3. We’ve got to fight to make things right, to make them better. —Sookie
4. Marco, physics is wisdom. —Mrs. A
5. We imagine that we can wait on things, but that’s you believing that those things will wait for you too. But some of that could disappear while you’re waiting to be ready. Sometimes we have to do things when we’re not ready. —Sally
6. Strategy is everything. Strategy is how you win the long game. —Jade
7. Remember, it’s never too late to start again. Sometimes a stop can also be seen as an extended pause. You just have to hit the unpause button. —Principal Johnson
8. It’s more grown-up to walk toward the things that scare us than to run away from them. —Mrs. B
9. When it’s do-or-die, you grab on to your future and hold on tight. —Diego
10. A man can protect and be brave, but a man can also be sad. For what is any of this for if you can’t feel it? —Lito
All of life is a practice. You don’t have to get anything right the first or second or third time. You just try to get better every day. You do that and you’ll be fine.
—Mrs. A’s grandmother
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to former editors Jennifer Klonsky and Michael Strother. Jen for believing in this project early on, and Michael for picking up where Jen left off, helping to develop the project into a manuscript that had heart.
A debt of gratitude to my current editor, Jennifer Ung, for loving Marco as much as I do. I could not have completed this novel without your patience, guidance, and support—a million thank-yous!
Tremendous thanks also to publisher Mara Anastas, deputy publisher Chriscynethia Floyd, and editorial director Liesa Abrams, plus the rest of the Simon Pulse team: Jessica Handelman, Nicole Russo, Caitlin Sweeny, Lauren Hoffman, Alissa Nigro, Christian Vega, Elizabeth Mims, Penina Lopez, Christina Pecorale, Emily Hutton, Michelle Leo, Anthony Parisi, Anna Jarzab, and Danielle Finnegan.
To my agent Steven Chudney for sending my work into the world and bearing with me through this long revision process.
To early readers Meagan Simmons, Jenny Prendergast, Joyce Masongsong-Ray, and Nathan Johnson for providing feedback and encouragement to move forward. To Dr. Richard Tran for help with medical terminology. To Brett Poche for patiently walking me through the science. To Sam Brewster for insight into the complex history and meaning of an important word and the discussion of the power of words in general. To Kate Rogers for help with branding. To my aunties, Iris Diaz, Carmen Iglesisas, and Marta Rivera, for help with my Spanish.
To Amy Risher for listening to daily rewrites, talking through revisions, and reminding me to have fun on occasion. Much love to you.
To Alison Harney for writing retreats, weekly chats, manuscript read throughs, pep talks, and mutual love of all things related to the spirit and universe. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
To my family for their continued support and love. To my brother, Walter, for buying multiple copies of my novels and handing them out to coworkers. To my sister Aria, for asking librarians to stock my books. Special thanks to my “twin” sister, Suzi, and my mom, Zulma, for reading the book again and again and offering the right cocktail of compassionate/tough love. You two know me so well! Thank you for believing in Marco and me.
Finally, to anyone I have forgotten unintentionally, thank you and forgive me.
About the Author
Author photograph by Savannah DeMatteo
Carmen Rodrigues lives and plays in the great urban wilds of Northern Virginia, where she is a writer by day and an educator by night. She earned her MFA from the University of North Carolina Wilmington. The Universal Laws of Marco is her third young adult novel. Visit her at carmenrodrigues.com.
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Also by Carmen Rodrigues
Not Anything
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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First Simon Pulse hardcover edition March 2019
Text copyright © 2019 by Carmen Rodrigues
Jacket photograph and composite copyright © 2019 by Steve Gardner/PixelWorks Studios (boy) and Thinkstock (background elements)
Title lettering copyright © 2019 by Shotopop
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rodrigues, Carmen, author.
Title: The universal laws of Marco / by Carmen Rodrigues.
Description: First Simon Pulse hardcover edition. | New York : Simon Pulse, 2019. | Summary: With girlfriend Erika, a full scholarship to college, and a busy life with his tribe of close friends, high school senior Marco Suarez holds tightly to his carefully choreographed life, until Sally, his first kiss, moves back to Miami.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018019246 | ISBN 9781442485099 (hc) | ISBN 9781442485112 (eBook)
Subjects: | CYAC: Friendship—Fiction. | Love—Fiction. | Cuban Americans—Fiction. | Miami (Fla.)—Fiction.
Classification: LCC PZ7.R61875 Un 2019 | DDC [Fic]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019246