Sneak Peek From Shiny 2

"The Goats Are Going Places"
by Tina Connolly

Once in the most boring lunchroom of the most boring junior high school in the world, there sat a girl who refused to be bored for one more minute. Renee Ryder cut P.E. and found some interesting girls who liked to hang behind the shop building and get artistic with spray paint. She decided to be their leader. With Renee in charge, the girls got very good with spray paint. In the amount of time it took a red light to change, they could paint an entire ocean on a car, with goldfish and seahorses and two dolphins doing it. But then they got busted for tagging the vice-principal's minivan, and then Renee was snarky and got expelled, which was fine with her because she'd mastered both the graffiti and the girls by now and it was all so boring.

Renee's parents shrieked, which was also boring, but then Renee's aunt Simone stepped in and said Renee could come live with her and go to the very best junior high in the City. Renee's mother, who often called her sister something rhyming with witch, cackled. "Whatever happens to you, you'll deserve it," she said.

"Six bedrooms, a hot tub, my own flatscreen the size of a bed? You bet I deserve it," said Renee. She packed her ripped jeans and her cans of spray paint, her old teddy bear and her lighters, and went to live on 1313 Strega Place with her aunt.