The Girl Least Likely

 Shirley J.                   Adult Fiction Romance                      Stand-up Comics,  Double-life   

The Girl Least Likely by Katy Loutzenhiser    352 pages     

Highschool student, Gretchen, can't seem to get it right.   She and her best friend and secret crush, Samuel, have been friends for years, so why has Sam never made a pass at her?  Is it the way she dresses?   Should she apply make-up?   Do something with her straw-like hair?   What gives?  Yeah, they are friends but Sam wouldn't mind becoming friends with benefits.  Then, Sam starts hanging out with another girl he meets through his jock teammates.  Devastated, Gretchen confides in her sister and cousin who are her go tos any time it isn't Sam she is going to.   They console her and talk her into going out with them to a comedy club/bar.  Gretchen is a junior in high, her sister is in college and her cousin is her older sister's age.  When Gretchen brings this fact up that she is not 21 and can't get in to the Comedy Club, the two older girls come up with a fake i.d. and away they all go.   Turns out to be amateur night and someone put her name on the roster for new comics to go up and do 5 minutes.   At least it is the name on her fake i.d.  after the terror goes away as the audience cheers "her name" her sister and cousin assure her she has always been funny and is always making the family and her friends laugh.   The adrinaline starts pumping and barring flight she opts for fight and desperately tries to give the audience what they are screaming for.  Turns out she gets a few laughs just by talking about her life and her mad unrequited love for her bestie Samuel.   Gretchen gains confidence.   All of a sudden the girl least likely to do anything cool or go anywhere beyond her own neighborhood is wearing leather pants, makeup with glasses to look more like the fake id.  and is getting such a rush from performing live.   The beast unleashed is not going back into the cage.   She continues coming back on amateur nights to get back on stage.   She meets other comics who think she is Sabrina and 23 like the fake i.d. says.   Her parents don't worry about her because she is a good quiet girl who gets all As in school and has never caused any problems.   Suddenly she is lying to her parents, coming in all hours after the clubs close (her parents go to bed not even thinking she isn't in her room or at whichever school friend's house she told them she was going to.  Such a good girl.  The girl least likely to be a problem.   Good story.  Lots of tips on doing stand-up, too.   I recommend this one to middle schoolers on up.