The Distance to Home by Jenn Bishop

Author:Jenn Bishop
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2016-06-28T04:00:00+00:00

Dad insisted we drive all the way to the Adirondacks in one day, since we had to cut our vacation short by a week to be back in time for a mandatory practice and my baseball tournament. We started driving at five in the morning, and we were only outside Toledo, not even a third of the way there.

“Honey, did I close all the windows?” Mom asked Dad.

“You know, I think you might’ve left one open. We should probably turn around now. We’re only, like, five hours away.” Haley snorted after she said it.

“Hales…,” Dad said.

“Come on, Mom. You always do this. Remember that time you thought the house was going to burn down because you left the bathroom fan on? It didn’t. What’s the worst that can happen from leaving a window open, anyway?” Haley stared out the car window, shaking her head. I’m not sure she could get farther away from me in the backseat if she tried.

“She has a point, dear.” Dad yawned.

“But what if it was open wide enough that a skunk crawled through and turned the house into its own stinky home?” I asked.

“I guess then the rest of the house would smell like your room,” Haley said.

“My room doesn’t smell like skunk!”

“You’re so used to it you can’t even tell anymore.”

“Girls, that’s enough,” Mom said. “Please.”

“At least it doesn’t smell like nail polish,” I said. Haley had had all her friends over to paint their nails the day before, and the house still smelled like stinky nail polish when we left. I hoped Mom had left the window open. Maybe then it wouldn’t stink when we got back.

“You’re just mad because you weren’t invited,” Haley said.

“Am not.” I pulled a book out of my backpack. It was called Savvy, and it was on my summer reading list. The real one, not Haley’s. After missing out on Antonio’s with my teammates, I’d thrown Haley’s list in the recycling. The librarian posted the books we were actually supposed to read online, anyway.

Reading in the car always made me a little sick to my stomach, but it was a whole lot better than talking to my sister.

Haley took out her cell phone. Time to give Zack or one of her friends another update.

I didn’t know why I cared what she was doing. I had a life. I had my own stuff going on.

Maybe I would find out I had a special power, like Mibs in my book. There was still another month left of summer. Plenty of time to discover that I could fly or be invisible. Or turn back time.

—

When we pulled up to Aunt Julie and Uncle Dave’s house, it was almost midnight. Mom had fallen asleep, but Dad, Haley, and I were wide-awake, thanks to Mountain Dew.

I shivered when I stepped out of the car. It was a lot cooler in the mountains than it was back home, and I couldn’t see much because there were all these trees trapping us in. They looked like gigantic Christmas trees, and it smelled like Christmas, too.

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