Free The Brightest Stars of Summer by Leila Howland Page B

looking for shells. He was walking slowly through the shallow water with his head down. He had longish hair that fell in front of his face, but she could tell by the way he was moving that he was looking very carefully. He paused, wiping his eyes. Zinnie thought she saw his shoulders shake. Is he crying? she wondered as she walked into the surf up to her ankles. She couldn’t tell. But by the way he turned away and buried hisface in his hands, she guessed that he didn’t want anyone to see him. Respectfully, she looked away. The tide pulled on her feet as it drew back to reveal a tumbling layer of sand, swirling with little stones, shells, and even some spinning hermit crabs.
    Zinnie plucked a few shells out and examined them in her hand. Most of the shells looked the same: small, fan-shaped, and pale pinkish, which was why the shiny rectangles of metal stood out so clearly even as the water foamed. She put the shells in her bucket and then bent to pick the shining objects up and see what they were before they were carried back out into Buzzards Bay by the waves. She realized the rectangles of metal were connected on a chain. It was some kind of necklace. It fit neatly in the palm of her hand and had a name, “Cima, Paul,” a number, and the words “O Positive” and “Christian.” She rinsed it again and held it up. Here’s a story, she thought. Then she heard the splashing sounds of someone running toward her.
    â€œYou found them!” She looked up to see the boy from down the beach.
    Zinnie thought the boy was probably her age, maybe just a little bit older. With his shaggy brown hair, the way he had loped through the waves to reach her, and the friendliness of his impossibly big brown eyes, he reminded her of a Labrador puppy. She was pretty sure that he was the kind of boy the girls in her class would call cute. As he stood there beaming at her forfinding this necklace, she couldn’t help but match his grin in both size and wattage.
    Because she went to an all-girls’ school and only had sisters, she didn’t have a lot of boys who were friends. Actually, she didn’t have any. When she was really young, she’d wanted nothing to do with boys. They seemed so rough and different. They chewed with their mouths open, couldn’t seem to sit still and have a conversation, never wanted to play her make-believe games long enough for her, and always seemed to want to be hitting things.
    Now that she was twelve, she knew that boys weren’t all maniacs and gross eaters. She was well aware of the fact that a bunch of girls in her class had completely reversed their position on boys and now wanted to kiss them. She had even seen—with her very own eyes—Marigold kiss Peter Pasque last summer. But it wasn’t something that she thought she was ready for. When Zinnie saw kissing on TV, she thought it looked messy and strange. She had absolutely no interest in touching mouths with anyone. But now, with this grinning boy in front of her, his nose scattered with freckles, and his eyes sparkling with mischief, she was definitely interested in having a boy as a friend. After all, her dad had been a boy once, and he was her favorite person in the world.
    â€œYou’re looking for this?” Zinnie asked, offering him the necklace.
    â€œYes!” he said, taking it and clutching it tightly. “Thank you, thank you! I mean, seriously! You just saved the most important thing in the world to me.” Zinnie couldn’t believe it, but his smile grew even bigger. “You’re my hero.”
    â€œI am?” Zinnie started to giggle.
    â€œYes!” Then he started to giggle, too. The sun was now directly overhead, and light was bouncing off of the water in every direction as the two of them stood there laughing.
    â€œWhy are we laughing?” Zinnie asked.
    â€œI don’t know!” the boy said. “I’m just so