Snaggle
by pd kiernan
Snaggle
Copyright: Lightning Bug Studios, LLC
Published: 2 January 2015
Publisher: Lightning Bug Studios, LLC
The right of PD Kiernan to be identified as author of this Work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Find out more about upcoming Suzie Snaggletooth books online at
suziesnaggletooth.com
Find out more about the author and upcoming books online at
pdkiernan.com
I want to thank my family for their love and support.
It truly makes anything possible.
Chapter 1
Suzie Singleton blinked open her green eyes beneath the long flowing curls of her bright red hair. She stretched her arms wide and sat up in her bed. A cool breeze unfurled the yellow sunlit curtains that veiled her second floor window. The buzzing calls from the cicadas outside were an unmistakable sign summer was coming to an end. She jumped up, put on the clothes she had laid out the night before, and headed down for breakfast.
She tip-toed down the hallway and stairs. She didn’t want to wake her mother after her night shift at the restaurant. She also desperately did not want to wake The Beast. This was the current nickname she had for her little sister Debbie. The names have come and gone as her sister has morphed over time. When she was very little she was Little Urchin, then Crawling Drooler, and recently Tiny-Whiney. But The Beast was the perfect fit now, especially since she crowned herself queen and ruler of their small castle.
Not only was it Suzie’s job to look after her little sister, but also cater to her every whim. Suzie’s mom had to constantly remind her of that responsibility. Things weren’t always that way. She could remember when she was the one being fawned over, but those were different times, the good old days. Life was sweet, and so was Debbie. That seemed ages ago, and if it wasn’t for her grandmother coming over to help, Suzie probably would have lost her wits long ago. She felt it was Debbie who kept her from pure happiness, so now she wanted to enjoy the quiet.
She crunched on a spoonful of frosted cereal and looked around the small kitchen lit so nicely by the early sunlight. It was a pretty boring summer so far, she thought. There were the occasional adventures, but really these were all pretend. They were made up stories that Suzie would come up with for her friends. She did have to admit she was very good at it.
If you wanted to go on a quest set on the high seas and battle pirates, she was your guide. Felt like spending an afternoon bike-jousting fellow knights with Wiffle Ball bats while princesses rescued themselves, she was the girl to see. Suzie was never short of playdate requests. If word got out she was at your house, expect bored kids appearing out of nowhere by the car load thirsting for fun and adventure.
It was all good entertainment, but recently Suzie began to want more. She wanted something she could hold onto before the end of the summer. Before the start of- she had to stop herself. She refused to even think the word… school.
She was outside in no time. She wheeled her five-speed streamlined gold-sparkle painted bike out of the garage. It had mirrors with streamers on the sides of the handlebars and a gear shifter in the middle for super-fast speed changes. Her seat and chain guard were accented with butterfly stickers that matched the rainbow-sheened butterfly stickers on the sides of her golden helmet. She absolutely loved her bike. It was the first birthday gift she picked out with both her mom and dad and, as it turned out, the last. She also loved that it was fast!
She zipped down the narrow driveway and onto the sidewalk. She was only allowed in the street to cross it or to save life and limb. Suzie stretched the rule from time to time, but for now she stayed on the sidewalk for the two and a half blocks to her best friend’s house.
She didn’t have many close friends, so something about Cassidy Dibella was special. Cass was a genuine tomboy who got into more fights with boys than most boys do. And she was brutally honest. She told you right to your face what she thought about you or anything else. That’s usually what got her into trouble. Suzie admired that because it was so unlike herself.
As she rode Suzie passed her old elementary school, with its now empty playground full of chipped concrete and wonderful memories. She jumped her bike off the curb and around the double parked police cars lined up in front of the police station, the 102nd Precinct. She thought about running in to say hi to Sergeant Joe and see if he had any spare bubble gum today, but she quickly dismissed the idea. She was on a mission to save summer and it was too important to stop.
On she rode, her bike clanging when she slammed down broken curbs and up driveways to cross streets. She flew up the rest of 118th Street and made a left onto Jamaica Avenue. She looked up at the elevated train tracks climbing high above the street. Somewhere unseen atop massive columns of green painted iron a line of subway cars thundered by sending electric sparks showering down. Suzie stopped to marvel at the sparks as they magically disappeared before they reached the ground.
She flew past the Top-Mart grocery store that stood on the corner. She waved hello to Mr. Granger as he swept the wide sidewalk of his storefront. He looked up sleepily and waved back.
“Gonna be a nice day, Suzie,” he said as he smiled. “Better make the most of it.”
“I will!” she yelled back. She turned her head around a little when she passed him and thought, What kind of odd advice was that? Even he realized the summer was winding down. She pedaled harder, shifted to third gear and picked up speed.
She shot past the other stores with their shopkeepers lifting up their metal gates to open up for the day. Passed the O’Donnell Bakery, and the German delicatessen, the jewelry store owned by the Kleins who lived behind her, and then there was Kane’s Toy Store. She slowed down in front to look into the main display window.
New dolls! No, wait- she was past all of that, wasn’t she? Still, they had set up the perfect house, with the pool right next to it. They were all sitting around the dining room table; the Mom, Dad, and the kids. It was very impressive.
It is really hard to get them to stay that way, she thought. It all looked so perfect it made her sigh. The next window was dedicated to back-to-school supplies. She turned away quickly and rode on.
In another minute she had looped down 117th street and was joyfully coasting over some brand new sidewalk cement. Then her bike abruptly clanked over the uneven slates that made up the sidewalk in front of Cassidy’s house. She skidded to a stop by her front gate, but heard strange yelling and other noises from Cassidy’s next door neighbor’s backyard.
Chapter 2