Excerpt Just Breeze

Chapter 1

 

The halls of Whispering Springs Middle School rang with laughter, joking, and teasing. High-pitched chatter and friendly shouts of greeting ricocheted off the walls. Locker doors clanged open, clattered shut. A banner reading GO COYOTES fluttered from the ceiling. The smell of freshly waxed floors stung  my nostrils.

I sighed. My first day in eighth grade started out the same as seventh grade, sixth grade, fifth grade, and all the way back to kindergarten. Unless a new student had enrolled, I was still the tallest person, boy or girl, in school.

And my feet … I yanked open the locker door and stuffed my gym shoes, or rather my canoes, inside. I wasn’t about to let anyone see they’d fit an elephant, with room to spare. My feet were trying to set a record for gianthood and doing a good job of it. Turn green with envy, Sasquatch. I bet your feet never grew two sizes in one summer. I made a mental note to walk carefully so not to tromp on other kids’ toes and break their bones. Eew. Painful.

During the summer I actually had believed that when I reached the magical number thirteen, I’d be transformed into this gorgeous, teeage creature, like my sister Sara, seventeen, soft, wavy hair, size-six feet. I’d been thirteen two whole months now, and I’d changed all right, but not in the way I had in mind. Take my mouth for instance.

I ran my tongue over my teeth. Yup. Still there. Those silver-colored braces that blinded anyone within ten feet. To make matters worse, I picked my favorite color, blue, for the rubber bands, thinking they’d look cool. Instead, they made my teeth look like moldy marshmallows. One consolation–the braces were temporary, unlike my body parts I was stuck with forever.

Mom said I placed too much emphasis on my appearance. Easy for her to say. She didn’t look like a clown with wild hair that played by its own rules. Clown? Hey. That was it. I’d join the circus. I could see the billboard now: Star Attraction–Breeze Brannigan, the Glow-in-the-Dark, Orange Sherbet Creature from Outer Space.

End of excerpt

Just Breeze

ISBN: 978-0-9840708-2-4

4 RV Publishing

Available at Amazon , Barnes and Noble , and other stores and at 4 RV.