Waking Up to Boys by Hailey Abbott Read Free Book Online Page A

much for coming to the first ever Glitterlake Resort Plant and Tree Identification Walk!” she said enthusiastically. “I’m so glad you could make it. Now, I hope you all wore comfortable shoes and brought water, because…”
    Sara launched into a laundry list of safety precautions, and Chelsea wandered over to join her parents at the back of the crowd. They beamed at Sara with what Chelsea could have sworn was even more pride than when she had won her first wakeboarding trophy at the Tahoe Junior Invitational.
    “How’s it going, Champ?” Chelsea’s dad asked, putting his arm around her shoulders. “Teaching going okay?”
    “Oh yeah. It’s just great!” Chelsea said, plastering a somewhat fake smile on her face. For once, she couldn’t say anything to him—not about the party or Sebastian and certainly not about how badly she was doing with the McCullough boys.
    “Good. I knew you’d be great. There’s nothing you can’t do if you set your mind to it, Chels.” Chelsea looked up and saw the proud look on her dad’s face and felt like she would burst into tears.
    “Sara seems to be doing well so far,” Chelsea began, trying to change the subject.
    “I know! Isn’t this exciting?” Her mom grabbed her hand and squeezed it tightly as Sara informed everyone that they were all standing under a giant ponderosa pine. “I had no idea these walks would be so popular.”
    “We should have thought of doing them years ago,” her dad agreed. “I don’t know why we didn’t.”
    Up front, Sara motioned for everyone to follow her, and the group snaked slowly along the path. The cadre of boys up front jostled one another to get closer to Sara as the few kids who had tagged along rushed around their legs to exclaim over the jack-in-the-pulpit Sara was pointing out.
    “She is an absolute natural,” Chelsea’s mom said proudly. “And she just looks lovely in that blouse.”
    Chelsea tugged at her ratty old tee and wondered if her mom was ashamed of the way she dressed. It hadn’t really occurred to her before, but maybe her mom wished she would wear prettier things—stuff like Sara’s. Chelsea hung back, trying to think of how to bring this up with her mom without making it into a big deal.
    But her mom was already rushing ahead to look atsome purple blossoms that Sara had discovered by the side of the path. Chelsea wondered if she should just turn around and go home. But at that very moment, Todd hung back and tried to strike up a conversation.
    “Hey, Chels. What’s up?” He sauntered up to her with his thumbs hooked casually in the belt loops of his cargo shorts. He flashed his adorable lopsided smile, and Chelsea’s heart began thrumming like the motor in an idling boat. She’d managed to avoid him pretty well since the island party and had thought she was making progress on the whole getting-over-it thing.
    “Not much,” she whispered—because she didn’t want to interrupt Sara’s plant talk, of course, and not because standing this close to Todd made her lose her voice. Definitely not.
    “Your sister sure knows her stuff, huh?” Todd said. “Pretty impressive.”
    Chelsea’s cheeks went hot and her palms started to sweat at the same time. She was so sick of hearing about how great Sara was that she could have screamed. It wasn’t like plant walks were a competitive sport or anything—nobody had ever won a medal giving tours. It wasn’t even high-risk. The way Chelsea saw it, they were just a random pastime…and one of Sara’s many ways to look cute and be on display. “Yeah, you just try getting her on a wakeboard and see how she does then.”
    “Good idea,” Todd said, grinning. “I just might dothat.” And he wandered back into the crowd, leaving Chelsea to fume by herself in the rear of the group.
    The thought of Sara trying to learn wakeboarding made her skin crawl. But the thought of her learning from Todd was even worse. Wakeboarding was the one thing that Chelsea had