The Summer of Winters Read Online Free

Library, both places of quiet reflection.
    As I took my bike through the basement’s outside door into the backyard, I felt unaccountably nervous. It wasn’t that I was afraid Paige wouldn’t show up; I was afraid she would . I wasn’t used to someone wanting to actually spend time with me. Granted, I was still pretty much a stranger to her, and there was always the possibility that once she got to know me she would catch the stink of loser on me and run screaming. That was the root of my fear.
    I could have just gone back inside, told Julie I had an upset tummy, and went to bed, and the truth was, I considered doing just that. Why set myself up for more rejection and ridicule? Then again, how would I ever make any friends if I didn’t put myself out there, take the risk that went along with extending a hand toward someone else? After all, Paige had asked to hang out with me, not the other way around. Of course, it was possible she was just setting me up for some mean prank, like when Ryan Dumas and Marquis Jefferies had asked me to sit with them at lunch in third grade and had ended up knocking my lunch tray into my lap, everyone in the cafeteria pointing and laughing at me as Mrs. Childers led me to the boy’s room to get cleaned up. But Paige was new in town, had just met me; why would she want to pull a prank on me already?
    These were the conflicting thoughts ricocheting around my brain as I wheeled the Purple People Eater up the steep hill to the front yard. I continued to entertain the idea that Paige might not show, but that was dashed when I discovered her already waiting for me on the sidewalk in front of my house. She stood next to her bike, which was resting on its kickstand. A typical girl’s bicycle, pink with a banana seat and a white wicker basket mounted on front. Paige herself was wearing a pair of denim shorts that were baggy on her and a red T-shirt that was too tight. I had a feeling Ray and I weren’t the only kids in the neighborhood who got their clothes secondhand.
    “Hi,” Paige said brightly. “Nice bike.”
    I tensed, searching her expression for some hint of mockery, but there didn’t seem to be any. Not that I could detect, anyway. “Thanks.”
    “So…you ready?”
    “Um, sure. Where do you wanna go?”
    Paige giggled. “I don’t know, silly. That’s your job, to show me where there is to go in this town.”
    “Oh, yeah, right. Well, Central Elementary is just a few blocks from here. That’ll be where you go when school starts back.”
    “Sounds good. Lead the way.”
    We both mounted our bikes and started off toward the school, Paige keeping pace right next to me. We rode in silence at first, and I kept trying to think of something to say. Finally I turned to her and said, “So where are you from?” because it seemed like the kind of question you would ask someone who’d just moved to town.
    “Columbia.”
    “That’s a pretty big city, isn’t it?” Not that I knew for sure. I’d never been outside of Gaffney in my entire life. All I knew about Columbia was that it was the state capital, so it had to be big.
    “I guess so. Compared to Gaffney anyway.”
    “So why’d you guys move here?”
    “Dad lost his job, couldn’t find work. My Uncle Johnny lives here in Gaffney, said he could get Dad on with the construction company he works for. So here we are.”
    “You miss Columbia?”
    Paige shrugged. “I don’t know. I miss my old room, I guess. And my friends. But I heard my dad tell my mom one night when they thought I was sleeping that it was either move here or starve, so I guess moving here was the right thing to do whether I like it or not.”
    “Oh,” was all I could think to say.
    “Anyway, my mom just got a part-time job waiting tables at the Pizza Inn. What do your folks do?”
    “My mom…well, she…er, she works at the Limestone mill,” I stammered, not wanting to admit she cleaned the Limestone mill. “And my dad…well, he’s not around