Need Chapter Sampler

8/10/2019 Need Chapter Sampler

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ON

SALE

11.3.15!

CHAPTER SAMPLER


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CONGRATULATIONS.

YOU HAVE BEEN INVITED

TO N.E.E.D.THE NEWEST,

INVITATION-ONLY SOCIAL MEDIA

SITE FOR NOTTAWA HIGH SCHOOL

STUDENTS. JOIN YOUR FRIENDS IN

DISCOVERING HOW MUCH BETTER LIFE

CAN BE WHEN YOU ARE PRESENTED

WITH AN ANONYMOUS WAY TO EXPRESS

YOUR THOUGHTS AND ARE GIVEN THE

TOOLS TO GET THE THINGS YOU

N.E.E.D.

COMING 11.3.15

HMHBOOKS.COM/NEED

NED


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Kaylee

S to find my father are going nowhere fast,

I take a break and log on to my normal email account. Wow.

wenty-three unread messages.

VICKI BOCKNICK HAS INVITED YOU TO N.E.E.D.

QUINCY HANSON HAS INVITED YOU TO N.E.E.D.

MARTYN UDDEN HAS INVITED YOU TO N.E.E.D.

JOSE ALVARADO HAS INVITED YOU TO N.E.E.D.

VERA PETZEL HAS INVITED YOU TO N.E.E.D.

One after another. All invitations to N.E.E.D. All since I

went to bed fourteen hours ago. And most of the people who

sent these emails arent what Id call friends. Why would they

bother to invite me?

I click on the N.E.E.D. bookmark I created, log on, andread the main screen twice when it appears. Either I wasnt


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NEED

that changes? Almost every social media site Ive been a part of

has rolled out updates. Te number of users on this network

is growing fast. What happens if N.E.E.D. stops being anony-

mous and my profile becomes viewable to all members? Te

comments about my being pushed over the edge by a deadbeat

father and an almost-dead brother wont just be whispered in

hallways. Teyll be printed in bold type on my screen and on

the screens of everyone in my high school. Some will defend

me. Not everyone thinks Im an attention whore using my fam-

ily problems to get sympathy. But those who do will be relent-

less when they stumble across my N.E.E.D. profile. Teyve

done it on other social media sites. Teyll do it here. I should

never have gone on this site.

If I have to sit around waiting for the site to revoke my ano-

nymity, I might totally lose it. I have to delete my account. And

I have to do it now. Teres no Delete feature on my profile page, so I click on

the home page and look for a My Account tab or a way to navi-

gate to Settings. Or maybe a privacy button? Something. Any-

thing. Tere has to be a way to get rid of this account. Only, no

matter how many places I click on, I cant find a way to wipe

my profile from the system. I must be missing something. Desperate, I pick up the phone and call Nate.

Hey, Nate says. I was just going to call you. Hows DJ

doing today?

Better. Frustrated that Mom keeps calling to see if his fever

is back. Te usual.

Nate laughs. Well, usual is better than unusual. Whenever


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JOELLE CHARBONNEAU

things get unusual in your place all hell breaks loose. So, this is

good.

I hadnt thought of it that way.

Tats why you keep me around. o do your thinking for

you. Speaking of that, I had an idea about how we can get more

people around here to get tested as a possible donor.

Nate might actually be able to swing getting more people

tested. While his family ignores him because he lacks athletic

prowess, at school hes considered very cool. But I doubt even

he has the ability to convince our classmates or their parents to

undergo elective surgery to help someone else.

Anyone who likes DJ or our family enough to donate one

of their kidneys already went through the process. It was a

pitifully small number. A few family friends. A couple of my

dads co-workers. And Nate. urns out his blood type is right,

but none of the six antigens in the tissue typing is correct. Hiskidney has a high risk of being rejected by DJs body, which

means Nate isnt a match. Just like me. So I faked my own ill-

ness to spend time in the nurses office and check blood types

of fellow students in the hopes I could target the ones who were

most likely to be a match. I thought it was a good idea. I was

wrong. Yeah, but what about all the people who dont know you?

You appealed to this town, which is not only small, but filled

with a lot of small-minded, self-important jerks. I know you

have issues with social media because people are idiots, but not

everyone on the Internet is as simple-minded as the people we

go to school with. A good social media campaign could buildawareness and maybe encourage other people outside of this


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NEED

community to get tested. You just need something to make

the campaign go viral. Ive been working on something I think

could get people fired up. It just takes one to be a match.

And that one has to be willing to go through the rest of

his life with only one kidney. Most people arent that selfless

without getting paid for it. My mother will also hate the public

aspect of this idea, but I dont really care. Maybe if she hates

it enough shell actually do something to help find my father.

Let me talk to DJ and see what he thinks. Before Nate can

push, I say, Speaking of social media, I cant find a way to de-

lete my N.E.E.D. account.

Why would you want to do that? Ive been playing around

with the site most of the day. Its really wild.

Wild how?

Well, to start with, the person who put this thing together

is an evil genius. From what I can tell, the site went live threedays ago. When I sent myself the invitation yesterday, there

were only 26 users. Its up to 407 now. Make that 410. Ive got-

ten almost sixty email invitations to join since this morning. I

finally had to put a status up on Facebook telling everyone I

was a member and that they should send requests elsewhere.

Im guessing by tomorrow everyone from school who checkedtheir email will be on N.E.E.D.

I click on the N.E.E.D. network statistics screen.

NETWORK MEMBERS 410

NEEDS PENDING 398

NEEDS FULFILLED 48


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JOELLE CHARBONNEAU

Te almighty Jacks already gotten his second request ful-

filled. He told Mom that he ordered a slide board with the gift

card he got from our grandmother, but I checked out the box

it was delivered in after he pitched it. No label or postage. Just

his name written in black block letters. I doubt Mom believes

him, but of course shed never question her team captain son.

Whats a slide board? I ask.

Some sort of agility workout thing. He and his football

friends are trying it out in the family room now. If you need

a laugh, you should come over and watch. Teyre all tripping

over themselves and pretending they meant to do it.

I type slide board into Google and hit Enter. Wow. De-

pending on the brand, those boards range from $250 to $500.

New phones could cost just as much. N.E.E.D. has shelled out

a lot of money just on Jacks requests. And his were only two of

the forty-eight requests that have already been fulfilled. Wheres the money coming from? I interrupt whatever

Jack-bashing story Nate is telling this time.

What money?

Te money being used to buy the slide board and all the

other things people are asking for.

Why does it matter? Because nobody gives away tons of expensive gadgets with-

out getting something in return. Tings like this dont happen

in Disney movies, let alone real life.

Fair point. I can picture Nate running a hand through

his hair while he thinks things through. After a few seconds

he says, People do strange things for all kinds of reasons, youknow. Maybe its someone who played Santa Claus at the mall

this year and decided it was so much fun he didnt want to stop.


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NEED

Or maybe some rich dude learned he only has two months to

live and has decided to give his money away to a worthwhile

cause.

You call indulging Jacks every desire worthwhile?

No, but getting me a passing physics grade is. Although,

now that Im considering all the options, I realize how short-

sighted my choice was.

Why? I ask. Because you dont think your physics teacher

can be bribed by a terminally ill rich guy?

Everyone has a price, Kaylee. You just have to be willing

to push until you figure out what it is. Whoevers behind this

website knows that. But its occurred to me that my request

cant be fulfilled for another two and a half weeks. If Id been

more materialistic like Jack and almost everyone else, Id al-

ready have my first order in hand and have moved on to my

second. Now, thanks to the rules of the site, I have to waituntil the first request is fulfilled before I can ask for anything

else.

By then you wont be able to ask for anything.

Why not?

Because there wont be anyone left to invite to the net-

work. I click on the screen and see the member number hasrisen to 424. Tats the catch. Right? You invite people onto

the site and get your need fulfilled? Once everyone has joined,

the whole thing will be over.

I dont think so, Nate says. Te mocking humor is gone.

Tink about it. Whoevers behind this wants all of us on

the site. Tey set the bar low so its easy for the user to leapover and get their reward. Tats not going to last much lon-

ger. Now that the network is up and running, Im guessing


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JOELLE CHARBONNEAU

theyll raise the price from a couple of emails to something

more.

Like what? I ask.

Te silence stretches for what seems like forever until finally

Nate says, I dont know, but I doubt well have to wait very

long to find out.


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NEED

WANT:A DESIRE TO POSSESS OR DO

SOMETHING. A WISH.

NEED:SOMETHING REQUIRED BECAUSEIT IS ESSENTIAL. SOMETHING VERY

IMPORTANT THAT YOU CANNOT LIVE

WITHOUT.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

VISIT HMHBOOKS.COM/NEED TO FIND OUT MORE.


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A Q&A WITH JOELLE CHARBONNEAU

Q. How would you describe your new book, NEED?

A. NEED is a stand-alone thriller that jumps headfirst into a newsocial media site that allows users to say what they need and of-

fers them a chance to get itfor a price. Because so much of the

user behavior and rules of the site are based on things Ive actually

witnessed on the internet, I can honestly say I think this story is

creepier and more intense than anything else Ive ever written.

Q. What can fans of the Testing trilogy expect to find in NEED?

A. Even though this is a contemporary thriller instead of science

fiction, I think esting readers will be happy to find a fast-paced

plot, strong characters that you can root for and against, and a dark

mystery of the powers hidden behind the network and the reason

why it exists. Hopefully, readers will also find the same intensity

and connection to the story that they embraced in the estingtrilogy.

Q. NEED is, in part, about the darker side of social networking.

What drew you to this subject?

A. Te internet and specifically social networking is really fascinat-

ing. For some reason, a great number of people behave differentlyonline than they do in real life. I see friends of mine say things to

people on their social media pages that they would never say in per-

son. Tat kind of behavior made me wonderwhat would people

say if they were anonymous online and thought no one knew it was

them . . . and what would they do if they thought they could get

things they needed? Once I asked myself those questions, I had no

choice but to answer them, which is why I wrote NEED.


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Q. While Kaylee is NEEDs main character, the book jumps

around to different teens stories and points of view. Was thissomething you set out to do or did it just sort of happen?

A. Te initial story started with Kaylee. I wanted a character who had

been hurt both on and off of social media and had a strong desire

to keep her distance from people in person and online. Tat gave

her a strong conflict from the start. But everyone has different

reasons for being on social media and unique things that motivatethem to take risks. So, before I wrote the first page, I realized I

needed to explore more than just Kaylees point of view. I needed

a much broader cast of characters. However, it wasnt until I was

writing the story that I learned who those characters would be.

Q. Was any one character more fun to write than the others?

A. Fun . . . hmm . . . some of the characters were more compelling

to write or more surprising. Since I dont outline, I was never sure

where any of their stories would take them and often found myself

disturbed or encouraged by the journey. But fun is a totally dif-

ferent thing. I guess the really fun character to write was Nate. He

has a sense of humor I enjoyed exploring and makes Kaylee laugh

even when she isnt feeling particularly happy. I think we all needsomeone like that in our lives.

Q. NEED is available wherever books are sold November 2015.

How should fans keep busy until then?

A. Well, I would say readers should totally stay off of social media

wait, no, they should find me on social media and say hello. (We

can all be careful of the craziness there together.) You can find me

and all of my social media links on my website,


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www.joellecharbonneau.com as well as explore theesting trilogy

on the series site: www.thetestingtrilogy.com. All three books in the

esting trilogy are available and Te estingis hitting shelves in pa-perback for the first time on January 6, 2015. Ill be touring during

January and February, so keep watching for information. Id love to

say hello in person.

Also, there are tons of amazing books out there to read by

some supremely talented authors. I know my to-be-read pile is

huge, but Im always looking for new books to add to it. So if

you come across something amazing that you think I should read,please let me know. If I havent already read it, I will add it to the

stack!

Q. Whats next for you?

A. Good question! Heres hoping I have a good answer. Im working

on a new young adult thriller that currently has the working title ofMasked.It is about sixteen-year-old Sarah Kowalski. She lives with

her grandmother who is experiencing early onset dementia. Tey

are working to hide the condition in order to stay together, but

one day Sarah comes home to find a strange woman dead in her

house and her grandmother standing over the body. Her grand-

mother doesnt remember who the lady is or whether she killed

her. But even more disturbing is the worry Grandma has that thedead woman might be connected to a long-kept secret that could

put Sarahs life at risk. Sarah must decide what is true, what is part

of the paranoia and fear that comes with dementia, and whether

it is the disease or something far more insidious that is tearing her

life apart. And she might end up fighting not just for her life, but

for her grandmothers as well. I have to finish writing the book to

find out. Keep your fingers crossed for me! Since I dont outline in

advance, Im not sure where the book is going, but Im dying to

find out.


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photoT

omF

rey

Joelle Charbonneaubegan telling stories as an opera singer, but these

days she finds her voice through writing. Joelle is the author many

books for mystery and young adult readers, including the New York

imes best-selling esting trilogy. Joelle lives near Chicago, Illinois,

with her husband and son, and when she isnt writing, works as an act-

ing and vocal coach. Visit her website at www.joellecharbonneau.com.


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ITS NOT NOUGH TO PAs TH TST.

YOU HAV TO SURVIV IT.

YOUR TIME IS ALMOST UP. YOUR TIME IS ALMOST UP.

Visit Teestingrilogy.com to read the prequel,

watch the trailer, and more!

hmhco.com

Read all three books in Joelle Charbonneausbestselling Testing trilogyavailable now!


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IN THIS SUSPENSEFUL contemporary thriller, teenagers

in a small town are drawn deeper into a social net-

working site that promises to grant their every need

. . . regardless of the consequences. Te body count

starts to rise as the tasks asked in return for needs

fulfilled escalate from simple pranks to malicious

crimes.

A PROVOCATIVE EXPLORATION of what you really need

and what you would be willing to do to get it, the

dark side of social media, and government control andmanipulation.

NED

hmhco.com hmhbooks.com/need

On sale November 3, 2015

ISBN: 978-0-544-41669-7 352 pages

$17.99 Ages 12 and up

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Need Chapter Sampler