Forget Me Not Read Online Free Page A

Beach, way down at the far end. When we come up over the hill, we leave our bikes in the rack, stepping around the cinnamon-sweet smelling rugosa , beach roses. JFK takes my hand. “Guessed the surprise yet?”
    “No,” I say. “I haven’t got a clue.”
    He squeezes my hand. “Wait till you see.”
    At the top of the stairs he stops and points. “There she is, by the jetty.” His face is shining like a kid at the gummy fish bin in Nana’s store. “Isn’t she beautiful?”
    I look down.
    No, it can’t be.
    It is.
    A boat.
    A very small sailboat next to that very big sea.
    The sail is red-and-white striped, with a black fish on the top.
    I gulp. Oh, no. I can’t.
    No way can I go sailing.

CHAPTER 5
Sailing Lessons
Every sweet hath its sour.
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson
    “What’s the matter, Willa?” JFK is staring at me. “You look scared.”
    I look at him. He looks disappointed.
    “No, I’m fine,” I say, “just surprised, that’s all.” Images of the boat tipping, me sinking, are filling my mind. “Wow, this is great. Awesome.”
    “Come on,” JFK says, starting down the stairs, all excited again.
    I follow, feeling seasick inside. Just tell him, Willa, he’ll understand. No, you’ll spoil it for him. Look how happy he is!
    “I’ve been saving for a boat,” JFK says, “but I was still a couple hundred dollars short. Then my parents pulled this out of the hat. They saw my report card and went squirrelly. Straight As, butdon’t tell anybody. I don’t want to spoil my image.” He winks at me and smiles with that dimple to die for.
    Don’t think about dying, Willa. Nothing will bite you. You will not drown.
    “And, get this,” JFK says. “They said if I pull straight As again next year, they’ll buy me a used car for my sixteenth birthday. Sweet, huh?”
    “Nice bribe,” I say.
    “You’re not kidding,” JFK says. “That’s what thinking about college will do to otherwise sane and normal penny-pinching parents. I watched the process with my big sister, Kerry. They would have done anything to help her get into Skidmore. She had her heart set on that school, and Saratoga’s a really cool place.”
    “Yes, I went there with Tina on vacation one summer. Saw the racetrack and the ballet. Do you think you want to go to college there, too?”
    “Me? No, I’ve been planning on Boston College since I was in fourth grade. My teacher, Miss Spooner, went there. I had a crush on her. Every boy in the school did. Besides, my dad went to BC and my grandfather, too, but these days it’s almost impossible to get in. You’ve got to have great grades, ace the SATs,be a star athlete, a musical prodigy, and be saving the world somehow.”
    “Well, you’re the best one on the baseball team and you’re doing great community service,” I say. In freshman year alone, our class helped save the Bramble Library and then did a children’s book drive. We gathered enough books to furnish a whole library for a school hit by the hurricane in Louisiana. My dear friend Sulamina Mum—she was our minister—and her husband, Riley, delivered the books themselves when they moved to the South last month. I miss Mum. I wish she’d write.
    “Enough about school,” JFK says, “this here is summer vacation. That’s all I care about.” He hands me an orange life jacket.
    I take it like it’s a tarantula.
    “Willa.” JFK shakes his head. “You’re acting strange. You’ve sailed before, right?”
    “Sure,” I say, my fingers fumbling, snapping on the jacket like I’m strapping myself into the electric chair. Just tell him the truth, Willa, he’ll understand.
    “Well, don’t you like to sail?” JFK says. “You don’t seem psyched.”
    “Oh, no, I love it.” Liar. I look away. My gaze lands on a sand creation someone made earlier. It’sthree-tiered like a wedding cake, decorated with shells. There are even two little plastic figures on top.
    “Great, then,” JFK says, smiling, snapping his jacket