Home Free by Sharon Jennings Read Free Book Online

have we here? And she said oh nothing doctor. Just a couple of farts with bonnets on.”
    Cassandra and I laughed until we both had to run inside to the bathroom.
    â€œSo you get the joke?” I asked.
    â€œWell, yeah. The doctor didn’t know she was pregnant.” I looked at the floor.
    â€œWhat?” Cassandra asked.
    â€œMy mother says not to say
pregnant
. Ladies say
expecting
.”
    Cassandra pushed her hair back and looked at me. “Do you know where babies come from?” she asked.
    I know I blushed. “Of course. I mean … yes. I didn’t before, but I do now. That’s sort of what Kath …”
    And when I was sitting on the toilet, Cassandra said, “Do you care what your mother says?”
    â€œWell, yes … I mean …” I stopped talking and thought a bit. “Sometimes I just don’t want to get in trouble. But sometimes I don’t understand why she says what she says.”
    â€œSo you think it’s easier if you’re an orphan?”
    â€œWell, you can just make up your own mind about things. If you want to be a doctor or a singer or a movie star you can do it.”
    â€œWhat do you want to be?”
    â€œI want to be a writer.” I got up from the toilet and Cassandra took her turn.
    â€œSo? Do your parents hide the paper and pens?” she asked.
    â€œNo. But …”
    â€œBut what? Tell you you’re no good? So what? Do you have to listen to them?”
    â€œIf I say I want to be famous and special, they say I’m bragging. Why is it bragging?”
    Cassandra didn’t answer right away. She flushed the toilet and washed her hands, and then she said, “Maybe it’s like the ugly duckling. You’re really a swan and they don’t know it and so they’re trying real hard to keep you a duck like them.”
    I suddenly felt all warm because Cassandra had done it. She had used a story to explain something, like when I said Kathy is my Josie Pye. So she
was
a book person! Even if she didn’t know it. I was sure now. She was going to be my kindred spirit! So now I wanted to be very considerate.
    â€œBut you’re not like me. You can be what you want. No one is trying to keep you a duck.”
    â€œYes, but how can I be an actress if I don’t stay anywhere long enough to take drama lessons? I can’t even be in a school play because I keep changing schools.”
    Cassandra opened a bathroom drawer and we got out Mrs. Fergus’s pinkberry meringue lipstick and put it on. Then Cassandra found the Maybelline eye pencil and we drew dark lines around our eyes and filled in our eyebrows and then we sprayed ourselves with Mrs. Fergus’s perfume, Evening in Paris. I don’t know what I looked like but Cassandra looked really good. She looked like a real actress.
    I suddenly got an idea.
    â€œDo you want to be an actress?”
    â€œMore than anything in the world.”
    â€œI’ve written a play. It’s about a prince and a princess who fall in love, but an evil witch separates them and then the flower fairy gets them together again. We can put it on in the backyard. We can sell tickets and everything.”
    For the first time Cassandra looked happy. She pushed back her hair and smiled. I told her she could be the beautiful princess. I thought she’d like that.
    But Cassandra Jovanovich said she wanted to be the evil witch.

Chapter 12
    We hurried over to my house and I got out my play. Cassandra read it and I tried to read it over her shoulder.
    â€œWell? Well? What do you think?”
    â€œSh!” But then she said, “Go away till I’m finished.”
    So I went and got
Little House on the Prairie
and I tried to pay attention to Mary and Laura finding all the beads, but for the second time in my life I couldn’t concentrate. My thoughts kept going to Cassandra Jovanovich. What if she hated my play? That would be tragical!
    Finally she