Sing to Me by Michelle Pennington Read Free Book Online

of a way to get out of it. I can’t do that to him though. It’s too last minute.”
    Colby sighed. “Yeah, I guess you can’t. There’s no reason we can’t go out before then though.”
    “Nope. No reason at all.”
    “Friday won’t work though. I have rehearsal. How about Saturday? ”
    “Sure, if I’m not grounded. I’ve never broken curfew before, and my mom sounded pretty upset. I don’t know what she’s going to do. ”
    “ Well, maybe I can get out of practice early on Friday night, and we can have some time alone before Marcy and my dad get back.”
    “I f I can get Abby to go to sleep.”
    “Well, I can help you if she isn’t. We make a good lullaby team, remember? Do I turn left here? ”
    I sat up and looked around because I hadn’t been paying attention . “No, it’s the next one.
    In less than a minute, he pulled into my driveway and we looked at each other across the dark car. “Think your mom is watching for you?” he asked.
    “Probably.”
    “ So, I guess you’d rather I didn’t kiss you goodnight , huh?”
    “ Where’d you get that idea? ” I aske d as I leaned towards him.
     
    *****
     
    “I just can’t get away from them, can I?”
    Abby and I were both lying on the plush carpet in her room staring under her frilly bed. When I spoke, she looked at me solemnly and pointed at the enormous spider she’d f ound next to her teddy bear behind the dust ruffle. I’d tucked the dust ruffle up under the mattress and tried to summon courage and a game plan to get rid of the spider so she could go to sleep. She was wearing a pretty little purple nightgown, we’d re a d a few bed time stories, and I was ready to tuck her in for the night. But t here was no way I was leaving her alone in here with this monster.
    I had a ladle and a paper cup from the kitchen . Surely I could do this. I reached out and tried to scoop up the spider with the ladle, but I accidentally brushed one of its legs. In a flash, it pulled its eight long legs in close to its body. Abby and I both screamed and I pulled my arm back like it was about to bite me or something.
    Taking a deep breath, I said, “I can do this. It sure is a big spider though.”
    “Big pidur !” Abby repeated after me, stretching out her arm to point at it again. The spider moved away and she screamed again, pulling her arm back.
    “Ok, here we go.”
    I reached further in this time so I could come up behind it and held the cup sideways on the carpet ready to receive it. With one quick motion, I pulled the ladle forward and scooped the spider into the c up. I held the ladle over it as I stood up and ran downstairs.
    I saw little legs poke out from under the ladle where it didn’t hit the side of the cup and I almost had a heart attack. I sprinted to the front door, anxious to hurl this thing outside where it belonged. There was no way I was going to squish this giant thing.
    When I got to the door, I had no choice but to put the ladle down so I could open the door, and as soon as I moved it, the spider began crawling over the edge of the cup. Panicking, I flung the door upon and hurled the spider, cup and all, as far aw ay as I could.
    Which happened to be right at Colby as he stepped onto the porch.
    “What the ...” he began as the paper cup bounced off his chest.
    “It’s on you!” I squealed.
    “What’s on me?”
    “A spider!”
    “Where?” he asked. B ut he didn’t wait for me to tell him before he began brushing and sha king his clothes to get rid of it.
    A few second s later, I saw the big brown monster fall onto the porch. It was a s stunned as we were, but it collected itself faster and scurried into the flower bed. Colby and I were both staring at the spot where it had disappeared until he said, “Well, that wasn’t the greeting I was expecting.”
    “What? Don’t girls always throw spiders at you?”
    “No. This was a first. ” Then a teasing light flashed in his eyes and he said, “ I was hoping you’d