SECOND CHANCE RANCH FOREVER AMIGO AN ABBY STORY KELSEY ABRAMS ILLUSTRATED BY JOMIKE TEJIDO TEXT BY WHITNEY SANDERSON JOLLY FISH PRESS Mendota Heights Minnesota
Chapter One Abby jumped down from the school bus steps and raced up the long driveway to the farmhouse on the hill Bye Thanks Ms Bea she remembered to call back to the bus driver Her backpack seemed to feel lighter with every step she took Abby didn’t dislike school exactly but it made her feel tired The day was long and filled with one challenge after another Loud bells sudden changes from one subject to the next and waiting in line So much waiting in line And then there were the other kids If only they were as easy to understand as the word problems in math class For those you just had to figure out what the question was really asking write it down as an equation and solve it No problem But there was no equation for working out people problems and it seemed like the rules were always changing
For example why did her maybe-friends Cora Cat and Savannah invite her to ride bikes with them yesterday and act like they barely knew her today Why did her definitely-friend Miriam get so grumpy when Abby said Miriam’s new glasses made her look like John Lennon Miriam loved the classic rock group the Beatles Why wouldn’t she want to look like one of their lead singers Most of all why did Abby’s usually annoying classmate Jamal help her pick up the stack of library books she’d dropped on the stairs Sure she’d only dropped them in the first place because he’d bumped into her but usually he would have just raced off without even apologizing Abby left all these questions behind as she entered the spacious ranch house She dropped off her backpack at her unloading dock near the mudroom door and left her shoes there too She always kept her stuff in the same place so she wouldn’t lose track of it
