Echoes by Marissa Lete (best books for students to read txt) 📕

go out and enjoy a night with my friends. I want to be a normal teenager and do normal teenager things. And even though I’d much rather be sitting in the office in peaceful silence, I realize that I should try it, at least once. And anyway, I can just leave if it’s too much to deal with.

I take a deep breath, knowing I won’t be able to take back my decision once I say it. “Fine.”

Grace puts a fist up like she just won a trophy. “Yes! This is great, but we really need to start working on your costume, then.”

“I’ll pick it myself,” I say firmly. Not firm enough, though. Grace ignores me, pulls out a notebook, and starts listing off ideas for wild, over-the-top costumes she knows I’ll never wear. “I’m just going to wear all black and put on a pair of cat ears. Minimal effort, and still technically a costume,” I say.

“But it’s the only day of the year where it’s okay to go overboard. We have to take advantage of it while we can!”

I sigh.

“So we need to go shopping after school. I bet we could find some good inspiration at the thrift store,” Grace tells me.

“Sure. Let’s just get it over with,” I say.

“You in?” Grace asks Leo.

“Heck yes!”

After school, we spend three hours scouring the clothing racks at the two different thrift stores in downtown Shorewick. By the end of the trip, all of us have at least half-completed costumes, so Grace deems our work a success. When we leave the store, we don’t have to discuss our plans for the rest of the night because it’s become a tradition that Friday nights are movie nights at my house. My parents have made it abundantly clear that my friends are always welcome to come over—probably because it makes them feel more like normal parents—and started making sure they stocked up on all of the best snack foods to lure them in. When Grace and Leo realized this, my house became the go-to spot for movie nights.

“What in the world is going on in here?” Grace exclaims as we walk into my kitchen. Dad is laying on the ground, the cabinet doors under the sink wide open and half of his body tucked underneath. Cleaning supplies, water bottles, vases, and a ton of other miscellaneous items have been pulled out and are scattered on the floor around him. He backs out of the cabinet, sitting up and banging his head on the door as he does.

“Ouch!” he yells, rubbing his head.

“Did you lose something?” Leo asks.

Dad sighs. “Yeah. I dropped my wedding ring down the drain. I took it off while I was chopping the vegetables and set it on the edge of the sink. One bump and down it went.” He looks at me. “Please don’t tell your mom.”

“Tell me what?” Mom calls from the entranceway.

Dad groans. “Perfect timing.”

“Big yikes. Well, good luck with that one Mr. Jones,” Grace says, laughing as she plops on the couch in the living room. Leo follows suit.

Mom walks into the kitchen, a strange look on her face. “What’s that smell?” she asks.

Dad jumps up from his spot on the ground, immediately reaching for the oven. “Crap!” he says. As he opens it, a plume of smoke flows out. “I forgot to set a timer.” He turns it off, then grabs a towel while Mom starts opening windows.

“And you dropped your wedding ring down the drain again, too?” Mom asks, taking in the mess in the kitchen.

Grace and Leo laugh from the couch. I try to hold back a grin.

Dad looks defeated. “We can order pizza?” Then Mom laughs, too.

“It’s fine, we’re good with pizza. Right guys?” I reply, chuckling.

“Pepperoni, please!” Grace calls out.

“Hawaiian!” Leo adds.

“You sinner,” Grace rolls her eyes at him.

“I’m not even going to have this argument again,” Leo replies. I can’t help but laugh at them.

Dad goes back to his spot under the sink to keep looking for his wedding ring and Mom pulls out her phone to order the pizza. I move into the living room, where Grace and Leo have already started fighting over what movie to watch.

“Let’s watch an action movie,” Leo says.

“You always want to watch an action movie. What’s wrong with the one about the dog?” Grace replies.

“Why would you want to torture yourself like that?”

“You’re just afraid you’ll cry in front of us.”

“Okay, you two,” I jump in. “Stop bickering like an old married couple. If I do recall correctly, it’s my turn to pick the movie.”

When no one protests, I choose a new movie, an action-filled comedy, and it appeases them both.

About thirty minutes in, the doorbell rings.

“I’ll get it. Don’t worry about pausing it, I’ve seen this movie a million times,” I tell my friends. I walk into the kitchen and find Dad still sitting on the floor. He holds up his left hand, a ring on his finger.

“I found it!”

“Thank goodness,” I reply.

“Here,” he holds out a wad of cash. “Can you get it? I’ve still got to put all this stuff back.”

“No problem,” I tell him, grabbing the cash from his hand and heading to the door. A minute later, I come back into the kitchen bearing three warm boxes of pizza. I open my mouth to announce the food to Grace and Leo but stop when something in Dad’s hand catches my eye. It’s a vase.

“Hold on, let me see that,” I say quickly, setting the pizza down on the counter.

Dad holds out the vase to me, and the second it’s in my hand, I have a flashback to the echo I heard earlier in the week.

“...we did want to bring you this,” Annie, Maverick’s mom had said.