The Borrow a Boyfriend Club - Softcover

Powars, Page

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0593568613 ISBN 13: 9780593568613

Verlag: Random House Children's Books, 2024

Inhaltsangabe

A feel-good, refreshing contemporary YA romance from debut author Page Powars that follows a trans boy who starts at a new school and joins a boyfriend borrowing service masquerading as an Italian Club to prove that he’s one of the boys.

When sixteen-year-old Noah Byrd starts fresh at a new school, he has the perfect plan to ensure the students see him as his true gender: join the school’s illustrious [and secret] Borrow a Boyfriend Club, where members rent themselves out to their classmates for dates. The endless “slip-ups” that plagued him before will be old news once he establishes himself in the club.

Unfortunately, he fails the questionably rigorous interview process. Desperate, he strikes a deal with the club’s prickly but attractive president, Asher—Noah will help lead the nearly-bankrupt club to victory at the school’s popular talent show, and Asher will allow him to demonstrate his boyfriend skills in a series of tests that include romancing Asher himself. 

If Noah can’t help the club’s members win the show, their whole operation shuts down, squashing his best chance at showing the whole school that he’s “boy enough.” But if Noah succeeds in securing the club their victory, he still loses. Because the most important, unbreakable rule of the Borrow a Boyfriend Club is simple: no real boyfriends (or girlfriends) allowed.

And as long as the Borrow a Boyfriend Club is still standing as high as Asher’s man bun, they can never explore the feelings growing between them.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Page Powars is the author of the forthcoming young adult novels The Borrow a Boyfriend Club and And They Were Roommates. He is based in the New York City area. Outside of writing, Page helps with soundtracks, sobs over The Untamed, and unfortunately plays Genshin Impact.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chapter 1


The last thing I expected to see on my first day at Heron River High was FA LA LA LA FUCK THIS SCHOOL spelled atop the snow in festive holiday lights.

Crowds of my new classmates gathered around the flickering green and red profanity. Three teachers gesticulated at the students to keep walking, but no one paid attention. Instead, the kids lingered, taking pictures with their phones.

When Mom and Dad asked during our weekly burger night what my new school was like, this would not be mentioned.

As I passed by, I pulled the hood of my puffer jacket down lower over my forehead, just in case someone felt like the new kid was more interesting than a flashing f-word. Once inside the building, I quickly found the main office.

My heart rate picked up. Game time.

I gripped my backpack straps tighter and kept up my turtle impersonation until the office doors shut behind me. The administrative assistant, who somehow didn’t appear a day over twenty, was bundled in a festive argyle cardigan. He pressed a phone between his ear and shoulder as he typed on a laptop, sweat beading above his brow. On the countertop, a nameplate had Sonny written in cursive.

“Fa la la la what, now?” he murmured. Sonny was in a bad mood.

My shoulders shrank into my narrow frame. I tried to snap them back into a loud and proud position. A masculine, broad, very much boy position.

Everything would go fine today. I’d been transitioning for years. I passed.

Sonny, the admin assistant, muttered something along the lines of I’ll get back to this later and hung up the phone. He gave me a fake smile. “Welcome back from winter break.”

As I stepped up to the counter, students passed by the fancy domed window framing the downtown streets of Ann Arbor, Michigan. I’d heard rumors that Heron River High was disgustingly nicer than Pinewood High, and the admin office alone proved that. Its sparkly white walls and chrome furniture were ten times better than Pinewood’s brick hallways lined with rusty lockers. Whoever wrote the twinkling profanity by the front doors seemed misguided.

“I’m actually a new junior here,” I said. “I transferred from Pinewood. My name’s Noah. Noah Byrd.”

“Anything I can help you with? Class schedule good to go?”

“Yeah. The vice principal emailed it to me last week. But I was wondering if I could get more information on how to join the boys’ sports teams?”

“Which team?” Sonny asked.

It didn’t matter which one. All that mattered was joining something ASAP. By the end of the semester, I had to show everyone who I was. I wasn’t about to let my classmates draw their own conclusions about me again, and a boys’ sports team emblem pinned to my chest would establish who I was from the start. The less time they had to develop their own ideas, the better.

I considered which sport would destroy my scrawny body the least. A non-contact sport. “Tennis?”

He gave me a once-over. “I can email you a list of our sports, if you’d like. That would include more information on the tennis team. Unfortunately, there aren’t any tryouts during the winter semester, but you could try to join in August.”

My heart sank. It was only January. I couldn’t wait that long. “There’s really no boys’ team that will let me join now? Don’t some seasons start in the winter?”

“They do, but we require our students to sign up and pay any necessary registration fees for their sport during the first week of the school year.” Sonny typed a bit more, then turned the screen to show me a spreadsheet labeled Heron River High School After-School Student Clubs. “Most of our clubs accept new recruits during both semesters, though. If you’re hoping for an extracurricular to hold you over, how about you check these out?”

I pulled his laptop toward me and scrolled through the club names, keeping an eye out for any words that sounded overtly masculine. They had French and Spanish. No and no. Anime. Nope. Classic literature. Not quite. Math. God, no. Dance.

I paused.

Definitely, definitely not dance.

I kept scrolling. Something called the Football and Lamborghini After-School Club eventually showed up on row eleven.

My insides recoiled. I had no clue what this club was, but being that enthusiastic about football and cars was maybe too manly. The goal wasn’t to stand out here. I wanted to blend in like a normal teenage guy.

There had to be another choice.

Four more rows passed by, offering debate, sculpture, film, and, finally, chess. Then I skimmed back up to the top again in case I’d missed something.

I had not.

I faced Sonny again. If no sports teams would let me try out this semester, then there were no other options. I swiveled the laptop back around. “How do I join this football and cars thing?”

Sonny scrolled on his laptop. “Hm. I can’t sign you up. You need approval from the club president.”

“How come?”

“There’s an interview process,” a voice said from behind me.

Startled, I spun around. A boy my age with light tan skin sat in a chair against the wall. His legs were so long that they stretched across nearly half the office, his chunky red Prada sneakers only a foot away from my worn Converse. I hadn’t noticed him when I first came in.

“For just a football and car club?” I asked.

“Yep. You need to go to one of their weekly meetings first.”

“Quiet,” Sonny called his way. “You’re in the main office for defacing school property. Not to chat with your classmates.”

The boy defensively tossed up his hands, and I saw that his fingers were dripping with silver rings. His smirk was as chaotic as his mess of brown hair, which was half tied into a lopsided bun, the rest falling loosely above his shoulders.

This must’ve been Mr. Fa La La La Fuck This School.

“So, I might not be allowed to join?” I asked Sonny.

He shrugged. “That’s what their club rules say.”

What kind of person would make people interview for a basic school club? “Their president sounds like a prick,” I mumbled.

“He’s actually pretty great,” Mr. Fa La La said behind me. Clearly, my voice hadn’t been low enough.

A door swung open, and a woman in a fancy maroon suit stepped forward. A plaque on the door read Principal’s Office. “Mr. Price. A word--”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” He rose to his feet using the chair armrests, slung a canvas tote bag covered in environmental patches over his shoulder, and disappeared into the principal’s lair.

Even if there was a chance I wouldn’t be accepted into this bro-of-all-bro clubs after going through the president’s ridiculous interview process, I had to try. This was the clearest, and currently only, way to make sure these students knew exactly who I was.

I was a boy just like Mr. Fa La La. I had always been a boy. This time, no one at school would question that.

I faced Sonny again. “One last question. Do you know where this football and Lamborghini club meets?”




Chapter 2


As the bell rang at the end of my sixth-period chemistry class, I kept my head tucked into my hoodie and followed the hallway signs toward the theater, where the Football and Lamborghini After-School Club met on Mondays and Wednesdays until four...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Random House Children's Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2024
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0593568613
• ISBN 13: 9780593568613
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 352
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland