Free The Academie by Amy Joy Page A

behind the kitchen door.
    “ HEY!” mom yelled again at
the noise.
    “ Okay,” he said, peeking
around the side of the door. “We’ll share. But no more
tickles!”
    “ Okay. Truce for
now?”
    He cautiously emerged, knowing that
I’d tickle him once more for good measure—which I did—and then I
grabbed the package and we made our way to the table.
    “ What’s going on down
here?” mom asked, coming down the stairs, a cup of coffee in her
hand. She joined Andy and me at the table.
    “ Nothing…” Andy looked as
devilish as ever.
    “ Nothing, huh? Then what
was all the screaming about?”
    “ We were just discussing some of the
changes that have taken place around here since I’ve been at
college.” I smiled at Andy.
    “ Like what?”
    “ Pop Tarts for
one.”
    “ Oh, that’s you father,”
mom said. “Well, and this one,” she said, looking to Andy. “They
started doing the grocery shopping together…”
    It soon became obvious that since Matt
and I’d been gone, Andy’d gotten used to getting his way. Even so,
this didn’t mean he was happy.
    Later, he lay on my bed, tracing the
designs on my bedspread with a finger as I unpacked my college
things.
    “ So, what’s it been like
without Matt and me here?” I asked Andy later.
    “ Weird.”
    “ I bet. It’s weird now—I
mean, I keep waiting for Matt to come home still.”
    “ Yeah, you’ll get used to
it. I wish he could come home though. Or that I could go to The
Academie too.”
    “ What?”
    “ Yeah, it’d be better than
staying here with mom and dad. Both you guys will be there soon. It
stinks being here alone.”
    “ Andy, please, don’t say that. I don’t
want to go to The Academie. I want to stay here, with
you.”
    “ Why don’t you then?” His
eyes were big and full of tears, and my heart broke to see him so
hurt and confused.
    “ Because I can’t…” It was
hard to explain this kind of thing to a six-year old. “I’m not
allowed, Andy. The law says I have to go or they will send me to
jail.”
    “ It’s not fair,” he said,
and the tears spilled down his cheeks as his little hand went up to
rub his eyes.
    “ I know. It’s not. I’m
sorry, baby,” I said, pulling him close. I hadn’t called him baby
in years. It just slipped out. Tears welled in my own eyes and I
picked Andy up and laid him across my lap like I did when he was
small. And there I rocked us both, hoping that at least one of us
might be comforted.
    When his sniffing slowed, I reached
for the box of Kleenex and pulled it close. He grabbed a tissue and
began to dry his face.
    “ You know, we’re just
going to have to make this the best summer we’ve ever had together,
Andy.”
    He nodded and grabbed another tissue,
while I considered what I had just said. I needed to stop thinking
about the inevitable. Before I knew it, I would be at The Academie,
but right then, I wasn’t. I needed to make the best of
that.
    “ Here’s what we’re going
to do, Andy,” I said with renewed confidence. “Let’s see, I’m going
to be gone three years, right?” He nodded and I could see the tears
starting to well up in his eyes again. “No, no, don’t think about
that. We’ve got to think about right now. Here’s what I’m thinking.
Three years means that I’m going to miss three of your birthdays.”
The tears grew larger and threatened to run down his cheeks again.
“No, no, you’re not getting it. I think we should celebrate
them.”
    “ What?” he said, his voice
strained.
    “ We should celebrate them.
I don’t want to miss them, so let’s just do it: we’ll have your
seventh, eighth, and ninth birthdays all this summer—cake,
presents, the whole deal!”
    He began to crack a smile, and I knew
I was on to something.
    “ Well, what about your birthdays? We’re
going to miss those too,” he said.
    “ Good point. You want to
do those too?”
He nodded and smiled as he rubbed the tears away. “And
Christmas.”
    “ Christmas? Well,