Amber Brown Is Green with Envy by Paula Danziger Read Free Book Online Page B

stuff on and then the moisturizer.
    I look in the mirror.
    My face looks exactly the same except for the green face mask still in my eyebrows.
    We all look at ourselves in the mirror for a while and then start playing Go Fish.
    It’s a lot of fun spending time with Brenda and Polly.
    Sometimes I wonder if they would be hanging out with me if it weren’t for the Ambersitting money…but then there
are
other times that they do just hang out with me.
    Brenda’s boyfriend had to go with his family to Pennsylvania, to visit his grandmother.
    Polly doesn’t have a boyfriend.
    Neither do I.
    I don’t want one.
    I think that Polly does want one.
    She keeps mentioning a boy named Lenny, who is in her political science class. Brenda and Polly keep calling it “poli sci.” Then they joke that Polly sighs over Lenny in that class.
    I hope that I never get that silly over boys when I am a teenager.
    I decide to change the subject. “I need to ask you something.”
    We stop playing Go Fish.
    I ask, “Do you think that you are part of a normal family? Do you know normal families?”
    Both of them laugh.
    It’s not a mean laugh, though.
    They are not laughing at me.
    “Describe normal,” Brenda says.
    I shrug. “I don’t know….. parents who aren’t divorced….. kids who don’t feel bad sometimes….. people who things go well for….. normal.”
    “I’ve heard rumors that there really are normal families,” Brenda says, and smiles.
    “Yes. We’re discussing them in poli sci.” Polly giggles. “Look, Amber….. there are families that are intact, not divorced, not separated, that are considered normal. Talk to any of them….. and you’ll see…. they have problems too.”
    “I think that the biggest problem is that people think that just a few things are normal…. and that’s not true,” Brenda says. “People judge too easily.”
    “Do you think that the only families that are normal are the ones who are married, never divorced, perfect?” Polly asks.
    Thinking about it, I sort of nod.
    “Sometime you should ask the kids in those families if they think that their families are normal. I bet that some of them will say yes….. and some of them will say no,” Brenda says.
    I look at Brenda, who has dyed her hair green and red for the Christmas holidays. She also has dyed some of the tips of her hair blue and silver for Hanukkah. Some of the tips are also black to go with the green and red for Kwanzaa.
    I’m not sure that Brenda is an expert on normal.

    “There is no such thing as normal,” Polly says. “Look at my family…. a lot of people at school who don’t know me look at me and think I come from a normal family. And I’m sure that if they knew us, they wouldn’t call us normal…. but our life is normal to us….. My dad is here…. my mom went to South America with some other guy….. is that normal?”
    I, Amber Brown, never knew that.
    “Are they divorced?” I ask.
    Polly shakes her head no. “My mom doesn’t answer any of her mail, and she doesn’t contact us.”
    I stop thinking about what is normal and think about what is going on in their family.
    “Do you miss her?” I remember how I used to miss my father when he was in Paris…. but he always kept in touch.
    Polly shakes her head no and then yes. “I do…. but mostly I am mad at her…. especially when I hear Savannah cry…. or Dylan cry.”
    I think about how hard that must be.
    I’m a little surprised to think about Dylan crying.
    I’m not surprised about Savannah.
    Polly continues. “I have had to take care of my brother and sister much more than I would have had to if my mom was around. I love them, but sometimes it would havebeen nice to be able to be a kid who didn’t have to act like an adult so much of the time.”
    “Poor Polly,” I say.
    She smiles at me. “It’s not easy, but it’s the way it is around here…. and not all of it is bad. I’m a lot less spoiled than some of the people I know. I just worry