Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do in Europe

By Jane Harrington

Brady is going to Europe—with her mother! It's a family coming-of-age tradition, so there's no way out of it. To make the trip more interesting, Brady's best gal pal, Delia, has written four things Brady must do while she's in Europe—and Delia used permanent marker so Brady can't chicken out. Brady would never do these things without some encouragement (AKA pressure) from Delia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lerner Publishing
• Release date: Aug 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781467732147

Jane Harrington

A child of the Washington DC burbs, Jane grew up with two brothers and three sisters, a mom and a dad, a beagle named Charlie and a parakeet named Pudgie. Summers were spent submerged in the local swimming pool, and winter days waned in front of TV reruns of Laugh-In and The Twilight Zone. Despite many hardships (no computers, cell phones, DVDs or microwave popcorn, to name just a few) she reached adulthood in the late 1970s. By 1990 she had three daughters, to whom she'd read aloud the entire collection of children's books at the local public library. That's when she started writing. For almost twenty years, Jane's writing has been inspired by her three daughters. Their lively personalities regularly surface in her fiction. Meghan, her oldest daughter, held the spotlight in her first published short stories in Hopscotch Magazine. Her youngest, Lucy, was strikingly similar to the central character of her first published book, Lucy's (Completely Cool and Totally True) E-Journal. And though her "middlest" daughter, Emma, may not be just like Brady, her adventures and friends sparked Four Things My Geeky-Jock-of-a-Best-Friend Must Do In Europe, as well as the spin-off novel, My Best Friend, the Atlantic Ocean, and Other Great Bodies Standing Between Me and my Life with Giulio.   She loves to hike in the Blue Ridge Mountains, watch Washington Nationals baseball, and visit Ireland—the setting of her latest writing endeavor.

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Friday, later in the afternoon

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Dear Delia,

It’s a whole two hours since the last letter, and I wish I could at least report that we are flying over the Atlantic Ocean, but the truth is, we still haven’t left the DC airport. Yes, we did board, and yes, it was on time, and, yes, we even rolled down the runway, but then we had to stop because of a major thunderstorm in Chicago, which is where we’re supposed to get our flight to Rome. So we’re sitting here on the runway. Well, we’re not sitting on the runway. We’re in seats, in the plane. On the runway.

You may be wondering WHY we’re flying to Chicago at all. Of course, this is assuming you have some knowledge of geography, which is unlikely, since you hate that subject. So, I’ll explain all this at a level appropriate to your understanding—say, first grade? It’s like this: Our airport is in Washington, DC. (With me so far?) Chicago is WEST of DC, while Rome is EAST of DC. WEST and EAST are OPPOSITE directions. So, NOW, of course, you are thinking, WHY would they fly in the direction that is AWAY from the place they are going?

That’s a very good question, Delia! But I’m not going to tell you the answer. It has to do with airlines and hubs and cruise packages and it’s all MUCH too boring to talk about. I know this for a fact, because my mother talked about it for an hour. Finally, I had to resort to the only proven method for distracting her: Georgia Nicholson. I rooted through my pack until I found a copy of Knocked Out by My Nunga Nungas, which I opened and began reading. She forgot completely about her hub-and-cruise-package jag, and we went right into the same conversation we always have when she sees me reading (or re-reading) (or re-re-reading) a Georgia book. It went like