The Principles of Love — Emily Franklin

In the movie version of my life…
My name is Love Bukowski...and my new prep school life is picture-perfect: I can roll out of bed and be in class in eight minutes because I live in an amazing house on the Hadley Hall campus, where Dad happens to be head principal. Among the ranks of the nation's future leaders and lushes, I've found my new best friends. Gorgeous upperclassmen crowd around my doorstep just to catch a glimpse of me as I perform my original songs. Ah, life is sweet!

The less-than-perfect reality…
Okay, here's the real deal. Yes, my name is Love (proof my father at one stage had a sense of humor), and my dad did just become head principal at the catalogue-perfect New England prep school Hadley Hall. But everything is far from fabulous. Friends are pretty hard to come by when you're a "fac brat," and the only guys anywhere near my front door are ones I want to swat away. Not that there's a shortage of Hadley hotties, but the one I've singled out is an utterly incredible and totally unattainable senior. At this rate, the movie version of my life seems pretty distant -- but with any luck, I'll discover the true meaning of my name. And if I happen to get a recording contract in the process, well, that'd be -- oh, forget it. I'll take decent grades and a year that at least gives me a walk-on in the movie version....