My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer by Jennifer Gennari Read Free Book Online Page A

everything they stood for—what was I supposed to do, never go to the marina shop, the library, the farm stand?
    â€œI know it’s hard—”
    â€œIf you’re getting married, then I’m entering the fair. I’m not a baby.” I slammed the door.
    â€œListen to me!” Mom called after me. “No pie contest!”
    I raced down to the dock but stopped short. There, sitting on the edge, was Eva. The last person I wanted to see. Her back was hunched, her feet in the water. I walked silently over to the canoe and turned it over.
    The noise made Eva turn. “Hi, June.” She paused. “Out for a paddle?”
    I nodded, lifting the bag of stale bread. I couldn’t trust myself to speak.
    She looked up at the sky and then back at me. “Can I come?”
    â€œSince when do you like boats?” I snapped.
    Her eyes dropped, and I regretted my quick words. I leaned on the oar and looked at the still lake. Eva and Mom were getting married. Could I get along with Eva? The right thing to do, I knew, was to say yes.
    I threw in a second oar. “We have to be quiet,” I said, pulling the canoe along the dock.
    â€œOf course,” Eva said. She got in, the wrong way, so I had to shift my weight to keep the canoe from tipping. She picked up the paddle and I set the pace, fast and steady.
    With every stroke, I felt calmer and stronger. I steered the boat around the moorings.
This I can do,
I thought, and watched Eva’s oar dip in and out, keeping the rhythm. The canoe cut through the glass lake. From the back, I steered north, away from Luke’s island—silently moving beyond Stillwater Cove.
    The water was so clear, I could see clam trails breaking the sandy ridges on the lake bottom. I slowed down and listened to the water drip from the end of the paddle. Neither of us spoke.
    A seagull soared overhead. I reached for the bread and let the canoe drift. I handed a slice to Eva. We tossed little pieces in, waiting for the birds to come. And slowly they did.
    Eva threw one piece close to the canoe, and two males reached it at the same time, squawking.
    â€œWhat a noisy crowd of birds,” she said.
    â€œI don’t like crowds,” I said. My mind flicked to that angry mob outside the library.
    â€œI like dancing in a crowd, but I don’t like a crowd of people in the waiting room, all needing attention,” Eva said. She trailed her hand in the water and looked back at me. I purposefully stared into the water. At first I saw the sandy bottom, counting clams out of habit, and then I let my eyes shift until I saw my reflection. My eyes were so serious, and I saw a grown-up woman looking back at me.
Mom is wrong,
I thought defiantly. And then, the black, angry letters of the boycott flyer ruined my glass-lake morning. The hateful words replayed in my head—“
unnatural, queer, wrong
”—louder than the seagulls. I looked at Eva, ripping the bread into small pieces. Her hair was short, the way people expected a lesbian to look.
    I threw a piece of bread, hard. It was a good throw—far away from the canoe. Several seagulls dove for it.
    â€œAre you getting along with Tina now?” Eva asked.
    I watched the ripples from the canoe roll away. “Yeah.”
    â€œJune.”
    I looked up. Eva’s eyes were serious. “I’m sorry I lost my temper that day at the softball game.”
    â€œThat’s nothing compared to what’s going on now,” I said.
    She raised her eyebrows. “Your mom and I are committed to each other.”
    â€œI’m not talking about the wedding or your fight.” I threw the last chunk of bread in, too big for the birds. Slowly the gulls left, leaving only one swimming nearby, waiting to see if we had anything left to throw.
    â€œDo you mean the sign?”
    â€œYou wouldn’t understand.”
    â€œTry me.” She leaned closer. The canoe tipped, and I shifted to