Based on more than looks, popularity. Friends Forever by @maryannwrites #romance

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Friends Forever

Written by Maryann Miller

Genre(s): mainstream, romance



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Friendship is a tenuous thing when you're thirteen and everything in your life is changing, especially your best friend. Terrified that she will lose Lauren to the influence of Angie who is rich, beautiful, and the most popular girl in school, Debbie Webly will do almost anything to hang on to her BFF. When her efforts backfire, Debbie finds out that true friendship is based on much more than looks or popularity.

An excerpt from

Friends Forever

“Growing up isn’t easy,” Debbie’s mother said as she carefully worked a touch of yellow into the flowers coming to life on a canvas in front of her. “Goodness knows it’s never been easy, but the worst thing I had to worry about when I was your age was whether I’d get a new pimple on the night of my first date. I didn’t have to worry about drugs or who might be hanging around school with a gun.”

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Debbie stood there half-listening, impatient to be off to meet Laura. She knew her mother meant well, but sometimes Debbie got so tired of hearing the litany over and over again.

Her mother’s voice droned on. “I’d never heard of uppers or downers. The only pills I’d ever seen were aspirins. And the first time one of those melted in my mouth, I decided I’d never…”

“Mom,” Debbie glanced at the door. “Could we talk about this some other time? I promised to meet Laura and I’m already late.”

“There, it’s finished.” Mrs. Webly picked up a rag and wiped paint off her hands. Somehow she usually managed to get as much paint on herself as she did on the canvas. Debbie could measure her mother’s progress with a painting by the number of different colors splattered on her smock and her hands. “What do you think?”

“It’s pretty, Mom,” Debbie replied, absently. “Can I go now?”

“Such enthusiasm! I don’t know if I can stand it.”

“Aw, Mom.”

Mrs. Webly laughed. “Okay. But you can only stay an hour. Then I want you back to help with dinner.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Fair, my little Chickadee says. Fair? Let’s find our contract and see what it says about fair.” Mrs. Webly made a big show of shuffling papers on the desk, and Debbie rolled her eyes. Her mother always acted a little goofy when she finished a painting, but this was a bit much.

“Okay, Mom, I get your point. Can I go now?”

Barely waiting for her mother’s nod, Debbie raced to the door, stepping out into bright sunshine and a cool, fall breeze. The leaves were just starting to turn and Debbie noticed that the colors on the maple almost matched the vibrant yellows and oranges in her mother’s painting.

Laura lived across the street in a rambling ranch house similar to its neighbors, but distinct in landscape design. What Debbie’s mother could accomplish on canvas, Mrs. Parker created in dirt. Asters and Chrysanthemums bloomed brilliantly against a backdrop of deep green shrubs. Pansies and Primroses created a riot of color in and around a rock garden. And a low, sculpted hedge followed the curved walkway to the front door.

Most days, Debbie would pause long enough to enjoy the gardening spectacle, but today she had more important things on her mind. She hoped Laura wouldn’t be mad at her for being late. Her friend seemed to get mad over every little thing lately, and Debbie wasn’t quite sure of her footing anymore.

She didn’t understand it. They had been best friends since first grade. As far as she was concerned nothing had changed, and she couldn’t figure out what she’d done to create this tension between them. They only thing she knew for sure was that ever since Angie Cooper started including Laura in her group, things hadn’t been the same.

Here's what

Fans are saying

A Valuable Lesson

Friends Forever captures that period when friendships often start to change and takes it to a new level.

Debbie is worried that she's losing her best friend Laura to Angie the new girl in school, and that Angie is doing everything she can to turn Laura against Debbie, but Laura can't see that.

Thing is, Debbie is right. Angie pulls some pretty catty and mean stunts against Debbie, but when Debbie tries one of her own back at Angie she not only feels guilty, she worries that if she's caught someone will call the police.

The characters are well drawn and their experiences are so true to life that you remember why you never want to be thirteen again.

A surprise twist shows some of the shadowy reasons for Angie being mean, and it's a valuable lesson in understanding in why some people do what they do.

— LuvBooks

A must-read for tweens, teens, and us slightly older folks as well.

Friends Forever is a wonderful example of how a story can teach lessons, even change lives. The characters speak realistically and the other parts of teenage life that aren't part of the main story are told with accuracy. I was moved to tears several times, feeling the emotions of the characters, knowing how they felt.

This is a must-read for every tween and teen. It is my hope that every young person...and us slightly older people too...can learn something from this wonderful real-life tale.

— Ruthie

Author Bio

Maryann Miller

Maryann Miller, an award-winning author, has been in love with story-telling since she was a child and used to scare her sister with stories of the monsters in the cellar. Those tales were never written down. They were always whispered in the dark, and when Maryann started writing stories, they were different types entirely.

As a young child, she didn't consider that she would grow up to be a writer. She fancied herself quite the singer and thought she would someday sing in front of crowds of thousands. Alas, that proved to be more dream than reality.

At another point in her childhood, she dreamed of being an actress, but it took many years before she was brave enough to give it a try. She is the Theatre Directer at the Winnsboro Center for the Arts where she has directed shows for a number of years, and just in the past few years she finally decided to try playing a role. It appears she was more suited to acting than singing, and she has since starred in several productions at various community theatres in East Texas.

A diverse writer of columns, feature stores, short fiction, novels, screenplays and stage plays, Maryann has won numerous awards including being a semi-finalist at the Sundance Institute for her screenplay, A Question Of Honor. She has also received the Page Edwards Short Story Award and the 2015 Best Mystery award for Doubletake.

Miller lives on some acreage in the beautiful Piney Woods of East Texas with one horse, one goat, one sheep, one dog, and four cats. She has been writing all her life and plans to die at her computer.