Lucy’s “Perfect” Summer
Other books in the growing Faithgirlz!™ Library
The Faithgirlz! Bible
Nonfiction
Dear Nancy, Beauty Lab, Body Talk, Girl Politics,
and
Everybody Tells Me to Be Myself but I Don’t Know Who I Am
The Sophie Series
Sophie’s World
(Book One)
Sophie’s Secret
(Book Two)
Sophie Under Pressure
(Book Three)
Sophie Steps Up
(Book Four)
Sophie’s First Dance
(Book Five)
Sophie’s Stormy Summer
(Book Six)
Sophie’s Friendship Fiasco
(Book Seven)
Sophie and the New Girl
(Book Eight)
Sophie Flakes Out
(Book Nine)
Sophie Loves Jimmy
(Book Ten)
Sophie’s Drama (
Book Eleven
)
Sophie Gets Real
(Book Twelve)
The Lily Series
Here’s Lily!
(Book One)
Lily Robbins, M.D.
(Book Two)
Lily and the Creep
(Book Three)
Lily’s Ultimate Party
(Book Four)
Ask Lily
(Book Five)
Lily the Rebel
(Book Six)
Lights, Action, Lily!
(Book Seven)
Lily Rules!
(Book Eight)
Rough & Rugged Lily
(Book Nine)
Lily Speaks!
(Book Ten)
Horse Crazy Lily
(Book Eleven)
Lily’s Church Camp Adventure
(Book Twelve)
Lily’s in London?!
(Book Thirteen)
Lily’s Passport to Paris
(Book Fourteen)
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ZONDERKIDZ
Lucy’s “Perfect” Summer
Copyright © 2009 by Nancy Rue
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ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 0-310-86292-2
Requests for information should be addressed to:
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Rue, Nancy –
Lucy’s perfect summer / by Nancy Rue.
p. cm. — (What about Lucy? ; bk.3_)
“Faithgirlz!”
Summary: Facing up to a cheater at an elite soccer day camp and some
difficult events at home helps eleven-year-old Lucy do some growing up
during a summer which, while very different from the one she imagined, turns
out to be just right.
ISBN 978-0-310-71452-1
1. Soccer — Fiction 2. Sportsmanship— Fiction. 3. Christian life — Fiction. 4. Single-parent families — Fiction. 5. Blind — Fiction. 6. People with disabilities — Fiction. 7. New Mexico — Fiction. I. Title.
PZ7.R88515Lun 2009
[Fic]--dc22
2008045729
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International Version
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. NIV
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cover design: Sarah Molegraaf
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Content
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.
For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
— 2 Corinthians 4:18
Dear God: Why My Life Is Just about Perfect
1. School is out for the summer!!!!!!!!!!
Lucy would have made more exclamation points, but Lollipop, her pot-bellied kitty, was watching from the windowsill above the bed, her black head bobbing with each stroke and dot. She’d be pouncing in a second.
Lucy protected the Book of Lists with her other arm and wrote . . .
2. Aunt Karen is taking her vacation to some island, so
she won’t be coming HERE for a while. YES!!
3. I can practice soccer every minute that I want
to — which I HAVE to do if I’m going to be accepted
to even try out for the Olympic Development Program. Hello — biggest dream on the planet!
4. We have a soccer game on our field in two weeks,
thanks to Coach Auggy. A for-REAL game, with a whole
other team, not just our team split up, which is always
lame since we only have eight players to begin with. I
cannot WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Lollipop twitched an ear at the pen.
“Forget about it,” Lucy said to her. She’d only just learned the joy of making exclamation points from Veronica, who was a girly-girl, but who did have her good points. Lucy snickered. “Good
points,
Lolli. Get it?”
Lollipop apparently did not. She tucked her paws under her on the tile sill and blinked her eyes into a nap. Lucy slipped a few more exclh2ltion marks in before she continued.
5. I get to hang out with J.J. and Dusty and Veronica and
Carla Rosa and Mora any time I want, not just at lunch
or soccer practice or church. Okay, so I already got
to hang out with them a lot before summer, but now
it’s like ANY time, and that’s perfect. Except we’re still
stuck with Januarie. If she weren’t J.J.’s little sister,
we could just ditch her, but she needs a good influence. We’re a good influence.
Lucy glanced at her bedroom door to make sure it was all the way shut. The Book of Lists was her private way of talking to God, and everybody else in the house — Dad and Inez, the housekeeper-nanny, and her granddaughter Mora — knew to leave it alone. Still, she always had to figure out whether it was worth risking discovery to write down what she really, really thought. She decided it was and added.
Well, maybe Mora’s not that good of an influence.
Besides, God already knew she was thinking it. She’d discovered that if He wanted her to think anything different, He would definitely let her know. She wrote some more:
6. We can go buy little chocolate soccer balls at Claudia’s
shop in the middle of the day, or have breakfast at
Pasco’s café or take picnics to OUR soccer field,
because — guess what? — It’s SUMMER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Something black whipped across the page and Lucy’s pen flew into space, landing with a smack against the blue-and-yellow toy chest and knocking down the ruler Lucy always kept there to hold it open in case Lollipop needed to jump in and hide. The lid slapped shut, and Lolli sprang into an upside down U before she leaped and skidded across the top with her claws bared. She glared indignantly at Lucy.