I'm pleased to welcome Doug Solter to Novel November. He is sharing an excerpt of his novel My Girlfriend Bites.
“Bree opens her mouth and another strong howl roars from
deep inside her. She mimics the wolves cries with perfection. Seriously? This
is not happening. That waiter must have been pissed and slipped a drug into my
fettuccine because those sounds can not be coming from my date."
After his "dream" girl rejects him, 16-year-old
Aiden tries to commit suicide, yet mysteriously survives. Now he feels like a
loser with zero possibility of finding the perfect girlfriend. Enter Bree, the
creepy girl with too much hair who's rumored to be cloned from a frozen
prehistoric cave girl that scientists discovered in Canada . But when he accepts a ride
from “Cave Girl” during a storm, Aiden discovers this weird girl not only has a
kind heart. She's also cute.
Aiden offers to help Bree in Algebra and the two become
friends. When Aiden pushes that friendship into a date, Bree accepts. On a
romantic night at the zoo, Bree and Aiden fall in love as the animals watch.
Unlike Aiden, they can smell what Bree really is.
Bree decides to tell him her deep, dark secret. Her family
are werewolves hiding from the Demon Skins, a mysterious new enemy hunting down
all the werewolf packs on earth. Aiden struggles with Bree's revelation, but
chooses to stand by the girl he fell in love with. But standing by his new
girlfriend will be the biggest test of his life.
Too bad Bree can't turn a coward into a fearless werewolf.
That bite thing is only a myth.
After his "dream" girl rejects him, 16-year-old
Aiden tries to commit suicide, yet mysteriously survives. Now he feels like a
loser with zero possibility of finding the perfect girlfriend. Enter Bree, the
creepy girl with too much hair who's rumored to be cloned from a frozen
prehistoric cave girl that scientists discovered in Canada . But when he accepts a ride
from “Cave Girl” during a storm, Aiden discovers this weird girl not only has a
kind heart. She's also cute.
Aiden offers to help Bree in Algebra and the two become
friends. When Aiden pushes that friendship into a date, Bree accepts. On a
romantic night at the zoo, Bree and Aiden fall in love as the animals watch.
Unlike Aiden, they can smell what Bree really is.
Bree decides to tell him her deep, dark secret. Her family
are werewolves hiding from the Demon Skins, a mysterious new enemy hunting down
all the werewolf packs on earth. Aiden struggles with Bree's revelation, but
chooses to stand by the girl he fell in love with. But standing by his new
girlfriend will be the biggest test of his life.
Too bad Bree can't turn a coward into a fearless werewolf.
That bite thing is only a myth.
*****
“Dinner Date with
Bree”
The brick walls inside the big Italian restaurant
amplify all the background noise by a factor of ten. I do my best to
concentrate on Bree, who raises her voice to tell me what music she likes.
The
conversation dies.
I
smile.
Bree
smiles.
I
don’t know what else to talk about. The restaurant? The tablecloth?
Ask
Bree if she can speak Italian?
That’s stupid. Don’t ask her that.
I
scratch an itch on my leg and notice a small crescent moon tat on top of Bree’s
foot. Never noticed that before.
She
flexes her ankle. “Do you like it?”
“Like
what?” I ask.
“The
tattoo?”
“Yeah,
I do. Why the moon?”
“Because
the moon is magical. It gives light to the darkness,” Bree says. “Can’t you
feel its energy in the air when there’s a full moon? The night becomes so
alive. So vibrant. You can always feel it.” She pauses. “I find it super hard
to sleep during a full moon. How can you sleep with all that energy seething
through your body? Sometimes you have no choice but to run through the woods.”
Wait.
Is Bree telling me that she runs around in the woods in the middle of the
night? That’s so Cave Girl weird.
“Do
you do that?” I ask.
“Do
I do what?”
“Run
around in the forest in the middle of the night?”
The
hint of surprise on her face gets covered up quickly. “I didn’t say that. No,
I’m saying that I understand why some people do. The hospital emergency rooms
have busy nights on a full moon because people run around in the middle of the
night and bump into things. That’s what I meant. I wasn’t talking about me at
all.”
“Okay.”
“I’m
super serious. I just like the moon. That’s all,” Bree says, a weird
nervousness coming from her that I haven’t seen before.
“So
you’re only a moon enthusiast and that’s all.”
“Yes.”
She giggles. “A moon enthusiast. I like that.” Bree gulps down some water from
her glass.
“There’s
a lot of suicides during a full moon.” The words roll off my tongue, and I
instantly tense up the moment my brain catches it. Suicides? Why did I bring
that up? Now that doesn’t make me sound depressing to be around, does it?
The
table falls silent.
My
stomach burns. I’ve destroyed this date. Blew it up in my own face. Why do I
keep saying stupid things? I should have printed some awesome one-liners I
could say to a girl and slip those into my pocket. I suck at improv.
“Even
the moon can’t cure everyone’s darkness,” Bree says, her eyes searching mine.
Why
is she looking at me like that? Does she suspect that I tried to — no way. How
could Bree possibly know that?
“I
don’t believe in all that witches and wizards stuff. I think it’s a bunch of
old superstitious crap made up by people to scare other people. And to sell
them Halloween junk at grocery stores.”
Bree sips more water. “You don’t believe myths
could be based on the truth?”
“Nope.
And I don’t believe in Bigfoot either.”
Our
waiter comes over. I order fettuccine Alfredo and salad. Bree takes more time,
scanning the menu as her mouth twitches to the side.
“I’ll
take the veal Parmesan,” Bree says.
“Our
chef’s signature dish. Excellent choice,” the waiter says.
“But
I want it without the sauce and cheese on top.”
“Breaded
veal without the Parmesan?”
“Yes,
and what side dish comes with that?”
“A
side order of pasta marinara with our vegetable of the day.”
Bree’s
eyes wince. “I want meatballs instead.”
“Side
order of spaghetti and meatballs? We can do that.” The waiter writes it down.
“No
pasta. Only the meatballs. And can you leave off the veggies and just add more
meatballs?”
The
waiter shoots me an unhappy look. I pretend to look out the window. The man
rips off an order slip, crumples it up, and starts again. “I have a breaded
veal without sauce or cheese with a double order of meatballs. What dressing
would you like on your salad?”
Bree
bites her lip. “No dressing, but can you put an obscene amount of bacon bits on
it?”
“Bacon
bits instead of dressing?” The waiter looks at Bree like she’s gone insane.
“An
obscene amount. Yes.”
“I’ll
put your order in right away,” he says with a slight hint of mockery in his
voice as he takes away our menus and leaves.
Bree
leans forward. “What’s the plan for after dinner? You said something about a
surprise?”
Doug Solter is a screenwriter and author of two young adult
novels. He respects cats, loves mountains, and has enjoyed a glass of sangria
on the streets of Barcelona .
He directed three short films, two rap videos, and worked in local television
for twenty years. Doug began writing screenplays in 1998 and became a
2001 semi-finalist in The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences’ Nicholl
Fellowships in Screenwriting. His script Father Figure was one of 129 scripts
left from 5,489 entries. His tenth script, Rail Fan, became a quarter-finalist
in 2009. Soon after, Doug made the switch to writing young adult novels in
2008. Doug lives in Oklahoma
where he spends time with friends, good music, and the characters in his head
who won't leave.
No comments:
Post a Comment