My friends novel excerpt; she wanted someone to post it.
[middle of ch. 1]

Although Chloe despised every second she spent in the musty torture chamber dubbed high school, she continuously reminded herself that high school doesn’t matter. You can enjoy it or you can loathe it, you can love it, you can despise it, but nothing you ever accomplish in terms of social status will… matter.
You can wear all the right clothes, and go to all the right parties, and date all the right guys.
So?
You can say all the right things, and hang out with all the right people, and catch all the right eyes.
And?
You can stand out, and be envied, and bask in every second of your earned nobility.
What’s your point?
Do you think McDonalds cares that you were prom queen? Do you think that Yale gives a damn that you were voted Best Dressed by your senior class?
No.
Nothing that ensues in high school; first date, malicious teachers, those two hours wasted slaving over your hair for prom… all pointless. So you can loathe the horrifying school pictures of you published in the yearbook. You can waste hours pondering why that boy doesn’t like you, but instead the bubbly blonde who sits next to you in history. Fitting in, peer pressure, homework, plays, arguments, school pictures, break-ups… are all just background memories to reality. There’s a big world out there. Bigger than prom, bigger than high school, and it won’t matter if you were the beauty queen or the quarterback of the football team or the biggest nerd. Despite that, its so incredibly hard to convince a high school student that she will encounter problems more demanding than those of algebra and geometry. Unfortunately, the Constitution only guarantees the American people the right to pursue happiness; you have to catch it yourself. Over the course of an average lifetime you meet a lot of people. Some of them stick with you through thick and thin, some weave their way through your life and disappear forever. But every once and awhile someone comes along who earns a permanent spot in your heart. Life is all about timing… the unreachable becomes reachable, the unavailable become available, the unattainable… attainable. All of life is a journey which paths we take, what we look back on, and what we look forward to is up to us. We determine our destination, what kind of road we will take to get there, and how blissful we are when we get there. Life can be like a roller coaster, and just when you think you’ve had enough, and you’re ready to get off the ride and take the calm, easy merry-go round…you change your mind, toss your hands in the air and ride the roller coaster all over again. That’s exhilaration…that’s living on the edge…that’s being alive.