The Survivors (Book 1): Summer Read Free Page A

time.
    I sighed heavily and grabbed my hairbrush, and then pulled out the elastic band that held my tresses back in a practical schoolgirl ponytail.  With a shake of my head, golden curls bounced down around my shoulders.  Whatever else I thought of myself, I did love my hair.  Dad always said that it was a gift from my mother.  He was olive-skinned with black hair, while my sister and I looked like Mum: fair skinned and prone to freckles, with blue eyes and naturally curly blonde hair.
    The down side was that fair skin meant I burned like a lobster if I spent too long in the sun.  In the summertime, I turned into a mass of freckles instead of getting a tan. It was only mid-December, and I already had a plague of them dusting my nose.
    Today had been my last day of high school, so I had the entire summer ahead of me.  My next step was deciding what I wanted to do with my life.  Maybe I should get a job?  Or should I go to university next year?  My grades were usually pretty decent, though I wouldn’t have my final results until early next year, so it was really just a matter of figuring out what I actually wanted.  I already knew that I didn’t want to be either an accountant or a homemaker, like my parents.
    As usual, I relegated the decision to the ‘too hard’ basket, and moved on without really answering the question.
    With my hair freshly brushed and hanging loose around my shoulders, I stood and padded barefoot down the stairs to join my father.   He was in the kitchen as he promised, with the blender out on the bench, fruit everywhere, and glasses waiting for the impending delicious smoothie goodness.  His back was to me as I entered, his attention intensely focused on slicing a banana into little, mushy pieces.
    " Mum will kill you if you make a mess," I said as I slipped onto a stool at the end of the breakfast bar.  My warning made him jump.  He shot a glare at me, but I grinned impishly and planted my elbows on the counter, resting my chin against my knuckles to watch him work.  When he didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, I decided to break the silence.  
    " Hey Daddy, can I borrow twenty bucks?"
    " Eh?"  He paused in his banana-murdering and shot me a confused look.
    " My friends are going to the movies tonight to celebrate graduation.  I wanna go with them."  I paused for a breath, and then lathered it on a bit thicker.  "Please, Daddy?  I'll wash your car tomorrow.  Mum's, too."
    " I—"  Dad hesitated, then looked back down at his fruit.  "I don't think that's a good idea, sweetheart."
    His answer surprised me.  It was true that I could be a bit cheeky on occasion, but I was generally a good kid.  I never stayed out late, never went boozing and hardly ever got myself into trouble.  Dad knew that he could trust me, because I respected his trust in return.
    They knew that Harry and I were intimately involved, but they also knew that they had raised me smart enough and worldly enough that I would never come home on drugs or pregnant.  As far as my parents were concerned, teenagers would be teenagers regardless of what their parents wanted them to do, and smothering a teenager never worked out well.  They wanted me to be comfortable enough to come to them with questions or if I ever needed help – and I was.  They weren’t just my parents, they were my friends.
    That was what made his response so strange.  That, and the fact that Dad had never turned down a chance to have someone wash his car before.  The thing drew bird poop like a magnet, so offering to wash Dad’s car was generally a guaranteed way to get whatever I wanted.
    " Why not?"  Confused, I tilted my head and sought clarity.  "It's just Harry and Katie and a couple of others, you know all of them; you know their parents, too."
    " Oh— that's not it, honey."  He looked at me and smiled weakly.  "I trust you, and I know your friends.  It's just—"  He finally paused and put down his knife, then