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    Gina and the Wishing Tree
    Gina and the Wishing Tree
    Gina and the Wishing Tree
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Gina and the Wishing Tree

    By C.L. Atkinson

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    About this ebook

    Gina was always daddy’s little princess, and her dad was always her favorite guy on the planet. Then Gina turns fifteen and a transformation happens; Gina discovers boys. One boy in particular: Joey Mancini. Gina likes Joey, and Joey likes Gina. There’s just one problem; Gina’s not allowed to date until she’s sixteen. Instead of waiting four months for her sixteenth birthday, Gina and eighteen year old Joey begin dating undercover. When Gina’s father discovers their plot, he grounds Gina and tells her that she will never be allowed to see Joey again. When Gina responds with the silent treatment, her father tries everything to get his little girl to talk to him again. When all else fails, her dad makes a last ditch effort, and takes Gina on a daddy-daughter bonding trip to China. Gina flies 10,000 miles carrying feelings of anger and resentment until she drops them at the Hong Kong Wishing Tree. She makes three wishes that will give her everything she thinks she needs to make her life perfect. First she wishes that she can drive. Second, she makes a wish to date older guys, so she can date Joey. Finally, third, she makes a wish that her father isn’t her father anymore.
    Even though all of her wishes are granted, they are granted in ways very different from what Gina has intended. Instead of cruising down the highway in her own brand new cherry red Mustang convertible, she now drives a thirteen ton, forty foot long bus, as she is now in the body of the twenty-four year old school bus driver/army reservist named Mo.
    While she is in an older body, and has the freedom to date, her second wish to date older guys turns out to be more like a curse; she can only attract guys over thirty. Still having her fifteen year old mind, she thinks this is gross.
    Wishing her father away doesn’t turn out exactly as planned either. While he isn’t her father in this new parallel reality, he still manages to have some control over her; he is now her boss!
    While Gina first enjoys her newfound freedom, the novelty quickly fades. Getting hit on by “old guys”, not being able to see Joey, and getting five hundred dollars in fines all take a toll. Now that Gina wished herself into this new life, her only mission is to get out of it, get home, and most importantly, get her dad back.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherC.L. Atkinson
    Release dateAug 18, 2014
    ISBN9781310727900
    Gina and the Wishing Tree

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      Book preview

      Gina and the Wishing Tree - C.L. Atkinson

      Gina

      and the

      Wishing Tree

      Published by C. L. Atkinson at Smashwords

      Copyright 2014 C. L. Atkinson

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * *

      Chapter 1: The Driving Lesson

      I raced from the car up to my room, closed the door, and counted the seconds that it would take for my Dad to get there. It took him exactly twenty-seven seconds. That was his fastest time yet. I knew he would be up to interrogate me about my driving lesson. I just got my driver’s permit today, and this was supposed to be the day that I was finally going to get to drive my brand new cherry-red Mustang convertible. That never happened. Instead, we took my Dad’s Lamborghini. Even though I have never driven a stick shift, and even though I’ve never actually driven on roads, I drove perfectly today. Are you wondering how I was able to do it? Well, my Dad is, too, which is why he is now pounding on my bedroom door.

      Gina, I want to know how you did that, he demanded through the door.

      Did what, I asked, playing dumb.

      You know what! I need to know where you learned to drive like that.

      Trying to stall, I asked, Like what?

      Like what?! You drove that car like a pro. You didn’t make one mistake, Gina, not one!

      Well, you did make me read the entire driver’s manual after I failed my permit test last time.

      Gina, that’s only theory. That still doesn’t explain how you managed to avoid making all the mistakes every sixteen year old makes their first time driving.

      But, Dad, that wasn’t my first time. You’ve been taking me out driving every Saturday since I was thirteen.

      Yeah, you were driving since you were thirteen, but that was in empty parking lots in your brother’s automatic. Today you got into my Lamborghini, a stick shift, and flawlessly drove it sixty-five miles an hour down the interstate!

      Becoming increasingly nervous and fearful of his finding out about my secret, I sheepishly replied, beginner's luck?

      Do you think I was born yesterday? You and I both know that it wasn’t beginner's luck. You are hiding something. Someone had to teach you how to drive like that. I want you to stop playing games and tell me who that someone was.

      When he said someone I knew exactly who he had in mind, so I had to do something to reassure him. I opened the door. Dad, I know what you’re thinking, but it wasn’t Joey.

      He gave me the dago stare. The one where he tilts his head, squints his eyes, and stares at you until you tell him the truth.

      Dad. Really. Joey didn’t teach me.

      No, he asked suspiciously.

      No, Dad. I promise.

      Then who taught you, Gina?

      Dad, I can’t tell you. I can’t tell anyone.

      Why not?

      You would never believe me. No one would.

      Is it the truth?

      Yes!

      Then if you tell me, I’ll believe you.

      Promise?

      Yes, Gina. I promise. Just tell me!

      Okay. It was… It was…

      What?

      It was Chinese magic.

      He exploded. That’s it, Gina! You want to tell stories. That’s fine. You can tell all the stories you want while you’re grounded!

      But, Dad! You promised that you would believe me.

      And you promised to tell me the truth.

      But, Dad, I am telling you…

      No, Gina you’re telling me stories. When you are ready to tell me the truth, I’ll be ready to listen. Until then you can stay here in your room.

      But, Dad, it wasn’t me driving. It was this...

      Dad slamming the door cut me off.

      I was about to tell him about everything, but it doesn’t matter now. He won’t believe me. He won’t even listen to me and let me explain. I guess that means I’m stuck in my room until he calms down, and since he thinks it involves Joey, this could take a long time.

      Can you help me? Can you listen to my story, and then tell my Dad that I am telling the truth? I know that if you hear the whole explanation that you will believe me. Then you might be able to get my Dad to believe you. I know the whole thing sounds crazy, but it’s true. I used Chinese magic to drive my dad’s car. Really, it’s true. I promise.

      So here’s my story. I'll start by telling you who I am. My name is Gina Maria Angelina Appenino. I just turned sixteen years old last week on a trip to China. If someone asked me about the one thing that was most responsible for shaping my life, I could answer in one word: pizza. It all started with a family tradition. Ever since I could remember, we would go over to granddad’s house and make pizzas and raviolis every Friday night. The tradition started before I was born when my granddad bought a ping pong table at Sears. He had absolutely no interest in playing ping pong, so what did he tell my dad when my dad delivered it? I got it to roll the dough for my raviolis. At first my dad thought he was crazy, or just lonely for my grandma who recently died, but then he found himself in the pasta making frenzy, too. Soon my dad was taking my brother with him on Friday nights and then my dad’s sister joined the fun.

      It wasn’t until after I was born that my dad started making pizza. I think it must have been because it was my favorite food and it was cheaper for him to make pizza than to buy it. My earliest memory of granddad’s house was being in his basement making pizza, and my dad wiping flour off my nose. For me Friday always meant fun. It was on one of these Fridays, when I was five, I looked up at my dad and told him, Daddy, you make the best pizza in town, and should open a pizza shop. Not too long after that, my dad lost his job when the glass factory closed. That was also the year that he took a family tradition and turned it into a family business. With hard work and a little start up money from my granddad, we opened the first Gina Maria’s pizzeria. He named it after me, since I was the one who gave him the idea. Pizza was more than just a business, it was our life. It gave us hope, heart, and happiness. It changed all of our lives for the better. Gina Maria’s helped us each to find our place in the world.

      My older brother Tony, who is fifteen years older than I am, is now a happily married guy and manages two Gina Maria restaurants. Pizza helped him realize that his real passion was business and not criminal justice. After switching majors and graduating, my dad let him manage the pizzeria and eventually manage the two new Gina Maria Italian restaurants in the nearby city. My brother also found the love of his life thanks to the family pizza business. With our booming business, my dad finally had the money to take my mom on really nice vacations. It was one of these times that he was away that my brother had to pick me up from school when I got sick. My brother and the nurse met and the rest is history. Now they are married with two kids.

      For my aunt Angelina, it meant being able to make a living with her passion and, like my brother, being able to find her soul mate. My aunt was a talented musician who could sing and play eight different musical instruments. She just graduated with a master’s degree in musical theory when we opened the pizzeria. Since she just wanted to play music and had no ambition to find what my parents would call a real job, my dad took the advice of granddad and built a little stage in the pizzeria where she could play for the customers and earn money while living her passion. One night when she was performing she met Sean, a man that stayed to watch her the entire three hours that she was on stage.

      It turned out that he not only had a passion for her, but music too, as he was a pianist and a lead singer in a band that did weddings and festivals. They dated for a year, and got married. They bought a house in our town, but I hardly get to see her outside of my weekly vocal lesson because she and Sean give lessons everyday and do weddings and festivals on the weekends.

      She’s not my favorite aunt because I’m named after her; she’s my favorite aunt because we have so much in

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