The Summer of Violet

By Olivia Hobbs

Violet has a mom she calls Jessie and a father she never got to meet. She lives in a home-on-wheels, also known as a trailer, and she has a runaway fund stashed away under her bed in a mason jar. This summer she wants to get a summer job and make some money for her fundto bad nobody wants to hire a kid. But Violet isnt just any ten year oldshes made up her mind to get a job, and with the help of her best friend Travis, shes going to get one.
Thats just the start of her summer adventures with Travis. The two of them are about to have a summer that will change Violets life. From camping trips to the emergency room, her best friend is at her side, helping her handle all her problems. Violets biggest problem is having a mother who doesnt want to be a mom. All Violet wants is a real family. Will she find it? And what if its nothing like what shed expected?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jul 20, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465335401

Olivia Hobbs

Olivia Hobbs is currently a student at Indiana Wesleyan University. She is studying English and Writing, with the hopes of becoming a children’s author. The Summer of Violet actually began as an assignment for a class, but after the class was over she continued writing the story. When she isn’t on campus during the school year, Olivia lives at home with her family in Marshall Indiana.

Book preview

Copyright © 2011 by Olivia Hobbs.

ISBN:          Softcover                                 978-1-4653-3539-5

                   Ebook                                      978-1-4653-3540-1

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

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

This book was printed in the United States of America.

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

Xlibris Corporation

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

[e-mail]

98711

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Epilogue

Synopsis

MY MOM’S NAME is Jessie. I call her Jessie because she says if I call her Mom, she sounds old. Jessie says she doesn’t drive a minivan, she doesn’t make frosted cupcakes for Girl Scout meetings, she doesn’t join the PTA, and she doesn’t answer to Mom. Not for anything.

My dad’s name is James Ronald Seymour, but I don’t call him James, Jim, or Jimmy. I also don’t call him Dad. ‘Cause I don’t see him. Ever. I only know that’s his name because my grandma let it slip once by accident. I didn’t tell Jessie that I know that.

I’m Violet Renee Nolling. My last name should be Seymour; I guess Jessie didn’t like that name. Sometimes I pretend that I’m Violet Renee Seymour. I practice writing it out in cursive. I think it’s a good idea to practice, just in case.

Jessie and I live in a home with wheels. Also known as a trailer. When I grow up, I’m never gonna live in a trailer again. But it’s OK for now, I guess. Anyway, I’m not staying much longer. I’m getting out of this place as soon as I turn sixteen. I’m ten now—that’s only six more years.

All right, so that is a long time. But I have a lot of work to do until then. I ain’t no dummy. I know it takes a lot of money to make it in the real world. Jessie tells me that all the time. So I’m starting young. I’m going to get a job this summer, and every dollar I make is going to go in the mason jar I have hidden under my bed.

The only problem is, I don’t know of any places that will hire a kid. Grandma told me that way back they made all these child labor laws, so now kids can’t work in factories and stuff. And Travis, that’s my best friend, he told me nobody is gonna hire me ‘cause I’m just a girl, and I don’t know how to do nothing. I just stuck my tongue out at him. Then he said he would bet me an ice cream sundae with hot fudge that I couldn’t get a summer job. And I told him he better be prepared to dig in his pockets for three dollars and fifty cents real soon because that is what an ice cream sundae is going for in town at the Sundae and Shake Barn. He rolled his eyes.

Travis tried to act all tough and say mean things like that to me, but I know he doesn’t mean any of it. He told me once that I was the best girl in the whole world because I could spit farther than any boy he knows, and I don’t cry when I fall off my bike and skin my knee all the way to the bone. And since I’m the best girl in the whole world and we’ve been friends since forever, he is going to help me find a summer job. Even though nobody is gonna hire me.

Chapter 1

HOW COME YOU want a job anyway? We’re just kids. We aren’t supposed to work, you know. Travis was grumpy. I’d gotten him up at five thirty this morning by throwing rocks at his bedroom window. We had to get an early start on this job-hunt thing, and I wasn’t wasting any time. Besides, I brought him breakfast—strawberry Pop-Tarts and orange juice. He complained because the Pop-Tarts weren’t toasted and the orange juice was warm. I told him not to be picky.

We were riding our bikes down the gravel road toward town. Travis has a blue mountain bike—it’s awesome. His dad got it for him for Christmas. Travis washes it at least once a week, and since his dad taught him