Letters from the Heart Read Free Page B

business magazines. It would be kind of silly if Maeve read all about fruit flies and how they multiply.” Katani was the only one who could get Avery to calm down sometimes.
    If it were up to her, Maeve would gladly spend every afternoon taking voice lessons or working on dance moves. But her mom had different ideas. Her mom’s plan for Maeve was Hebrew class two days a week and tutoring with Matt Kierney. And to Maeve’s disappointment, hip-hop dance class had been dropped until she brought her grades back up. But Maeve was an optimist. She was sure she’d be back to dance in a matter of weeks.
    â€œIt’s funny. Dad and I have traveled so much, but I don’t think I know that much about where his family comes from,” Charlotte wondered out loud. “I mean, I know they were from England a long time ago. But I don’t even know exactly where.”
    â€œI hope it wasn’t Oxford,” Avery said with a grin. Everyone giggled. The memory of the girls’ last adventure was still fresh in their minds. Charlotte’s father had been offered a teaching position in Oxford, England, and it had taken all five of the Beacon Street Girls to convince him to stay put and to give Charlotte a chance at her dream—to spend her junior high and high school years in the U.S.
    Charlotte was really looking forward to the Heritage Museum project. She loved research and writing, and she was curious about her family and its past. Her mother had died when she was young, leaving Charlotte with lots of unanswered questions about her background. Maybe, like Maeve, she would learn more about herself in the process. “Who knows?” she mused. “There might even have been an astronomer in our family.” Charlotte loved science almost as much as writing. Stars and books , she liked to say…those were her two best friends.
    â€œI’ve got a triple-header research project,” Avery added thoughtfully. “I’ve got my mom’s history and my dad’s. But I’ve also got my own.” She grinned. “It’s going to be cool, finding out more about where I really came from.” Avery loved challenges, and with her usual blunt, go-for-it manner, she was looking forward to this one.
    It was clear this assignment was going to give all of the Beacon Street Girls a lot to think about in the coming weeks. There was a great deal they were all going to learn about themselves and about each other.
    CHAPTER 2
Up for Grabs
    T he menu for school lunch was posted on a small board at the beginning of the lunch line. Today’s special was something called “mystery subs.”
    â€œLunch,” Avery announced, peering at the sandwiches wrapped in plastic on top of the cafeteria counter, “is NOT a place where anyone wants mystery.” She took a sandwich, but she didn’t look happy about it. “My mom usually makes me a super protein wrap, but she had a meeting this morning and left Scott and me to fend for ourselves. And you should have seen Scott. He was acting like he was the president, ordering me around. I bolted out of there fast.” Avery and her brother Scott, who was sixteen, lived with their mom about a mile away from school. Her older brother Tim was off at college in Vermont. Avery’s parents were divorced, and her dad lived in Colorado. Avery got to see a lot of her father over vacations, but during the school year they had to rely on e-mail and the telephone to keep in touch.
    Charlotte grinned. Avery was definitely not the cooking maestro. “Fending for herself” clearly meant scooping somemoney out of an emergency stash and standing in the cafeteria lunch line. Charlotte, on the other hand, had made lunch for herself today. She was just in line to keep her friends company and to buy a drink. “Avery, have you ever thought about actually making your own lunch?” she asked, helping herself to a bottle of juice. “Or