Raising Hope Read Online Free Page A

gone and then run to the pool’s edge, hold my nose, and jump in. Ow! It’s cold as I hit the water, but that’s the only way to do it. None of this sticking in a toe, and then a foot, and then an ankle. I come up to the surface and, still chilly, swim the length of the pool.
    When I hop out, I wrap myself in one of the club’s fluffy white towels and lay myself out on a lounge chair, closing my eyes. I shiver deliciously because I know it’ll only be a minute before the sun warms me up. I’m sort of thinking about nothing, only that thinking about nothing is one of the finest feelings there is, and also that being really cold and then lying out in the hot sun must feel like being a slice of bread slowly getting cooked in the toaster.
    “Hey, Hope.” I crack open an eye and raise a hand to my forehead to shade out the sun. Pop! Toast is up!
    “Ginny!” I scramble up so I’m sitting, still holding the towel around my shoulders. It’s Ginny Stevens, my friend from school. Well, to be honest, she’s more like just my summer friend because she’s popular in school and I’m just regular. Since none of the popular girls from my class belong to the country club, though, she’s stuck with me. Sometimes I feel kind of like an understudy in a show, waiting for my big break. If I act cool enough around Ginny in the summer, then maybe I’ll move up from regular to popular in the fall. I’m not exactly holding my breath waiting for this, though, because I’ve been the understudy for lots of summers and here I am. Still not a star. Still the same old me.
    Ginny sits on the chaise longue beside me, smoothing the little pink skirt of her bikini as she stretches her legs out in front of her.
    “You want to swim?” I ask. Even when the water’s freezing, it always feels warmer when there’s someone to swim with.
    Ginny gets this little smile on her face, looking like a Mona Lisa wannabe. “Can’t,” she says, all mysterious.
    “Why not?”
    “Cramps,” she says under her breath, barely stopping herself from jumping up and down about it. “I have my period.”
    “Oh.” I try to nod like I know exactly what she’s talking about, when inside I just feel left behind, like she’s on a train speeding down the track and I’m at the station holding a sign that reads, “Have a Nice Trip.”
    She sighs and stretches her arms over her head. “I really wish I could take a swim today.” If she weren’t so popular, I’d tell her exactly how annoying she’s being, bragging and sticking out her puny chest like she has something to show.
    “So just wear a tampon,” I say, trying to be cool.
    “I’m scared to,” she says. She leans in close to me and whispers, “Don’t you have to have had, like, sex to use those?”
    “No,” I scoff, bluffing a little but pretty sure I’m right on this one. “That’s a myth.”
    “Are you sure?” Ginny asks. She’s looking at me like I’m the one on the train to womanhood now and she’s the one saying sayonara. It sure feels good to be the one sitting up high and going somewhere.
    “Positive. Cross my heart. They just slide right up there. Really.” I swear, at this rate I’ll be the
leader
of the popular girls.
    Ginny looks at me wide-eyed. “Do you use them?”
    “Sure,” I say. Oh, I’m riding that train right out of the station. Pretty soon Ginny’s just going to be a little speck receding in the distance. “I use them all the time.”
    “Can you bring one of yours to show me sometime?” she asks, twirling a strand of her long brown hair. “My mom is so lame; she won’t let me or my sister use them, and I just want to look at one and see if I could dare to put it in.”
    “Actually,” I say slowly, watching my fantasy train crash right off the track, “I used them all up last time. I don’t have any more.”
    Ginny puckers her lips together in a puzzled frown. “Well, you’ll need some for next time, right?”
    “Uh, yeah. Yeah, I guess I need to