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

Marigold at least five times that she hadn’t realized that rhubarb pie had strawberries in it. She’d never had rhubarb. She didn’t know what it was. Pilar had been raving about it to the point that Zinnie was going to feel like a jerk if she didn’t get it. Zinnie knew she was supposed to ask if things contained strawberries, but a pie usually said exactly what it had in it. Peach pie had peaches. Apple pie had apples. Blueberry pie had blueberries. None of those pies had secret strawberries in them, so why should rhubarb? Did Marigold think that she liked breaking out in hives? That she enjoyed being itchy and swollen?
    Or maybe it was about more than the kiss. After Marigold had walked off toward the gelato shop with Alex, Pilar and Zinnie had gone into a storeand Zinnie had held up an enormous bra and said in her best grown-up voice, “This will be perfect for my big bazoombas! Does it come with matching underpants?” Pilar had laughed so hard Zinnie thought she was going to wet her pants. It inspired Zinnie to keep going. She grabbed a pair of leopard-print underwear and said to no one in particular, “Which way to the zoo? I’m an animal!” This had sent Pilar to the floor in convulsions. Zinnie wished Ronald P. Harp had been there so he could see that in real life people liked it when she pulled faces.
    She also wished Marigold had been there. She wished Marigold had been the one laughing.
    Zinnie had always had a feeling that Pilar liked her a lot. Even though Zinnie was still in the lower school, which made her totally uncool to middle schoolers, Pilar talked to her every day, in the library or on the playground or in the locker room. It was almost like Zinnie and Pilar had their own friendship. After last night, when Pilar had laughed so hard that she cried, Zinnie was starting to wonder if Pilar liked her more than her own sister did. After the way Marigold ignored her or merely tolerated her, it had felt good to be appreciated.
    As the driver turned off the freeway onto a smaller road, Zinnie had to admit that it had also felt good to get so much attention from Pilar, to take something away from Marigold.
    â€œAlmost there,” the driver said. They drove over a small bridge, down a long, leafy street, through a little town with an ice cream place, a café, a general store, some small shops, Ed’s Fish ’n’ Tackle, and a tiny post office. A little farther up the road was something called a boatyard. A yard for boats? As they rounded the corner, a harbor came into full view. This place was so different from Los Angeles, where the roads were big, even, and smooth; and the freeways, alive with speeding cars, crossed over and under one another like snakes; and tall palm trees guarded the sidewalks. As they bumped down the road, Zinnie felt as if they were in the pages of a book about summertime. The houses along the little road, which were covered in gray shingles and had bright white or red or green shutters and flowers in the window boxes, were like cottages. The water was dark blue, calm and sparkling. Sailboats crossed in the distance. The trees with their green canopies seemed just the type to be occupied by talking animals.
    â€œI thought we were going far away from California,” Lily said.
    â€œWe are,” Zinnie said. “We’re just about as far away as you can get and still be in America.”
    â€œThen why is the ocean right there?” Lily asked.
    â€œIt’s a different ocean,” Zinnie said.
    â€œA different ocean?” Lily asked. Her face tightenedwith fear as she held Benny close. They turned up a dirt road. On either side of them there was a stone wall made of big, round rocks that looked like it was going to topple over.
    They rolled down a long driveway and pulled up in front of a small house. Zinnie opened her window all the way. The air smelled sweet and sunny and green. She saw a face in the window, and then