This Classic Toast Post originally ran on April 27, 2015.

The Long Way Home
Isabelle and Ruth find more than just a shortcut through the woods on a walk home from school. They’re both at the top of their form…in more ways than one. But the disappearance of a certain red sash causes an investigation at school that threatens everything they’ve built together in the Lost-Hour Forest.

Waltzing Matilda
Rosamond gives dancing lessons every Thursday afternoon from 2 to 4 to supplement her war-widow’s income. Eustacia has never known what to do with her hands during a dance, until Rosamond shows her how. She keeps her eyes closed the entire time they sweep about the floor, afraid to see how she’s doing. She knows exactly what she’ll see once she opens them.

The Summer Of My First Tambourine
Smoke poured over the caldera and cast a strange and darkling light over the streets of Pompeii. “I know a place we can hide,” Aurelia said. Aurelia always knew the places to hide. Aurelia was not afraid of fire. “I am burning already.”

Kissing Catherine: A Door Into The Afternoon
Their garden, like their secrets, was perfumed with the smell of roses.

The Morning Bell At Wrightwell Academy
Nora “Mitch” Mitchell is used to getting into trouble. But that was before fencing hour, before Miss Turner’s mathematics lessons, before she met Sarah Grace.

Suddenly And Hereafter
“I’ll take the navy blazer,” Emily said decisively. The shopgirl nodded wordlessly and began to wrap it. She had slender, patient hands. “Unless you think the green looked better,” Emily blurted out.

The shopgirl stopped wrapping. “The navy brings out your eyes,” she said carefully.

Evens I’m In, Odds You’re Out
The butterflies always died in Diana’s hands, no matter how carefully she held them.

The Market Girls
The copper pot had never been for sale before. But there had never been a day like today before. “You girls can count out and lock up without any help from me at the end of the day,” the shopkeeper had said. It was not a question.

The Conduct Of The Bow
“You’ve forgotten your cello,” Alice said. “For our lesson.”
Esther colored and started. “I’ll go home at once –”
“I didn’t bring mine either,” Alice said.

October With Alice
There was never a good enough reason to let her get out of bed. Because once Alice got up to leave, she never came back.

“Alice forgets quickly,” everyone had told her. “If it’s not in front of her eyes, it doesn’t exist.”

Alice lacked object permanence, which perhaps explained why that October felt like a dream someone else had had in another life. Now there was no reason for her to get out of bed, either.

The Gibson Girls Share A Parasol
They only talked about it once. “What is this?” Clara asked suddenly one afternoon. She looked at their hands as she spoke.

“There aren’t words for what this is,” Annette told her. “There couldn’t be.”

The Hottest Summer In Nova Scotia 
“That’s a lovely dog,” she said. “My name’s Constance, by the way.”
“Mine’s Ruth,” the girl in the red hat said. “Hasn’t anyone taught you how to ride a horse properly yet?”

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