By Daniel Vlasaty
When I was in eighth grade I “dated” a girl named Katie. While I was reading Street Angel: After School Kung Fu Special the first thing I thought about was Katie. Which is kind of weird, considering I haven’t thought about her in like 17 years. The reason I thought about her was because she reminded me a lot of the main character, Jesse Sanchez, minus all the kung fu. Although Katie did get into a lot of fights that year we “dated.” Like Jesse Sanchez, Katie was a bad girl. And I don’t mean like “oh, damn, she bad.” I mean like she was just straight up bad. Criminal bad. Like, I remember one time this other girl looked at her wrong, I guess, and Katie threw a chair at her, right in the middle of class. It was funny at the time, but now looking back it was kind of just crazy, really. Or the time she threw a sandwich at the back of Mr. Boswell’s head in the lunchroom. Anyway, I had no idea what to expect when I started reading this book, and here I am now thinking about a girl I “dated” when I was like 14 that I now realize I was really just afraid of. I don’t know, I feel kind of weird now. Thanks Jim Rugg and Brian Maruca.
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