Last Summer Read Online Free PDF Page A

brother’s wedding; anyway, now my collection is complete again, which is a big relief) and then Meg and her mother and Petey came over for dinner. We had my favorite, this chicken casserole with apples in it that Mom makes, and Mrs. Giroux baked a cake. It was chocolate inside with white icing. I had the best time. Everybody sang “Happy Birthday” (even Dad, whose voice is really terrible) and Petey gave me a crayon drawing he made of Meg and me holding hands. Sometimes I wish I had a little brother or sister, though when Meg is in a bad mood she says that being a big sister is a pain.
    Meg is fun, though, even when she’s in a bad mood, which she never takes out on me. I just know she’ll be my best friend forever. Everyone in school says that about every friend they have—everyone is everyone’s BFF—but Meg and I are different. I can’t imagine us ever not being friends. It’s, like, totally unimaginable. Mom says I shouldn’t say “like” all the time. Imagine what she would say if she knew I just wrote it! But my mom would never, ever read my diary, so she won’t ever know. That’s one really good thing about my life. A lot of kids I know complain that their parents never give them any privacy. But my parents totally respect my privacy. They trust I’m not going to do something wrong or stupid, so they don’t need to be poking around my room, looking for clues that I’m running wild or something.
    Okay, I have to go and eat dinner now. Mom’s making pork chops and this cabbage dish made with red currant jelly. The whole house smells really good. I should learn how to cook so I can help Mom out sometimes. Bye!
    Your friend, Rosie
     
    October 30, 2011
    Dear Diary,
    Meg and I went to an early Halloween party last night in the gym at school. I went as a medieval princess, complete with one of those tall, pointy hats with a veil attached, and Meg went as a bat. She complained the whole time that her costume wasn’t good enough because she didn’t have the money to put together a better one. I told her she should have asked my mother for help. Mom could have made her something fantastic. But Meg got all red in the face and told me that her mom had forbidden her to “go begging” to my mom for help. She told Meg they didn’t need charity. That seemed really weird and I was sorry I said anything. Since when is helping out a friend charity? Maybe Mrs. Giroux was just in a bad mood when she said that stuff. She knows that Mom really enjoys doing sewing projects for Meg. Why would it suddenly be charity?
    Anyway, another interesting thing was that Mackenzie Egan and her friends were at the party, too, and they said hello to us. We’ve kind of known them since we were in first grade and they were in second, but they’ve never really noticed us before. They were dressed as Madonna wannabes from the eighties. I don’t know where they found all of that tacky stuff to wear, these awful neon-colored hair ties and black lace pantyhose and big plastic jewelry! Jill had her hair teased about a foot off her head! I thought it was nice of them to come over and say hi and say they liked my costume, but Meg thought it was weird. Sometimes she’s so suspicious!
    By the way, Mackenzie Egan is really pretty. I don’t think I ever noticed that before. She’s kind of medium height but she has really long legs and really dark hair and bright blue eyes. In fact, she kind of looks exotic. I bet boys really like her.
    The party was fun overall, though Halloween isn’t my favorite holiday. (It’s Christmas!) There was way too much candy and not enough other stuff to eat, like chips (not that Meg minded because she has a major sweet tooth!) and some spooky music (which wasn’t really spooky; it was kind of goofy sounding) and some haunted-house-type stuff like a bowl filled with wet spaghetti that you stuck your hand into. You were supposed to think it was brains or guts or something. It all seemed pretty lame to me,