Donna Gephart - Abby, Tried and True

Also by Donna Gephart

The Paris Project

In Your Shoes

Lily and Dunkin

Death by Toilet Paper

How to Survive Middle School

Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen

As If Being 12 Isnt Bad Enough, My Mother Is Running for President!

SIMON & SCHUSTER BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS

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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the authors imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright 2021 by Donna Gephart

Jacket illustration copyright 2021 by Svetla Radivoeva

Jacket design by Chlo Foglia

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Jacket design by Chlo Foglia

Interior design by Tom Daly

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Gephart, Donna, author.

Title: Abby, tried and true / Donna Gephart.

Description: First edition. | New York City : Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, [2020] | Audience: Ages 812. | Audience: Grades 46. | Summary: Abby Braverman strives to navigate seventh grade without her best friend, keep up her older brothers spirits while he undergoes cancer treatment, and figure out her surprising new feelings for the boy next door. Includes facts about testicular cancer.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020002284 (print) | ISBN 9781534440890 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781534440913 (eBook)

Subjects: CYAC: ChangeFiction. | CancerFiction. | Brothers and sistersFiction. | Middle schoolsFiction. | SchoolsFiction. | Lesbian mothersFiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.G293463 Abb 2020 (print) | DDC [Fic]dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020002284

Dedicated to my amazing agent, Tina Dubois. I can barely believe my great good fortune that Tina has been my literary agent, my friend, my dispenser of wisdom, editorial feedback, and support, shepherding my eight novels and one picture book into the world since we began working together in 2005. Heres to many more creative literary adventures together!

Go, team!

You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.

C. S. Lewis

A bby Braverman thought the worst thing that could happen was her best (and only) friend, Catriella Wasserman, moving 6,584.2 miles away from her home next door to Abby in Port Paradise, Florida, to Jerusalem, Israel, the summer Abby turned twelve.

She was wrong.

G nawing at her thumbnail while standing in the driveway and gushing sweat like an open fire hydrant, Abby watched her momsMom Rachel with her puffy ponytail and Mama Dee with her short, dark hairhug Ms. Wasserman for all she was worth, while an airport shuttle van idled nearby in the street.

The three women separated, wiping away tears, even though they were the strongest women Abby knew.

Cat, with her silky, straight brown hair, rushed over and clutched Abby, her warm tears mingling with Abbys and Abbys with hers on both of their cheeks. Abby was memorizing how Cat feltbony and warm; how she smelledmango shampoo and lavender soap; and how she soundedsniffly and sad.

Come on now, you two, Mama Dee said.

Ms. Wasserman sighed. The van driver is waiting, Catriella.

Give them another minute, Mom Rachel murmured.

Eventually, the moms needed to grab the girls shoulders to pry them apart, like separating tangled roots of garden plants, and guide them away from each other.

Dont leave, Abby whispered. It felt like a part of herself was goingthe best part.

Cat shook her head. I wish

The van driver honked.

Suddenly, Cat wriggled from her moms grip and ran back to Abby. She handed her a rectangular package. Got this for you.

But I didnt get you anything.

I dont need anything. Cat put up a hand to wave or surrender.

Abby wasnt sure which.

Then Cat and her mom boarded the van, which drove down the street and was gone.

Mom Rachel held on to Abby. Mama Dee held on to Mom Rachel. The three of them clung to one another like crumbling pillars, barely able to support each other.

Long after her moms clasped each others hands and went inside, Abby stood in the driveway, sweat stinging her eyes, and stared at the avocado-green house next door. The one with the red door shed gone through hundreds of times to have dinners and sleepovers, listen to Cat practice violin, read books, bake cookies, and recently, gossip about the boys Cat liked.

Cat and her mom didnt live in that house anymore.

It seemed impossible that Cat wouldnt be bursting through the door to share a bit of news with Abby or join her when she walked Miss Lucy to the neighborhood park around the corner.

Abby wondered if she or Cat ached more over the move and decided it was harder for the person being left behind because the other person at least had exciting new adventures ahead.

Dont you dare forget about me, Catriella Robyn Wasserman, she whispered fiercely to no one before going inside.

In Abbys bedroom with the blue-and-green afghan her Bubbe Marcia had crocheted for her on the bed; her bookshelf filled with books about turtles, fantasy novels, and poetry collections from the bookstore in town; and the tank of her red-eared slider turtle, Fudge, on her desk, Abby sat on her bed and unwrapped the gift Cat had given her. She ran her fingers over the image of a forest path on the hardback journals cover and read the quote.

What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? Mary Oliver

Good question, Mary Oliver, Abby said to the dead poet.

Of course Cat had found a journal with the last line from her favorite poemThe Summer Day. Abby would use the journal for important things, like writing poems and thoughts she wanted to share with Cat.

Abby opened to the first page and poured her pain into a poem, her pen making satisfying black scars on the cream-colored surface.

Going (a poem for two voices, one of whom isnt here)

Away.

Please stay.

Toward Israel.

Please

So far, far away

Stay.

From here.

A fter sleeping for fourteen hours, Abby woke to the smell of French toast, which made zero sense. Mama Dee would be at her bakery shop in townDees Delightscreating specialty cupcakes and birthday cake masterpieces for her customers. Mom Rachel was probably still asleep because she stayed up late some nights editing videos for her YouTube channel,