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    Vortex
    Vortex
    Vortex
    Ebook67 pages1 hour

    Vortex

    By Vanessa Acton

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Blair and her brothers are driving home from a disastrous road trip when their day suddenly gets a whole lot worse. After facing down a tornado, their car is barely functioning, and the same can be said for Blair's older brother. Blair must take charge and get her family out of danger, but the storm isn't letting up. Will Blair be able to get her injured and scared brothers to safety . . . before the next twister hits?

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLerner Publishing
    Release dateJan 1, 2017
    ISBN9781512435139
    Vortex
    Author

    Vanessa Acton

    Vanessa Acton is a writer and editor in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She enjoys stalking dead people (also known as historical research), drinking too much tea, and taking long walks during her home state's annual three-week thaw.

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      Book preview

      Vortex - Vanessa Acton

      storm

      1

      The day of the disaster, Blair O’Neill actually thought her weekend was improving.

      She and her brothers had survived their mom’s wedding. Now all they had to do was get home to Michigan.

      They’d left on schedule, exactly at eight. One hour down, twelve to go. Blair’s older brother, David, was driving, as usual. Her younger brother, Logan, sat in the back—earbuds in, eyes closed. Blair was in the front passenger seat. She’d offered to drive part of the way, since she had her permit now, but no luck. You can drive us around once you have your license, David had told her. For now you’ll be my copilot. Really, the GPS was his copilot. Blair was just moral support.

      I’m so glad to be out of there, David said as the car’s clock blinked to 9:02 a.m.

      I noticed, said Blair. Her older brother had been visibly tense ever since they arrived in Hatchville, South Dakota. He’d hardly said anything to their mom. Gritted his teeth through the overdue introduction to Theo, their mom’s fiancé—now her husband. Barely smiled in the wedding photos. Didn’t dance or mingle at the reception. For a guy who’d just turned twenty-one, he’d acted a lot like a cranky uncle—more so than usual.

      I almost wish we hadn’t come at all, he mumbled now, his eyes on the road. It’s not like Mom would’ve missed us.

      Blair tried not to flinch. She was used to hearing this from David. For a long time she’d felt the same way. But it had been six years since their mom left. Weren’t they old enough to know better now? Come on, Dave, that’s not true. Sure, their mom was flaky, but that wasn’t the same as not caring. And she’d wanted her kids at this wedding, for sure. She’d even offered to pay for them to fly out—an offer David had refused.

      David made a dismissive noise in his throat. "Now that she’s got Theo, it’s like she’s forgotten Dad even exists. And we’re right on the edge of falling off her radar along with him. Mom only ever thinks about what she wants to do, what’ll make her happy—not about what she leaves behind."

      From the backseat, Logan said to David, Well, Theo’s definitely way cooler than Dad. So there’s that.

      Blair whipped around to glare at her twelve-year-old brother. His eyes were still closed. Blair knew David wouldn’t have said so much if he’d known Logan was listening. Then again, Logan wasn’t an innocent six-year-old anymore. It had been a long time since he’d needed David to tell him bedtime stories or arrange his food in smiley faces. A long time since Logan had burst into tears at any mention of their absent mom, or thrown a tantrum whenever their dad drove off on yet another business trip. He was old enough to hear what his siblings really thought—and to be obnoxious about it. Don’t you have some death metal to concentrate on? she snapped.

      "It’s not death metal. It’s doom metal. Blackened doom. And Theo is, like, at least twenty percent cooler than Dad."

      Logan, do me a favor. Shut up until you’re past puberty.

      Logan responded with a gesture she ignored.

      Take it easy, said David, out of habit.

      Blair faced forward again and stared at the road. Not an inspiring view. Just a two-lane highway, empty except for David’s car. Surrounded by basically nothing: bare fields on either side, cloud-clogged sky above, the occasional tree or fence or distant farmhouse. Blair hadn’t realized that South Dakota was so flat. It was ridiculous. If this is what it looks like here in May, people must gouge their eyes out in the wintertime.

      David managed a weak laugh. Guess you won’t be moving in with Mom and Theo?

      Never. She looked over at him, but he kept his eyes on the road. The smile on his face wasn’t real. It was the same smile he’d used all weekend, at all the awkward moments—the smile of a guy who expected to be let down.

      Blair didn’t know what to do about it. Except promise not to move to South Dakota.

      For the past six years, she and David had been a team, taking care of things while Dad was at work—which was most of the time. Their dad had

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