My So-Called Family by Courtney Sheinmel

Author:Courtney Sheinmel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Published: 2008-09-25T04:00:00+00:00

chapter ten

It ended up being pretty easy to get Mom and Simon to let me go to Haverford. I asked them about it during dinner. Mom was so distracted by her book, she probably would have let me go to Timbuktu if it meant getting me out of the house, and Simon was fine about it since I told him Avery and Chase’s parents would be with us the whole time.

I had already called Samantha to make sure she would be around that weekend. I knew she was waiting for me to call her back, so as soon as dinner was over, I ran up to my room and closed the door. It took me a while to dial because I was so excited that I misdialed a couple of times. But finally I punched in the right numbers and Samantha answered right after the first ring. “So?” she asked.

I was smiling so wide that the edges of my mouth had started to hurt. “They said yes,” I said. “I’m coming.”

“Oh my God! I can’t believe it!”

“Me either,” I said.

“I’m so excited,” Samantha said. My heart was beating fast, but just then something inside me started to churn a little. I really was excited to meet Samantha, but I felt strange that I was lying to my parents about everything. I just didn’t know what else to do. Even though I didn’t have a choice, I felt sort of guilty. “I can’t wait to meet you in person,” Samantha continued. “I can’t even believe that we haven’t met yet. It’s like I know you so well already. Isn’t it funny? We’re sisters and we’re gonna meet for the first time.”

Sisters, I repeated to myself. We’re sisters. We were supposed to be able to see each other whenever we wanted. Mom and Simon wouldn’t be mad if I were going to Haverford to visit Charlie. This was almost the same thing. “I can’t wait either,” I said.

A few days later we were in the white car again, headed to Pennsylvania. Trixie was programmed to the address of the admissions office at the University of Pennsylvania. This time Chase was in the backseat with Avery and me. I had volunteered to take the middle because Chase complained that his legs were too long, and Avery said it wasn’t fair that she always had to sit in the middle just because she was shorter.

“Thank you, Leah,” Avery’s father said. No one ever told me his first name, so I wasn’t sure what to call him. He seemed like someone who should be called “Sir,” but I was too embarrassed to say that. Avery’s mother had told me to call her Lori. I thought it would be strange to call her Lori, and then call her husband Mr. Monahan. So I called him Mr. Monahan in my head, and out loud I didn’t call him anything at all.

“No problem,” I said. I had wanted to sit next to Chase anyway, and if Avery had sat in the middle, I wouldn’t have been able to.

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