And of course I see her on TV all the time. I like her, and she likes me. Even better, she liked my mom, and I know the feeling was mutual. But most important of all, she loves my dad. I can see it in the way she looks at him all google-eyed, and he looks at her the same way.
Sometimes it makes my stomach hurt when I think about my mom, and how, if things had been different, she would be getting Dads google-eyes, but as Dr. Elizabeth Moscovich has pointed out, I cant live in the past. Caroline makes my dad happy, and this is a good thing. Best of all, she has a daughter. Her name is Ashley, and 4. I have only met Ashley a few times. She is very pretty, but I think she is also possibly hard of hearing, because when I try to talk to her, she either walks away or turns up the volume on the TV really loud.
Maybe shes just shy. And now we are moving in with them. Dad and Caroline broke the news last month. They told Ashley and me separately, so I dont know her reaction, but I am Eighty-nine point nine? Elizabeth Moscovich asked me at our final session last week. What about the other ten point one percent? I confessed to her that that part is made up of less positive emotions. We made a list, and on the list were words like anxiety and guilt. Elizabeth Moscovich told me this was perfectly normal.
After all, were leaving the house I spent my entire life in, the one Mom and Dad bought together a year before I was born. Now Dad has sold the house to a young couple with a baby, which means there is no turning back. Were bringing a lot of stuff with us, but we cant bring the mosaic stepping-stones my mom made that line the path in the backyard, or the flowers she planted, or her molecules, which I know still float through the air, because why else can I feel her presence all the time?
It is what less scientifically minded people would call a vibe, and our house, even this long after her death, is still full to bursting with Moms vibe. I worry a little bit about that.
Where will her vibe go when 5. Will it find its way to our new home, like those animals that walked hundreds of miles to find their owners in The Incredible Journey? Or will it get lost on the way? And also I am anxious because I dont know how Ashley feels about this merger of our family and hers.
I dont expect her to be I just hope shes at least 65 percent excited. I can work with 65 percent. This is not how I wanted my wish to come true. This is not how I would have chosen to become a quadrangle.
I would far, far rather still be a triangle if it meant that my mom was alive. But since that is a scientific impossibility, I am trying to look on the bright side. I have always wanted a sister. And Im about to get one. Thats the word my part-time friend Claudia used to describe her own family at school yesterday. I said I didnt have a clue what that meant, and she said, That makes sense, cause youre clueless.
Then she told me its a military term. See, Claudia has been in a so-called blended family for a few years now.
She has a wicked stepfather and two snottynosed little half sisters. So she totally gets the insanity that is about to happen to me. I am only just-turned-fourteen, so Claudia says I have to wait another two years before I can hire a lawyer and get unconstipated. Thats not right. I keep having to look it 7. I mean emancipated. According to Claudia, it means you can divorce your parents and be free of them for good. Claudia wants to divorce her family, too.
So even though shes a little chunky around the middle and doesnt wash her hair enough and is not even close to my social status, she does kind of get what Im going through. For twelve and a half years it was perfect. My dad works at an advertising agency, and my mom anchors the local evening news. They are both very good-looking for old people, and Im not being arrogant but just stating a fact when I say I inherited the best from both of them.
We have an almost-new silver Volvo station wagon, and until a year and a half ago we took a trip to Maui every March break. We have a big modern house with another, miniature house in the backyard thats called a laneway home. Laneway homes are all the rage in Vancouver. Theyre built beside the alleys that run behind our houses, where a garage would normally go.
We had ours built just before my world came crashing down around my feet. My parents thought that maybe they would rent it out for a few years, then I could live in it if I went to university in Vancouver, even though my ninth-grade counselor says I need to face the cold, hard truth because a C average will not get me into university.
Again, I am just stating a fact when I say that my friends were jealous of me and my life. And I couldnt blame them in the slightest. I would have been jealous of my life, too, if it hadnt already been mine. Then, a year and a half ago, my dad sat my mom down and said the two words that tore our family to shreds. Im gay. None of my friends know that part. Not even my best friend, Lauren. I just told her my parents split because they were fighting all the time.
Cause, see, there are Certain People who have this idea that Im not a nice person. This is totally untrue and false and a lie. But Certain People think Im a Snot at least, thats what some jerk wrote on my locker in eighth grade.
Claudia told me Certain People were actually pleased when my parents split up, like I somehow deserved a little pain. I guess it is somewhat partially halfway true that I have made a few comments over the years about other peoples families like, I might have told Violet Gustafson her mother was a skank before Violet broke my nose, which has fortunately healed so well you can hardly notice , but my comments were misunderstood.
When I said that to Violet, I meant it more as an observation than an insult. But Violet and her friend Phoebe didnt see it that way, so now I call them Violent and Feeble behind their backs, which I personally think is quite clever. So I didnt get an ounce of sympathy from anyone when my parents split. In fact, I got a lot of smirks from Certain People when they found out. Even Laurens sympathy seemed awfully phony, which I admit really hurt.
Thats why there is no way Im telling anyone the gay part. Not because Certain People are gayists although Im sure some of them are , but because they would love the fact that my so-called perfect life was built on one gigantic lie. I guess, if Im totally one hundred percent honest, Im a bit gayist, too. I didnt think I was. I mean, I love Geoffrey, my moms hair-and-makeup guy in the newsroom, and he is 9. And I see gay people on my favorite TV shows, and they seem cheerful and snarky and fun to be around.
But its different when your dad suddenly announces he is one. There is nothing cheerful or fun about that. It opens up a lot of questions. Questions that I dont really want to know the answers to. Questions like: Did you ever really love us? Or was that a lie, too? Saturday he had moved out. Not to an apartment downtown. Not to Siberia, as Id suggested.
He moved approximately six feet away from us, into our laneway house. My newly gay dad couldnt afford to get his own place unless he and Mom sold the house, which they both agreed would be too hard on me.
So their genius solution: let him live in our backyard. Like, if I look out our kitchen window, I look into his kitchen window. At first I figured it was just temporary. I figured Mom and I would bond over our hatred of Dad, and pretty soon our combined anger would force him to move out, and we would never have to see him again. No such luck. Not only is he still living there, but Mom totally betrayed me.
First, she just couldnt stay mad at Dad. They are actually working on being friends now!!!! Second, she started dating her producer, Leonard Inkster, a year ago, which I am pretty sure breaks all kinds of workplace rules.
And thirdas if tearing out my heart and smashing it to the ground repeatedly wasnt enoughmy mom has asked Leonard to move in with us. And Leonard doesnt come alone. He comes with his midget-egghead-freakazoid of a son. Oh my God. Their moving van is pulling up right now.
Larsen by Susin Nielsen by Susin Nielsen. Add a review Your Rating: Your Comment:. Word Nerd by Susin Nielsen. No Fixed Address by Susin Nielsen. She already has to hide the real reason her dad moved out; "Spewart" could further threaten her position at the top of the social ladder. They are complete opposites. And yet, they have one thing in common: they-like everyone else-are made of molecules 89Y. There are no reviews yet. Be the first one to write a review. Books for People with Print Disabilities.
Summary: Thrown together thanks to the blossoming romance of their parents, thirteen year-old Stewart and fourteen year-old Ashley find themselves sharing a house, a school and classes.
Polar opposites, Stewart is a socially impaired brainiac while Ashley has trouble finding the right word at times and is at the top of the social ladder at school.
Despite all the roadblocks to their relationship, when Ashley starts dating Jared, a guy Stewart comes to know is bad news, Stewart tries to warn her and protect her. Unfortunately it will take an extreme situation for Ashley to realise Stewart just might be the best brother she never had. Stewart and Ashley are unlikely step-siblings, but when their parents get together and Stewart and his father move in with Ashley and her mother, the two have little choice but to adjust to each other.
Not to mention the reasons that brought their parents together in the first place. More from Children's Book and Media Review. Saturday with Daddy Saturday with Daddy. Chasing the Skip Chasing the Skip. A PDF file should load here. Search this site.
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