Enthusiasm Read Online Free PDF Page A

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    Shopping with Amy was nothing like shopping with Ashleigh or my mother. We prefer to linger and laugh, leaving at last with at least one ill-judged purchase to be returned later, when we come to our senses. Still, much as it chilled me, I admired Amy’s efficiency. The Irresistible One plucked shoes from the racks as a magician does rabbits. From her suggestions, I chose a pair of silver-gray pumps that I knew would go beautifully with my silver gown. Ashleigh wanted a red pair, but agreed to black.
    Amy also bought me several pairs of new pants, pointing out with disapproval that my legs had grown several inches, as if it was something I could help. She seemed to know what would fit and flatter without so much as a glance at the tags. Her narrow heels clicked on the linoleum like fingernails on a keyboard. In record time she had me outfitted for the winter.
    “Okay, girls, I have a manicure appointment,” she said when we were done. “Come and get me in an hour. Remember we promised to give Samantha a ride home too. Call my cell phone if you need me. Is your phone on, sweetie? Have fun,” she said, kissing me on the forehead. I suppressed a flinch and waved good-bye as the Demon of Efficiency clicked her way out of sight behind the fountain.
    Ashleigh and I spent the next hour wandering happily from Barn to Barn. In the Candy Barn we played Sherlock Nose, a game Ashleigh invented years ago, in which one player blindfolds the other and takes her on a tour of jellybean bins until the blindfolded one has correctly identified seven flavors in a row.
    After they kicked us out, we visited the Game Barn, where Ashleigh pestered the staff with requests for the official rules to Loo, Vingt-et-un, Casino, Lottery Tickets, Picquet, Whist, and Fish, which the alert Jane Austen reader will recognize as the names of card games played by characters in Miss Austen’s novels.
    The Game Barn staff, evidently, were not Jane Austen readers.
    After they kicked us out, we retreated to the Book Barn, where, for a change, they let us browse our fill. Ashleigh bought her own copy of Pride and Prejudice , as well as Love and Freindship , Jane Austen’s very first novel, written when she was just our age and not very good at spelling.
    Then Ash wanted to play video games. Fearing for my nerves, I went to see if Sam had arrived yet at our rendezvous point, the Sports Barn.
    I found her just as she left her fellow gymnasts. I saw their supple backs as they strode away.
    “Oh, hey,” she greeted me. “Where’s Ashleigh and Amy?”
    “Ash is in the Arcade Barn shooting alien starships, or enemy soldiers, or fish in a barrel, or something. She’ll be here when she runs out of quarters,” I replied. “The I.A. is having her talons painted red. I think she wanted to get away from Ashleigh.”
    “Oh, dear. Friction?”
    “Not so bad, really. They kept it polite.”
    “I can just imagine.”
    “On the bright side, if Ash hadn’t come along, I’d probably still be stuck with the I.A., having some sort of horrible just-us-girls version of Family Time. What is it with that?”
    Sam made a sympathetic face. “Right, the maternal thing. You know why she does that, don’t you?”
    “Not really,” I said. “She’s not stupid—can’t she tell I don’t like her? And it’s not like she likes me , either. Does she think it’ll please my father, or is she just trying to torture me?”
    “Maybe a little. But mostly I think her deal is, she really wants children and she’s afraid she can’t have any. She thinks you’re all she’ll get.”
    “Ig,” I said. I couldn’t decide which was worse, being stuck as Amy’s substitute daughter or having a little half-sibling, with Amy contributing the other half.
    Sam changed the subject: “Hey, speaking of ig, want to see something funny?” She steered me past aisles of fleece and spandex. “They’ve got sample team uniforms in here that must go back to at least the 1920s.