Transformation (Replica Series #15) - Marilyn Kaye - Paperback

one On a bright, warm Sunday morning, the parking lot at Sunshine Square was getting crowded. Not with cars, though. Most of the mall's stores didn't open until later in the afternoon, so the shoppers hadn't arrived yet. The occupants of the parking lot were mostly seventh, eighth, and ninth graders from Parkside Middle School, and they didn't have cars. Their preferred modes of transportation were in-line skates and skateboards. The only open stores were a bakery, a pharmacy, and a shop that rented out in-line skates along with helmets, kneepads, and other accessories. Amy Candler and Eric Morgan were in that shop, picking up their rental skates for the morning. The owner handed Amy a pair in her size, and she eyed them with dismay. "These brake pads look worn down," she complained. "I think they need to be changed." The man pretended not to hear her. "You want kneepads?" "Yeah," Eric said. "Me too," Amy chimed in, although she doubted she would need them. It wasn't likely that she would fall, and even if she did scrape her knees, they would heal quickly. Which was precisely why she always wore kneepads. She didn't want anyone to see exactly how fast her cuts and bruises disappeared. It would be a clear indication that she was not your average twelve-year-old, seventh-grade, female human being. She knew the man wouldn't even consider fixing the brake pads or exchanging her skates, so she accepted them as they were. Eric wasn't too thrilled with his pair either. "These shoelaces are like threads," he grumbled as he sat on the store bench to put them on. "I've got shoelaces in my backpack," Amy offered. She reached inside and took them out. The laces were hot pink, and Eric made a face. "No thanks," he said. "I guess these will hold up for a couple of hours. Why are you carrying around pink shoelaces?" "For trading, of course," Amy replied. "I've already got two pairs of pink ones, and I need light blue to go with my new T-shirt." Eric had heard this kind of explanation before, but he still looked incredulous. "That is so lame, Amy. Why don't you just go out and buy a pair of blue shoelaces? They can't be all that expensive." "Blue shoelaces are not easy to find," Amy told him. "Besides, buying them wouldn't be any fun." Finding, collecting, and wearing shoelaces to match your clothes was one of the latest trends at Parkside. At that moment, light blue was among the most wanted colors, with kelly green a close second. Eric wasn't into the shoelace fad. "It's so dumb," he asserted. "Shoelaces should be white, brown, or black." "Says who?" Amy challenged. "And what's the difference between collecting shoelaces and collecting baseball caps? Remember that?" Baseball caps had been huge back in the fall, and Eric had collected almost fifty. Now, months later, they were stuffed in a box in the back of a closet, since the cap fad was history. Amy figured that was the whole point of fads--they didn't last forever. There were clothing fads, like caps and shoelaces, and word fads, like when everyone said a good thing was "awesome." No one used that word anymore. There were even food and drink fads. A few months ago, everyone had been chugging bottles of one particular iced tea flavor, orange-lime-kiwi. Now the traditional carbonated soft drinks were back in style. The latest edible fad was Cocodoodles, a chocolate ball coated with a lemon- or lime-flavored soft candy. You could suck on the sticky balls for ages till the candy part wore off, and then you chomped the chocolate. Your tongue would stay yellow or green for hours. When she finished lacing her skates, Amy stood up and rolled out of the store onto theKaye, Marilyn is the author of 'Transformation (Replica Series #15) - Marilyn Kaye - Paperback' with ISBN 9780553487169 and ISBN 0553487167.