Bouncer Round 6 #10

Title:  ANNABELLE, THE LIMITED EDITION

Genre:  Lighter sci-fi/adventure YA

Word Count:  81,000

QUERY:

It’s the year 2100.  Annabelle isn’t surprised when she fails her senior TESTS because of her crooked nose and an unregulated mole, but the last thing she ever expected was to be thrown into a prison cell.  She won’t be made into a Barbie doll, and she certainly won’t work for the Mayor in his inner circle no matter how “special” they think her brain is.

She discovers an escape route, and enlists the help of her friend Xavier to evade the eager clutches of the Mayor’s gorillas.  Meanwhile, Xavier finds an ancient Diary under the floorboards of an old cabin. But real paper is banned…it can’t be hidden or altered with the click of a button, so just reading it is treason.

Annabelle and Xavier risk their lives to follow the Diary’s clues in the hopes of finding freedom.  On their journey she feels that first fluttering of love.  As they get closer to discovering the truth that their world is less “normal” than they ever realized, she must find the courage to make the ultimate choice:  if she allows Xavier’s capture, she’ll go free; if she turns herself in to face the consequences of rebellion, they might let him go.

…But how can she change the fate of her world if she’s dead?

ANNABELLE, THE LIMITED EDITION, at 81,000 words, is young adult science fiction/adventure with a high concept.

First 250:

Annabelle felt like she had a pebble in the pit of her stomach, as if she’d eaten a peach whole and forgotten to remove the pit.

The senior TEST week was finally here, and she knew she’d probably disappoint her parents.  Again.  Just like she’d disappointed them when she repeatedly refused to get her mole removed.  Tomorrow’s appearance TEST would certainly reveal if that had been a royal mistake, if she even got to the TEST tomorrow.  Today’s results would determine if she did.  A passing score would move her on to the next exam, but failure meant an immediate exit to another year of study, rinse, repeat. 

This week the Mayor’s office would begin to separate the smart from the stupid, the pretty from the ugly, the best from anyone less than that.  This threat should have spurred her on somehow, but in fact her knee wouldn’t stop bouncing and her lip kept twitching.  Her mother called it test anxiety.  She thought it was more like dumbcilitis. 

Before she entered the school that morning she’d stopped to puke outside the front door.  Breakfast had been little more than a sugarless bowl of oats (all sugar was limited), but even that she couldn’t keep down.

Annabelle rubbed her tired eyes.  The TEST had been going on for so many hours, she felt like her brain was freezing up.  She knew she should have studied more.  All those Sundays spent leisurely reading e-novels when I should have been taking prep-TESTS.  Ugh.