Wings Free with Bonus Material Read Free Page B

her Spanish book, then she looked expectantly at David.
    “I was just wondering if you wanted to, maybe, hang out with me this afternoon?”
    Her smile remained on her face, but she felt nerves settle into her stomach. So far their friendship had been confined completely to school; Laurel suddenly realized she wasn’t entirely sure what David liked to do when he wasn’t eating lunch or taking notes. But the possibility of finding out held sudden appeal. “What are you doing?”
    “There’re some woods behind my house—since you like to be outdoors, I thought we could go for a walk. There’s this really cool tree there that I thought you might like to see. Well, two trees, actually, but—you’ll understand when you see it. If you want to, I mean.”
    “Okay.”
    “Really?”
    Laurel smiled. “Sure.”
    “Great.” He looked down the hall toward the back doors. “It’s easier if we go out the back way.”
    Laurel followed David through the crowded hallway and out into the brisk September air. The sun was struggling to break through the fog, and the air was chilly and heavy with humidity.
    The wind blew in from the west, bringing the salty tang of the ocean with it, and Laurel breathed deeply, enjoying the fall air as they entered a quiet subdivision about half a mile south of Laurel’s house. “So you live with your mom?” she asked.
    “Yep. My dad split when I was nine. So my mom finished up school and came here.”
    “What does she do?”
    “She’s a pharmacist down at the Medicine Shoppe.”
    “Oh.” Laurel laughed. “That’s ironic.”
    “Why?”
    “My mom’s a master naturopath.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It’s someone who basically makes all their medicine out of herbs. She even grows a bunch of her own stuff. I’ve never had any drugs, not even Tylenol.”
    David stared. “You’re kidding me!”
    “Nope. My mom makes stuff that we use instead.”
    “My mom would freak. She thinks there’s a pill for everything.”
    “ My mom thinks doctors are out to kill you.”
    “I think both our moms could learn something from each other.”
    Laurel laughed. “Probably.”
    “So your mom never goes to the doctor?”
    “Never.”
    “So were you, like, born at home?”
    “I was adopted.”
    “Oh yeah?” He was quiet for a few moments. “Do you know who your real parents are?”
    Laurel snorted. “Nope.”
    “Why is that funny?”
    Laurel bit her lip. “Promise not to laugh?”
    David raised his hand in mock seriousness. “I swear.”
    “Someone put me in a basket on my parents’ doorstep.”
    “No way! You’re totally messing with me.”
    Laurel raised an eyebrow at him.
    David gaped. “Honest?”
    Laurel nodded. “I was a basket child. I wasn’t really a baby, though. I was, like, three and my mom says I was kicking and trying to get out when they answered the door.”
    “So you were a kid? Could you talk?”
    “Yeah. Mom said I had this funny accent that stuck around for about a year.”
    “Huh. Didn’t you know where you came from?”
    “Mom says I knew my name but nothing else. I didn’t know where I was from or what happened or anything.”
    “That is the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard.”
    “It made for a huge legal mess. After my parents decided they wanted to adopt me, they had a private investigator looking for my birth mother and all sorts of stuff about temporary custody and whatever. Took over two years before everything was final.”
    “Did you live in a foster home or something?”
    “No. The judge my parents worked with was pretty cooperative, so I got to live with them through the whole process. A social worker came out to see us every week, though, and my parents weren’t allowed to take me out of the state till I was seven.”
    “Weird. Do you ever wonder where you came from?”
    “I used to. But there are no answers, so it gets frustrating to think about after a while.”
    “If you could find out who your real mom is, would you?”
    “I