BEFORE its completion, Quinn and the Metropolis had been my personal project for six years, coiled from the pleasant and unpleasant experiences from high school. It started off as a simple narrative about a teenage girl’s search for her identity in a pressuring society, but as I went on, it sprouted into a story about my highs and lows as a writer.

The problem was that I couldn’t seem to get the perfect story on paper, but now, as I’m about to graduate from college, I realize that it has taken me so long to learn that every story has its flaws. It was this fear of making mistakes that hindered me from finishing, and whether or not you, as the reader, find a liking to this story, I am glad to have written this silly little novel.

This is only the first part, and it just gets better. We will meet again soon.

—Jay, May 2017

Dedicated to the friends who were strangers—and vice versa