One of my favorite excerpts from Chapter One

That summer was proving to be a very boring one until I met Ruby.  I remember the day I first saw her face.  I was out in the backyard, twirling myself in the tire swing out back.  I was depressed over Judy and Eddie and decided to leave it up to a small flower to tell me what the future held.  I would pull a petal saying, “He loves her,” in disgust, then proceed to the next exclaiming “he loves her not.”  Somehow, for whatever reason, the entire grouping of flowers ended in ‘he loves her.’  I sighed audibly, leaned over as far as I could, without falling out of the swing and cracking my head open, then I picked another flower in hopes that it would tell me differently. 

I started on my second dozen flowers before I heard a giggle from the fence behind me.  I did not know who moved into the house behind us as it had been vacant for quite a while, but someone was there now.  So, I ducked out of the swing and moved over to the little head that popped up above the fence.  I was startled at first because I had never actually met a colored girl, but her eyes glittered with amusement, and I could not help but ask why she was laughing. 

“What’s so funny?”  I smiled.  Her laugh was contagious. 

“I just wondered if you realized that is a swamp lily.”

I looked down at the purple flower in my hand and then back up at her. 

“It only has 6 petals, so you’re just going to get the same answer every time.”   I stared down at the flower for a minute and then broke out into laughter.

“I wasn’t really paying attention,” I giggled, throwing the flower to the ground.  “I was thinking of…”

“A boy,” she stated, finishing my sentence.  I blushed.  “What’s his name?”

“Eddie.”

“And you like Eddie?”

            “NO!” I exclaimed.  “No,” I laughed correcting my outburst, “I just really hate the girl he is dating.”   She nodded her head as if she understood.  “Eddie is my best friend, but since he started dating Judy I haven’t seen him much.  This summer has been a drag.”  I walked back to the tire swing, ducking underneath it so that I could get in with my skirt on.  I swung for a few seconds as she watched me.  Ruby seemed nice enough, but I was not sure if we were allowed to play together.