SummerHill Secrets, Volume 1 (37 page)

On Tuesday, Chelsea and I presented our family history reports to the class. She held up my family crest while I pointed to the lion, representing my courageous ancestry. When I told about Levi Lapp and Mary Smith, I noticed Jon Klein lean forward, paying close attention. Had he caught the similarity of names?

Chelsea was next. I held up her family tree while she went through her generations on both sides. No one even cracked a smile when she told about her great-aunt Essie Peterson, the faith healer. I knew all along it would be just fine.

After class, I was gathering up my books when Jon came over to my desk. “We missed you at the picnic Saturday,” he said.

Who was
we
?

“Sounds like it was great.” I hadn’t thought I’d missed anything by not going. But maybe I had, and by the way Jon was grinning from ear to ear, it looked as though he was mighty glad we were having this talk.

Only a few kids were left in the room, including Chelsea. When she saw us together, she exited quickly. And there was Lissa, but she was busy talking to the teacher.

“Did your brother tell you I called?” Jon asked.

“Uh-huh.” I was dying to ask why he’d called but didn’t.

“I haven’t seen you around much,” he said.

I picked up my books. “You know how it is with big projects this time of year.”

He looked concerned. As if there was something else on his mind. As if he didn’t believe what I’d just said.

Then Lissa came over. “Hi, Merry. Long time no see.” Like that was
my
problem. She handed Jon some papers. “Well, see you two,” she said and left.

What is going on?

“Well, the bus’ll be here any minute,” I said. “I’d better get going.”

Jon followed me to my locker. “Say that with all
b
’s,” he said.

I grinned a bit too broadly and reached for my combination lock. Jon leaned over, looking at me comically. “So…does this smile say something?”

Opening my locker, I said, “Say that with all
s
’s!”

“I just did!”

The guy was good. I’d forgotten how good.

“Wait right here, Merry.” He rushed off to his locker, threw his books inside, and slammed the door. What was on his mind? And where was Lissa?

“We have to talk,” he said, following me out to the bus.

“What’s up?” I thought this might be about Lissa. Maybe he needed some womanly advice.

On the bus, once the noise rose to a dull roar, he turned to look at me. “Merry, I hope you won’t take this wrong, but some of us were talking, and…” He paused as though he wasn’t sure what to say.

“About what?”

He took a deep breath. “It’s only my opinion, but I think you’re missing out on a lot.”

I was confused. “What are you saying?”

He looked miserable. Absolutely miserable. As though he wished he hadn’t started this. “Hanging out with that Amish guy keeps you from—”

“Excuse me?” I shouted.

Jon waved his hands. “No, no! Relax, don’t get on Chelsea’s case.

Please! She’s just concerned. All of us are.”

I felt my face scrunching up. “Look, I don’t interfere in
your
life. What right do you have—”

“Don’t be ticked, Merry. It’s only a friendly suggestion.” He actually looked sincere. He sighed. “None of us think you belong with the Amish.”

I turned around to look for a vacant seat toward the back. Anywhere on earth would be better than sitting next to Jon. Anywhere!

Spotting Lissa, I motioned for her to trade seats with me. “Thanks for nothing,” I said to Jon. Then, sliding out of my seat, I made my way back to where Lissa had been sitting next to Chelsea.

She was wearing a mischievous grin. “
Someone
had to bring you back to your senses,” Chelsea said, her green eyes flashing. “I knew Jon was the best choice.”

“Well, it didn’t work.”

A question mark in the shape of a frown slid between her eyes. “What are you thinking, Mer?”

I refused to respond.

“Okay, go ahead and be Amish,” she taunted. “Have a nice life, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

The bus took an eternity to get to SummerHill, but when it stopped at the willow grove, I leaped out of my seat and dashed down the aisle.

Outside, I stood in the road, watching the bus chug up the hill. “Good riddance,” I said, as much to the sputtering, coughing school bus as to my former friends. Maybe now I knew firsthand, on a small scale, what it was like to be shunned. Why were they acting this way?

I began running up the hill to my house, but something was changing in me. I was beginning to feel tall now. Tall and proud. Jon couldn’t hurt me like this. I wouldn’t let him. I’d…

It was then that I knew I didn’t need to run. I could do anything I wanted to. Jon Klein or not. My life didn’t revolve around the Alliteration Wizard!

Several days passed before I saw Levi again. He was hitching Apple up to the family buggy in front of the house when I walked down their lane.

“Hi, Merry.” He tipped his straw hat, keeping it high off his head for a moment.

I stared at his hair. Short!

“You got a haircut?” I said.

He removed his hat completely, proudly displaying his cropped hair. “Do ya like it?”

“It’s…it’s not very Amish,” I said.

“You’re not sore about it, are ya, Merry?”

“Just surprised.” I couldn’t get over how modern he looked. Except for his white shirt, black trousers, and the tan suspenders he always wore.

He finished hitching up the horse, and before his mother and little Susie came down the steps, he put his hat back on. “Let’s take a walk, jah?”

“Okay.” I had a feeling it was close to being the right time to give him my answer. A long-awaited one.

We walked through the side yard and back around to the barn, then up the earthen ramp to the second level and the hayloft.

I grinned as Levi opened the double doors. He knew I loved this place. Some kids grow up playing make-believe in tree houses. We’d grown up in the Zooks’ old barn. Fortunately, the new one was exactly like it.

My heart did a dance as we entered the secret world. Levi reached for the long rope and jumped on, swinging out and over the wide opening below us where the livestock were fed and stabled and where the cows were milked twice a day.

I leaned back against a bale of hay, breathing in its sweet aroma, watching him swing back and forth. This was heaven on earth!

“You want to be my girl, jah?” he said as he flew back toward the haymow on the rope. Levi’s eyes caught mine, and I was thankful he’d chosen to communicate this way. Discussing your summer while swinging on a rope probably made it easier for him, too.

There was only one word I knew Levi longed to hear. And I said it with confidence, with the best Pennsylvania Dutch accent I could muster. “Jah.”

Levi leaped off the rope and hurried over to me. He held out his hand. It felt warm from the rope.

We ran down the ramp, around the barn, and through the meadow. Together.

On June 3, my brainy brother graduated from high school. Nikki Klein joined us for the celebration. As much as I want to get away from Jon, if things keep going the way they are with my brother and Jon’s sister, maybe he and I’ll end up closer than I’d like! Yee-ikes!

But…college often changes things. At least, that’s what Mom said when we talked the other day. “You won’t be losing your brother to another girl. At least not for a long time.”

That’s when she told me Skip had decided to walk in Dad’s footsteps and become a medical doctor.

As for Jon, I couldn’t stop thinking about how he’d stuck his neck out and talked straight to me on the bus. For a quiet guy, it probably took a lot of courage. And being a Hanson, I could definitely relate to that.

Chelsea stopped freaking out about Levi soon after school was dismissed for the summer. She told me yesterday I could do whatever I wanted, even though she thought I’d truly flipped.

Lissa still seemed starry-eyed over Jon. Thank goodness, Chelsea never told her how I’d felt about him!

Last evening, Levi and I walked around our pond without Lily White tagging along. I didn’t even think of teaching
him
the Alliteration Game; we had other things to talk about. Like how hard would it be for me to become Amish. Not for the purpose of marrying Levi someday, but if I should
want
to be Amish for myself—to restore my family heritage. To “redeem” my great-great grandfather Lapp, who went to his grave a shunned man.

It was all just talk, of course. And we didn’t witness any falling stars, but
this
time, I let Levi walk me up SummerHill and back to my house.

Never once did we look into each other’s faces, but a billion stars above us witnessed Levi’s new haircut. And my enormous grin.

It was going to be a truly special summer.

For
Mother and Dad,
who caught lightning bugs
in Pennsylvania
and Kansas
long before they met.
Together,
they caught souls for the Kingdom
for nearly fifty years.

God give me work
till my life shall end
and life till my work is done.

—W
INIFRED
H
OLTBY

I was staring at Penney’s display window admiring a blue-striped sundress when she came walking toward me.

“Hi, Merry!” her perky voice called.

I smothered my initial response. “Not Lissa Vyner,” I muttered to myself. Usually I was super polite, but courtesy didn’t come easily around Lissa. Not these days. Not since she’d stolen Jon Klein out from under my nose!

She was standing beside me now, gazing at the current summer teen fashions. I caught the light scent of her perfume. “What’s up?” she said.

“Oh, nothing much.” I peered into the window and wished she’d go away.

“That outfit would look so cool on you,” Lissa said, and I turned to see her pointing at the striped dress. “You should try it on.”

And you should go jump in a lake,
I thought, feeling instantly guilty for having such lousy thoughts about the girl I’d been so close to since last November.

“You know how you adore striped things,” she was saying. “Especially blue and white.”

“Maybe you’re right.” Quickly, without looking back, I headed into the store, hoping she’d leave me alone. But when I got inside, I realized she’d followed me.

In the junior department, I found the rack of casual summer dresses and searched for my size. Lissa flipped through the rack, too, only on the opposite side. In the petites.

Glancing at her, I noticed Lissa had filled out a bit—in all the right places. Her cheeks had a rosy glow to them, and her blue eyes sparkled when she smiled. In many ways, Lissa looked healthier and happier than ever.

I sighed, thinking about the part I’d played in helping to end her abusive home situation. Her father was still attending group therapy for his drinking problem, but the abuse had stopped. Thank goodness.

Lissa caught me staring at her. I glanced away, avoiding her gaze.
No wonder Jon likes her,
I thought.
She’s tiny…and pretty. Prettier than most girls I know.

“Merry?” She circled the clothes rack to stand beside me. “I really get the feeling something’s wrong between us,” she said softly, almost sadly.