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"I don't like it here anymore!"
    Above my head a crow cawed loudly and I looked up. There he was, only a foot or so above me, perched on a limb, his yellow eyes regarding me curiously. Without thinking, I picked up a stone and tossed it at him. I was never good at throwing, so the stone missed him completely, but at least he flew away, cawing as he flapped across the creek and into the woods.

Chapter 6
    When we got home, Aunt Grace was out in the garden picking peas. "Just the people I was hoping to see!" she called. "Come on over here and help me fill this bucket."
    "I hate peas," Jason wailed, but he ran across the lawn to join her.
    I followed him slowly, hating the hot sun on my back, hating the cloud of gnats circling my head, hating the thought of kneeling down in the dirt and picking peas. I wanted to sit in the shade and drink a glass of cold Coke and plan what I was going to do about Maude. Making no effort to be friendly or pleasant, I yanked a few pods off the vine and dumped them into the bucket.
    "Are we going on a pea diet?" I scowled at Aunt Grace, thinking she'd already picked enough to feed an army of vegetarians.
    "What's the trouble, Laura? Heat getting to you?" Aunt Grace pushed her hair out of her face. Although her own T-shirt was damp with perspiration and beads of sweat glistened on her forehead, she smiled as if she enjoyed the heat.
    "I thought it was supposed to be cool in the mountains," I said. "I thought that was one of the great things about being up here in the middle of nowhere—you got away from the heat."
    Aunt Grace shrugged. "This
is
awfully hot weather. I guess we're having a heat wave. At least it cools off at night. That's more than you can say for Washington."
    "Yeah, but we have air-conditioners there." I frowned at her, squinting in the hot sun. "How come you didn't tell me there was a girl my age living right down the road?"
    "Do you mean Wanda Orton?"
    I nodded. "We met her at the creek today."
    "She wrecked my castle," Jason said, "but then she helped me build it back up again."
    "To tell you the truth, I didn't think you'd like Wanda." Aunt Grace swatted a mosquito and went on picking peas.
    "Why not?"
    "Well, I'm sure she's quite different from the girls you know in Stoneleigh."
    "So? Just because she's different doesn't mean I wouldn't like her." It was true that I'd never known anyone like Wanda. I couldn't imagine her sitting on a bench in the mall with Kim and me, eating ice cream and watching the guys go by, or lying on a towel at the swimming pool listening to a portable radio, or experimenting with makeup samples at the drugstore. She just wouldn't fit into Stoneleigh at all.
    But it was different up here. I didn't have to worry about what Kim or Lisa or Shari would think. I could be friends with anyone, even a skinny girl in baggy overalls. Things that were important in Stoneleigh just didn't matter here.
    "Wanda's very nice," I said a little stiffly, surprised to realize that I wanted my aunt's approval. I didn't want her to think I was a shallow person, a little snob from the suburbs.
    "Well, I'm glad to hear that." Aunt Grace smiled at me. "Summer will be more fun for you now that you have' a friend. Have you met her family yet?"
    "No, but she told me all about her mother and father leaving her with her grandmother and never coming back. Isn't that awful? What kind of parents would do something like that?"
    Aunt Grace shook her head. "I don't know, Laura. Annabelle's a good woman, though, and she's done her best to provide a good home for those kids. She really loves them."
    "That's a funny name for a grandmother, Annabelle. It sounds too young or something."
    "Oh, it suits her, Laura. She's a real character." Aunt Grace smiled. "I really enjoy her, even though she's always giving me advice I don't take."
    "Like what?" I stared at her puzzled. It was hard to imagine anyone having the nerve to give Aunt Grace advice. She seemed less in need of it than anyone I'd