by Alex Flinn
“I’m not sure I can promise that,” Spider kidded. Britta had on a T-shirt Spider had ordered for her. It was from the movie Mean Girls and it said “On Wednesdays, we wear pink.” Spider’s own shirt, from the same movie, said “Beware of plastics.”
“I can,” Kate said. “I am unfailingly polite. In fact, if a southerner doesn’t like you, she just becomes more polite. I learned that from my mother.”
“How about you, Meredith?” Britta asked.
Meredith shrugged. “I have to be nice, right? If you hadn’t talked to me that day in the library, I wouldn’t even be here. Neither of us would.”
“If Spider hadn’t gotten the idea to rent out rooms,” Kate said, “none of us would be.”
It was true, and they all looked around the circle, amazed at it, the roundness of time, rippling over all of them, changing all of them in this place that never changed.
“Okay. I’ll sing it once. Then we’ll all try it.” Britta had a ukulele with a picture of a palm tree on it, because of course she did, and she strummed it with the confidence of someone who’d always been cute and popular, never laughed at or unsure of herself. But Spider knew better now. Still, her voice was loud and sweet, and Spider envied her bravado as she sang:
We are the Girls of July;
Sisters of summer weather.
Summer will live in our hearts
When we’re no longer together.
Summer is always too short.
Winter days are long.
We will return to July
When we sing this song.
“Okay, now this is the bridge. Then, when I repeat, you guys try.” And she sang, “We’ll always be together. We’ll be friends forever.”
She started again from the beginning, and they all joined in, collapsing in giggles at their sad efforts at singing, except for Ruthie, whose voice was clear. When they finished, Kate said, “I love you guys, but that was really hokey.”
“People like hokey things,” Britta said. “That’s why the Hallmark Channel even exists.”
“Truth,” Kate agreed.
“Truth,” Meredith said. “Or Netflix Christmas specials. I love those.”
“Please don’t let me be making Christmas specials ten years from now,” Spider said, “but yeah.”
“You are going to be an important filmmaker,” Britta said. “That’s why I’m keeping in touch with you. The only reason.” But she laughed when she said it.
“I’m sorry I didn’t really get to know you guys sooner,” Kate said. “Was I awful at first?”
“Well, not awful,” Britta said, “just a little frightening.”
“I liked you,” Meredith said, “the second you offered to help catch the bat.”
“More likely the second I backed off and let you and Harmon catch it,” Kate said.
“True,” Meredith said. “But I still liked you.”
“Are you guys really serious?” Spider asked Meredith. Now that she’d stopped hating Harmon, she’d noticed he was actually pretty nice.
“Probably,” Meredith said. “We’ll see how it survives the winter.”
“How will we survive the winter?” Spider asked. “Do you think we’ll still be friends a year from now?”
She was looking, especially, at Britta.
“Absolutely.” Britta patted her shoulder. “I mean, if you want to be. And, as proof, I am going to tell you my deepest, darkest secret. Come closer. I don’t want anyone else to hear.”
Even though there was no one around, not even an owl this time, they all leaned in.
Britta said, “Okay, so I let people think that Britta is short for Brittany, the name on my birth certificate is actually . . . Bertha.”
“I never knew that,” Meredith said, laughing. “How did I not know that?”
“Well, first off, we never had any classes together after fifth grade, but also, any time a teacher starts to say my name, I just interrupt her and tell her it’s pronounced Britta. Bertha is my great-grandmother’s name.”
“Well, I won’t tell anyone,” Meredith said. “My big secret is that Harmon is the first guy I ever kissed.”
“Oh, thank God!” Britta said. “I thought for sure you kissed that creepy Alaric guy at homecoming. Do you know he told me my dress was too low-cut? Like, first off, it wasn’t. Secondly, if it was okay with the principal and my mother, why would he care?”
“He’s a jerk,” Meredith agreed.
Kate said, “My big secret is, before I came here, I couldn’t even make grits. That first day I made them, I followed the directions on the container, and I threw out the first two batches.”
“I thought I smelled something burning,” Ruthie said.
“Yeah, that was me. I took it all the way out to the trash can outside so you wouldn’t notice. We’ve had a cook all my life. But I’m going to learn to cook at home now. My mother will be so ashamed!”
“I’m learning too,” Spider said. “I’m going to make Britta’s arroz con pollo, but I’ll tell my mom to buy chicken already cut up.” She looked at Britta. “They sell them that way, you know.”
“You all know my big secret now,” Ruthie said. “But what you don’t know is that I called my children last night and told them about Janet and me.”
“Did you?” Spider thought Ruthie and Janet were such a cute old couple, like they’d never been apart. “What did Dad say?”
“He wasn’t as surprised as I’d expected. Maybe there really aren’t any secrets.”
“I’m glad,” Spider said.
Spider realized everyone had spilled a secret except her. She could take the easy way out and admit that she’d never been kissed either or that she couldn’t cook. But she decided to be a little braver. She turned to Britta.
“My secret is that I couldn’t stand you at the beginning of the summer. I tried to get Ruthie to put you downstairs because you were so annoying.”
“What a cop-out!” Britta said. “I completely knew you hated me.” She threw a marshmallow at Spider, though it sailed past her head and Kate caught it.
“Shut up. That’s not the secret part,” Spider said. “The secret part is, you are the best friend I’ve ever had.” It was hard to say, hard to lay herself open like that, admitting she hadn’t had a best friend since Lauren dumped her in fifth grade. But it was true.
There was an awkward silence, and Spider regretted saying anything. Britta was probably so popular at home. Literal crickets, and the crackling of the fire.
Then, Britta broke it. “I feel the exact same way!” She swiped at her eyes. “God, I’m tearing up. This really is like a Hallmark movie. I’m not crying; you’re crying.”
“We have to get together during the year,” Spider said. “You have to get your mom to let you audition for schools in New York.”
“I will,” Britta said. “I will. This isn’t the end of us.”
They listened to the fire crackle and the music of crickets, enjoying the unspeakable beauty of a night in July, and when the logs had burned down to embers, Britta suggested they sing the song one more time before they went in. “Loud and clear this time.”
They did.
We are the Girls of July;
Sisters of summer weather.
Summer will live in our hearts
When we’re no longer together.
Summer is always too short.
Winter days are long.
We will return to July
When we sing this song.
We’ll always be together.
We’ll be friends forever.
The final ember died out, and the last ukulele chord faded, so they went inside.
75
Britta
BRITTA WOKE EARLY that last morning with an idea. She went into her suitcase and took out her favorite earrings, tiny gold hoops, and cleaned them off. She held them out to Spider at breakfast, which was Ruthie’s chocolate chip waffles and Kate’s now-famous grits.
Britta said, �
��We said that first morning that the one thing we all had in common was pierced ears. I think we’ve discovered some other things, but I’d like to give you these. My grandmother got them when she was a little girl in Cuba.”
Spider looked touched but said, “I can’t take these.”
“It’s a loan. You have to give them back next time we see each other. That way, we’ll be sure to do it.”
“Oh, cool.” Spider felt her own earlobes. She wore the same earrings she’d had on that first day, the Big Dipper in one ear, a star in the other. “You can have these. I got them for my bat mitzvah.”
“Thank you,” Britta said. “But I’m wondering if maybe someone else should have them.” She looked at Kate and Meredith. She hoped this would work.
“Oh, I get it.” Meredith didn’t always wear earrings, but she had some in today, tiny red stones. “So maybe Spider should give me her earrings, and I’ll give mine to Kate? They’re garnets, my birthstone.” She started to remove them.
“That’s my birthstone too,” Kate said. “And I’ll give mine to Britta. And then, next summer when we get together, we’ll switch back?” She started to remove her earrings, which had a bunch of light-blue stones.
Britta nodded, but she looked at Spider just to make sure it was okay.
Spider smiled. “That’s a great idea—just as long as you realize you and I are getting together way before next summer—when you come up to New York to audition.”
“Absolutely,” she said and meant it. She was going to have some work to do on her mother. Before she had come here, she’d thought she could be independent. Now, she knew she could—but only if she had the help of others and was able to help them in return.
This time, they made Kate sit in back with her suitcases. It wasn’t as squooshed with only four people, though they almost left Meredith at Harmon’s house when she took too long saying goodbye. They decided to take turns driving to the airport. Meredith drove first, but Spider planned to drive when they got closer to the city, since she had experience. They pulled out of the driveway, leaving Ruthie and Janet waving at the door. It was sad, leaving behind this beautiful place, but Britta knew they’d be back. They’d be back.
Appendix A: College Essay
Essay topic: Share a moment when you stepped out of your comfort zone, and describe how it helped you grow into who you are today.
By Meredith Daly
This past spring, I was sitting in the library when Britta, a girl I barely knew, suggested that she and I should rent a vacation home in the Adirondacks together this summer. Apparently, she thought I needed to relax. At first, I was shocked by her audacity. I needed to relax? Me, Meredith Daly, the coolest cucumber in town? What would relax me would be to finish my massive to-do list, which included twenty-seven college essays (Universal Application and various supplements), studying for five AP exams and the SAT, setting up interviews with local alumni, and researching scholarships, to say nothing of organizing the bowling team schedule, recruiting members for the Key Club, doing the minutes for the German Honor Society, and somehow getting dinner on the table because otherwise, my mom and I don’t eat. If there was time, I also wanted to create world peace and organize my closets.
Also, no one I know has ever relaxed, ever.
Somehow, I decided she was right, and this summer, instead of going to a developing country to create a new drainage system and learn another foreign language, I escaped to the mountains, to a place with minimal internet service and wild animals in unexpected places (such as inside the house!). There, I learned to fish. I sat outside on a starry, starry night and listened to music. I hiked; I roasted marshmallows; I went outside without brushing my hair.
I fell in love.
This is no one’s recommendation for the appropriate way to spend the last summer before college applications, and I know this may affect my chances of getting in. Nonetheless, I do not regret this decision.
Before this summer, the friends I had were more like coworkers. We chatted, but we didn’t really know each other. We had common goals, but we competed. We also judged anyone who was different or less studious than we were. In New York, I made friends with three strangers who were nothing like anyone I’d ever met before: Britta, an aspiring actress from my hometown; Kate, an erstwhile debutante from Georgia; and Spider, an intellectual from New York who is dealing with an autoimmune disease. I describe them as if they were archetypes. I learned they were anything but. They are complex characters in the novel that is my life. It is a cliché to say we laughed and cried, but we did. I can call any of these women at two a.m., and they will answer.
It is hard to know how to save the world if one has never lived in it. Before this summer, I hadn’t lived in the world. I’d only studied it in school. Now, I’ve lived in it. This experience is what I will bring to college. I recommend it.
Appendix B: Meredith and Harmon’s Starry Night Playlist
“A Sky Full of Stars” by Coldplay
“Vincent (Starry Starry Night)” by Don McLean
“Counting Stars” by OneRepublic
“All of the Stars” by Ed Sheeran
“We Are All Made of Stars” by Moby
“Stardust” by Nat King Cole
“Moonlight Serenade” by Glenn Miller and His Orchestra
“City of Stars” from La La Land, recorded by Ryan Gosling
“Rhapsody in Blue” by George Gershwin (Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic)
Appendix C: Spider’s Top Ten Favorite Movies Ever
The Piano, written and directed by Jane Campion
Rebecca, screenplay by Robert Sherwood and Joan Harrison, directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Inception, written and directed by Christopher Nolan
Back to the Future, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, directed by Robert Zemeckis
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, written by Charlie Kaufman, Michel Gondry, and Pierre Bismuth, directed by Michel Gondry
Pulp Fiction, written and directed by Quentin Tarantino
Mean Girls, screenplay by Tina Fey, directed by Mark Waters
Casablanca, screenplay by Julius and Philip Epstein and Howard Koch, directed by Michael Curtiz
Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig
When Harry Met Sally, written by Nora Ephron, directed by Rob Reiner
Acknowledgments
Thanks always to my editor, Toni Markiet—I always feel so lucky to have such an experienced voice—and to her associate editor, Megan Ilnitzki, for all the day-to-day help.
Special thanks to Caitlin Greer for the sensitivity read and, also, for sharing her experiences with juvenile idiopathic arthritis, and to Jennifer Hartnett Wilson for sharing her family’s experiences.
Thanks as well to:
My critique group, Alexandra Alessandri, Christina Diaz Gonzalez, Stephanie Hairston, Danielle Cohen Joseph, Silvia Lopez, Curtis Sponsler, and Gaby Triana.
Debbie Reed Fischer for reading my manuscript.
Bill Linney for providing a Latin translation.
My mother and late father for buying a vacation home at Green Mansions, a former theater colony in Chestertown, New York, when I was seven, and my two Girls of July, Kat and Meredith, for going there with me.
About the Author
Photo credit Eugene Flinn
ALEX FLINN was a lawyer and an opera singer before becoming an author. She has climbed six Adirondack fire-tower peaks and hopes someday to complete the challenge. She has written thirteen novels and one original ebook novella. Her novel Beastly was a #1 New York Times bestseller and a major motion picture. She lives in Miami with her husband, occasionally her college-age children, two dogs, two cats, an African spur thigh tortoise, and her daughter’s rabbit. Visit her online at www.alexflinn.com.
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Books by Alex Flinn
Beastly
Beastly: Lindy’s Diary
Bew
itching
Mirrored
Three Beastly Kendra Chronicles
Four Beastly Kendra Chronicles
Cloaked
A Kiss in Time
Towering
A Magical Trio
Breathing Underwater
Diva
Fade to Black
Nothing to Lose
Breaking Point
Girls of July
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Copyright
HarperTeen is an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
GIRLS OF JULY. Copyright © 2019 by Alex Flinn. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
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Cover art © 2019 by Christopher Silas Neal
Cover design by Laura Eckes
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Digital Edition JUNE 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-244785-2
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-244783-8
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FIRST EDITION