Little Miss Red Read Free Page A

they see, and I don’t want them to be talking about us like this down the road.” She turned back to me and took my hand again. “Anyway, I told Grandma I’d ship them to her—I told her I’d even send them FedEx, even though they’re so heavy it would cost me more than your Bat Mitzvah did—but she says that the worry during transit time would kill her. So when I mentioned that your Spring Break plans had gotten cancelled—”
    I pulled my now-clammy hand out of hers. “You’re going to make me spend Spring Break in the Garden of Eden?!” I squawked. It may have sounded fancy, but the Garden of Eden—located in hot and humid DelrayBeach—was probably the least luxurious retirement community in all of Florida. Unfortunately, even though Grandma Roz was superrich because her father was the founder of TeePeeMatic, the company that invented the little tube that holds toilet paper rolls in the holder, she worried about money all the time.
    Mom nodded and gave me The Smile, the one where the corners of her mouth reached up so high they almost hit her eyes. It was the smile she used when she was trying to talk me into something I
really
didn’t want to do. Like visiting my grandmother. “Aren’t you excited?” she cooed. “You’re going to have so much fun!”
    I could tell from the way she squeezed my hand to the point where I started to lose feeling that there would be no discussion. Instead of hanging out at home and going to the movies during my vacation, I’d be surrounded by bottles of aspirin and Tums.
    “But that’s not the best part,” Mom said.
    “
Best
part?!” I cried. “I’m still waiting for the
good
part!”
    “I talked to Marci today”—Marci was Michael’s mom—“and she’s decided to send Michael to visit
his
grandmother too, so you’ll be able to spend Spring Break
together
! With lots of sunscreen, obviously.”
    Michael’s grandmother Rose lived one town over from Delray Beach, in Boca Raton, in the superdeluxe Fountain of Youth Senior Living Village. Not only were there twopools instead of one, but there were four water aerobics and Yoga for Seniors classes a day.
    “Isn’t that
great
?!” Mom asked.
    I know I was lucky that my parents trusted Michael and me so much, but that was part of the problem. We could have been in my bedroom with the door locked—not that we did that—and they would know that all we were doing was watching TV. So much for having some time apart to figure things out. “Yeah. I can’t wait,” I mumbled, dragging my fork over my peas and making a mess before glancing over at Jeremy, who looked like he was going to cry. Disorganization freaked him out. “Sorry,” I said, patting him on the arm. “I’ll stop.”
    Mom turned to my dad. “Larry, you know that Dr. Heath said that it’s very important that we present a united front to the kids,” she hissed. Dr. Heath was their couples therapist. “So help me out here, please.”
    “Okay, okay.” He cleared his throat and turned to me. “Honey, you make it sound like we’re sending you to one of those wilderness camps,” he said. “It’s Florida. People love Florida.”
    “Yeah, old people and serial killers,” I mumbled. I glanced at my iPhone, praying it would buzz with an e-mail from Jordan saying the trip to Mexico was miraculously back on.
    “
And
—you’ll love this,” Mom said, ignoring me. “Marci was even able to get you seats next to each other on the same flight!”
    Obviously, I had no say in the matter, as the tickets were already booked. “That’s great,” I replied. I sounded about as excited as Jeremy when he was told he had to go to school. Basically, my Spring Break would be the same as my weekends: watching television with the boyfriend I was not
in
love with. The only difference was that instead of Michael’s giant plasma screen and the good snacks, we’d be sitting on my grandmother’s plastic-covered couch eating Coffee Nips.
    “I have a feeling this