Pitch Madness B-3: NAKED

Title: NAKED

Genre: YA contemporary

Word count: 66,000

Sixteen-year-old Anna would do anything for Luis, her pimp. Then they're busted and she's sent back to the suburbs where everyone knows her secrets. The town whore has no friends— until she meets Arney.

 

I look into the familiar blank eyes that stare back at me from a Missing Person’s poster. The name reads: Anna Rodriguez.

The name’s familiar, but it’s not me. Not anymore.

I turn away from the innocent thirteen-year-old in the poster, with her pony tail and pearls around her neck. Now I just find myself wondering how much I could cop out of a necklace like that. Three hundred?

Every time I pass this poster I stop and stare at the girl I used to be, but that just brings attention. I’m not allowed to bring attention.  

So I keep walking and make a plan to go the long way around Bleeker Street so I won’t ever see my parents attempt at finding me again. I cross my arms, and breathe out to see if I can see my breath. It’s getting cold, I hate cold.  

I shake my head. I mean, it’s been three years, I don’t see why my parents still try to find me. I’m not their little girl anymore.    

You’d think they could at least find a better picture, you know? No one would guess that girl was me. Why not use a picture like that one from Halloween when I dressed up like Cindy Lauper but really just looked like a hooker? That might catch someone’s eye.

I smile at my stupid joke, but know they want to cling to the ideal, pristine daughter they always thought they had. Too bad I was never that girl.