Best Foot Forward (The Best Girls 3)

Chapter One

Horatio was in love with Grace Marshall. And he was determined to marry her. She was perfect in almost every way. She was beautiful, with shoulder-length thick, wavy brown hair and huge hazel eyes that twinkled when she laughed... which was almost all the time. She was always in a good mood. No matter what the weather was like, no matter what anyone did, no matter what anyone said, she always laughed. Nothing seemed to bring her down. When she walked into a room, it was like the sun had appeared from behind the clouds. She was almost perfect, except for her being a little too tall.

But Horatio knew her height wouldn’t be a problem for long. He was growing fast, and his big brother was really tall. Horatio was already the tallest kid in Ms. Marshall’s first grade class—well, almost the tallest. Madison and Ariel were taller than him, but they didn’t count since they were girls. And Ms. Marshall liked Horatio a lot. She had told him how special he was, and she always got excited when he drew her a new picture. And when he got his new shoes, she’d really liked them. He couldn’t wait to show her his loose tooth.

“Look, Ms. Marshall! Look! Do you see?” He opened his mouth wide and twisted the tooth to demonstrate how wiggly it was.

*****

“Oh!” cried Grace at the sight of the bloody tooth. She turned her head and swallowed at the queasy feeling that surged in her stomach. “That’s really great, Horatio,” she said, hoping her face wasn’t as green as she felt. She’d always had a problem with blood, but she’d hidden the malady from everyone she knew. Even her own family had no idea how nauseous she became at the sight of a single drop of the red oozing liquid. She certainly couldn’t reveal any sign of that particular weakness around her first graders. They’d be certain to plague her with cuts, scratches, and bloody noses at every opportunity.

“I get to put it under my pillow, and I get money for it,” said Horatio. “I’ll buy you something with my money. What would you like?”

“Horatio, that’s so sweet. But I don’t want you to spend your money on me. You should buy something for yourself or for someone in your family.”

“But I want to buy you something.” His lower lip began to tremble.

“The best present you could get me would be another one of your pictures,” she said, giving his hand a squeeze.

“Ms. Marshall,” said another little boy standing close by. “I have a loose tooth, too. You wanna see?”

“No thank you, Jeffrey. I need all of you to go get your backpacks right now. It’s almost time to go.” Grace surveyed her noisy class—five girls and thirteen rambunctious boys. She’d only made it through one week, and she could tell this would be a long school year.

She glanced at the clock, looking forward to the dismissal bell and imagining her muscles relaxing in a hot shower before she settled down for a cup of hot tea. Rent was expensive in New York, so Grace had moved back into her family’s home two years ago when she finished her degree. She still paid rent, but only a fraction of what it would cost her to live in an apartment, even sharing expenses with a roommate or two. And truth-be-told, she loved being back with her three younger sisters, whom she’d missed terribly during her college years, despite seeing them all at least once a week for Sunday night dinner. The Marshall clan, as they called themselves, were extremely close, though they had their fair share of squabbles. Her older brother, Spencer, was the only sibling who had moved out permanently. Of course, he was soon to be married to Emily Best, and Grace would have yet another sister.

“Too much estrogen around here,” their father complained, though the whole family knew he was teasing.

The bell rang and the kids poured out the door, most of them pausing to receive a goodbye-hug. All the germicide in the world couldn’t keep her from catching whatever sicknesses the kids had, but Grace couldn’t bring herself to deny showing affection for the kids. Some of them came to school with dirty faces and hollow eyes, revealing the stress of their home-lives. If suffering a few colds and viruses during the year would lift their spirits, then so be it.

Horatio was the last to leave, kicking the floor with his foot as he stuffed his hands in his pockets. “You don’t want a present, Ms. Marshall?”

“I just don’t want you to spend any money on me, Horatio. A picture would be very nice, and it would mean just as much to me.”

“Okay,” he mumbled.

Grace patted him on the head as he left and fetched her purse from her desk drawer.

“Hey, Grace!” Katy, a fellow teacher who’d been a friend in college, leaned into the doorway. “I missed you during our recess break today.”

“Yeah—sorry about that.” Grace lifted a hand to rub her forehead, realizing she had a headache. “Marcie asked me to take her recess shift. She said her ankle was swelling.”

Katy rolled her eyes. “There’s nothing wrong with Marcie’s ankle—she told me she’s going dancing tonight. Didn’t you sub for her on Monday, because of her supposedly sore throat? She’s just using you.”

Grace let out a groan. “You’re probably right. But I just don’t suspect people of doing that sort of thing.”

“That’s because you’re too nice, Grace. You would never lie like that.” Katy’s mouth screwed sideways. “Well, that’s not quite true. You aren’t intentionally deceitful for selfish reasons. But you do tell those crazy whoppers that pop into your head when you’re in a panic. Like the time the principal caught you coming in late because you overslept, and you told her there was a fire at your apartment.”

“Technically, that wasn’t a lie. I did catch my toast on fire that morning.”

“Yes, but remember how bad you felt when she

took up a collection for you?”