The Pier by Mary H. Collins (ap literature book list txt) 📕

Chapter One

“Please don’t leave,” Carrie cried, as her uncle Reggie packed his suitcase.
“I’ll see you soon when you visit me in Florida.” He picked her up, held her close, and kissed her on the cheek before putting her down again. She loved her uncle Reggie as much as she loved her own parents. He played games with her and took her for pony rides on his back. The day he left, her small world fell apart. At five years old, she couldn’t understand why he’d leave her. Nine years later they’d be reunited and she’d be heartbroken again.
When her parents told her they were moving to Jacksonville, Florida, Carrie cried like a baby. She didn’t want to move away from her friends and the only home she’d ever known.
“You’ll love Jacksonville. Your uncle Reggie says there are plenty of kids your age in the neighborhood. You’ll make new friends there.”
“I don't want to move to Jacksonville and make new friends. I want to stay here with my old friends." Tears blurred Carrie's vision as she gazed at her mother. “Detroit is the only home I've ever known. Please don't take me away."
"Sweetheart, don't cry." Her mother reached for her, pulling her into a tight embrace. "I know you like living here. I do too. If we could stay we would, but your father lost his job at the car plant."
Carrie sniffled, resting her cheek on her mother's shoulder. "Can't he find another job here?"
"It's not that easy, honey. The cutback at the plant left a lot of people without work. There simply aren't enough available jobs in town for everyone." Her mother eased back, hooked a finger beneath Carrie's chin and pulled her face up, smiling at her with understanding. "Your Uncle Reggie offered your father a job in his restaurant by the pier in Jacksonville. Oh, Carrie, you'll love it there. I know you will if you give it a chance. Reggie lives right on the beach."
"We'll be living with Uncle Reggie?" Carrie missed her uncle. It’d been nine years since he left Detroit and moved to Jacksonville. It broke her heart when he left. Now she’d have to leave.
"For a while," her mother nodded. "Until we can sell the house here in Detroit and find a place of our own in Jacksonville. You'll soon be as popular there as you are here. I know it!"
Carrie wished she could feel so confident. She only knew she didn't want to move to Jacksonville and nothing her mother said, at the moment, could make her any happier about the decision.
The next two weeks were the worst of her life. She’d be starting high school the following month and what she’d looked forward to would now be a nightmare. Here in Detroit she’d been one of the most popular girls in her class. She’d dreamed of starting high school and going on dates. Her parents always told her she could double-date when she turned fourteen. They’d arrive in Jacksonville on her fourteenth birthday. It’d be the worst ever.
“Where’s Uncle Reggie?” Carrie asked upon their arrival at the house in Jacksonville.
“He’s still at work dear; you’ll see him in the morning when you wake up,” Her mother said, “Come on I’ll show you around the house.”
Even the beautiful layout of the house or the birthday cake her uncle left on the table for her didn’t impress Carrie.
“I just want to go to my room and text my friends back home. I miss them already.”
“Oh, look dear, you can see the pier from the window.”
“I don’t care. I’ll hate it here.” She’d heard of the pier at Jacksonville Beach and always wanted to visit there, but now it was the one place she didn’t want to be.
She didn’t remember much about her uncle. Only that she loved him and cried for days after he moved away. She’d continued to get birthday cards and Christmas gifts from him, but hadn’t seen him since he left Detroit.
****
Carrie awoke to find a Vortex BP Platinum body board standing at the foot of her bed. Normally she’d be happy about it, but now only sadness filled her. Nothing could make her feel better.
“What’s wrong with my girl?” Reggie asked when she came down for breakfast.
“I want to go home. I don’t belong here.” She ran back to her room without eating.
For the following two weeks, Carrie stayed in her room most of the time, coming out only to eat. Gradually she started watching TV with her parents and uncle. Although she loved Reggie, she hoped they’d call her father back to work so they could move back home.


Chapter Two

Carrie trembled as she walked into the small homeroom class at Jackson High for the first time. It was smaller than the school she attended in Detroit, but she’d have been among friends there. Here, she knew no one.
“This is Carrie Orr.” The teacher introduced her to the class, “Have a seat there.” She pointed to an empty desk in back of the room.
“Hi Carrie, my name’s Toby,” a good-looking boy said as she made her way to her seat.
“Hi. It’s nice to meet you Toby.” Toby sat directly across from her and several times throughout the class she caught him looking at her.
“What class do you have next?” he asked when homeroom ended.
“English,” she said, looking at her schedule. As luck would have it, they had the next two classes together.
“Is this seat taken?” She heard someone say as she sat eating her lunch. Looking up she saw Toby standing over her holding his tray of food.
“No, you can sit there.” She shook her head, glad she didn’t have to eat lunch alone. At her old school all the popular kids tried to sit next to her. Here the kids walked right past her as if she didn’t exist. The kids were so different here than in Detroit.
She found talking with Toby to be easy. Soon they began laughing like old friends. They had a lot in common. She found out, like herself, he had no siblings. His father Jack Carter, a retired Army officer, owned the fish and tackle shack on the dock near Reggie’s restaurant. His mother, Marie, owned her own beauty shop in town overlooking friendship fountain.
“I’ll check it out next time I need a haircut.”
Toby and Carrie walked home together after school. They lived only a few blocks from each other. Up until this time, she’d regretted moving here, but now began to like it. She’d made a friend, the handsomest boy at school.
“Would you like to go to the movies with me, and another couple, this weekend? ‘Creature from Hell’ is showing,” he said, as they stood together outside her uncle’s house.
“I love horror movies. I’ll ask my parents.” She hurried inside to tell her mother about her first day at the new school.
Before long Carrie became as popular at her new school as she’d been at her school in Detroit. She got invited to all the in-crowd parties and all the popular girls added her as a friend on “Facebook”. She enjoyed life again.
The day Carrie came home to find her mother packing, she panicked.
“MOM! What are you doing? We can’t leave here.”
“Our house in Detroit sold. We’re moving into our own home, only one block from here.”
“That’s great! I’ll still be near Uncle Reggie.” She enjoyed hanging out with her uncle and his beach friends. He had friends of all ages, some teenagers, some as old as her father.
Carrie and Toby were only freshmen, but became one of the most popular couples in their high school. They showed up at all school events together. He was captain of the football team and she joined the cheerleading squad. Although only fourteen years old, they had the kind of love that rarely happens, like Romeo and Juliet or Napoleon and Josephine.


Chapter Three

“My first year in high school turned out to be everything I’d hoped. I’m glad we moved here.” Carrie told her mother while shopping one afternoon.
“I knew you’d love it, if you give it a chance. I’m glad we moved here too. Reggie needs us.”
“Uncle Reggie promised to give me a summer job at the restaurant. I want to save my money to buy a car.”
“You still have another year before you can drive without an adult in the car with you.”
“I know Mom, but I want to start saving for it now.”
“That’s fine dear, I’m sure Reggie will appreciate the help.”
Carrie’s phone rang.
“It’s Toby, excuse me Mom.”
“Sure dear, I’ll check out and meet you at the front of the store.”
“Hi Toby, I’m shopping with my mom. I’ll see you tonight at the pier.”
“Zach and Molly are going to the movies tonight. Do you want to go?”
“I’ll have to ask my parents, but I’m almost sure they’ll let me go. I’ll call you when I get home.” She hung up her cell phone and went in search of her mother.
“Sure that’s fine, as long as you’re home by eleven,” Shelia said, when Carrie asked if she could go with her friends to the movies.
“Aww…Mom, why do I have to be home so early? I’ll be fifteen next week.”
“And you still have to be home by eleven until you’re sixteen. After which we’ll see if then you can stay out later.”
****
“Where’s Uncle Reggie?” Carrie asked her mom, disappointed that he didn’t show up for her fifteenth birthday party.
“He called, saying something arose and he’d be along later.”
“Is something wrong?” Carrie knew her uncle wouldn’t miss her birthday unless he had a problem. Suddenly hearing a noise, she turned to see him riding up on a brand new Metropolitan Euro-Cool scooter.
“Red, my favorite color…Is it for me? I love it!” Carrie jumped on, started it, and rode a few times around the beach before reluctantly getting off and going back to the party. “I’ve never received a better present, not even the laptop computer you gave me when I turned twelve,” she told her uncle.
“Reggie, you’re spoiling her.” Shelia said.
“My business is doing well and I can’t take it with me. Besides she’s the closest thing to my own child I’ll ever have.”
“Don’t say that. You’ll find another love someday.”
Carrie didn’t know what her mother meant about finding another love. I’ll have to ask her later. She ran over to where Toby and her friends gathered around a small fire, roasting marshmallows.
“Do you think your parents will let you go riding around with Zach and Molly?” Toby asked.
“Whose car are they taking?” She knew Zach only had his learner’s permit. He’d just turned fifteen the previous month.
“His old man let him use his car.”
“I don’t think my parents will let me go in a car. But I can hang out on