At Wits' End - Kenzie Reed Page 0,1

I’ll be right back.”

“What-ever. Bad idea.” Pamela was probably right, but something about Donovan drew Sienna like a magnet. Maybe it was because she wasn’t supposed to talk to him. Maybe it was the hint of sadness in his green eyes. What did the best-looking boy, from the richest family in all of Greenvale, have to be sad about?

Sienna and Donovan strolled over to the monkey bars. They stood there in the striped shadows, and Sienna took a leap of faith and ate the cookie.

“Now you’re my girlfriend,” Donovan informed her.

Girlfriend? Sienna turned the idea over in her head, equal parts appalled and intrigued.

“Maybe. I’ll think about it. I’m not going to kiss you,” she informed him.

“Gross! Of course not.” He looked thoughtful, chewing his lower lip. “Sometimes we might hold hands.”

“I guess.” A storm of butterflies exploded in her stomach at the idea. What was happening to her? “Can a Ribaldi even be a Witlocke’s girlfriend?”

“Well, we won’t tell our parents until we’re eighteen.” He said it in such a solemn tone that she somehow knew he was telling the truth. “Then we’ll get married.”

Married. Married! Her mouth curved up in a delighted grin. She’d been planning her wedding since she’d first known what weddings were. She even had her wedding dress picked out. Well, it was the fancy pink tulle dress she’d worn to Pam’s seventh birthday party, and maybe it wouldn’t fit her when she was eighteen? No, of course it wouldn’t. When she was eighteen she’d have boobies.

She’d figure something out. She had plenty of time.

He cast a glance down at the ground, suddenly looking a little shy. “Anyway, you can come to my birthday party on Saturday if you want. It starts at noon.”

That was in two days. “I know. I heard about it. Your parents wouldn’t like it, though, would they?”

“They’re not mad at you. Just your family. And they won’t know you’re my girlfriend.”

“I’ll think about it,” she said, and she turned and walked back to Pam.

But of course she’d go.

Married. She was going to marry Donovan Witlocke! A small part of her heart that had felt crushed down was now blossoming. She tried not to think about it a lot, but sometimes she suspected there must be something wrong with her. Everyone else had mothers and fathers who lived with them. Her mother was so busy with her business trips that she was gone more than she was home, and Sienna didn’t even remember what her father looked like.

But Donovan Witlocke, the handsomest boy at Greenvale Elementary School, who was one whole grade older than her, and who she now could admit she’d secretly always had a crush on, wanted her to be his girlfriend. And marry her. She must be at least a little bit okay.

On Friday, Donovan sat next to her on the picnic bench on the playground at recess, and they talked about their favorite TV shows. Pamela sat across from them with a look that was more like pity than disapproval. It made Sienna a little bit mad. Did Pamela not think that Sienna deserved a nice boyfriend?

Donovan’s sister Jamie, who was two years older than him, walked by and smacked her brother on the back of the head. “What are you even doing?” she demanded, not sparing Sienna a single glance.

Sienna thought Donovan might jump away from her, or say something mean, but he just twisted around and glared at his sister. “None of your beeswax. And if you hit me again I’ll give you a noogie.”

Jamie froze him with her ice-blue eyes. Donovan was the only one in the Witlocke family who had green eyes, because he was adopted. “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

Then Jamie flipped her brother the bird and walked off.

That Saturday, Sienna helped her aunt Fernanda and uncle Nuccio with chores in the morning, gathering the eggs and taking the chickens out to the vineyard, where they scratched for bugs and fertilized the cover crops. Then she snuck into her room and got dressed, putting on her very favorite party dress, even nicer than the one she’d worn to Pamela’s party. It was handmade, with white lace trim. It had been a Christmas present from her mother, mailed all the way from Italy. It had been almost as good as her mother really being there.

She quickly wrapped up her present for Donovan in wrapping paper she’d drawn on herself, and stuck it in her purse. She’d used up all her allowance money to buy