A Girl Named Summer Read Online Free Page A

mother, on the other hand, was so busy trying to keep up with the family and the house and the shop that she sometimes tended to be a little absentminded. Once, she’d left work late and had quickly stopped at the supermarket to buy a few things for dinner. When she arrived home, she turned to retrieve the bags from the backseat of her car, only to find that they weren’t there. Later, she confessed that she’d had so much running through her mind she’d forgotten the groceries and had actually left them sitting in the cart at the supermarket parking lot.
    And then there was Summer’s grandfather. He spent almost every waking hour down in the basement working on his inventions. He hadn’t lived with them very long, but he fit right in with her eccentric family. They had become so accustomed to the loud noises coming from below they didn’t even react anymore.
    “Anybody home?” The call from the front door interrupted Summer’s thoughts, and the high-pitched voice of Regina Morgan, her best friend, brought a smile to her face.
    “Come in,” Summer yelled. “We’re in the kitchen.”
    Regina bounded into the room but didn’t stop until she was hunting through the refrigerator.
    “Hungry?” Summer teased. It was a joke, of course. Regina was always hungry.
    Regina shrugged a reply. She crossed over to the kitchen table with an apple in one hand and a can of grape soda in the other and plopped down with all the grace of a skinny giraffe. “Hi, Mike. Summer, I just got back from my checkup at the doctor’s, and I grew another inch,” Regina mumbled between bites of apple. “I’m going to be an amazon, I just know it.”
    “No, you’re not,” Summer said with heartfelt sympathy. She knew how awkward Regina felt about her height and wanted to help her feel better. After all, they were best friends. “When the boys catch up with you…”
    “Summer, I measured five feet, eight and a half inches.” She visibly winced the admission. “Maybe I should try out for the boys’ basketball team.”
    “Don’t be silly. You’d kill yourself. There isn’t a coordinated bone in your body,” Summer replied with complete honesty. She knew she wasn’t hurting Regina’s feelings. They were too close. Besides, it was the truth. “Anyway, you’re going to be a model, remember? And it’s good for models to be tall and thin, and—”
    “—flat-chested,” Regina supplied, “which I most definitely am. Let’s change the subject. This is depressing. Where is everyone? It’s actually quiet.”
    “Mom’s working at the flower shop with Dad, and Grandpa is—”
    “—in the basement,” Regina added. She had thehabit of finishing Summer’s sentences for her, and sometimes the trait bothered Summer, but not today. “Has he finished his remote-control vacuum cleaner?”
    Regina understood about Grandpa. And she never laughed. That was one of the reasons she was her best friend, Summer acknowledged. She
really
understood.
    “I think so, but he hasn’t tried it out upstairs yet. He’s working on car chains today.”
    Regina nodded, and they both smiled. Yes, Regina definitely understood Summer’s family.
    “Can I go next door and play with Andy?” Michael interrupted with a loud, proud burp.
    Usually Michael went right down for his nap after lunch, but Summer wanted to visit with Regina before hassling with her brother. “For a little while,
if
you finish your sandwich,” she started to answer, but he was already running out the back door.
    Summer turned to her friend. “There’s no easy way to tell you this, Regina,” Summer said. “Mom has to work with Dad all summer. Mrs. Nelson is going to have a baby, and she took the whole three months off.”
    “You’re kidding! What about working at the Pizza Paddle?”
    “I can’t,” Summer mumbled.
    “Summer, do you realize how much time and effort went into my nagging Dad until he agreed to let us work there?”
    Summer sat in dejected silence while