TWT: TAKING A CHANCE YA Contemporary

Query:

Five years after the fire that killed both of their mothers, neighbors Dani, the star clarinetist and Xavier, the champion wrestler, have only two objectives in life: graduate high school, and make sure their fathers don’t kill each other. But when one night of mistakes leads to Xavier getting in trouble with the law, both of those objectives take a back seat to something much more...unexpected, so to speak.

Convinced that Dani Parker is exactly what he needs to regain his father’s respect after his drug possession and underage drinking charges are dropped, Xavier does everything he can to persuade this 'nerd girl' to be his pseudo girlfriend. The only problem? Dani wants nothing to do with Xavier Faulkner: Hispanic playboy extraordinaire.

But when a secretive wrestling–induced eating disorder comes into play, messing with Xavier's already crazy life, this unlikely twosome must work together to right more than just a reputation. But if that also means opening their hearts to one another, on a level that goes being just being friends, then Xavier and Dani might just have their work cut out for them in the end.

250:

Maybe there should have been a manual for these types of situations. If there was, it should have been entitled: How to Deal with Your Father When He Goes All–Out Crazy on His Arch Enemy. It’s quite possible that Mr. William Shakespeare wrote a guidebook like this back in the day…one he obviously never got around to studying when he penned Romeo and Juliet. But I, Danielle Elisabeth Parker, am here to set the record straight. Those fighting fools from the Renaissance Century I just mentioned? Yeah, they have absolutely nothing on my father and Marcus Faulkner, our next door neighbor

“I told you both, the next time you let that damn dog crap in my lawn I was going to tear those rose bushes out, and according to the dog shit currently stuck to the bottom of my shoe...” Mr. Faulkner lifted his foot, pointing out the evidence. “Your rose bush had no chance at survival today, Parker.

A gasp of disbelief spilled through my lips as I stared wide eyed at my father’s profile. A vein the size of Mt. Rushmore bulged beneath his skin, and I blinked, waiting for it to do just that. Jaw clenched tight, he looked two seconds away from putting the man on death row.

“Step away. From the roses. Now, Faulkner.”

Instead of stepping away, Mr. Faulkner stepped forward, tosssing pieces of my mom’s vibrant rose bushes just inches in front of my dad's feet…right there alongside his rusted pruning shears.

Hands gripped like vices of steel around my Father’s arm, I sucked in a breath as the nightmare began to unfold between them.