Discovering by Wendy Corsi Staub

actually ate out of his hand.
    “You’re like Snow White or something,”Calla had told him with a grin.
    “Snow White?”He’d raised a dark eyebrow at her. “Snow White?”
    “You know, she was always surrounded by forest creatures.”
    “So was Tarzan. And he was a lot more manly than Snow White,”Jacy had said, and they laughed.
    Jacy has always seemed most comfortable in the great outdoors, moving through the woods as easily as most people walk through their own living room.
    But when he’s sitting across the aisle from Calla in math class, he always seems restless in his seat, and sometimes she catches him staring longingly out the window.
    Now, as she pays the cashier and carries her tray toward her usual table, she concludes that he’s not in the cafeteria today. Why would he be?
    Indian summer has definitely settled over Lily Dale.
    Again this morning, Calla awoke to find the sun shining; again, she left her coat behind.
    And again, her father was lounging on the Taggarts’ front porch with a cup of coffee— and Ramona— when she headed off to school.
    It was nice to see him there . . . sort of.
    But Calla is starting to wonder if she’d rather he stayed at Odelia’s, despite the close quarters. It’s kind of strange to have him around . . . but not around.
    This morning when she and Evangeline were walking to school together, Calla almost asked her friend again what she thought about all of this.
    But Evangeline had a lot to say.
    Most of it about Russell Lancione.
    They’d talked on the phone for over an hour last night while she was supposed to be working on her project— which she wound up throwing together at the last minute, before her aunt got home. He’d asked her to study together again tonight, and Evangeline was starting to like him – like him.
    Which was great for her, and great for Russell, and great for Calla, too— not just because she wants her friend to be happy, but because it takes some of the pressure off her dating Jacy.
    Still, Evangeline in love—or, okay, just in like -like—is even more talkative than the usual Evangeline. Who could be pretty talkative.
    Calla has barely gotten a word in edgewise since they made up.
    That’s probably a good thing, because what if Calla were to mention her mother’s secret past to Evangeline and Evangeline slipped and told her aunt and her aunt went and told Dad, or he even just happened to overhear?
    That would not be good.
    So far, the only ones who know there even was a baby are Jacy and Odelia. And Jacy’s definitely not talkative under any circumstances, so it’s safe with him.
    Right, so it’s better this way—Evangeline wrapped up in Russell, and not asking too many questions about what happened in Florida. All she knows so far is that a woman broke into the Delaneys’ house there and attacked Calla.
    That’s more than her friends Willow York and Sarita Abernathie know .
    But now, when she deposits her lunch tray on their usual table and starts to sit down, she can’t help but notice that they suddenly stop talking.
    Exactly the way people do when the person they’re talking about suddenly appears.
    Back when she first met beautiful, brainy Willow— who happens to be a recent ex-girlfriend of Blue Slayton— Calla mistook her reserved nature for standoffishness. Then Mr. Bombeck assigned her as Calla’s math study partner, and she found an unexpected friend in Willow— and her lovable, ailing mom, Althea.
    “Hi, Calla,”Sarita says as she sits down.
    Willow says nothing at all. Which is unusual.
    “What’s up?”Calla unwraps her fork, trying to sound casual, wondering if Willow has suddenly had a change of heart about Blue or something.
    That would be fine with Calla. Whatever was going on between her and Blue came to an end the night before homecoming, when Jacy kissed her for the first time.
    Or maybe it’s not about Blue.
    Maybe they, too, have heard about the Florida detectives who came to see Patsy Metcalf