Seeds of Discovery Read Online Free PDF Page A

“She’s taking a nap, thank God. Those two are insane when they’re together,” he nodded toward Annie. “Last week, they made me play Trolls and Fairies for a solid hour.”
    Of course. Even Annie spent more time with Zander these days than Quinn did.
    In the dining room, Annie carefully snapped the lid back on to the marker she’d been using, and replaced it in a tub that had once held baby wipes. She ran to Quinn, brandishing the paper she had been working on so carefully.
    “I made this for you!” the little girl declared, jumping into Quinn’s outstretched arms.
    “Thanks! It’s beautiful!” She hugged her sister as she studied the page. She could almost make out the shape of a face with several circles in the middle; some of them were clearly intended to be eyes.
    “Hey! I thought you were making that for me!” Zander teased, tousling Annie’s brown curls.
    “No, silly! It’s for Quinn!” Annie made a face at him.
    “Me? Silly? You’re the silly goofball head!” Zander tickled Annie’s tummy and she squealed.
    “You’re the silly goofball head!” Annie reached for the light brown hair that he had so carefully styled to sweep over his right temple, but he ducked away from her hand in time.
    “All right, you little monster, go get your coat and shoes!” He swept her from Quinn’s arms, and swung her to the floor, under the coat rack. Annie was still giggling, but she reached obediently for her furry purple snow boots.
    Zander turned his attention back to Quinn. “What about you? Big plans for Friday night?”
    The question startled her, and she felt the heat of a blush beginning to form at the base of her neck. “No, not really.” Not at all, actually. Unless a nap, and, just maybe, microwave popcorn counted as “big plans”.
    “Jake Price is having a party at his house tonight. His parents just installed a hot tub.”
    Jake Price was a senior, the quarterback on the football team. Quinn had never once talked to him. She wasn’t sure why Zander was telling her this. “That sounds … fun.”
    “Do you want to go?”
    “What? Me?” she was stunned. “Uh, I don’t think I was invited.”
    “I’m inviting you.” Zander turned to Annie, who was struggling to pull her coat sleeves the right way out. “We were both wrong, kiddo. Quinn is the silly goofball head.” As he said it, he reached over to Quinn and tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, causing a swarm of butterflies to flutter into her stomach.
    “Yeah!” Annie declared. “Quinn, you’re the silly goofball head!”
    “So do you want to go?” Zander’s face was earnest.
    Her heart was pounding, and the blush reached up to her hairline, even coloring her ears, though she wasn’t sure why. She’d known Zander her whole life; this should have been easy, but somehow it was completely unexpected. “Um, yeah, maybe,” she finally choked out. “I’ll have to check with my mom first, see if anything is going on at home.” Not that her mother would ever object to her going somewhere with Zander.
    “Sure.” His smile was easy, casual. “Text me later if you decide you wanna go, I could pick you up around 7:30.”
    “Uh, ok.” Her throat still felt tight.
     
    Wide awake now, she thought about Zander’s invitation the whole time she was driving toward her house. What did this mean? Why had he invited her? Did she even want to go to Jake Price’s party? Parties weren’t really her thing, but somehow Zander’s invitation was a little appealing.
    She was just wondering what her mom’s reaction would be to her asking to go to the party, when she saw something that almost made her crash again.
    It was the same stretch of highway where she’d nearly hit him a week earlier, and there he was again. William Rose –   wearing the purple sweater underneath his long, dark jacket, the familiar large, fancy backpack from last week hanging from his shoulders.  This time, his back was to Quinn.  He was heading