Read Online The Reason I Stay by Patty Maximini - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Patty Maximini
Tags: Romance
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is the principal, and Mrs. Walters is just waiting for you to graduate so she can finally retire after two hundred and fifty years of teaching English to snotty kids.” We both snicker at my mean—yet mostly accurate—comment.
According to Mr. Wolf—A.K.A. Tanie’s dad, and the principal at the local junior and high school—Mrs. Walters is the oldest teacher in the county, and was already enjoying her senior benefits when he started working at the high school twenty years ago. So Tanie’s degree in English Literature couldn’t have been more welcome to the old Mrs. Walters. Her degree couldn’t be more welcome to me, as well. For the past four years, I’ve missed living at a walking distance from my best friend like crazy.
“Lexington Amelia, you know better than to talk ‘bout an elder that way.” The voice of Jill Valentine comes from behind me. She’s the closest thing I have to a mother, and therefore, feels compelled to chastise me from time to time. However, I can tell she’s refraining from laughing.
I lift to my elbows, and turn to look at her. “C’mon, Gammy, you gonna tell me she wasn’t your teacher back when you were in school?”
Her lips flutter into a reluctant smile. “Doesn’t mean she’s been teaching for two hundred and fifty years. I ain’t that old, ya know?”
I laugh at her remark, and watch a couple of wet little girls running from the ocean in my direction. Immediately, I flop down to the sand and lay there very still with my eyes closed, trying to replicate the no-one-can-see-me thing Snow, my grumpy cat, does. Cold droplets of water splash against my exposed stomach, proving that the move is as useless to humans as it is to felines.
“Bras, what the bell?” Tanie yelps by my side.
I open my eyes to see what’s happening, but my view is obscured by the cutest seven year old on the planet. She’s standing over me, shaking her hair. Through the corner of my eyes I see the second cutest seven year old, pulling Tanie’s ankle and laughing as her sister continues to thrash her leg and yell at her.
“Whacha doing, Monkey?”
“Getting you used to the water temperature,” she tells me. “Gaddy doesn’t want to skip waves no more.”
“Anymore,” I correct.
I see her grandfather, Larry, dragging his feet toward us. A moment later his wife, Jill, speaks, loud enough so he can hear, “That’s what bein’ forty pounds overweight and chewin’ tobacco all day will do to ya.”
“I ain’t chewin’ now. And I ain’t fat; this is insulation for the winter time,” he hollers back, patting his protuberant tummy.
They live in a constant state of loving banter. I’ve known them my whole life, and although they are the happiest, most in-love couple I know, they also bicker more than any couple I’ve ever met.
“Time to play Ariel. C’mon.”
Knowing how futile it is to even attempt to fight those girls—they’ll annoy you until you do what they want—I remove my sunglasses and stand up from my sunbathing spot. Tanie, however, resists bravely to her sister’s pressure. When I call her, she pushes her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, and gives me the death glare through those honey-colored eyes. I drop the subject immediately.
“Okay guys, we’re on our own today. Mermaid Montana has made a pact with Ursula to become human, so she’ll stay on the beach today. Let’s just hope Prince Eric comes along and kisses her so she won’t become one of those nasty seaweed things.”
I hold their hands, and we make our way to the shore. The entire walk both girls protest against me calling Tanie’s boyfriend, who’s actually named Eric, Prince Eric. According to them that would make Tanie Ariel, and that’s just wrong. After all, we all agreed a long time ago that the two of them would take turns being Ariel, while Tanie and I would be the two older sisters. We protested against the older part, but our substantial age difference can’t be ignored.
Of
According to Mr. Wolf—A.K.A. Tanie’s dad, and the principal at the local junior and high school—Mrs. Walters is the oldest teacher in the county, and was already enjoying her senior benefits when he started working at the high school twenty years ago. So Tanie’s degree in English Literature couldn’t have been more welcome to the old Mrs. Walters. Her degree couldn’t be more welcome to me, as well. For the past four years, I’ve missed living at a walking distance from my best friend like crazy.
“Lexington Amelia, you know better than to talk ‘bout an elder that way.” The voice of Jill Valentine comes from behind me. She’s the closest thing I have to a mother, and therefore, feels compelled to chastise me from time to time. However, I can tell she’s refraining from laughing.
I lift to my elbows, and turn to look at her. “C’mon, Gammy, you gonna tell me she wasn’t your teacher back when you were in school?”
Her lips flutter into a reluctant smile. “Doesn’t mean she’s been teaching for two hundred and fifty years. I ain’t that old, ya know?”
I laugh at her remark, and watch a couple of wet little girls running from the ocean in my direction. Immediately, I flop down to the sand and lay there very still with my eyes closed, trying to replicate the no-one-can-see-me thing Snow, my grumpy cat, does. Cold droplets of water splash against my exposed stomach, proving that the move is as useless to humans as it is to felines.
“Bras, what the bell?” Tanie yelps by my side.
I open my eyes to see what’s happening, but my view is obscured by the cutest seven year old on the planet. She’s standing over me, shaking her hair. Through the corner of my eyes I see the second cutest seven year old, pulling Tanie’s ankle and laughing as her sister continues to thrash her leg and yell at her.
“Whacha doing, Monkey?”
“Getting you used to the water temperature,” she tells me. “Gaddy doesn’t want to skip waves no more.”
“Anymore,” I correct.
I see her grandfather, Larry, dragging his feet toward us. A moment later his wife, Jill, speaks, loud enough so he can hear, “That’s what bein’ forty pounds overweight and chewin’ tobacco all day will do to ya.”
“I ain’t chewin’ now. And I ain’t fat; this is insulation for the winter time,” he hollers back, patting his protuberant tummy.
They live in a constant state of loving banter. I’ve known them my whole life, and although they are the happiest, most in-love couple I know, they also bicker more than any couple I’ve ever met.
“Time to play Ariel. C’mon.”
Knowing how futile it is to even attempt to fight those girls—they’ll annoy you until you do what they want—I remove my sunglasses and stand up from my sunbathing spot. Tanie, however, resists bravely to her sister’s pressure. When I call her, she pushes her sunglasses down the bridge of her nose, and gives me the death glare through those honey-colored eyes. I drop the subject immediately.
“Okay guys, we’re on our own today. Mermaid Montana has made a pact with Ursula to become human, so she’ll stay on the beach today. Let’s just hope Prince Eric comes along and kisses her so she won’t become one of those nasty seaweed things.”
I hold their hands, and we make our way to the shore. The entire walk both girls protest against me calling Tanie’s boyfriend, who’s actually named Eric, Prince Eric. According to them that would make Tanie Ariel, and that’s just wrong. After all, we all agreed a long time ago that the two of them would take turns being Ariel, while Tanie and I would be the two older sisters. We protested against the older part, but our substantial age difference can’t be ignored.
Of
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