Team Krista #4: WISHING

Title: WISHING

Genre: YA contemporary fantasy

Word count: 76,000

Query:

Seventeen-year-old Mona Mayhem wants to be the first of many generations to venture beyond her enchanted family orchard and the evergreens that fill her with an endless supply of magic. She hopes that after leaving for college, her magic will stay home and she won't be a freak anymore.

To finance her new life, Mona sells her magic. People buy it to change themselves: new noses, smaller feet, bigger boobs. Then ex-con Buzz Morelli buys a new face to break parole. He robs a bank and a young boy winds up in a coma. Mona resolves to travel to the hospital a hundred miles away to fix the boy, but first she has to get through Buzz, who wants another new face. Mona manages to escape with the help of Buzz's inscrutable son Leo, whose motives are as confusing as the attraction growing between them. But as the consequences of leaving pile up, Mona finds that fixing her mistakes--and even staying alive--will not only hinge on trusting Leo, but learning to love herself.

First Page:

The man sitting across from me on the faded motel bedspread wants a complete overhaul. New nose and chin, brown eyes to blue, different color hair. He also wants new fingerprints, which means he must have gotten into something deep. New fingerprints are steep.

“I always thought I'd look good as a blond.” The man runs a hand through his graying hair. “Can you do it, Genie?”

He has this weird way of jutting his chin forward like a chicken on the last word of his sentences, so Genie comes out pretty strong, which ticks me off. I hate it when people call me that. My name is Mona, and I'm not a genie.

I'm about to bite his head off when Dad, who's sitting next to me on the couch, jumps in. “Of course she can, Buzz. But fingerprints'll cost you extra.”

Dad's the one who started calling me Genie, and while I'm not crazy about it, I shouldn't complain. It draws the clients, after all.

“What? I'm already paying you too much. She's a kid,” says Buzz.

“I'm not a kid, I'm seventeen.” This guy is a real charmer. Where does Dad find these people?

“A kid who can change your life,” Dad says. He squeezes my knee and glowers underneath a pasted-on smile, telling me not to wreck it. He's right, I shouldn't be so defensive. But I'm tired and I have a calculus test in the morning. Let's get on with it.