"Replica02 - Pursuing Amy - Kaye, Marilyn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kaye Marilyn)

Amy rolled her eyes. "A winter coat? This is southern California. We don't exactly have a real winter here."

"Styles change with the seasons, Amy," Jeanine shot back. "Like right now it still feels like summer, but it's late autumn. That's why I'm wearing autumn colors." Her eyes swept over Amy's pale yellow shirt. "Not summer colors."

Amy knew that no matter what she said, Jeanine would try to top her. This was pointless. She ignored Jeanine and spoke to Tasha.

"Guess what? My mother has a date this weekend!"

"You're kidding! Who's she going out with?"

"His name is Brad," Amy told her. "I haven't met him, but he's got to be pretty spectacular. You know how fussy my mother is."

"I'm surprised your mother didn't get married again," Jeanine remarked. "When my parents got divorced, my mother was married a month later."

"It's different for Amy," Tasha informed her. "Her parents didn't divorce; her father died."

"Oh . . ." Jeanine paused for a few moments.

Tasha continued. "He was killed in the army before Amy was even born. Right, Amy?"

"Yeah." That was the story Amy had been told, and the story she'd told Tasha and still believed was true.

"I have a cousin" Ч Jeanine had recovered her competitive spirit Ч "who was supposed to get married, and her fiance was killed on their wedding day in a car accident on the way to the church." Satisfied that she had equaled, if not topped, Amy's tragedy, she changed the subject. "Speaking of dates . . . I went to the movies with Corey Schneider last Saturday."

Amy couldn't help being a little impressed. Corey was the seventh-grade class president. "You're allowed to date already?"

"Sure," Jeanine said casually. "Of course, I'm not in love with Corey or anything like that. It was just a date."

"Corey's cute," Linda said.

Jeanine dismissed him with a wave of her manicured hand. "He's too young."

"He's the same age we are," Tasha pointed out.

"Yeah, but everyone knows girls mature much faster than boys," Jeanine said. "That's why girls like to go out with older boys." She gazed around the cafeteria and her eyes rested on the ninth-grade section. "Tasha, isn't that your brother over there? His name's Eric, right?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Just curious."

Amy's stomach lurched. "Why are you curious about Eric?" she asked.

"He's cute."

Tasha's mouth fell open. "Cute? Eric? You think my brother's cute?" She burst out laughing.

Jeanine ignored that response. "It's funny . . . I never noticed him before."

"That's because he wasn't cute before," Linda said. "He was skinny." She twisted around in her chair to get a look at him. "He's pretty athletic, isn't he?"