Free The Academie by Amy Joy Page B

now
you’re talking. Let’s do it all. We’ll do it big, we’ll do it
right. We have three months to pack three years into. I say we do
it.”
    He was smiling and I knew I did good.
“You’re going to have to help me pull this off though,
okay?”
    He nodded happily.
    “ Good; then we have some
things to look forward to this summer. And we’ve got some planning
to do too!”
    “ Think we can convince mom
and dad?”
    I smiled. “You got them to buy Pop
Tarts. I think you can do this.”

 
     
     
     
    14. grandma marie
     
     
    I ran my fingers over Andy’s message,
hoping that somehow it could make me feel closer to him. I wanted
to write about all the injustices of life, of the Academie. And
about how much my bunkmate was driving me crazy. But I just laid
there, studying Andy’s font, tracing the letters again and
again.
    Finally, I closed it, knowing there’s
no way I could write now. But closing the pretty leather book drew
my attention to the thing itself, drawing up recent memories of my
last visit with Grandma Marie.
    “ How are you, pumpkin?”
she’d asked, as she gave me a squishy hug.
    “ Good,” I lied.
    “ Merry Christmas Grandma!”
Andy squealed as he entered the foyer.
    “ Merry Christmas darling!”
Grandma said, leaning over to embrace her grandson. “Boy are you
getting big!” She stepped back to take a look. Andy grinned. “Well,
it sure is nice that you decided to celebrate Christmas. Now we’ll
get to celebrate together for once!”
    Due to the distance, I couldn’t
remember a Christmas with Grandma since I was a little girl. The
weather was always prohibitive and mom and dad said it was just too
difficult and too risky to travel all the way to upstate New York
with three kids. Grandma seemed to understand, but I think we all
missed the time together.
    “ Did you bring
presents?”
    “ Andy, you aren’t supposed
to ask that!” I scolded. Six-year olds; they’ll say
anything.
    Grandma grinned. “Yes I
did.”
    “ Yay!” he
squealed.
    “ You didn’t have to do
that, mom,” my mom said as she joined us.
    “ I know. I wanted to.
Regardless of the reason,” grandma said, looking at me, “we finally
have the opportunity to celebrate together. So let’s do it right.”
With that, she lifted a Tupperware from one of her bags.
    “ What’s that?” mom
asked.
    “ Pumpkins bars.” Pumpkins
bars were Grandma Marie’s specialty. I couldn’t remember when I’d
had them last, but apparently my mouth hadn’t forgotten. It had
already begun to water.
    “ I’ll take care of those,”
I said, grinning as I reached over to take them from
her.
    “ None until dinner,” mom
said.
    “ Oh Sue, come on. It is
Christmas after all,” grandma said.
    Mom frowned. “Just one,
Allie.”
    “ No problem,” I said,
running to the kitchen with the goods. Andy followed, squealing all
the way. Even though it was our third time now, rather than getting
sick of celebrating Christmas, Andy seemed to be getting more into
it each time.
    “ What are they?” he asked
as I opened the cover.
    “ You’ve never had
one?”
    Andy shook his head. “Well, you’ve
gotta try one then,” I said, passing him a bar.
    He took one bite and his eyes lit
up.
    “ Yeah, I know,” I
answered, biting into my own.
    “ Let’s sneak one more,” he
said, powder escaping from his mouth as he continued to
chew.
    I signaled him to be quiet by pressing
my finger to my lips. Then I pulled one more for each of us from
the container and rearranged the rest so they’d never know they
were gone.
    Andy’s smile was covered in sugar when
mom and grandma emerged from the foyer.
    “ So does this mean that
you liked them, Andy?” grandma asked.
    He nodded furiously.
    “ Hello Marie,” dad said as
he joined us.
    “ Merry Christmas,” she
answered. “So what’s the order of events for this
celebration?”
    “ Well, I thought we’d hang
out a while and catch up, then do dinner, and then presents