Read Online The Forget-Me-Not Summer by Leila Howland - Free Book Online Page A

said, shaking her shoulders, and Lily laughed.
    â€œYou’re going to have to try to get along for Aunt Sunny,” Mom said.
    â€œI always try to get along,” Zinnie said. “She’s the one who hates me!”
    â€œShe doesn’t hate you, honey,” Mom said. “She loves you.”
    â€œAnd she admires you,” Berta said from across the table as she sipped her champurrado. “She just doesn’t know it yet.”
    â€œYeah, right!” Zinnie said. “Berta, that’s crazy. She thinks I’m a dork.”
    â€œBerta’s not crazy!” Lily said. “She knows everything. She put the string back in my sweatshirt hood this morning using magic.”
    â€œMy angel!” Berta said, turning her attention toLily. “I’m going to need at least five more hugs before you go.”
    â€œFive more, and then it’s time to go,” Dad said as Lily and Berta began counting hugs aloud.
    â€œOne . . . two . . . ,” they counted together as they hugged.
    â€œCome on, Zin. You can finish your breakfast in the car,” Mom said.
    â€œThree . . . four . . . four and a half . . . four and three-quarters.” Berta and Lily continued as Zinnie wrapped her pan dulce in a napkin.
    â€œHow are we going to even know who Aunt Sunny is?” Zinnie asked, taking extra besos for the road. “What if we get in the car with the wrong lady?”
    â€œFiiiiive!” Berta and Lily said, elongating their final embrace.
    â€œSunny’s not picking you up,” Mom said, grabbing her keys off the counter. “We didn’t want her to have to drive to and from Boston in rush hour, so a driver is going to meet you at the airport in Boston to take you to Pruet. She’ll be waiting for you with a big sign that has your names on it.”
    â€œHow long is the ride from the airport?” Zinnie asked, following Mom out the door as a million other questions rushed into her brain, like: What did Aunt Sunny usually make for breakfast? Could she make champurrado? Had Mom told her that they were allowed to watch TV after dinner and on weekends?Did Aunt Sunny have lots of rules? Would they have to clean their rooms every day? Would she allow Zinnie to stay up late reading if she couldn’t fall asleep? How many days exactly were they going to be apart from California and their parents and Berta and their bedrooms and all their stuff? How many hours, how many minutes would they be thousands of miles away from home?

15. A Different Ocean
    W hen they stepped off the plane and made their way to baggage claim, Zinnie spotted a round, smiley lady holding a sign that said SILVER SISTERS . At first she thought she was Aunt Sunny, but then Marigold reminded them that she was the driver and Pruet was an hour and a half away.
    Once in the car, after they’d collected their luggage, Zinnie looked out the window and contemplated her situation. Lily was asleep in the middle, and Marigold was seated as far from Zinnie as possible, her face turned toward the opposite window.
    The plane ride had been turbulent for Zinnie, and not just because they’d hit weather over the Rocky Mountains. And not just because her seat back wasn’t reclining or because she’d finished rereading the one Night Sprites book in her carry-on somewhere over theMississippi River, forcing her to play tic-tac-toe with herself and make origami out of the pages of the in-flight magazines.
    It had been a rough ride because Marigold was furious with Zinnie for getting in the way of her kiss, even though it had been a complete mistake on Zinnie’s part. Marigold was refusing to even acknowledge her except for the one time she called her number two. Zinnie knew darn well that number two wasn’t only her birth order. The punishment did not fit the crime, Zinnie thought, because there hadn’t even been a crime. There’d only been a mistake.
    Zinnie had tried to explain to