With You and Without You by Ann M. Martin

Author:Ann M. Martin [Martin, Ann M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4532-9804-6
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2014-03-19T16:28:00+00:00

BOOK III

Autumn Again

Chapter One

ON A WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON in the middle of November, I slammed my locker shut on the eighth-grade floor of Neuport Middle School and ran down the two flights of stairs to the sixth-grade floor. I peeked through the window into Carrie’s classroom. Even though the last bell had rung, Ms. Saunders, Carrie’s teacher, hadn’t stopped teaching. She always made Carrie late, and that made me impatient.

I leaned against the wall, dropped my book bag on the floor, and waited.

It was exactly five months and twelve days since Dad had died. Summer had come and gone, and another autumn had arrived. It was just this time last year when Dad had first found out how sick he was. All we O’Hara kids were a year older. I was thirteen and Carrie was eleven. We were students at the same school again—for one year. Next year I would be a freshman in high school. It was hard to believe. And Brent was a senior in high school. Next year he’d be in college. That was even harder to believe.

Hopie was five. She’d turned five in September and had a big bash, inviting her entire class to her birthday party. She no longer went to the Harper Early Childhood Center. Now she went to the “extended kindergarten” program at the elementary school from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. Hope wasn’t thrilled with this turn of events. She’d loved Mrs. Harper (she’d even invited her to her birthday party), and she missed her old school. Kindergarten had not gotten off to a good start.

At last the door to Carrie’s classroom opened and kids streamed out.

Carrie looked indignant. She didn’t bother to greet me. “Do you know why Saunders was keeping us?” she asked huffily as we hurried out of the building. “Because,” she went on without waiting for me to answer, “Tricia Kennedy said she didn’t understand how to do an outline, so Saunders starts explaining the whole thing—to the whole class. Everyone else knows how to make an outline. Why should we get punished just because Tricia is practically retarded?”

“Carrie,” I said, “it’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. We’re going to be late getting Sissy again. She’ll probably be hysterical.”

Carrie wasn’t exaggerating. With Dad gone, money was tight. Since we couldn’t afford day care for Hope anymore, Carrie and I were supposed to pick her up after school and take care of her until Mom came home. Brent couldn’t help us because he had a job after school and on weekends. He worked at Johnson’s Garage, fixing cars, and made a lot of money, which was a good thing because he needed it to help pay for college. He needed a scholarship, too.

Anyway, even though Carrie and I had never once forgotten to pick up Hope, she seemed frightened that we would do just that. Sure enough, when we reached her classroom, Hopie was sitting on a rug in the story corner, hugging a teddy bear, sucking her thumb, and crying. Her teacher was hovering nearby, but I could tell that Hopie didn’t want her to come any closer.

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