The Great Peach Experiment 1 by Erin Downing (top 10 books to read TXT) 📗

saw out in the world every day. Since then, Freddy had started sketching the people and things he saw in the world—it was more fun than writing stuff in a journal, and he liked to practice drawing people. Campgrounds were going to give him a lot of good material!

The plan was that Freddy and Lucy would share one tent for the summer, while Dad and Herb shared another. Freddy had insisted on this setup, since he was secretly terrified of Herb’s mice (he was certain the wormy little critters would turn into vampire mice at night and eat him alive). Also, their dad snored. Even though she could sometimes be a little bossy, Freddy had decided Lucy was the best possible tent companion.

When they got to the campground, Freddy set up the tents, since he was the only one who’d assembled one before. Once the outer shell was in place, he and Lucy made the inside of their house-for-the-night look comfortable and cozy.

After their first, disastrous pie-making lesson in the food truck, they gobbled down a quick dinner, and then it was already time for bed. Dad told them all to get a good night’s sleep, since they had a lot of work to do in the morning if they wanted to stay on schedule. They had to roll and bake crusts, and make all the pie fillings, first thing in the morning, so they would have something to sell during their first official day in business.

All three kids brushed their teeth in the big building beside their campsite, and then put on pj’s. After, Herb joined his siblings in their tent so Lucy could read him his usual nighttime story. Freddy put on his headlamp and sketched while Lucy read aloud from The Penderwicks. As soon as the chapter was finished, Herb yawned and sleepily shuffled off to his tent.

Freddy switched off his headlamp, listening to the sounds of the world around them—laughter from the group a few campsites over, some sort of bird or beast yip-yipping in a tree, the door of the bathroom swinging open and shut, Dad’s not-so-gentle snoring pouring out of the neighboring tent, and the soft swish of Lucy turning pages in the book she was reading to herself. Freddy wasn’t sure how much time passed before his eyes fluttered closed and his body fell into a deep, relaxed sleep filled with dreams of pie.

The next morning, Freddy woke early as the campground came alive around them. The tent provided no protection from the sounds of other campers waking and hustling to the bathrooms, shouting greetings to each other. Rain pattered on the fabric of the tent and bounced in noisy pings off the roof of the bathroom building. Dad had told them they’d be staying just outside Minneapolis for several nights, so Freddy didn’t need to take the tents down or do any other chores to pack up. They just needed to bake a few good-looking pies, and then it would be time to head out for the first day of the Great Peach Experiment!

The morning got off to a hurried start. The kids all gobbled down a quick bowl of cereal under a tarp that Lucy had hung over the campsite’s picnic table, then Freddy and Lucy joined Dad in the food truck to roll out more dough for crust and mix together some of the fillings. Dad had decided they should blind bake all of their crusts, which—Freddy had learned—meant that they would bake them before filling them. Dad said this helped keep the crust from getting soggy.

By the time they had finished their first crust-making lesson the night before, it was too late to turn on the food truck’s generator and bake anything. Besides, all their first crusts had looked terrible. So Dad had gotten up early and mixed up another big batch of dough before breakfast. By eight o’clock, there was a ton of dough waiting to be rolled out and baked—and then, finally, it would be time to fill their first day’s pies.

While his siblings helped to prepare pie, Herb had chosen to stay in his and Dad’s tent and set up obstacle courses for his mice. He’d argued that they needed lots of company and exploration time now, because they would be alone for most of the rest of the day. As long as Freddy wasn’t expected to look at or touch the mice (he wanted nothing to do with any kind of creature whose teeth never stopped growing!), he was fine with Herb bailing. Besides, Dad said Herb was too little to do much baking anyway, so it didn’t make a whole lot of sense for him to stand around doing nothing all morning. Sometimes, Freddy had noticed, Dad underestimated Herb. Though he was the youngest member of the family, Herb was bright and motivated and almost always willing to do just about anything. Hopefully their dad would notice that as the summer went on.

As soon as all the crust dough was rolled out and ready, Dad slid the pans into the food truck’s ovens and then they began getting dressed and ready for their big day. Freddy could already tell this summer was going to be a vast improvement from the one he’d been dreading. They were on the road, exploring the country, spending time together as a family. His dad seemed relaxed and happy. Freddy knew this was exactly the kind of adventure the Peaches needed.

His only regret was that Mom couldn’t be there to lead them. Opening a food truck and traveling had been her dream, and Freddy hated that she had never gotten a chance to do anything like this herself. Because of that, he desperately wanted this summer to go well, for Mom. Their brilliant and creative mother had experimented with and invented so many things during her life, but she hadn’t ever gotten to celebrate any of them becoming truly successful. But now, Freddy had a chance