Read Online Homecoming Day by Holly Jacobs - Free Book Online Page B

I’m not sure what to do to help, but we’ll figure it out between us. For now, why don’t you go get your books and begin your homework. Wouldn’t it be novel if you went in tomorrow with it all done?”
    â€œMy teachers would probably faint from shock. Especially Mrs. Lutz. She hates me.”
    â€œLet’s not worry about what the teachers or anyone else says or thinks. Let’s worry about you.”
    Â 
    T HAT SAME NIGHT , S ETH walked into his spartan apartment. Normally, he wouldn’t have noticed. But his sisters, May, Layla and Cessy had come to Erie to shop a few weekends ago and had stopped by to take him to dinner. His youngest sister, Cessy, never one to mince words, had summed up their collective opinion. “Seth, I’ve seen prison cells that look better than this place.”
    Her comment had stuck with him ever since.
    He had a desk with a laptop on it and a sectional inthe main room. The small kitchenette off to the right was more than adequate for the amount of cooking he did, and he didn’t need more than the stool and the counter for the infrequent times he actually ate at home.
    The bedroom to the left of the main room had a king-size bed and a dresser.
    It was functional.
    And Cessy was wrong because he didn’t know of any prison cell with a sixty-inch flat-screen television. He’d been saying as much to himself for the last week—it wasn’t helping. He still noticed how bare his apartment seemed, but he didn’t know what to do about it.
    His place with Allie had been warmer and felt like a home. His parents and Laura had managed it, too. It wasn’t just that they had more stuff. It was a feeling. And while he could go buy more things to put in his apartment, he couldn’t buy that feeling.
    He gave up staring at the empty apartment and looked up illiteracy on Google.
    Then he narrowed the search and added high school.
    For the next hour he surfed the net, then left for Borders and picked up two of the books the most helpful website had suggested. Afterward, he headed to Laura’s.
    Her house was small, and painted a deep gray. It was in a quiet neighborhood not far from his apartment. The place had red shutters, and a small porch bordered by holly bushes, which were still green, despite the November cold.
    He knocked on the cherry-red door. He wondered if she’d bought the car to match the door, or vice versa.
    Laura opened it as far as the chain would allow, then closed it. He heard the rattle as she took the chain lock off, then reopened the door, this time with worry on her face. “Seth? Is something wrong with JT? Is she back in jail?”
    â€œShe was never in jail,” he assured her. “But no, nothing like that. You said you know basket weaving not teaching reading, wasn’t that it?” He held the books out to her.
    She smiled and nodded. “Come in.”
    He liked that phrase a lot. And as he stepped into Laura’s hallway, he was struck by how non-spartan her home seemed. It was warm and inviting. There was a coat tree standing next to the door. A long, skinny table next to it. It had a small bowl with keys in it, and a trimmed ivy plant.
    Maybe a plant would make his sisters feel better about his house?
    â€œSeth?”
    â€œSorry.” He stopped worrying about his unadorned apartment and concentrated on JT. “Anyway, did you know that about a fifth of high school seniors can be considered functionally illiterate? A website suggested these books. They’re easy readers for older students. I thought they’d be good for JT.”
    â€œThis way,” Laura said.
    He went back into the small, but neat house. Growing up, his parents’ house had been controlled chaos, and his place seemed sterile. Laura’s house was a vision of neatness and order. But despite those differences, itsaid home here as much as his parents’ had. As much as his apartment didn’t.
    Wow,