maybe having the upholstery shampooed and vacuumed would take care of the problem. The thought of having to live with the repulsive stink indefinitely was too horrible to contemplate.
I pulled out of the school parking lot and turned left onto the main road. Up ahead, a familiar figure was walking down the sidewalk, head down and shoulders slumped. It was Nora. I put on my signal and pulled over. Nora looked up, clearly startled.
“Hi. Do you want a ride?”I offered.
For a moment, Nora looked unsure. But then she smiled shyly and said, “Okay, thanks.”
She walked around and climbed in the passenger’s side. Once she was buckled in, I pulled back out. I glanced over at her. She had an odd expression on her face while she attempted to covertly pinch her nose shut.
“I know. It’s awful, right? I probably should have warned you about the stink before you got in,”I said.
“It’s not that bad,”Nora lied unconvincingly.
“No, it really is that bad,”I said, laughing. “The car came this way. I think I’m actually starting to get used to it, as frightening as that is. Keeping the windows down seems to help.”
“What is it?”Nora asked.
“No idea. The previous owner must have had a serious BO problem. I keep trying to tell myself that a car, any car, even one that’s ugly, yellow, and smelly is better than no car at all,”I said.
“Speaking as someone who has to walk to and from school in the blistering heat, I can tell you that’s definitely true,”Nora said.
“Do you live far from here?”I asked.
“Three miles.”
“Three miles ?”I repeated. “You walk that far every day?”
Nora flushed bright red and turned to look out the window, her shoulders hunched defensively.
“I’m sorry. That’s just a really long way to go, especially in August. Why doesn’t your grandmother drive you?”I asked.
“She can’t,”Nora said.
“Oh,”I said sympathetically. “I’m sorry. Is she disabled?”
Nora laughed. “No way. She plays golf in the morning, and usually goes out shopping with her friends in the afternoons. She says she’s too busy to chauffeur me around. I really need to get a bike.”
I digested this, trying to imagine my mom or dad requiring me to walk three miles to and from school every day in the late-summer heat, because they couldn’t be bothered to pick me up. It wouldn’t ever happen. Even my stepmother had dropped me off occasionally in the days before I had a driver’s license and a car.
“That stinks,”I said.
“Yeah, well, my grandmother was pretty up front about it when I moved here. She told me I could live with her, but I shouldn’t expect much from her.”
“So why did you move here?”I asked.
“My mom is getting married, and she and her fiancédecided they needed some alone time as newlyweds. My dad’s already remarried, but my stepmother isn’t all that fond of me,”Nora explained.
“I know how that goes,”I said.
“You, too? Stepparents are the worst. Anyway, my mom basically dumped me on my grandmother, who’s pretty bitter about the whole thing. She keeps telling me she’s done raising kids and is entitled to enjoy her retirement,”Nora said. I thought Nora sounded pretty bitter herself, but I couldn’t blame her. Her parents—and her grandmother—sounded like selfish jerks.
“I’m so sorry,”I said. “I sort of know how you feel. My mom moved to London last year, and I was basically forced to move in with my dad and stepmom. Trust me—my stepmom was not thrilled with the situation.”
“What’s your stepmother like?”Nora asked.
I considered this. Peyton and I had never gotten along, but I had to admit, she’d been making more of an effort lately.
“She’s not the warmest person you’ll ever meet,”I said carefully. “But the living situation isn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be. It’s given me a chance to spend more time with my dad, and I’ve gotten to know my stepsister better, which has been
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