Finding Andrew

Chapter 2

Granddad steps out of the car. It’s crazy how much Mom looks like him. He has crazy curly hair, which has turned close to grey, but his prominent black eyebrows tell me otherwise. He has large grey eyes like us, and a kind face. The only thing that my mom is that my Granddad isn’t is short. He has to be at least 6’5. I’m just an inch taller than my mom, at 5’3. Emma and Elise are smaller though. My mom runs to hug him, and my dad follows. Ethan sits peacefully in his carrier, while Emma and Elise hide behind me. I take a chance and walk boldly up to him. “I’m Elizabeth,” I smile. He hugs me too, “I know who you are! You were born here for goodness sakes!” My mom’s eyes get wide. “I-I was?” I stammer. I thought I was born up north? “We will talk about this when we all get some sleep, let’s go,” Mom says quickly. We pack up our stuff and shove it into the bed of the truck. It’s muggy and I’m sweating. Whoever thinks that this is 75 degrees if out of their mind.

          I fall asleep on the ride home, and wake up in a different world. My grandparents live on a huge farm. There are cows and donkeys and chickens. My heart stops when I see they have horses. I’ve ridden a horse a few times before and loved it, I just never had time. Their house is huge. We pull down a long driveway, and Granddad says, “You’ll have to pair up. We have 3 rooms for you. I figured Elizabeth and Elise, then Mom and Dad, and Elise and Ethan.” “That sounds good,” Mom says sleepily. We all walk to our rooms and fall asleep right away. Well at least I know I did.

          In the morning, I meet Grandma. She’s a spitting image of my Mom; same height, hair, eyes, posture, everything. We have eggs and milk for breakfast. “These are so good Grandma!” I say after my second helping. “They’re fresh, Liza. Is that okay if I call you that?” She says sweetly. “Oh, sure,” I shrug. I actually hate when people call me Liza, but I wasn’t going to tell Grandma that. The room I share with Elise is actually really nice. There’s a large closet that I hung up all our clothes in, and it’s connected to a bathroom we share with Mom and Dad. I put all out hair stuff and tooth stuff in there. I placed out our shoes in neat pairs in the closet and put away all our underwear and bathing suits socks in the drawers of the dresser. I want to go to the beach more than anything, but I slip on my running shoes, some black shorts and a blue and white stripped tank top, and sneak to the barn.

          I already chose which one of the horses is my favorite. Her name is Sugar, and she’s a brown and white Clydesdale. I go to her stall and brush her mane and clean her hooves. She neighs and I hold my hands full of sugar cubes out to her. Her mouth tickles my hands and I hear Emma calling me, “Elizabeth! We’re going to the beach, come on!” I pop my head out of the barn, and run to the house. I open the door, out of breath and sweaty. “We’re really going to the beach?” I say. I didn’t notice the boy standing in the corner. “Elizabeth, this is James. He’s our neighbor. He just turned 16 and wanted to know if you and Emma and Elise wanted to go to the beach,” Grandma says. I hate to admit it, but James was really, really cute. He was tall, six foot maybe, and had almost black hair. He has bright blue eyes and dimples, and very straight teeth. Dad will like him. Then I remember what I look like, “Do I have time to shower or…?” “Oh, yeah,” James says, “I wasn’t in a hurry. June just said her grandchildren were coming in for the summer. Sorry, we can talk later.” “Oh, okay. Emma and Elise, did you brush your teeth?” I say, turning to them. “No,” Emma says, and they race to the bathroom. “Sorry, give us ten minutes,” I rush to the bathroom myself. I take a shower quickly and re-brush my teeth. I just pull my and the girls hair into pony tails. I skip makeup because we’re going to the beach, and I pull on my black and white polka- dot bikini. I throw on my white sun dress and black flip flops. Emma has her floral bikini on and Elise has a Minnie Mouse one- piece on. “You guys ready?” I ask. They nod and we head to the kitchen. “Are you guys ready now?” James asks, smiling. “Sorry if we were long, I’m going to tell my mom we’re going,” I say, and walk to the hallway. “Mom!” I call, “We’re going to the beach. We’ll be back later.” “Don’t forget sunblock!” She calls, but we’re already out the door.