A Young Adult Novel
Tara Chandler was looking forward to a summer of fun and friendship, maybe even romance. Then a cousin she didn’t even know she had decided to come visit for the entire summer. Sadie was from the Ozark Mountains, was home schooled, and didn’t even have (gasp!) TV, a computer, or a Smartphone. And her fashion sense! What’s a poor girl to do? What would Tara’s friends think? Her whole life would be ruined…
Or would it truly begin?
Dive into a story of fun and friendship, joy and drama, a touch of romance, and the real meaning of family and life!
Excerpt:
Tara Chandler’s life was in ruins, and no one cared or understood.
No doubt her family all thought it a big joke on her. Not that there was much she could do about it. She had nowhere to go, no job skills being only fifteen and a half, no talents to speak of, and the thought of offing herself grossed her out. She’d heard you always pooped your pants no matter how you did it. The thought of anybody finding her dead with soiled underwear was beyond terrifying.
It wasn’t enough that her best friend, Jenna Hayes, had gone with her family to Hawaii for the summer. On top of it her cousin, whom she didn’t even know she had until just a few days ago, was coming to visit for the entire summer, and what was she going to tell her friends? “Sadie Finch”—what kind of name was that? And a hillbilly from the Ozark Mountains, and home schooled. Seriously?? Tara would never be able to hold her head up again. It was a nightmare she couldn’t wake out of.
It wasn’t even as if Sadie were her real flesh and blood.
“Her grandmother was my mother’s best friend,” their mom explained as they sat about the supper table, Tara’s brother Dylan, who was fourteen, and her kid sister Amelia, age six. Their dad wasn’t there, since he was working late as usual. “My parents took her daughter Alyssa to live with us after her parents were killed in a tornado. She was about four at the time. I was almost eight.”
“And you never told us about her before because…?” Tara looked at her mom with accusing eyes.
“Well…it’s complicated. First off, I resented Alyssa coming to live with us. I was an only child and a bit spoiled, I’m afraid. I did warm up to her eventually, and we had some good times. Yet other times I was so jealous of her, she was so pretty and so much more…accessible…than I was. So much more vibrant and outgoing. I was moody and introverted, and people would say to me, ‘Why can’t you be more like your sister?’ Then when I was twenty-two and she was nineteen, Kenneth Finch came into our lives. He was a sort of preacher, good looking and very charismatic. And—”
“You both fell in love with him,” Tara interrupted with uplifted forefinger and closed eyes, “and he chose her over you.”
“I never quite forgave her,” Mrs. Chandler said smiling ruefully. “Even though three years later I met your father and fell wildly for him, I never quite got over the sting of losing Kenneth to Alyssa. Your grandmother kept in touch with her, and recently she got news that Alyssa’s oldest son was tragically killed in a wreck three months ago. That was when I finally unbent and wrote to her. And now Sadie wants to come here to the city and visit.”
“Why just her?” Dylan said over a dripping forkload of sauerkraut. “Why don’t Aunt Alyssa and, uh, Uncle Kenneth come too?”
“Well, it’s a rather awkward situation,” their mom said, “considering we haven’t spoken to each other in almost twenty years. Plus it might be a tad overwhelming for the rest of us—there are four children. But Sadie has never been anywhere else, and wants to see some of the world outside the hills.”
“Well, isn’t that just wonderful,” Tara said as she twisted a fork into her pork roast. “So a total stranger is coming to stay with us the whole summer? WHAT am I going to tell my friends?”
“Why not the truth?” her mother said. Tara looked at her as though she had suggested telling them Sadie was an alien from a distant galaxy. Grownups were so clueless. “Just a thought.”
“How old is she?” little Amelia said from where she sat dreamily sculpting her mashed potatoes into a ghost shape. “Is she pretty? Is she going to stay in the guest room, or sleep on the floor? Or our closet?”
Their mom laughed. “She’s about fifteen, and if she’s anything like either of her parents, she’s a very pretty girl. And of course she’ll stay in the guest room. You don’t really think I’d make her sleep on the floor or the closet, do you?”
“Oh, joy,” Tara said with her mouth full.
“What’s your problem, Tara?” their mom said. “I’d think you would enjoy having a girl your age over for the summer.”
“A girl my age?” Tara stared at her mother goggle-eyed as she swallowed. “You said she was fifteen. That she turned fifteen in February. Have you forgotten I’m almost sixteen now? Like, in September?“
“Yeah,” Dylan said cheerfully. “Wow, Mom, how could you forget such a YUGE age difference? You must really be slipping up.”
“Shut up, dillweed,” Tara said. He seemed convinced his whole purpose in life was to be a pain in the butt. Well, he must be jumping for joy with this new development. “And ‘Sadie’—what kind of name is that? It’s an old-lady name, like ‘Mildred’ or, or…’Barbara’, or something.”
“Why are you carrying on like this, Tara?” their mom said with a sigh. “It’s not as if she were coming to live with us. Why don’t you at least give her a chance?”
“You just don’t understand,” cried Tara, slamming down her fork and splattering a bit of bean juice on her shirt front. “I mean, she’s a hillbilly and all, my friends will never let me hear the end of it. And she’s home schooled, you said, and doesn’t even have a computer or an Iphone or laptop or ANYTHING modern. I bet she runs around barefoot and always wears dresses, or overalls, like on The Waltons, and carries a Bible around with her and all. I bet she’s going to preach our ears off and tell us we’re going to hell if we don’t believe what SHE believes, and…well, none of my friends are ever even going to speak to me ever again. And they’ll spread it all over school and I won’t ever be able to set foot there again. And—”
“Wow, you’ve never even seen her, and you’ve got her all figured out,” Dylan marveled. “Yeah. She probably watches the Duggars and Duck Dynasty. I bet she goes around picketing funerals and picking up rattlesnakes and—”
“Rattlesnakes?” Amelia said staring big-eyed. “I’m a-scared of rattlesnakes. Don’t let her come, Mommy.” Her round freckled face puckered and her lips trembled.
“Don’t be ridiculous, all of you,” their mom said. “I’m sure she’s a very nice girl. Tara, I need you to—”
But Tara had bolted from the dining room. Dylan gave a soft whistle.
“Is she being a drama queen again?” Amelia said.
“What do you mean, ‘again’?” Dylan said.
Then Amelia began to whimper because she was afraid of the ghost she had made of her mashed potatoes, and Dylan took the gravy ladle and squashed it flat and then poured the brown gravy on it, saying, “Who ya gonna call?” She giggled then and devoured it.
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