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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781546244028 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | AuthorHouse |
| Publication date: | 06/14/2018 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 188 |
| File size: | 7 MB |
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
Summer Begins
"Cinderella dressed in yella, Went downstairs to kiss a fella, Made a mistake and kissed a snake, How many doctors did it take 1, 2, 3 ..."
Becky jumped as Shari and Judy swung the rope.
"...27." Becky tripped but grinned. "That's my best yet!"
Shari took Becky's place, and the chant started over.
"I need a break," Becky told Sivi as she sat beside her on the step of the Hamilton Elementary School.
"Are you ready for summer?" Sivi asked.
"Yes and no," Becky replied. "I like school, but I look forward to sleeping later in the mornings, too," Becky replied.
"I know," Sivi nodded. "All of our friends are here, but ..."
Becky patted her friend on the shoulder. "We will see each other this summer. There's the parade and swimming lessons. We can call each other."
"True," Sivi agreed.
Mrs. Moran blew the whistle. "Line up!"
The second-grade class followed their teacher to the restrooms and water fountains in the basement.
Becky was washing her hands when she noticed Judy waiting behind her. "Are you riding the bus home, or is your mom picking you up today?"
"I'm riding the bus." Becky moved aside for Judy to use the sink.
"Today we go to the Tastee Freeze on the bus after school," Becky reminded Judy. The two girls always sat together on the bus.
"I know," Judy licked her lips. "Yum. Vanilla ice cream cones are a great start for the summer."
"Chocolate would be better," Becky said. "Chocolate ice cream is my favorite."
"Mine, too. But vanilla still tastes good."
"You betcha!"
Mrs. Moran led the class upstairs. "Everyone needs to empty their desks. Don't forget to get your artwork from the wall in the hallway."
"There's the buses," Scotty called from his place by the window.
The kids rushed around packing their bags.
"I'll see some of you for summer school. Otherwise, have a great summer and I'll see you in September," Mrs. Moran told them before leading them to the buses.
Becky climbed on the bus and sat beside Judy. "I'll miss Mrs. Moran. I wonder which teacher we'll have in third-grade?"
Judy shrugged her shoulder. "Do you have to go to summer school?"
"No," Becky shook her head. "But I wish I could. Summer school kids get to go swimming in the morning before the pool opens for the day."
"I forgot about that," Judy said. "Now I wish I had to go to summer school, too."
The line of buses took off heading for the high school to pick up the older kids. The noise level rose as the bus filled with kids.
"Don't get Blake riled up today, J.R.," Becky heard Kurt talking from the seat behind her. "If we have to stop while he makes you get a willow switch, we'll never get home! I want to ride my motorcycle today."
"I'll try," J.R. promised, grinning. "I'll ride mine out to your place when I get home."
"I just built a ramp for the track behind Mom's garden spot," Kurt continued.
Becky tuned out the older boys' conversation. The bus was coming to a stop by the Tastee Freeze. She loved this last day of school tradition.
Their bus driver, Blake, stopped the bus and opened the door.
"Everyone off! Let's get some ice cream!"
Bus after bus pulled up around them. The kids poured off the buses and formed lines. There were so many kids! Mrs. Gooding was doing a wonderful job serving ice cream cones as fast as she could. The Gooding girls got off one of the buses and went inside to help their mom serve.
"Thank you," Becky accepted her cone and moved to the side. Shari came to stand beside her, licking the ice cream as it melted.
"We won't see each other again for a long time," Shari said sadly.
"Sure, we will," Beck assured her friend. "There's the parade, the pool, the swimming lessons," she repeated what she had told Sivi.
"I guess," Shari said, catching another drip of ice cream with her tongue. "We can spend the night at each other's houses, too."
They looked up at the sound of a car horn. A car filled with boys was passing by the Tastee Freeze. One boy leaned out the rear window and threw a water balloon. It exploded against a bus tire. The boys laughed and sped away.
Blake took off the engineer cap he always wore and shook it at the boys. "You hooligans. I outta ..." He smacked the cap against his leg and put it back on his head. Blake was a pretty easy-going guy, but he expected the kids to behave or else!
They finished their treat and boarded the bus for the trip home.
"I wish I could stay in town for the water balloon fights," J.R. told Kurt.
"You would," Gwen, Kurt's sister, said. "Then you would be getting in trouble along with those older boys, and Blake would be mad at you!"
"Nothing new there," J.R. grinned. He stood up and walked to the front of the bus.
Becky and Judy watched him take his usual place standing on the step. So far, it seemed they would get home without J.R. getting in trouble. When he stood on the step, he usually just opened the door for the kids to get off at their stop. He rarely made Blake mad unless he rode in the back of the bus. J.R. was a good kid, but his nature was to be ornery. He loved to rile people just to see their reaction, especially Blake.
Becky should know. Their dads were best friends. Becky was at the Wilson house all the time, so she knew J.R. pretty well.
This bus ran the Nettleton route. Only a handful of kids lived in Nettleton, their little two-block community. The rest of the kids lived in the country between Hamilton and Nettleton or somewhere around Nettleton. The town school kids were Becky, her little sister Jill and the Wilson kids- J.R., Jason, and Michelle. The Blakelys lived in Nettleton, too, but their kids rode a different bus route with their dad. He was also a bus driver.
The bus was more than half empty when Becky and Jill got off at their trailer house.
"Is Dad going to be home tonight?" Jill asked.
"I don't know," Becky dropped her bag inside the living room door.
Jill threw her bag on top of Becky's.
"Hey!" Becky grabbed her bag. "You're going to crush my sailboat I made in art class."
"I didn't hurt your sailboat."
"You did," Becky insisted. "It's probably flat now."
"So?" Jill stuck her chin in the air. "It's only paper. It won't float anyway!"
"Not now," Becky yelled. "You crushed it!"
"It's paper," Jill yelled back. "When it gets wet, it will fall apart."
"Why would it get wet?"
"It will in the bathtub!"
"I'll put it on the shelf!"
"Girls, stop!" Their mom, Judy, came from the back of the trailer putting an end to their fight before it could escalate in its usual fashion. Sisters only a year and a half apart in age could be very close. They could also be fierce opponents. "Take your bags to your room."
The girls grabbed their bags and headed to the bedroom they shared.
"Becky, be sure to feed Muffin before you go outside to play."
"I will," Becky called from the bedroom.
Muffin is Becky's hamster. When their class hamster had babies, Mrs. Moran had let a few of the students take a baby hamster home. Becky had brought her hamster home last week. She named her Muffin. She is about five weeks old.
"Mom, will Daddy be home tonight?" Jill asked. Their dad, Earl, is an over-the-road truck driver, so he isn't home every night.
"Yes, in about an hour," Mom answered.
"I'm going to check on the baby," Becky told her mom.
"Me, too," Jill followed her sister to the kitchen to grab a snack to eat on the way to the Wilson's.
"Becky, Betty is not going to have the baby for a few more weeks," her mom told her again, for maybe the twentieth time.
"I'm still going to check on him," Becky insisted, one hand on the doorknob, the other holding an apple.
"How do you know it's a boy?"
"I don't know," Becky shrugged her shoulder. "It doesn't seem right to keep calling the baby It."
"That does sound better. Be home in time for supper."
"We will."
CHAPTER 2Becky's Latest Obsession
The Wilson house was a block away. They could go the long way or the shortcut. The long way was down the driveway to the gravel road, walk east until the end of the block by Clarkson's store, then turn south until almost the end of the block and cross the street. The shortcut was out the back door heading south, past their mom's beauty salon, then turning east to follow Shaney's fence row and cutting straight across Orie's yard. The Wilson's house was on the other side of the street. Becky decided to ride her bike on the gravel rather than walk through the tall grass by Shaney's fence. Jill rode her bicycle beside Becky down the gravel road.
Becky and Jill played with all the Wilson kids, but mostly Michelle. Their place was like a second home. J.R. was two years older than Becky, Jason was the same age as Becky and Michelle was a year younger than Becky; the same age as Jill. Their mom, Betty, was eight-months pregnant. Becky couldn't hardly wait for the new baby to be born.
Michelle was outside getting on her bike.
"Where are you going, Michelle?" Becky coasted into the yard and pushed down her kickstand.
"I was going to your house."
"Let's ride to my grandma's," Jill suggested.
"You two go ahead," Becky waved them off. "I'm going to see Betty."
"She's still pregnant," Michelle called as they rode away.
Becky ignored her, opening the door to their house. She plowed right into Jason.
"Watch it!" he jumped back.
Becky saw what he was holding. "When did you get a skateboard?" Jason held out his new blue skateboard. "Mom ordered them a couple of weeks ago. She picked them up today."
"I like it," Becky said.
"I'm going to try it out on the patio." Jason walked around Becky.
"Do you want to use J.R.'s or Michelle's? They got one, too."
Becky did want to ride the skateboard, but she wanted to know about the baby even more.
"Not right now."
Jason shrugged and went outside.
Their mom was in the back room doing laundry. They still called it the back porch, even though it had been closed in years ago and was really a room.
Betty turned from the washing machine when she heard Becky enter the room.
"Oh, you are still pregnant," Becky commented, disappointed.
"Now Becky," Betty put her hand on Becky's shoulder. "We talked about this. I will let you know when I have the baby. It'll be a few more weeks."
"I know. That's what Mom said. But a few weeks is a long time!" she complained.
Betty laughed. "Tell me about it!" She rubbed her lower back. "Go play. The baby won't come today."
Becky went back outside. She could see Jason across the road in front of Alborn's big brick building. Most people just called it The Clubhouse. Years ago, it had been a feed store, but now the building was used for meetings and parties.
Jason was trying to ride his skateboard in circles on the little concrete area in front of The Clubhouse. A skateboard would be so much fun. When her dad got home, she would ask him if she could have a skateboard, too.
Becky rode her bicycle to her grandparent's house a block west. She found Jill and Michelle outside her grandpa's garage playing with the dogs. When her dog, Collie, saw her, he ran over and almost knocked Becky off the bike with his enthusiasm.
"Good boy," Becky crooned, rubbing Collie's neck. "Did you miss me?" Collie licked Becky's cheek.
"Hi, Grandpa," Becky called. His big garage door was open with a car parked inside. She could see his legs sticking out from under the car.
He rolled the creeper out far enough to raise his head. "Done with another year of school, are you?"
"All done and ready for summer!" Becky told him.
Jill walked over carrying Suzie, Red's dog. Suzie squirmed and jumped out of Jill's arms, taking off after a rabbit. Collie ran off with Suzie.
"Come on." Michelle followed the dogs.
"Talk to you later, Grandpa." Becky and Jill ran to catch up with Michelle and the dogs.
When the girls went home later, they saw their dad's baby blue pick-up truck in the driveway.
"Daddy's home!" Jill rushed inside.
Their dad was sitting on the floor with all colors of plastic pieces laying around him.
Earl moved his toothpick to the side of his mouth. "Look in Muffin's cage," Dad told them.
"Oh, wow," Becky sank to her knees in front of the cage. "We have another hamster. Look at him go!" The new hamster was running the wheel, making it spin faster than Muffin ever had.
Jill sat down beside Becky. "Look at Muffin. Do you think she's scared of her new roommate?"
Muffin was huddled in the corner of the cage nibbling on a chunk of carrot.
Their mom came in the room. "He probably intimidates Muffin. She's not used to sharing her cage."
"Which is why I bought this." Earl attached a tube to Muffin's cage, then a bubble to the other end of the tube. "This will give them more room to run."
Becky watched as her dad added more and more pieces to Muffin's cage. Her mom went back to the kitchen to finish preparing supper.
"I'm going to call him Speedy," Becky told her dad, "because he runs really fast."
"It's my turn to name a hamster," Jill protested. "You named Muffin."
"Yeah," Becky told her sister. "Because my teacher gave her to me so she's mine."
"Then Speedy is mine," Jill said.
"See," Becky grinned. "You said Speedy, so that's his name."
"No, it's not," Jill fired back.
"Is so!" Becky argued. "I said Speedy, then you said Speedy. His name is Speedy! And besides, you have your fish. I have hamsters, you have fish."
"Girls! Stop!" Earl snapped the last piece of the cage in place. "We'll call him Speedy. No more arguing. How do you like Muffin's and Speedy's new cage?"
"Wow," they both said. While they were watching Speedy and fighting over his name, their dad had been busy. The cage sprawled all around the television set, on both sides and across the top. The two hamsters were already running through the tunnels.
"I think they like it," Becky said.
"Supper is ready." Mom appeared at the swinging doors that separated the living room and the kitchen. "Earl! What on Earth?"
"Ah, now, Judy ..." Earl looked at the girls. "The girls like it."
On cue, both girls nodded.
"But all around the television? Seriously?" Judy kept following the cage with her eyes.
"Please, Mom," Becky begged. "It looks good right where it is."
"Let's just eat," she ushered the girls into the kitchen, but stopped Earl in the doorway. "You, I will talk to later!"
Over supper, Becky told her dad about Jason's new skateboard.
"A skateboard would be so much fun, Daddy," Becky gushed. "You can turn this way and that way. You can go in circles in both directions. Even do figure eights. You can do tricks with them, too. Can I have one, please? Pretty please?"
"Now, Becky," Earl began.
"J.R. and Michelle have one, too," Becky added. "They didn't even play with theirs and they are brand new. Michelle rode bikes and played with the dogs with me and Jill. J.R. rode his motorcycle out to Kurt's house."
"I don't think a skateboard is a good idea," Earl laid down his fork and gave Becky his full attention. "You could get hurt. A skateboard can be dangerous. You've watched them wreck skateboards on television."
"I've watched them have fun and do stunts and tricks on television," Becky corrected him. She pouted. "But Michelle has one!"
"Becky," her mom warned. Their parents had explained to them many times that just because Michelle has something, doesn't mean they will always get the same thing. Becky had heard Betty say the same thing, visa versa, to Michelle.
"Fine!" Becky crossed her arms. "I'll just watch my friends have all the fun!"
CHAPTER 3Smokey, Big and Tall
Becky was still pouting about the skateboard on Monday. She did get to sleep late over the weekend, but today her mom had woken her up early for swimming and riding lessons. Riding lessons were one of the presents they had received last Christmas. Today was their first lesson. Because Judy's salon was open Tuesday through Saturday, lessons were to be on Monday's in Cameron, a town about twenty miles west of Nettleton.
Swimming lessons began at 9:00 a.m. Riding lessons were at 11:00 a.m.
"Girls," Judy, standing between the two girls, put an arm around each of them. "This is Sue. She is your riding instructor."
"Hello." Sue took off her gloves and stuck them in her back pocket.
"You must be Becky and Jill?"
They nodded.
"Would you like to meet Smokey?"
They nodded again.
"He's beautiful." Jill reached out to stroke his belly. "He's so tall."
Becky stayed beside Mom, not sure about getting close to such a big, tall horse. She was expected to ride him?
"This is Smokey," Sue introduced them to the horse, stroking his mane. She led Becky to the horse, away from her mom. Becky slowly reached up to pet Smokey.
"Who wants to go first?"
"Me!" Jill raised her hand immediately.
Becky took a deep breath. Of course, Jill wanted to go first. She was fearless. Becky was not going to be out done by her little sister.
"I will," she said firmly. If Jill can do it, I can do it.
Sue led Smokey to a mounting block. Becky knew how to mount a horse. They had a couple of horses when the girls were little, but they had to sell them because they kept getting out of the electric fence and roaming all over Nettleton.
Smokey fidgeted when Becky settled in the saddle. She leaned down and hugged Smokey's neck, clenching her legs tight on either side of his back.
"Calm down, Becky." Sue patted Becky's leg with one hand and smoothed Smokey's rump with the other. "The two of you will soon be good friends. I'm going to adjust the straps, then we will walk around the corral while you and Smokey get to know each other."
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Becky, Boards & Babies"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Micma.
Excerpted by permission of AuthorHouse.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
1. Summer Begins, 1,
2. Becky's Latest Obsession, 11,
3. Smokey, Big and Tall, 22,
4. Lunch at Clarkson's Store, 29,
5. That Evel Knievel Wanna Be, 40,
6. Rice Krispie Treats & Tetherball, 46,
7. Lightening Bugs and Dandelions, 55,
8. J.R.-The Handyman, 64,
9. "You Can Do It!", 76,
10. The Clubhouse, 86,
11. The Sidewalk Surfers, 97,
12. "It's Not Funny!", 109,
13. An Irish Red Head, 115,
14. Fish and Frogs, 120,
15. Little People and Races, 134,
16. Tenny and Theron Jon, 144,
17. Accidents Galore, 153,
18. The Concert, 169,