Free The Edge of the Light by Elizabeth George Page B

they going to feel about that?”
    â€œSheesh, Prynne. They didn’t even get married till after I was born, and my sister’s
older
than me, okay? Figure that one out. And besides . . .” He reached for her hand, although his own was rough with work. But she didn’t seem to mind and she laced their fingers together. “I want you to be on Whidbey,” Seth told her.
    She seemed to be studying their joined hands, and at first Seth thought she wasn’t going to reply. He thought he’d misread her somehow, that her feelings for him weren’t as strong as his were for her. When she said “Can I have a couple of days to decide?” he was disappointed, and he knew his face showed it. He said, “Why? Don’t you want to be with me?”
    â€œI don’t know how it’d all work out. I mean, such as it is, I have a life here.”
    â€œYou’d have one on Whidbey, too. You’d have more of a life because we’d be together.”
    â€œIn your parents’ house,” she reminded him.
    â€œJust at first.”
    â€œI need a couple of days. And you need to go over all this with your parents.”
    â€œOkay,” he said. “A couple of days.”
    But he felt uneasy about her hesitation.

7
    T he following Monday Jenn McDaniels was running the trails behind South Whidbey High School. The school backed up to a large community park: a vast area of forest that was accompanied by a concrete skateboard bowl with jumps and rails, a playground for little ones, a baseball diamond, and enormous open lawns that were used for soccer. The forested section was filled with trails, and here the various athletic teams at the high school ran. Jenn’s team was girls’ soccer, varsity level. She was the center midfielder, and although soccer season was finished, it was her intention to make it onto the All Island Girls’ Soccer team, whose tryouts were in May this year. She’d tried out during the previous year, but she hadn’t put enough effort into her prep, so she hadn’t made it past the first cut. That
wasn’t
going to happen this time around. The All Island team was her key to an athletic scholarship. An athletic scholarship was her key to going to college. If she didn’t go to college, she’d have nothing in her future but finding a lousy job on Whidbey, living at home, fighting with her mom about religion, and listening to her read the Bible aloud, special emphasis on Sodom and Gomorrah.
    She was on her eighth time around the Waterman Loop, hurtling along the north side of the upper field where a fellow member of the high school team, a girl called Cynthia Richardson, was still working on her goalie skills. She’d been there each time Jenn had run past, in the company of another girl: Lexie Ovanov. Lexie wasn’t a member of the soccer team, so she was pathetic at keeping the ball away from Cynthia. It didn’t seem to matter to either of them, though, since every time Jenn dashed by, they were yelling at each other and shrieking with laughter at how bad Lexie was.
    Jenn wasn’t sure what the point was. It wasn’t like Cynthia actually needed to train. She’d made the All Island team every year since ninth grade. She was a super player. She was also tough not to notice. She was five foot ten, she was blond, she was blue eyed, and she had a perfect complexion. She’d had a 4.0 average probably since kindergarten, and for that same amount of time she’d been one of the most popular girls in South Whidbey School District. So when she was elected homecoming queen, no one batted an eye. It was, after all, expected. But what wasn’t expected was Cynthia taking Lexie Ovanov as her date to the homecoming dance. That had
definitely
made a statement.
    â€œYou are totally pathetic!” Jenn heard Cynthia call out to Lexie on a burst of laugher. “
Kick
the ball, dummy. This isn’t