Going Places Read Online Free

Geraldine had skated over as well and stood staring at the girls. I introduced them quickly. Smiles were exchanged, and then Daisy continued. “Yeah, that might be cool. We’ll ask our parents about it.”
    â€œGreat. Well, see you later. At school probably. Bye.” And off we skated, aware that our every stride was being watched.

Chapter Five
    The café was packed. All five tables were full, as was the counter. The café isn’t much, really. Once upon a time it had been the priests’ residence for the old church school. My Dad bought it from the church and tore out a lot of the inside walls downstairs. He fixed up the upstairs and made us an apartment there, with stairs going up the outside at the back of the building. It may not be fancy, but it’s home.
    The café itself is kind of plain, but it has matching curtains and tablecloths, old photographs on the walls and good food. A counter with stools runs across the front of the room, separating it from the kitchen. What more does a place like Fort Desperation need? It’s pretty popular, and Mom is busy most of the time.
    â€œCoffee’s on the house” announced Mom in a loud voice that could barely be heard over the hubbub. We were almost killed in the stampede to the counter. I guess free coffee is hard to find these days.
    Sam and Geraldine and I surveyed the situation. The Smithers girls were there, with both parents. Their dad was huge—about six foot six—with regulation short hair and a kind of watchful look about him. Their mom, on the other hand, was tiny. The girls looked a lot like her.
    Alyssa and Heather, who played Peewee, were there too, with their parents. The Graham twins, Opal and Ruby, had come with their mom. Two of the Beaulieu girls, who were in grade five and six, were sitting alone in a corner, trying hard to be invisible. I guess when you come from a family as big as theirs, you get used to being invisible. There were several other girls that I recognized but didn’t really know, with one or the other of their parents as well. Sitting alone in another corner was our community recreation director, Tara Richardson. She had arrived in the spring and had spent the summer trying to organize baseball and swimming lessons, without much success. So far, I counted fifteen girls, including me, Sam and Ger. This was scary!
    Mom cleared her throat really loud, stared at me for a long moment and said, “I guess we should start talking about this hockey thing so we can get done real fast.” There were nods of approval, and then everyone just stared at her. Finally, Mrs. Smithers broke the silence.
    â€œWhat exactly did you have in mind for the girls?” she asked.
    Mom looked at me again before answering.
    â€œWell, actually, I didn’t have anything in particular in mind at all. I just asked around to see if anyone was interested in girls’ hockey, and here we are.”
    I couldn’t stand feeling guilty anymore. I stood up. “My name’s Jess, and I’ve been playing hockey with the boys for five years. So have my friends, Sam and Geraldine.” I gestured to them in the hope that they would help me out. They were both busy examining the floorboards.
    â€œWe were just thinking it would be fun to have a girls’ team in town so that maybe we could travel somewhere to a tournament or something. They have girls’ hockey in lots of places now.”
    â€œOur girls played in Newfoundland,” said Mrs. Smithers. “It was great, wasn’t it, girls?” They allnodded in unison. “The town we lived in was small, so all of the girls played on one team, and at the end of the year they traveled to St. John’s for a tournament. It was a great trip.” She beamed at her audience. Then she sat down. Another dead silence.
    Finally a man asked, “What would we need to get going?”
    â€œWell,” replied Mom, who actually knew a lot more