The Misadventures of Daria Pigwidgeon by Amy Lunderman Read Free Book Online

intently to her father.

Chapter Four
    They went on to talk about Chance while I listened with open ears. Surprisingly, he’s another destined for football greatness. Or so Craig says. It’s been his goal of late to train his son and get him ready for the big leagues. That explains the prayer for him then. Now it doesn’t seem so strange. That’s not completely true. It’s still weird.
    I lose myself in picturing what Chance would look like playing in a game. He has the build for it, or what I think would be. He is certainly tall enough to run down other players. If I stick around long enough, maybe I’ll have the pleasure to see him in action. By the gushing about him, I can tell his family is proud of him. It makes me feel the same.
    Proud for a boy I don’t even know.
    It’s enough to makes me blush.
    And I do.
    Eventually, the topic of football somehow gets pushed towards school. Which gets pushed to me and school. At first I feel like a deer caught in headlight, frightened. Enough to feel my hackles rise. It fades when Mellissa declares she is the school counselor. This explains for me the way they all seemed so understanding before about keeping my past a secret.
    Then the unexpected happens.
    She tells me that she can help get me registered. Not even having to worry about having transcripts, because I don’t. Have them that is. Plans are steadily made as the evening wears on. And before I know it Ashley is telling me the two of us are checking out the sub shop tomorrow. Mellissa states that on Monday she will get me squared away for school. Then dinner is over and I’m walking back to the garage, my apartment.
    As I tuck myself into bed, I find myself knowing that things are looking up for me. I can have what I always wanted. A life worth living. In two days I’ll start high school for the first time. A thrill courses through me as I drift off. I should probably feel nervous, but I don’t. Later I can, but right now I’m keeping this feeling held close.
    I sleep.
    The following morning, a noise startles me awake. I open my eyes confused as to what is going on, when the noise turns into knocking. Rarely ever do my family come looking for me, let alone knock on the basement door. Glancing around wide eyed, I remember. I’m not in the basement anymore. I’m in my own apartment. Safe.
    But who is the knocking and why so early in the morning? Oh, scratch that last remark. With the sun coming through the windows, I’m thinking it might be later than I realized. Something nags at the back of my mind, like a dream slipping away. I should know why someone is knocking at my door. In the next instant, I remember agreeing to go job hunting with Ashley. Clearly she takes her this’ll be a blast speech to heart.
    I would too if I wasn’t feeling so grumpy.
    I attempt to get out of bed to make the incised knocking stop, only I’m trapped. My legs are anyways. They must have wrapped around the sheet in my sleep, because when I go to move, a tangling battle ensues. It ends with me breathing heavy and limping minutes later to the still pounding door, with a plot to destroy said sheet later on.
    Not caring that I’m decked out in boy’s boxer shorts, and a white shirt with a hole in one of the shoulders (and I’m pretty sure my hair has seen better days – think the Bride of Frankenstein), I rip open the door. A declaration that I’m not ready is about to pour out of my lips, when I freeze. All train of thought comes to a standstill. My mouth goes dry. I blush heatedly. Ashley isn’t the one at my door.
    It’s Chance.
    Miming a fish caught out of water, my lips flap open and closed with nothing coming out beside a squeak. He is practically filling up the entire doorway. My gaze travels up until it lands on his crystal clear blue eyes, and my knees feel overly weak. That’s when I become focused enough to realize that I’m totally ogling him again - like a brain dead idiot no less.
    Not that he seems to mind. He