Dying to Win by Eileen Goudge

Author:Eileen Goudge
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Open Road Media
Published: 2023-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 12

Breakfast with the saints, always a horror, was even worse Tuesday morning.

“Why does it take you so long to get yourself ready for school, child?” Sara Lovewell wanted to know. “You’re not playing with your freckles again, are you?”

“No, Mother,” said April, spooning her oatmeal.

“Getting up so early every day,” continued her mother, as if she hadn’t even heard. “And this Pretty Peggy Sue business. I just don’t know.”

April had been surprised, shocked really, when she heard that she was one of the Pretty Peggy Sue finalists. “It makes sense,” her cousin, Hope, had said. “You’re by far the best artist in school. You even said yourself that Mr. Woolery thinks you’ll be a famous painter someday.”

Mr. Woolery had told April she could be a commercial illustrator after she went to art school. April thought, however, that it had been Lacey Pinkerton’s concern for her, not her artistic ability, that had gotten her nominated.

“But I’m sure it was Lacey and her campaigning for me that made the difference!” April exclaimed to Hope. “It was so sweet of her. I don’t understand why some kids put Lacey down for being selfish.”

Hope had looked as if she were about to say something, but then she stopped and shook her head.

Lacey was so cool, and she had always been so kind to April—it was an honor even to be in the running with Lacey. April was flattered to be a finalist, but she certainly didn’t expect to win. If by some unthinkable chance Lacey didn’t win, either Raven, who was so smart, or Kiki, who was so nice, would surely be chosen as Pretty Peggy Sue.

“You have just as good a chance as anyone,” Hope had said. “Maybe better. You’re the only one of the four who has a special talent. That really sets you apart from the others.”

I know I have some talent, April thought. But I’m not in the same league as Raven Cruz, Kiki De Santis, and Lacey Pinkerton. Anyway, April had bigger things on her mind, much bigger, than whether or not she’d be elected Peach Blossom Queen.

“I don’t know about that Mr. Woolery, either,” St. Sara went on. “Your father and I are somewhat concerned about his influence on you.”

Mr. Woolery had telephoned the parsonage yesterday evening and asked the Lovewells’ permission to take April out to the scrublands on Thursday before school. April had been experimenting with different shades of lighting in her artwork. In her mind, April was already conceiving a series of colored sketches: the scrublands just before dawn, precisely at dawn, and right after dawn. She was planning to do all the sketches in shades of light in which bushes, trees, and wild grass would be suggested but not clearly visible.

Mr. Woolery was excited about her concept. April was too, and she would have been more enthusiastic if she didn’t have so much else to think about. The saints, however, were decidedly leery of the whole enterprise.

“Going off alone with a man like that,” Reverend Lovewell said, “so early in the morning.

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