Social Suicide (19 page)

ALTHOUGH I GENERALLY WRITE ALONE, IN A CORNER OF A
coffee shop, with my earbuds in so no one will bother me, there is actually a huge team of people without whom my words would never see the light of day, let alone a bookstore shelf. So I have to give a shout-out to them.

A huge thanks to my agent-awesome, Holly Root, for always having my back. Thank you to Erica Sussman, Tyler Infinger, and the rest of the incredibly talented editorial team at HarperTeen for all their hard work on this book. And a big thanks to the Romance Divas for being the bestest writing community on the planet.

Thanks to Nicky for being my go-to guy on all things teen, and for letting me steal him to be a character in this book. You rock.

And lastly, a huge thank-you to the teachers at the “real” version of Herbert Hoover High, where I went to school. It boggles my mind how anyone can spend that many hours in a classroom by choice and still have a smile. So thanks for the smiles, the hard work, and even for the homework. (Yeah, I said it. Crazy, huh?)

When
GEMMA HALLIDAY
was sixteen she wanted to be either a rock star or Marilyn Monroe. Instead, she ended up working as a film extra, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary-tattoo artist, and a 900-number psychic before settling on the career of author. Since then, her books have been published in several countries, optioned for television, and have won lots of cool, shiny trophies, including a National Readers’ Choice Award and three RITA nominations. Gemma now lives in the San Francisco Bay area, where she loves watching reality TV shows, eating takeout pizza, and shoe shopping. She is also the author of
DEADLY COOL
. You can visit her online at: www.gemmahalliday.com.

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Cover art © 2012 by Anni Suvi

Cover design by Michelle Taormina

HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.

Social Suicide

Copyright © 2012 by Gemma Halliday

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Halliday, Gemma.

   Social suicide / by Gemma Halliday.

    p. cm.

   Sequel to: Deadly cool.

   Summary: “Hartley Featherstone’s first big story for the school paper takes an unexpected turn when she discovers the girl she’s supposed to interview dead in her swimming pool”— Provided by publisher.

    ISBN 978-0-06-200332-4

    [1. Mystery and detective stories. 2. Journalism—Fiction. 3. High schools—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.H15449Soc 2012

[Fic]—dc23

2011042111
CIP
AC

12 13 14 15 16  
CG/RRDH
  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

First Edition

EPub Edition © MARCH 2012 ISBN: 9780062114501