Andy The Spider: Runaway (Volume 3)

By Samantha Rindfuss

Andy's life is going great! Well, expect for the worry of Hope capturing Andy and taking him away from everyone he loves. To keep that from happening, Andy stays locked away in Josh's house, while his friends enjoy the outdoors. His plan of staying hidden is interrupted when Max, the cat who loves to torture Andy, chases him out of the house, where he isn't safe. Andy runs off into the woods, where he knows Hope is forbidden to touch him. Soon, he learns of a new secret. A place he never knew existed. Somewhere he can feel at home and safe all the time. Can Emily and their friends save Andy and convince him to come back home? Or will Andy decide to change his life forever?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Samantha Rindfuss
• Release date: Dec 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310222054

Book preview

Andy The Spider

Runaway

Copyright © 2014 By Samantha Rindfuss Schwertfeger

Book Cover Illustrations by Somnath Chatterjee of dotpixel.in

Published by Samantha Rindfuss Schwertfeger at Smashwords

All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including scanning, photocopying, or otherwise without prior written permission of the copyright holder.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

For more information about the Andy The Spider series, please visit www.andythespider.com

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Chapter 1

Sarah's body tensed. She was about to crack open a nut she had found when her sister, Casey, ran up behind her and snatched it out of her hands.

Give it back! Sarah turned to Casey and chased after her. I found that one. It’s mine!

Smiling, Casey held the nut up in the air. Come and get it!

How many times did they have to fight over nuts? They had the same fight every single day! Even though she didn't feel like arguing, Sarah’s stomach growled. Besides, she did have the nut first.

Taking a deep breath, Sarah held out her hands, hoping Casey wasn’t going to give her a hard time. Just give it back. I had it first.

Casey slowly brought the nut closer to her mouth. Before she could eat it, Sarah lost her temper and crashed into her. The nut rolled across the ground and landed in a puddle of mud.

Ugh! The nut wasn't good anymore! Sharp hunger pains traveled to Sarah's stomach. How long did it take for her brother, Charlie, to find food? Oh, wait, his girlfriend, Jessie, was with him. That explained it. They were two lovesick puppies, and she hated it.

Look what you did! Casey yelled. She snatched the nut out of the mud. When she couldn't clean all the mud off, she tossed it over her head.

Sarah couldn't take her eyes off her sister. How was this her fault? If Casey had minded her own business, this never would have happened.

Without thinking, Sarah dashed at her sister again. Casey fell to the ground with Sarah on top of her.

They tumbled across the grass.

Casey shouted out in pain and grabbed her tail. Sarah had bitten it.

Before Sarah could say a word, their mother came out from their home–a log-like cave–and stared at her daughters. What is going on?

Sarah bit my tail! Casey's voice sounded in a high pitched wail, and Sarah cringed.

Dani gasped, locking her eyes on Sarah. Why in the world would you ever do something like that?

It was an accident! Sarah yelled. She fought the tears from pouring out. She started it! She snatched my food away.

I don’t care who started it. Dani spoke her words slowly. You don’t start a fight with your sister and bite her!

Why didn't her mother ever take her side? Yes, Sarah knew she could be a brat, but this time, she was innocent.

Apologize now, Dani demanded.

Sarah crossed her arms. No one was going to make her say she was sorry, especially when she didn’t do anything wrong, even though, she did bite her.

Before their mother could continue arguing, Charlie and Jessie came back, their arms full with nuts.

Charlie noticed the tension between everyone instantly. What’s going on?

She bit me! Casey yelled, cautiously stroking her tail.

Sarah rolled her eyes. There was only one reason why Casey made everything seem so drastic. She loved the attention. No matter what Sarah could say to defend herself, it wouldn't do any good.

Charlie and Jessie looked at Sarah with skepticism.

Why’d you do that? Charlie asked.

Sarah shut her eyes and screamed like she had never screamed before. She dashed at her brother and knocked all the nuts out of his hands. As the nuts fell to the ground, she ran off.

Later that night, Sarah lay away from everyone. Casey was still babying her tail, and Dani only gave her extra sympathy because she was hurt—or so she said. Charlie and Jessie cuddled next to each other, just like every other night.

Sarah had finally grown a tolerance for Jessie. However, she still felt that Jessie spent way too much time with her brother. On the other hand, Casey adored Jessie. Casey followed her everywhere, just like a little lost puppy.

Would they care if she ran away? The idea came to her often and now seemed like a great time to find out. She could have time to herself. No one would yell at her; it would be peaceful. Maybe they would appreciate her more and feel guilty about the way they had been treating her. This was the perfect time.

Sarah stood up and observed everyone. They wouldn’t notice that she was gone until morning. Smiling, she looked at her family one more time, then dashed off into the night.

Chapter 2

Andy ran across the field behind Josh’s house. Hope, the owl who had a vengeance against the spider, was chasing after him with a wicked smile across her face.

Hope’s wings had gained strength. Andy thought for sure her wings would be damaged from their last encounter. Wrong. She was coming after him at full speed.

You’re mine! Hope shouted.

If only he had stayed in the house. That was the only safe place to be. Come to think of it, how did he end up outside in the first place? He couldn’t remember.

You’re mine!

Since he was too far from the humans' house, the only other safe place where Andy could go was into the woods. Hope couldn’t hurt him there. The coyote said so himself.

Andy had a hard time catching his breath. His legs felt wobbly, almost as if he had been running

Reviews for Andy The Spider

[crystalclancy · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I won this in a LibraryThing giveaway and read it myself before deciding if I would share it with my 9 year old son. I couldn't finish it, finding the dialogue very stilted and too many characters to keep straight. Just did not hold my interest.

[nschumacher85 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Cute children's story. I had my nephew read it to me and he enjoyed it. The recommended reading age is 8, but he is 7 and had little trouble getting through it. Not a bad choice for kids in first or second grade.

[ginger72_1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

For some reason this book could not hold my attention let alone my 6 year old. We both became bored with it but I trudged along to finish reading it. While it does contain a certain cuteness, talking animals and a karate chopping skunk, it just wasn't enough to pull us in.

[jaynep140 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was impressed by the descriptions and wording of this tale. I also enjoyed the brother/sister relationships of Andy and Emily, Harry and Tami, and Charlie and Sarah as well as the blooming romance of Charlie and Jessie. It brings together family, friends of different species, intrigue and even a fairy tale. This book is probably geared for early teens, however kids of all ages can easily understand and enjoy it.

[jennyonfire · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was a cute book although I thought it was going to be geared toward a bit younger crowd. I thought it was more of a smaller kid book. Even so it was very interesting and I'm sure will be a hit with the 5+ kids. My son is 2 and wouldn't sit long enough to read it, however I enjoyed it!

[anrednesse · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I frequently read children's books for myself or when I read them out loud to my six year old. I generally stick with classic literature for children or books that are entertainingly written or have an interesting story. I will not be reading Andy the Spider out loud to anyone. I could barely get through it myself. Besides the missing punctuation and a few spelling errors that get in the way, the text is just not interesting. It lacks much narration. There is a lot of dialogue between all the characters, a lot of it very tedious. Is some of it realistic? Yes. But imagine if you had to listen to someone tell you a story and mention every tiny piece of dialogue that anyone in the story happened to have, even the most mundane bits. That's what you get in Andy the Spider. It reads like it was written by a child without much experience in writing.The story itself has potential but it's not worth wading through the whole book just to see how it all ends. The book could be re-written to be a good one but as it is, I would avoid it at all costs. There is too much good children's literature out there to spend any time on low quality writing.