Excellent Emma Read Online Free Page A

have a tissue handy.
    A few dried leaves tumble past my feet as I hurry down the sidewalk. Sometimes, when the wind blows like this, I feel like I am flying instead of walking. With each step I take, I bounce a little higher.
    It would be so wonderful to be a kangaroo on a day like today! That’s the kind of mom I’d like to be someday, too, because kangaroos are marsupials, and a marsupial’s baby grows inside her pouch instead of in her belly.

    It’s a much better system than the human method, in my opinion.
    I like going over to Annie Pat’s for many reasons. For one thing, it’s a house, like Mom and I used to have, not a condo like we live in now. Sometimes I even pretend Annie Pat’s house is my house, and I have a mom and dad who live together in it. Un-divorced.
    But I don’t tell Annie Pat that. Even best friends keep some things private.
    Another reason I like going over to Annie Pat’s is because the Mastersons have a baby named Murphy, and he has red hair just like Annie Pat. Murphy is fun to watch, and he’s so new that he doesn’t bother us yet.
    Another good thing about Annie Pat’s house is that her mom has to take care of Murphy all the time, so she leaves Annie Pat and me alone pretty much. And she buys really yummy snacks for us to eat, stuff I would never get at home. I think this is because she feels bad about ignoring Annie Pat ever since the baby showed up.
    But I don’t think Annie Pat minds a bit.
    In my opinion, Murphy is all plusses and no minuses for Annie Pat and me.
    But the main reason I like going to Annie Pat’s house is because of Annie Pat herself. Like I said before, she is my best friend at Oak Glen, and Kry Rodriguez is my second-best friend, even though I would never say that out loud. I am not a feelings-hurter, unlike some people I could mention.
    Cynthia Harbison and Jared Matthews.
    Annie Pat Masterson is the second-smallest girl in the third grade, after me, and she is very bouncy, and she blushes a lot. Her hair is red, like I said before, and she wears it parted down the middle and pulled to each side in pigtails. She has navy blue eyes.
    The best thing about Annie Pat, though, is that she loves nature, just like I do. In fact, she wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up. Well, she’d really like to be one now , only grown-ups don’t let kids do cool stuff like that. They keep those jobs for themselves.
    I want to be a nature scientist, as I mentioned before. I don’t know yet what my specialty will be, but I’ve definitely eliminated reptiles, especially snakes and skinks. Also amphibians, even though it is extremely cool that they can breathe both underwater and on land. I wish I could do that!
    I knock three times on the Mastersons’ red front door.
    Mrs. Masterson swings open the door and holds it with her hip. She has baby Murphy cradled against her stomach. There is a snail-trail of white goo decorating her saggy green turtleneck shirt.
    No offense or anything, but eww.
    “Emma! Welcome,” Mrs. Masterson says, giving me a big old smile—probably because since I’m here, she’s glad she doesn’t have to feel bad anymore about playing with Murphy all day, and not Annie Pat.
    “Hi,” I reply, feeling shy as I try to think of something polite to say. “Murphy looks even bigger than the last time I saw him.”

    “Oh,” she says, and she turns Murphy around to face me. “Well, he probably is. Say hello to Emma, Murphy,” she tells him. “ Hewwo ,” she says, pretending to be Murphy.
    This is very embarrassing!
    “Annie Pat’s in her room,” Mrs. Masterson says. “She’s still pretty pooped from last night, because this little fella kept us awake with his crying just about all night long. He’s teething,” she adds proudly, nuzzling his neck.
    “Oh,” I say. “That’s good. That he’s getting teeth, I mean, because he couldn’t eat corn on the cob next summer if he didn’t. Or even off the cob. Well, I’d better be