The Stand-In

Brooks Rattigan didn’t do it for the money. Well, not at first.

When Brooks volunteered to be a stand-in for Burdette’s cousin when she got stood up for Homecoming, it was with the noblest of intentions -- performing a good deed, free of charge. But when he’s tipped over three hundred bucks and then word spreads among the one percent in the greater Tri-State area, he grabs the opportunity, offering his impeccable services at inflated prices to grateful helicopter parents who want their little princesses to experience those “once-in-a lifetime” events which comprise senior year. It’s amazing how many there are.

A working-class stiff from the nowhere town of Pritchard, New Jersey, Brooks could sure use the cash to hire a tutor to raise his wretched Verbal scores the seventy-five points he needs to be within inner-outer range for Columbia University, his one chance up the ladder to the privileged world to which he so suddenly has weekend access. So what if along the way he goes along with a few strategic omissions and minor deceptions, cuts a moral corner or two? What’s the harm?

Unfortunately, Brooks didn’t count on the deranged Celia Lieberman…

Or the alluring Shelby Pace.

Ficção / Jovem adulto / Romance