It was lunchtime on the first day back to school after winter break. Ana was waiting to pay for her lunch and saw her friend Cara Mayfield waving to her from a table. As soon as Ana was finished in line, she rushed over.
“Did you read it? Did you read it?” Cara said breathlessly.
Ana knew exactly what she was talking about. Both of them were positively obsessed with the Endless Saga fantasy book series.
Once Ana had gotten her book back from Caitlin, she read the rest of it that same day. Then she read it all over again.
“Twice!” she told Cara proudly. “And I want to read it again!”
“Me too!” Cara said. “And guess what I heard!”
“What?” Ana asked.
“Even though the series isn’t done yet, they re-released the first book — as a comic! I saw it at the bookstore the other day.”
Ana squealed. “That is so cool! I would love to see what all the characters look like.”
“I know!” Cara said. “I can’t wait to get it.”
“What did you do over the break?” Ana asked her friend.
“Read mostly,” said Cara. “My parents worked most of break, so we didn’t do anything special.”
“Oh, sorry,” Ana said. She was lucky that her mom had school breaks just like Ana did, so they could spend time together.
“It’s OK,” Cara said. “The babies still had daycare, so I got the house to myself!” Cara had two much younger sisters, and sometimes they drove her crazy. The Mayfield house was not very big, so Cara really appreciated her alone time. She loved going over to Ana’s house, where it was just two people in the entire house.
“That’s nice,” Ana said. She felt bad. It had been so nice to spend time with her mother, it hadn’t even occurred to her to call Cara much while school was out. Cara had been her first friend when she moved out here. I should have been more thoughtful, Ana thought.
“You know, you could have come over to hang out,” she said. “I just assumed you were spending time with your family.”
“Thanks,” Cara said. “Next time.”
Ana got the feeling that even though Cara lived in a crowded house with lots of family, she felt lonely sometimes.
“Anyway,” Cara said, “maybe this weekend we can read the comic together. It comes out on Friday. My mom said she would take me to the mall after school to buy it.”
“Awesome!” said Ana. “I’ll ask my mom too.”
Cara grinned at her. They spent the rest of lunch talking about the big twist in the book and what it might mean for the next book in the series.
* * *
On Saturday, Ana begged her mom to take her to the bookstore. It didn’t take much convincing. “Your grades were great last semester, and I know seventh grade can be tough — especially when you’ve just moved to a new town. I think you deserve a treat!” Mami said.
They drove to the big mall in the center of town. Usually they headed straight for the bookstore, but this time they took their time peeking into other stores as well.
Mami picked up a new bottle of the fancy hair product she used, and they shared a cinnamon bun in the food court. Finally they headed for the bookstore.
In the window of the store was a gigantic cardboard cutout of the cover of the Endless Saga comic book. Ana could barely contain her excitement.
She walked over to the garbage can to throw away the cinnamon bun wrapper and looked to her left. Next to the bookstore was a sign that said, ATHLETICS HUB: SPORTS SUPPLIES FOR GIRLS AND BOYS.
Mami walked up behind Ana and put her hand on her shoulder. “Well? I can’t believe you’re not running in there to get your book.”
Ana looked up at her mom. “Mami? I think there’s something else I want for my treat instead.”
* * *
“You didn’t get the book?” Cara shouted. Thankfully the cafeteria was already noisy, so nobody looked their way.
Ana shrugged. “I really want to read it,” she said. “But I decided to get something else instead. Anyway, can’t I borrow your copy when you’re done?”
Cara’s face fell. “Ellie fell down and broke her arm on Thursday. My dad said the medical bills are going to be high, so we can’t afford extras for a while,” she said. “I wanted to borrow the comic from you when you were done!”
“Oh, Cara,” Ana said. “I had no idea. I’m sorry!”
Cara gave a weak smile. Ana could tell she was forcing herself to do it, even though she was upset. “It’s OK. You didn’t know.”
“We’ll have to try the school library and the public library,” Ana suggested. “One of them has to have it. We can read it together, like we said we would.”
“OK,” Cara said. She hunched forward and looked down at her feet. “I guess that’s what we’ll have to do.”
* * *
Later that day, Ana came home from school and went straight to her room. Lying on her desk was the treat her mom had gotten her. She picked it up and hugged it to herself. She was sad that she didn’t get to read the comic book yet, but not too sad — because in her arms was a beautiful new softball glove and a bright green softball.