. I look up from my notebook in anticipation. My heart falls into my stomach, and I feel sick.

A new girl stands in our classroom without a tardy pass, five full minutes after the bell rings. It’s probably a good thing she’s new, or she’d be in serious trouble.

She’s not as ugly as a two-headed lizard, but close. If she lost weight, she might actually be kind of cute. She’s twitching her head and shuffling her feet. The paper in her hand quivers like grass in a stiff breeze. Must be nervous or has some disease. And she’s so short that I wonder if she’s even a senior.

My gaze drifts down to her cheap Walmart sneakers and back up to her face. She pinches her lips together. The part in her hair is so far to one side that curly strands hang across one eye, which she flips out of her face, like she’s got Tourette’s or something.

Pierce taps my desk with his pencil. So Mr. Nice-guy, you gonna ask her out?

Ask her out? He’s got to be kidding. I glare at him. Pierce knows I’m holding out for Lexi. Uh, no.

With a little whine, followed by a whimper, Pierce sticks out his lower lip. Aw, I thought dogs were your style.

If you’re so worried about her, why don’t you ask her out? I whisper to him and go back to my notebook.

Pierce lets out a quiet bark. I glare at him for a second before my gaze returns to the new girl. She glances at Pierce, then at me, lowers her head and looks down at the floor.

Mr. Caruthers is at his desk and hasn’t even seen her come in. Amber says in this sugary-sweet voice, Uh, Mr. Caruthers, we have a new girl.

Our teacher looks up and glances over at the door, and I’m not kidding, he does this classic double-take. This poor girl looks like she does not belong in honors economics – maybe home economics.

Mr. Caruthers gets up from his desk and approaches her with his hand out. Good morning. Let’s make sure you’re in the right class. Yeah, it’s like he doesn’t believe she’s a senior either. The new girl hands him her schedule.

Mr. Caruthers stumbles over her name. Penelope Rid-en-hor.

Her voice is small. It’s Ridenhour, like in ride an hour.

Oh, kind of like walk a minute. Mr. Caruthers chuckles, but no one laughs at his dumb joke. Well, Penelope – do they ever call you Penny?

Or, Peepee. Pierce snickers. She looks like she’s about to wet her pants. Several of the others around us chuckle at his remark.

But the way Penelope keeps shifting her weight, that’s exactly what she looks like she’s going to do. No sir. Just Penelope.

Mr. Caruthers hands her back her schedule. You can sit next to… He looks around the room. There are only two empty desks – one is behind Amber Stallman, the other is beside me. Pierce glances at the desk and smiles like he knows what’s coming.

Please don’t let her sit there, please not here.

Mr. Caruthers points to me. Raise your hand Jake. You can sit beside Jake Mitchel. The desk way across the room behind Amber is empty – why not there?

Oooooo…, Pierce says, then sniggers again.

I don’t budge except to take a quick look at Amber Stallman. She’s slumped down in her seat and looks relieved. Rude.

Jake, raise your hand, Mr. Caruthers repeats. Please get a textbook off the shelf and show Penelope where we’re at.

Penelope shuffles to the desk.

Mr. Caruthers grabs a packet from one of his many stacks of paper and sets it on my desk. It’s the syllabus. You can go over this with her.

Pierce smirks at me and bats his eyes like some kind of drama queen. Ah, just look at you and your new GF.

Girlfriend? Hardly. You’re an idiot, I mutter under my breath as I pass by him on my way to the bookshelf.

I return, set the book on her desk, and drop the syllabus on top of it. Just read this. It explains everything.

Thanks. She takes the packet and flips through it, probably just counting pages.

The rest of the class resumes reading the assignment. I glance over at Pierce. He’s nodding with his eyebrows raised. It’s like I can read his mind. He’ll have rumors spread all over school before lunch.

At least it’s just one class period. I’ll talk to Mr. Caruthers after class and suggest that Amber help her. After all she’s almost as smart as me. I’m a full quarter of a point ahead of Amber. Nobody else’s grades come even close. So unless this new girl brings with her some kind of amazing GPA, I’ll graduate valedictorian and get that full-ride ASU scholarship.

Penelope pulls out a half chewed pencil and taps it against her chin. I watch her for a sec. Her thick lenses make her eyes look like she could be some kind of anime character.

Then Pierce catches my eye, crinkles his nose, and fans his face. Yeah, I catch the whiff, too. She does smell funny, kinda like dirty socks. I shift in my seat and try to focus on Mr. Caruthers’ lecture.

When we get to the end of the chapter, Penelope leans across the aisle and whispers, I’m lost.

I turn in my seat and nearly bump heads with her – our faces come within millimeters. This is not supposed to happen to me. Why can’t a cute girl with a hot body and perfect teeth sit next to me – like Lexi? She probably got kidnapped in Mexico and I’ll never see her again. That would totally screw up my school year. I have big plans for Lexi and me.

Where are we? Penelope asks.

Frustrated, I flip through the pages and point to the section where Mr. Caruthers is going over the chapter questions. I’m pretty sure I won’t have to worry about her being in competition with Amber and me for valedictorian.

Pierce holds up a piece of paper. Oh yeah, you and the dog, it reads.

I shake my head. Dork, I mumble.

He scribbles on his paper again and holds it up. No, that’s dog as in D-O-G. LOL. Pierce leans over to Zach and Nick, a couple of the other guys on our football team and whispers something. I ignore them and stare down at my textbook. One of them, I don’t know which, makes little kissy noises.

I look over my shoulder at her, to see if she heard. Penelope slides her fingers along the fringes of her hair and tucks it behind her ear.

I can just imagine how Pierce is going to spread another stupid rumor about me. It’s not the first time. He’s had it in for me ever since I made first string on the varsity team, and he barely made second. He’s jealous, jealous that he’ll probably spend most of the season on the bench. Heck, he can’t even get a date.

Oh, well, it’s his problem. Studying the questions at the end of chapter one, I try to get my mind off of the dork sitting in class and the girl sitting beside me.

At the end of class, I gather up my stuff. Penelope taps my arm. Do you know where my next class is?

I study her schedule. Unbelievable. Calculus – same as me, AP Chemistry – same as me, Honors English – same as me. Did they make a mistake? Serious? She’s in four of my six classes – honors classes. How could someone who doesn’t seem very bright have so many obviously tough courses?

Pierce winks rushing past me, flips me a thumbs up and a cheesy grin. Right. Like I just won a date with the prom queen.

Reluctantly, I tell her to follow me and wait for her to catch up. Purposely, I don’t ask her any questions. I don’t want people thinking we’re together.

When we reach our next class, she reaches for the door handle, but her backpack slides down her shoulder knocking her off balance. I steady her and grab her backpack.

From behind me Pierce gives me a slap on the back. Ah, lookie! I hear the snap of his iPhone. Most likely to date a dog. It’s for the yearbook, you know. He saunters past us showing the photo to several others in the hall. Jake’s new girlfriend, I overhear him say.

I scowl at him, but he doesn’t see me. He’s not even in yearbook.

When Mr. Glass looks up he asks, Who’s your new friend?

Really? Do we look like friends? I raise my eyebrows and crinkle my nose. This is Penelope Ridenhour. She’s new. Yeah – I just – I rake my hand through my hair and make a hasty retreat to my desk.

Welcome Penelope. Mr. Glass walks to his electronics table, you know, the kind where he has a document reader, video machine, computer, projector. Yet, in spite of all his technological equipment, he picks up an old fashioned seating chart. Go figure. Luckily for me all the seats around me are taken. However, I watch in an anxious sweat as Mr. Glass erases, scribbles and erases again before he points to the seat next to mine. Brittany, I’ve moved you back two seats. Chase, you move over to the next aisle. And Penelope you can sit right there next to Jake. I’m sure he’d be happy to help you.

Not again. If this keeps up, people will be calling her my girlfriend for real. The rumor will get back to Lexi. There goes my chance with her. Hopefully this will all blow over before she returns from Mexico.

A thought occurs to me. Why would Mr. Glass rearrange his seating in the first week? He should have just put her in an empty seat – worry about it another day.

Mr. Glass smiles at us. I’m starting to think the teachers must know something about Penelope. And they’ve already discussed her in a faculty meeting. And I just happen to be at the right place to carry out their plan.

Or, they’ve already picked me. A lump hits my stomach. I just can’t get stuck with her all year. I’ve got to do something before my life is ruined.

Penelope shuffles to her seat, while I sit here puzzling over the new girl and what her problem is. I give her a quick sideways glance. Why does she need to be helped? If she’s been put in honors classes, then maybe she’s smart enough and doesn’t need me at all. Still, this feeling twists my gut to pieces.

Taking another peek her way, I watch her struggle to get her notebook out of her backpack. She sets the notebook on her desk and zips her backpack closed, but she doesn’t put it under her desk like a normal person would.

Mr. Glass is pretty particular about where to put backpacks, and the middle of his aisle is not, I repeat, NOT where it goes. Last year he tripped over one. Man, was he ticked. No one ever leaves a backpack in his walkway, ever. Mr. Glass, in spite of all his electronics, has a habit of roaming his classroom. Sometimes he gets talking so fast he forgets to watch where he’s walking.

If I don’t let her in on it, maybe she’ll get moved somewhere safer, like the back of the room. On the other hand, if my teacher has already decided I should help her and I fail to inform her….

I let out an exasperated breath. Put your backpack under your desk.

Penelope complies.

Travis saunters in moments before the bell rings and sits behind Penelope. He’s our star quarterback and thinks he’s all that. Mr. Glass glowers at him as the bell rings, but doesn’t say anything.

Travis openly stares at Penelope, then leans over to me and says, Wow, Pierce was right. D-O-G.

The new girl glances at me and then back at her desk top. I’m sure Penelope heard.

Travis leans forward and whispers to her. Your book is under your chair. We always do the warm-up problem on the board.

Oh, good. He can be nice to her. If only Pierce was here to observe this. Mr. Glass looks up and smiles at Travis.

Penelope turns around, smiles at him, and doesn’t say a word. She reaches below her desk, pulls out the math book and begins working the equation.

I ignore them both and go back to the problem at hand, the one on the board, not the one next to me.

Sure enough, Mr. Glass gets all fired up reviewing algebraic formulas from last year. With his power point clicker in hand, he’s zipping through his presentation. We’re all scribbling as fast as we can to keep up. He’s backing up, like a cement truck without the beeping. I spot Penelope’s backpack in the middle of the aisle. How did that get there? I saw her put it under her desk.

Our teacher raises his foot, just high enough to catch the handle. It’s like one of those slow motion football replays. Travis raises his hand and presses it to his cheek, his mouth open in a clear, oh no. Penelope looks down at her backpack, horror on her face.

Mr. Glass loses his balance, flails his arms. His remote goes flying out of his hand and lands with a crash on Penelope’s desk. The batteries shoot in different directions. He falls backward, catching himself on Travis’s desk. Our teacher swears – a word I’m sure no other teacher ever ventured to say in class.

He hangs for a few more seconds before sitting down on the carpet. Not a sound can be heard. I look over at Penelope. Her face is stone, but under her frozen expression, I see color rising in her cheeks, and she’s not breathing.

Well, that was an experience. Mr. Glass stands back up and his foot is missing a shoe, which has been swallowed by Penelope’s backpack.

Penelope doesn’t move. All around me my classmates emit soft chuckles.

Mr. Glass stoops, grabs his shoe, leans over and whispers in Penelope’s ear. She brushes something from under her glasses – a tear probably. Travis scowls and shakes his finger at me.

Penelope zips her backpack and stuffs it under her chair. Several nearby students retrieve batteries and pieces of his remote. Mr. Glass reassembles it as he continues on as if nothing has happened. I mean, serious – it’s like he’s hardly upset at all, not like the last time he tripped and some poor sucker spent the rest of the week at the back of the classroom writing, I will not leave my backpack in the aisle.

I take another peek at Penelope, her shoulders are slumped. She doesn’t move the rest of class. Travis gives me a shrug.

I scribble on a piece of paper: What did you do that for? And hand it to Travis.

He points to himself and mouths, Me?

Who else? I mouth back.

He points to me.

I can’t believe he would put the blame on me. Oh, wait, yes, I can. He’s Pierce’s best friend.

The second the bell rings, I don’t wait for Penelope, but race out the door to my next class. That twisting in my gut – it’s now amplified.

Thankfully, choir is next. But it’s not just choir, it’s Palmdale High School Show Choir. And I really am the best tenor in our school. I’ve loved singing since I was a kid. Mom enrolled me when I was younger in a group called Little Sunshine Singers. But just for the record, my teacher said I had remarkable talent and that someday I’d probably be on stage. I can even picture myself singing at Carnegie Hall.

So, we’re doing this show in October. Mrs. Harold hasn’t decided if we’re going to perform Broadway tunes or classical stuff, so she’s running us through several pieces of music to see which one she likes better. I’m trying out for the solo. Yeah, Mrs. Harold has her favorites, and let’s just say, I haven’t missed a solo in the last two years of high school. And yes, I did join show choir my freshman year.

But that’s not my only talent. I’m good on the football field, too. Wide receiver. Oh yeah, I’m that fast and I’ve got great hands. I can manage just about anything thrown at me. Except for that goofy girl named Penelope.

When I get to chemistry, there she is. Fortunately, she found her way to class without an escort and beats me there. Lucky for me, Pierce has already been assigned to be Penelope’s lab partner. I give him the cheesiest grin I can – just paying him back for all his crap this morning. Sometimes he acts like he’s in third grade. How he made it into honors classes remains a mystery. I catch Pierce’s eye and give him a thumbs up. Pierce gives me back a finger, and it’s not his thumb.

Hey, Lopie, Pierce says really loud. Did you bring puppy chow for lunch?

Several of my teammates are in my class and they give high fives to Pierce. A few of the girls just shake their heads.

Apparently Ms. Stickle-Anderson, weird how she wants us to use both of her hyphenated names – but behind her back we just call her Stick-A. I’m off track. Where was I? Oh, yeah, Ms. Stickle-Anderson gives Pierce the evil eye and walks to the back of the room. It is obvious that you cannot work with this charming young woman. I can’t believe our teacher managed to call her charming without so much as a slight gag reflex. I’m going to switch lab partners.

Oh, please, oh merciful God in heaven, please not me.

Chapter

Two

A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.

~Jack London

---

At least during football practice I can focus on anything but the new girl. I’m also hoping to get away from Pierce’s and Travis’s harassment.

Sadly, no. Travis takes up where Pierce left off. You left Math without carrying your girlfriend’s backpack.

I ignore him. I try anyway.

Travis sidles up next me. I hear your new girlfriend is a real dog.

Pierce stands there next to him holding the football. This is what they’ll be doing before long. He grips the pigskin and presses his lips to it.

Coach Collins slaps the football out of his hand. You gonna have your way with that or get on the line?

Get on the line.

Get on the line, what? Coach stands eye to eye with Pierce.

Get on the line, sir.

We get back to drills, but not before Pierce and Travis stare me down with one of those looks that say they aren’t finished with me yet. And they’re not. Every time Coach is out of hearing distance, Pierce comes up with some stupid comment. You like her better than Lexi? or Prom King and the Pooch. And then there’s the classic, Man’s best friend…man, is she your best friend? By the time practice is over, I’m fuming. I want to plant my fist in Pierce’s face, but I don’t dare. I don’t want to get kicked off the team.

Brendan saunters over to me. Dude, what’d you do to tick off Pierce?

For a best friend, he can be kind of dense sometimes. It’s what he’s been ticked off about since freshman year.

My best friend nods. So, you made first string and he didn’t. Just ignore him.

He’s probably right, but he doesn’t know Pierce like I do. Pierce won’t give it up, and he’ll drag half the football team along with him, and I’ll be forced with Penelope as my girlfriend. I shudder.

---

When I finally pull into my driveway, Monique is sitting on our front porch. Hey, where’s your key? I ask.

I can’t find it – probably in my room somewhere. Her head is down and she’s staring at the sidewalk. When she looks up at me her eyes are red and puffy. She wipes at her nose with the edge of her jacket, leaving tears and snot on her sleeve. For someone in high school she’s got a lot to learn about acceptable social behavior.

You better wash that before you wear it again. I fling my backpack next to the door and plop down beside her. I’d really rather just go inside and get something to eat, but she looks so sad and miserable that I put my hand on her