My mother places her hand on my father’s arm. “Talk to her, Michael,” she urges.
My dad reaches over and tugs on my braid. “At least think it over, okay? Colonial Academy is one of the best schools in the country.”
“How’d they even get my name?” I grumble.
My mother reaches for a manila envelope on the sideboard behind her and pulls out a sheaf of pages. She riffles through them, then plucks one out. “Let’s see here . . . award . . . Witherspoon . . . local eighth-grader. That’s funny—there’s no mention of who nominated you.”
“Don’t you think that’s kind of creepy? It’s like somebody’s been spying on me.”
My father laughs. “It just means that someone observed your academic abilities, honey. Your principal, probably, or maybe one of the guidance counselors. It would be pretty hard not to notice the smartest kid at Walden.”
“I’m not the smartest,” I reply sullenly. “Kevin Mullins is way smarter than I am.” My eyes stray to the window. By the entrance to our driveway, Kevin is still riding around in circles.
“He didn’t get nominated,” says my mother. “Colonial Academy is a girls’ school.”
Which is another really good reason not to go, in my opinion. But I keep that thought to myself, because it’s obvious my parents have their minds made up already.
My mother pulls out another sheet of paper. “They sent us an invitation to tour the academy and its facilities, followed by lunch with the headmistress. New student orientation starts soon, so we’ll have to hop on this if we’re going to make it happen.”
“But I don’t want to make it happen!” I tell her, starting to feel a little desperate. “What about my chores? Who’s going to help look after the goats and the chickens and everything? Half Moon Farm needs me!”
“We’ll work something out,” says my dad. “The boys are going into the third grade—they’re responsible enough to take over the morning milking. You did at their age.”
I shoot my twin brothers a skeptical look. “Responsible” is not the first word that comes to mind when I think of Dylan and Ryan. They may be almost nine, but they act more like they’re six most of the time.
My mother plucks a brochure from the pile of papers she’s holding and slides it across the table to me. “Just look at this place, Jess! State-of-the-art science labs, a professional theater, a fabulous music department—you could take voice lessons again! There’s even an equestrian center.”
I glance down at the brochure. I didn’t know Colonial Academy had horses.
“It would be kind of like getting an early taste of college,” my father coaxes.
“College?” I leap to my feet. “I’m not even fourteen yet! Why are you trying to get rid of me?”
I storm upstairs and fling myself on my bed. Sugar and Spice, our two Shetland sheepdogs, are close on my heels. They pace around my room anxiously, whining. The dogs hate it when I’m upset. But how could I not be? I can’t believe my parents are even seriously considering this. Colonial Academy? No way. I grab the phone off my night table and dial the Hawthornes’ number. I need to talk to my best friend.
Emma picks up on the first ring. “Hey,” she says.
“Hey back.”
“Oh, it’s you. Hi, Jess.”
She sounds a little surprised, and I realize she was probably expecting Stewart Chadwick.
“Something awful happened,” I blurt out, my voice quivering. “I got this letter from Colonial Academy and it turns out I’ve been nominated for some scholarship and my parents want me to go but I don’t want to!”
“Whoa, hold on a sec. Run that by me again?”
I take a deep breath and repeat everything I just told her.
Emma is quiet for a long time. A really long time. So long, in fact, that I start to think maybe she’s hung up on me.
“Are you still there?”
“Yeah,” she replies. “I’m just thinking.”
“What’s there to think about? It’s a horrible idea.”
“I suppose,” she says. “I mean, it would be horrible not to see you at school every day. But it’s not like you’d be going to China or someplace.”
My stomach lurches. Emma is sounding weirdly like my parents. She was the one person I thought I could count on to be on my side. “You mean you think I should go?”
My bedroom door opens a crack and my mother pokes her head in. I frown and point at the phone, but she tiptoes in anyway and places the Colonial Academy brochure at the foot of my bed, then sneaks out. She leaves it open to the picture of the stables. A beautiful chestnut mare stares at me from out of one of the stalls.
“You’ve got to admit it’s an honor to be nominated for something like this,” Emma continues. “Your mom and dad are right about that. I think you should at least go check it out. I mean, think about it—boarding school! That’s pretty cool.”
“Maybe I should call Cassidy and see what she thinks.”
“She’s still at her grandparents’, remember?”
Cassidy’s mother got married a couple of weeks ago and she and Stanley Kinkaid, Cassidy’s new stepfather, are on their honeymoon. Cassidy and her older sister Courtney are staying with their grandparents at their condo in downtown Boston.
“I’ll ask Megan, then.”
“She went with the Chadwicks to Cape Cod.”
It’s Labor Day weekend, and most of the rest of the world is off someplace having a last blast of fun before school starts. Not us, of course. This time of year the Delaneys never budge from Half Moon Farm. Too much work to be done. The Hawthornes don’t go away very often either. They’re on kind of a tight budget, plus Emma’s dad always says he hates fighting holiday traffic and who’d want to be anywhere but beautiful Concord this time of year anyway?
“Boarding school, Jess!” Emma repeats. “That’s so awesome! Maybe I could come visit you sometime.”
Perfect. Now Emma’s sounding excited too. And even a little bit envious.
“Still,” she adds quickly, “I’d really miss you.”
“Don’t worry,” I tell her, shoving the brochure off the bed with my toe. “You won’t have to miss me. There’s no way on earth I’m ever going to Colonial Academy.”
ALSO BY HEATHER VOGEL FREDERICK
•
The Mother-Daughter Book Club
The Mother-Daughter Book Club: Dear Pen Pal
Spy Mice: The Black Paw
Spy Mice: For Your Paws Only
Spy Mice: Goldwhiskers
The Voyage of Patience Goodspeed
The Education of Patience Goodspeed
SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS
An imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division
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www.SimonandSchuster.com
Copyright © 2008 by Heather Vogel Frederick
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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Also available in a Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers hardcover edition.
Book design by Lucy Ruth Cummins The text of this book was set in Chaparral Pro.
First Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers paperback edition August 2009
The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: Frederick, Heather Vogel.
Much ado
about Anne / Heather Vogel Frederick.—1st ed.
p. cm.
Summary: Entering seventh grade at Walden Middle School, four girls continue their mother-daughter book club, reading Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of Green Gables” while dealing with a mean, troublemaking classmate.
ISBN 978-0-689-85566-5 (hc)
[1. Interpersonal relations—Fiction. 2. Books and reading—Fiction. 3. Mothers and daughters—Fiction. 4. Clubs—Fiction. 5. Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud), 1874–1942—Fiction. 6. Concord (Mass.)—Fiction.]
I. Title.
PZ7.F87217Mp 2008
[Fic]—dc22
2008007324
ISBN 978-1-4169-8269-2 (pbk)
ISBN 978-1-4169-9683-5 (eBook)
Much Ado About Anne Page 26
