Holly's Heart Collection Two by Beverly Lewis

the hallway and dialed.
    “Paula?” I said when she answered. It wasn’t hard to imagine her smile. And for the first time, I didn’t immediately think of a toothpaste commercial.
    “This is your friend Holly, and there’s someone here who misses you.” I held Goofey up to the phone. He meowed twice on cue. Just the way a perfectly pampered and well-mannered pet should.

To
    Barbara Birch,
    my sister and friend,
    who dots her i ’s with hearts.

GOOD-BYE, DRESSEL HILLS
    Chapter 1
    I was brushing my hair before breakfast when I first heard the word. It hung in the air, like a dagger waiting to be hurled.
    Tossing my brush onto the bed, I crept into the hallway, listening. Mom was in her bedroom, talking on the phone with Uncle Jack. I bristled when I heard the word again.
    Moving!
    “I’m not sure how I feel about it,” Mom was saying. “Let’s discuss it with the children first.”
    I gasped and stepped back into my bedroom, closing the door behind me. Moving! How could we leave the only home I’d ever known? Trembling, I pulled my journal out of the bottom drawer of my desk. I began to write: Tuesday, March 22: News flash—Mom said something horrible today—something about moving!
    That was all I could write before my curiosity took over. I poked my head out the door and listened again. Mom was still talking. I headed for her open bedroom door and tapped.
    “Come in,” she called to me.
    Quietly, I curled up on the foot of the bed and waited till she got off the phone. Trying not to eavesdrop, I glanced around the room. Things looked about the same as they had before Thanksgiving Day—nearly four months ago—when Mom had remarried and her new husband, my former uncle Jack, and my four cousins had moved in. A gray leather case lay on the left side of the antique pine dresser, and a blue terry bathrobe hung on the hook inside their bathroom. Other than that, the bedroom still had Mom’s feminine stamp on it.
    Finally Mom said good-bye and beeped off the phone. A worried frown creased her forehead.
    “Holly,” she said, “I want you to listen before you say anything. Please?”
    That’s when she told me about Uncle Jack’s consulting business and how well it was doing. So well, in fact, that he was thinking of opening an office in Denver.
    “You mean we’re leaving Dressel Hills?” I blurted.
    “Well, it’s a strong possibility.” She tied the belt on her pink bathrobe. “But we’ll know for sure on Friday.”
    “What’s Friday?” I asked.
    Mom sighed. “I’ll let Jack explain it to you tonight.”
    “So my life is being put on hold for three days?” I whined.
    “I know this must be disappointing for you, honey.” She came over and kissed the top of my head. “Moving, especially to a big city, frightens me, too.”
    “I’m not scared to move, Mom. I just don’t want to move,” I said. “Dressel Hills is my life—yours, too!”
    “Moving can be very complicated,” she said, staring out the window. She had a faraway look in her eyes, as though she was remembering something painful.
    I stood up. “Leaving fourteen years of your life behind—now, that’s complicated. No way am I going to miss the junior high musical. Or summer church camp. Oh, Mom, can’t you do something?”
    I didn’t mention my friends Andie and Paula. Or Jared. I couldn’t bear to think of saying good-bye to any of them.
    “Nothing’s been decided yet,” Mom said, turning around. “That was Jack calling from Denver. He’ll be home tonight. We can talk more about it then.”
    I knew that Uncle Jack’s consulting business had been taking him to Denver more frequently. And I knew that Mom didn’t especially care for him being gone overnight. But those weren’t good enough reasons to move. Were they?
    More than anything I wanted Mom to say this whole moving thing was just talk. Something we would toy with and then discard.
    “I’m going to be late for school,” I said, scooting off her bed. Of