Teaser of my new book...

Winifred's Hopes

Sequel to Winifred's Dream

Written by Mary Minship

SNEAK PREVIEW OF THE COVER......

Winifred Hawdrid got up with the sun on Wednesday, June 9^th. They had just gotten out of school for the year a few days before. Winnie hopped down the stairs two at a time. She nearly ran into Beth at the bottom.

“Ouch!” Beth rubbed her arm where her sister had whacked her. She playfully whacked her back.

“Oh, how painful!” Winnie teased and the two of them ran into the kitchen.

Winifred’s older sister, Beth, was 16 years old and into makeup and looking good. If this occurrence had happened a few days ago, Beth would have been in a terrible mood.

The Hawdrid family had four children. Jimmy, who was nineteen, was coming back from college for the summer. That’s why Beth and Winnie were in good moods.

Beth was sixteen. Her favorite color was brown and she shared a room with Winnie.

Winnie- age 14. She was best friends with Tabitha Penworthy. More on that later.

Lucas, the youngest of their family, was seven years old.

Bethany and Winnie started pouring cereal into their bowls just as Mrs. Hawdrid came in.

“Hi mom,” Bethany said as she chomped down on a huge bite of cereal.

“Good morning, sweetie,” Mrs. Hawdrid leaned over and gave her daughter’s kisses.

“Where’s dad?” Winnie asked.

“He left early for work so he can pick up Jimmy at the airport.”

“Oh, I’m so excited!” Winnie squealed.

Suddenly they heard a yell at the top of the stairs, and following, they all watched Lucas slide down the stair banister.

“Lucas, you are so loud,” Beth complained.

Mrs. Hawdrid just laughed and poured some cereal for her and Lucas.

Winnie slurped up the last of her milk and ran upstairs to get dressed. She found a cute tiered, knee-length shirt and an aqua-colored polo shirt and quickly threw them on. Beth came into their room just as Winnie was leaving.

“Nice outfit. What should I wear?” Beth asked.

“How about that African-looking sundress?”

“The one with the ruffles on the bottom? I guess that’d be cute!”

Winnie brushed her tangled brown hair and swept it up into a ponytail.

Mrs. Hawdrid walked upstairs, the phone to her ear.

“Yes, we can’t wait to see you guys! Uh-hu. Uh-hu. Ok, we can do that. Ok. Love you!”

Beth and Winnie squealed. “Who is it? Is it Jimmy? Let me talk to him!”

Mrs. Hawdrid hung up the phone.

“It was your dad. He got a call from Jimmy, and his flight was early- he’s going to get here in an hour.”

“AAAHHH!!!!” the girls screamed and ran down the stairs and flew onto the front porch.

“Girls, he’s not coming for an hour!” Mrs. Hawdrid called after them.

Winnie and Beth sat on the porch swing and watched the road.

“Beth, Winnie, he’s not going to be here for an hour. Why don’t you go over to the Penworthy’s for a while?”

The Penworthy’s were the largest family in the town. Well, practically not a town, since there were only 67 people in the barely-a-town place of Fathelton. The Penworthy’s were actually about a fourth the population. Mr. and Mrs. Penworthy were the proud parents of 12 children- and, as always, Mrs. Penworthy had another one on the way. Those twelve children were Maendy, age 21, who had already gotten married and moved away. So had Jason, 20. Next in line were the twins, Carla and Mason. They were 19. Then it went along with Clark, 17, Bethany (Beth Hawdrid’s best friend), 16 (same as Beth), and Tabitha- she was Winnie’s best friend since they were little. Winnie and Tabitha were both swimmers- they swam with each other as often as possible in the Penworthy’s Olympic-sized pool. After Tabitha was Martin, who was eleven and played with Lucas. Natalie was nine, and then the newest additions were now three- Merek, Georgia, and Sheridan, the triplets. Everyone in town knew the Penworthy's, everyone in the Penworthy's family knew everyone else. Everybody knew everybody.

So Winnie and Beth grabbed their bikes and started pedaling through their orchards toward the Penworthy’s.  They reached their backyard and leaned their bikes against the house. Winnie and Beth walked in through the kitchen door and greeted everyone who was still eating breakfast.

“Have a roll,” Clark gestured at the large pile of warm rolls. Beth did, but Winnie didn’t.

“Hey, where’s Tabitha? And where’s Carla and Natalie?”

“Oh, you noticed that some of our family’s missing. Well, it’s a funny story, it relates to your family. Well, at least why Carla’s gone. She’s gone because-”

“CLARK!” Bethany P. yelled and stopped him mid-sentence.

“Carla’s just gone somewhere, Natalie’s sick in bed and Tabitha’s swimming,” Bethany told them. Winnie thanked her and ran out to the pool.

“Hey, Tab!” Winnie said as she dipped her toes in the water.

“Hi!” Tabitha called from the diving board. She ran and gave a powerful jump on the end of the board before twisting in the air. Splash!

“Nice layout!” Winnie called. Tabitha swam over to her friend.

“You know, Winnie, you left your swimsuit over here last night. And you still have my clothes you borrowed, too.”

“Actually, those clothes I borrowed from you, you borrowed from me a few weeks ago,” Winnie laughed. The two girls were like sisters, sharing all their clothes- and the two both had the same, brown, 13-inch long hair.

Winnie changed into her swimsuit and they swam, dove, and played in the water for quite a long time. After a while, Beth H. came running out of the Penworthy’s three-story house.

“WINNIE! WINNIE!” Beth yelled as she ran towards them.

“What is it?” Winnie said, pulling herself out of the pool.

“I just saw dad’s car driving up the road towards our house! JIMMY’S BACK!”

There you go! This is part of the first chapter. I might put more up some other time... comment if you want me to!