Stop the Presses!
Page 9
Ava looked at her in surprise. She’d been so busy wallowing in her own self-pity, she hadn’t thought about this being hard on her mom. But, Ava reflected, it must be. Her mom had been really happy back where they used to live. She’d taught art at the local elementary school. She’d had her own friends. A garden.
“Dad is under a lot of pressure as the new coach, and Tommy as a player, too.” Ava’s mom broke into her thoughts. “At least you and your sister have each other. That’s a really special thing.”
Ava grimaced. She missed her sister, too. She missed the way they used to hang out together, to take Moxy for walks together, to wash up at the side-by-side sinks in their old bathroom every night. Now they tended to go to bed at different times, and the new bathroom only had one sink. Alex was monopolizing it; she spent what seemed like hours in there with the door closed, experimenting with different hairstyles.
“It seems like we’re more different than ever. She’s so ‘go, go, go!’ right now.”
“Honey, that’s just your sister’s way of dealing with all these changes,” Mrs. Sackett said. “I know she’s been a little . . . intense lately, but she’ll be calmer once we’ve all settled in. You know she feels better when she’s working on some sort of project—picking up in Texas where she left off in Boston is her new project.”
Ava thought about this. Her mom was right—Alex didn’t like change. When she was five, she had thrown a fit when their mom started buying a different brand of peanut butter.
“But you know she needs you to pull her nose out of her planner once in a while,” Mrs. Sackett joked.
Ava thought about what her mom said as she climbed into bed. She was just drifting off to sleep when her phone vibrated.
It was Charlie.
Hey, what up? All good in Texas?
You wearing cowboy boots and
a ten-gallon hat yet?
Ha. As if. I’m just trying
not to roast to death.
It was over 100 degrees
again today.
Whoa. You need to find a pool.
Yeah, I think there’s one
pretty close to here. We haven’t
had time to look for it, though.
How’s practice going?
Doesn’t start for three weeks.
We’re not on the crazy
Texan schedule, remember?
Ha ha.
Oh right. Ha ha.
Ha ha. Well, CU L8ter.
CU L8ter.
Ava read and reread Charlie’s texts. Her first-ever potential crush now lived 1,983 miles away.
And her twin sister was sleeping a whole room away. Sigh. Both felt worlds apart.
RACHEL WISE loves to give advice. When she’s not editing or writing children’s books, which she does full time at a publisher in New York, she’s reading advice columns in newspapers, magazines, and blogs, and is always sure her advice would be better! Her dream is to someday have her own talk show, where she could share her wisdom with millions of people at once; but for now she’s happy to dole out advice in small portions in Dear Know-It-All books.
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Simon Spotlight • Simon & Schuster, New York
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, New York 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
First Simon Spotlight edition July 2014
Copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
SIMON SPOTLIGHT and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Jacket illustrated by James Bernardin
Jacket illustrations copyright © 2014 by Simon & Schuster, Inc.
Text by Sheila Sweeny Higginson
ISBN 978-1-4424-9798-6 (hc)
ISBN 978-1-4424-9797-9 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4424-9799-3 (eBook)
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 2014936483