a sneak peek

Chapter 1
Elaine and Jenny
It was August. 3 days until 9th grade started. I, Elaine McRodney and my best friend Jeannette “Jenny” Herder sat at the edge of my family’s little lake, our feet brushing against the cold blue water at the back of my house.
“I really don’t understand!” Jenny complained, “If you like him, call him!! It’s the twentieth century! Its almost 1966! We can do whatever we want now! It’s not like in mother’s days, when we had to wear long skirts and always act like perfect princesses!! Be rash!” Jenny’s voice was heavy with anxiousness, like it was her bearing the feeling of longing for a boyfriend. Well actually she was, but she didn’t want one named Thomas Jeffery, a 10th grader at our new school, Staples High.
“Jenny, it’s improper for me to go about calling him, even though I do have 2 short cotton skirts that go only to my knees.” I sighed. Thinking about Tom made butterfly wings grow in my stomach. I see him around town once in a while, -a nice, quaint little town, clean and warm during the summer- but the only reason I even knew his name was because of my older brother going into 11th grade. We had previously gone to different schools, Thomas and I, but now we would finally be in the same school! I always listened intently to him talking if we happened to be at Westport’s main deli, Oscars, at the same time. Just thinking about his voice was like an expensive treat. It was velvety soft, deep and mysterious, like the sea on a calm summer morning.