Free Out of Bounds by Annie Bryant Page B

and filled with color and sometimes darn-right ugly…like the nasty power plant a couple of miles from their house back in Michigan. Anyway, she had begged her mother to buy her some paints that day. And now Isabel was never far from her brushes.
    She also discovered swimming at the local YMCA. She hadn’t wanted to go, but there was a swimming class that Elena Maria wanted to go to because one of the instructors was so cute. She dragged Isabel along with her. Isabel loved floating in the water and kicking her legs. There was no pain, and she felt like she could swim for miles. One day, while Isabel was waiting for her lesson, she sat watching the synchronized swim team. Isabel was hooked—it was ballet in the water. Synchronized swimming seemed perfect. Isabel wanted the painting to reflect that.
    The third portion of Isabel’s triptych was all about art. Collage, computer graphics, cartoons, Isabel loved them all. The Beacon Street Girls stood in front of the third panel, which featured images of Boston. There was a painting of the tower, not the way it was, exactly, but they way they’d always talked about decorating it. And Isabel had created future images of her new best friends: Maeve, Katani, Charlotte, and Avery. In the picture, the girls walked together, arm in arm, toward the doors of Brookline High. They were happy, confident, and very, very cool.
    â€œThis is so cool, Isabel,” Charlotte said, as if she were seeing her friend for the first time. “I could never do this.”
    â€œIsabel, I think you might end up in a museum or something,” Katani said, impressed. And then she offered up a big, wide Katani smile, which always made people feel like they’d just won the lottery, because the smile came straight from the heart. “You made me look soooo good; I love that.” Everyone laughed at that, even the teacher.
    â€œThanks.” Isabel smiled. Inside she felt that this was a really good day for her. Her mother was doing well on her new medication. Her art teacher had picked her painting to display. And, best of all, her father had e-mailed her this morning to say that he really was going to visit them soon when his accounting business slowed down a bit. Since they had come east, Isabel’s dad had to run their family business all by himself. He had promised to visit, but he had already booked and canceled the trip twice. His e-mail this morning gave Isabel hope that he would be coming soon…If only she could find a way to make sure it really happened this time.
    Isabel really missed her father. Sometimes at night she cried because they weren’t all together. But in the morning, how could she “mope” while watching her mother moveslowly and sometimes hesitantly through the house. No, she said to herself. Martinez women did not mope about. They got up and got things done!
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    When Isabel got home from school, Elena Maria was making empanadas (and practicing her scales—thank goodness she was done before Isabel put her coat away) and fire-roasting chilies on the gas burner of the stove. Her sister was a great cook, just like her mother and father. Her mother was sitting at the kitchen table. Even Aunt Lourdes was there. It reminded her of the last time they were in Mexico…the family all together at the Mercado.
    Except that her dad should be here too. “Any…” Isabel stopped herself from asking if there had been any word from her father.
    â€œWhat?” her mother asked.
    Isabel thought quickly. “Any…thing I can do to help?”
    Elena Maria smiled. “We’re all set. You can be on the cleanup crew with Aunt Lourdes.”
    Cleanup was just fine with Isabel. Since Elena Maria was the cook, Isabel was willing to help with the dishes. “We have a symbiotic relationship, you and I. I cook, you eat and clean. It works for me,” Elena Maria told her.
    Isabel hated it when Elena used big words, which