A Tale of Two Besties (Hello Giggles) - Hardcover

Über die Autorinnen und Autoren

Sophia Rivka Rossi co-founded HelloGiggles, the popular internet haven for girls of all ages, along with writer Molly McAleer and her real-life bestie,New Girl star and She and Him songstress Zooey Deschanel. She has produced and written for several hit television series, including Fox’sGlee and MTV’s The Hills and The City. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Sophia's own personal and professional vision is focused on cultivating positive and safe online communities for young women, and she's particularly fond of blogs and artists that speak to tweens (and everyone's inner tween).

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

 

I learned to read while I was living in the Seychelles, a group of islands off the east coast of Africa, when my father was making a movie based on Robinson Crusoe. I had left the familiarity of my Los Angeles home, my first grade class, and all of my friends for this tropical beach reminiscent of an explorer’s desert island. Although it was beautiful, it was so different from home—with a very small population and just one tiny general store, it was nothing like the big-city culture I was accustomed to. I had my sister there with me, and did manage to make one or two new friends. But I still missed life at home and the friends that went with it. This new feeling was what led me to discover that I could escape into the stories in the books I was learning to read. Instead of feeling homesick, I could picture the characters and the places I was reading about. My imagination was thriving, and I finally felt at home.

When I returned to California, I got my first library card. I came to love the musty smell that accompanied the shelves upon shelves of undiscovered stories. From the fairy tales I knew from my early years to the page-turning young-adult novels I discovered as I grew older, books became my constant and consistent friends. From fiction to nonfiction, history to mystery, books of all kinds became my confidants, my teachers, and my entertainment, and they never, ever let me down. I took my books with me everywhere I went, and they silently soothed my bad days. I couldn’t wait to get into bed and read every night, sometimes so engrossed in a story that I would sneak a flashlight under my pillow so that I could keep turning pages well past lights-out.

Books also become a way that I bonded with my friends. We exchanged our cherished and tattered paperbacks, and then wrote down our own stories when we were inspired. This was how I first became interested in going into the profession of storytelling, of playing other characters, of inhabiting other worlds. If you get tired of your own world, there’s always a story waiting to take you away to someplace interesting.

Sophia’s book, A Tale of Two Besties, is an homage to the books of our youth—and to our real friends, the ones who are as consistent as our favorite novels. I hope this book can be something you can share with your friends, and that will remind you of how lucky you are to have them.

Zooey Deschanel

 

 

 

Lily (2:46 pm): PuppyGirl. What if, instead of going to the first day of school tomorrow, we just hid out under the pier forever and made a living selling friendship bracelets and seashells? That is totally doable, right? Please say it’s doable.

 

 

Harper (2:47 pm): Hang on, Gawkward Fairy! Do you really want to spend the last night before freshman year freaking out? Let’s soak it in! Beverly Hills High won’t know what they’re missing when you go to Pathways!

 

 

Lily (2:47 pm): Stop. You’re going to make me do one of those cry-face emojis.

 

 

Harper (2:48 pm): Like this one

 

 

Harper (2:48 pm): or like

 

 

Harper (2:49 pm): Why are there so many face emojis? like do humans even have the capacity to make these faces?

 

 

Harper (2:49 pm):

 

 

Lily (2:50 pm): “I STILL CAN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO MAKE MY PHONE DO THAT!”—Your mom.

 

 

Harper (2:49 pm): I bet it’s the last one that is basically a picture of your face right now and also the rest of the time.

 

 

Harper (2:50 pm): Oh my god, right? “HOW DO I GET THE RINGTONE TO PLAY DRAKE but not the singing part only the part where he ‘raps’?” Ughhh, okay mom.

 

 

Lily (2:51 pm): I <3 her.

 

 

Harper (2:51 pm): Not the way you <3 Tim Slater. Want me to say hi from the “Fairy” tomorrow when I see him in class?

 

 

Lily (2:51 pm): Seriously: NOPE.

 

 

Harper (2:52 pm): Playing hard to get, are we? Or have you accepted what a serial weirdo our male buddy is?

 

 

Lily (2:53 pm): Man you seriously date someone for 2 months and they crush your heart by not being that into you and you never live it down?? I don’t like him anymore, I just like those comics he draws for us!

 

 

Harper (2:54 pm): They are good comics, Gawkward Fairy. And that’s not just me as my superhero PUPPYGIRL with my SUPER EMPATHY talking.

 

 

Lily (2:55 pm): Nice try, but the Gawkward Fairy has up her ultra gawkward shield. NOW I AM immune to all forms of kindess!! Let’s face it: the saddest day of my life starts tomorrow and will last FOREVER.

 

 

Harper (2:56 pm): FOREVER? So dramatic. No wonder they are sending you to the Pathways School of Creative Angst.

 

 

Lily (2:56 pm): Now I’m actually crying face.

 

 

Harper (2:56 pm): Okay, that’s it. Emergency BFF meeting. Same secret time, same secret place?

 

 

Lily (2:56 pm): Only if you bring a sacrificial goat and/or Pinkberry.

 

 

Harper (2:57 pm): duh.

 

 

 

I, Lily Annelisa Farson, thirteen years of age and of sound mind and body, do hereby declare that the following is the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Zeus.

Here is a list of things I love:

1. Really loud thunderstorms (but in a safe “I’m indoors!” kind of way)

2. Music mixes for and from friends and collages of friends and me

3. My red chucks and sometimes my blue ones when my mom washes my red ones without asking

4. Crazy animals that shouldn’t exist but do.

5. Comic books (and not just the ones people think girls will like. ALL OF THEM. Even DC)

6. BASICALLY anything in a thrift store.

7.  Sneezing. (It makes me feel powerful.)

8/9. (Tied) Horses/Vanilla ChapStick

10. My friend Harper!

And here is a list of things I really, really don’t like:

   • Peppers (sometimes I pretend I’m allergic for dramatic purposes only, promise)
   • Aggro-angry music, where someone just yells into a microphone like... Aggressive sounds are so aggressive.
   • Volleyball
   • My hair (too wavy)
   • The smell of airplane bathrooms. I’ve only been on one plane but it SURE WAS MEMORABLE
   • The Mansons—the cult and Marilyn
   • The lady at the mall who works at Day of Knights. It used to be my favorite shop until I accidentally broke a ceramic dragon figurine when I was 11 and she told my dad when he came to pick me up, even though I offered to pay for it. I was planning on being a loyal customer. So really HER LOSS.
   • PATHWAYS!!!
   • Hashtags (Remember when it was just the “number” symbol and nobody used it, ever, because it was super...