Raising Hope Read Online Free Page B

get some more.” The bug bites on my legs are suddenly pretty interesting to me, and I bend over and scratch them. “These mosquito bites are killing me,” I say, standing up quick. “I gotta go in the pool to make them stop itching.” I walk to the pool’s edge and jump in and under the water. The understudy is under the water. Ha! Story of my life. I hold my breath until I feel ready to burst, swimming underwater practically all the way across the length of the pool. When I can’t stand it another second, I swim up and break through the blue surface to gulp in a few big breaths.
    By the time I swim back over to Ginny, Kim Anderson and Kelly Jacobs are putting their swim bags down, sliding off their sandals, and sitting on
my
chaise. Ick. Double ick, in fact. Kelly and Kim are a grade ahead of Ginny and me. They think they’re so great just because they’re thirteen and real teenagers. They’re sometimes nice to Ginny, even though she’s a whole year younger, just because she’s popular. They don’t give me the time of day.
    I swim over to them, gritting my teeth through a fake, plastered-on smile. Did I mention that Kim and Kelly are best friends and call themselves the KKs? Yes, that’s right—the KKs. As in, “KK, do you want to swim?” “No, KK, I’d rather sit out just now.” Add their special nicknames for each other to the fact that they dress alike, talk alike, and look alike, and it’s no wonder that, in my head, I don’t call them the KKs; I call them the psycho twins from hell.
    I hoist myself up at the pool’s edge and climb out, looking down at the wet footprints I make as I walk back to
my
seat. Ginny and the KKs are in the middle of talking about something, and I shake my head back and forth, flicking water from my wet hair on them.
    “Ick!”
    “Gross!”
    “You’re not a dog, Hope.”
    “Yes, she is.”
    “Ha, ha,” I say, plopping down in a chair a little bit separate from the huddle the other girls are in. Looking in from the outside, you might not think I’m so far apart, but trust me, from where I’m sitting, I am.
    “Anyway,” Kim says to Ginny, “my mom can pick you up at six-thirty. KK and I have been sooo dying to see this movie.”
    Ginny bites her lip and glances at me before turning back to Kim and Kelly. She says, “Maybe Hope would like to come, too?” She says it all tentative, like she needs their permission.
    Well, I don’t need the KKs’ permission to do anything. Besides, I have a birthday party to go to tonight. “I have plans,” I say from my chair just outside the circle.
    “Plans?” Kelly sneers. “What kind of plans do
you
have?”
    “There’s a party for my birthday,” I say, sticking out my chin. “My family’s counting on my being home for it.”
    Kelly leans back on the chaise, using her feet to practically push Kim off. “What’s the story with your family, anyhow?” she asks, and her eyes look glittery and mean. “I mean, you don’t really have one, right? Like, you don’t have a mom and dad.”
    Everybody’s looking at me, waiting for an answer. Ginny finally puts her head down to pick at her fingernail polish.
    “My mother is dead,” I say in a tiny voice. There’s a lonely, hollowed-out feeling that starts in my heart and spreads up to my throat and down to my stomach, and it takes me by surprise. I mean, my mother’s been dead forever. I never even knew her, for crying out loud, so what’s the big deal? I mean, sure, I feel sad about it sometimes. But not like this, not like I’m going to put my head between my knees and cry.
    “And isn’t your father an alcoholic who can’t take care of you?” presses Kim. She pushes Kelly’s legs out of the way and scoots back up on the chaise.
    “Cut it out!” Kelly snaps.
    “My father?” It’s funny how those two words can barely squeeze out of my throat. The whole idea of him hurts so bad that I have to make up a story on the spot, just to try to put a Band-Aid on the