Crossfire E-Book

Méuri Luiza

• Herausgeber: Unipro
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 104

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

Susan is a quiet teenager who loves music, photography, and the company of her dog, Yellow. But everything changes when she moves to the city of Ventura. New friendships, the excitement of her first love, and the struggles of self-esteem and acceptance sweep her into a whirlwind of emotions she never expected. Amid so much uncertainty, Susan must now deal with the consequences of her choices. Will she manage to escape unscathed from the crossfire she's been caught in?

Leseprobe

Copyright © 2025 by Unipro Editora

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Scripture taken from the Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Managing editor: Sandra Gouvêa

Translator: Sandra Gouvêa

Proofreaders: Lluvial Sonupe, Kiara Lino and Adriana Bonone

Art director: Paulo Junior

Project and layout designer: Paulo Junior

Cover designer: Paulo Junior

Illustrator: João Conceição

Editorial assistant: Talita Valentin

E-book: Ricardo Rodrigues

V.2410/25

V416c

Vedovello, Méuri Luiza

Crossfire: How It All Began... / Méuri Luiza Vedovello. – 1. Ed. – São Paulo : Unipro Editora, 2025.

Original title: Fogo Cruzado: Como Tudo Começou...

ISBN 978-65-5445-030-0

1. Contemporary literature—Crossfire Trilogy. 2. Teenagers. 3. Novel—Christian fiction. I. Title. II. Series.

DDC 808899282

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Now Dinah, the daughter of Leah, whom she bore to Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land.

( Genesis 34:1 )

Everything was dark.

All I could hear was my heart pounding, racing from the fear of what had just happened—or what might be coming next.

Voices swirled around, mixing with the wail of sirens. My body wouldn’t move, but my mind was stuck on one thought: Benny.

Save Benny… my brain screamed it, but my mouth couldn’t form the words. Benny… save Benny…

“THE DEFIBRILLATOR, QUICK!” a woman’s voice barked. Suddenly I felt my body jolt upwards. “MORE POWER!”

Again and again, shocks rippled through me.

“CHEST COMPRESSIONS!!!” the woman yelled. “Come on, girl, fight! Don’t do this to me… I’m not losing you. Come on!”

1

Home sweet home

“Come on, Yellow! Stop being such a wimp!” I called to Yellow, who was racing alongside me, jumping over obstacles and copying everything I did. “Now this one!”

I leapt over a fallen tree trunk in the woods and kept running until I spotted another one. This time, though, there was a gap underneath, so I ducked and slid through.

“Hey! That’s not fair, that’s cheating! Get back here!” I shouted, outraged, as my dog decided to trick me, jumped the trunk instead, and gained speed.

He stopped, looked back at me, and barked.

“Come on! Woohoo!”

I jumped into the lake with all my might, and Yellow jumped straight in after me.

SPLASH!!!

That was the best bit—we were already hot and sweaty, and when we hit the icy water… Ahhh, it felt amazing!

“Susan! Hurry up, your dad’s calling! Yellow, fetch her!” my mum shouted from the porch.

We lived right by the lake. My parents loved sitting hand in hand on the huge porch, watching the sunset. Every evening, Mum made iced tea and waited for Dad to come back from work. She’d have her red hair half tied up, as thick and wild as mine, smoothing hand cream on and pinching her cheeks to “give herself a healthy glow”. Dad loved that. That was their moment.

My moment? Oh, mine was soaking up that gorgeous sunset and snapping photos—one of my passions. The sun’s reflection on the water painted amazing colours that tangled with the branches and leaves of the fruit trees in our little orchard. I climbed all of them. That place was paradise.

“Susan! Don’t make me say it again!”

Truth is, I was stalling. We were moving to Ventura, a much bigger city than Sunhill, and of course I didn’t want to go.

Life here was perfect. I had friends I’d fought hard to make. Well… two friends. Maybe one. I don’t know! Making friends is hard, isn’t it? Well, maybe not for you, but it was for me.

We all went to the same school—tiny, by the way, since it only took in kids from the nearby farms.

There was a boy who liked me. Gabi. My dad would totally freak if he knew. “You’re only thirteen, young lady! School first. Dating only when you’re thirty!” he’d say. Honestly, I wasn’t even that interested. Gabi was pale, freckly, skinny as a gazelle, and with his braces, he kind of spat when he talked. #gross

Still, everything was great.

So why did we have to leave such a great place? Because Dad had changed jobs. He was about to start working for a big chain of clinics. He’s a vet—a brilliant one—and the most handsome man I’ve ever seen: honey-coloured eyes, neatly trimmed beard, and curly brown hair. Gorgeous! And get this—totally crazy about animals. “They’re the Lord’s creatures,” he always said. How cool is that?

“Hurry up, Susan!” Dad called, wearing one of his trademark checked shirts and pretending to be cross. “If you don’t come for lunch now, you’ll be hungry on the road! You know I don’t like delays.”

“I’m coming, Dad!”

And just like that, I was forced out of the water.

“Come on, Yellow, playtime’s over… forever...”

I took a deep breath and gave one last look at the lake. Maybe it would be the last time I saw it. I trudged towards the house slowly…

Who knows, maybe they’d change their minds about moving?

The car was already packed with some of our things. So… off we went. What else could I do?

“I know moving is hard, Susan, but it makes us stronger,” Dad said, tossing me a towel.

“Not sure I want to be stronger. I’d rather stay weak and keep living here.”

He laughed.

“Maybe I’ll get us a cow for the garden, so we can still have fresh milk like here…”

“Oh, Dad! In the middle of the city?”

“Why not? Maybe a few chickens too.”

Mum laughed, because knowing him, he probably meant it.

“Dad, that’d be so embarrassing! Everyone would call me a country bumpkin for sure…”

My parents are honestly amazing. A bit weird, but really, really cool. Besides his endless checked shirts, Dad had this battered old cap he called his favourite—he wore it everywhere (literally everywhere). Mum had her own style: denim overalls and a scarf for a belt. She was a vet too, though she didn’t practise like Dad. She mostly dealt with the buying and selling side of things… I think. And she loved painting—and was actually pretty good at it.

The caretakers were staying on to look after the farm, so not all was lost. Maybe I could come back during the holidays… I don’t know. Still, I really, really didn’t want to move!

2

Welcome to Ventura, the city of joy!

We travelled to the new city in the big car. A few bags came with us, the rest went by removal lorry. My camera never left my side, and neither did Yellow, who wanted to see everything outside and kept climbing all over me to get a better view.

What a cheeky dog. At night he always slept in my bed, often shoving me right out of it just to have more room—not to mention his dreadful farts and the snores loud enough to wake the chickens.

The journey itself was beautiful: fields of sunflowers, roses and lavender, and the endless orange groves.

“We’re nearly there at last,” Dad announced.

That was when we passed a sign that read:

Welcome to Ventura, the city of joy!

“Wait, Dad! I need a picture of this—it’ll be brilliant!”

But the moment I opened the window… “Ugh!” I nearly threw up. I shut it again at once. “Oh no, this is awful! It stinks! Was that you, Yellow?”

He flattened his ears, as if to say it wasn’t.

“It’s the smell of the city, Susan. Pollution,” Dad explained.

The air here wasn’t fresh. It didn’t carry the scent of eucalyptus or damp earth like it did back on the farm.

A cold panic crept over me. It felt like everything was slipping out of my control. I’d never really left the farm before—apart from school, which I reached on my bike, by car with Dad, or even on horseback. Everyone there knew each other. Now, though, my stomach was tied in knots.

At the traffic lights, a group of teenagers crossed in front of us in school uniform. The girls were striking, their hair shining in vibrant colours and moving as if it had a life of its own. They wore bracelets, necklaces, and earrings climbing all the way up their ears.

Their skirts were short, their socks pulled to the knee. They had cropped jackets, and shirts tied round their waists that made them look… well, confident. Different. They didn’t seem nervous at all. Not like me.

I only hoped I wouldn’t have to wear a uniform like that.

At last, we arrived at the new house. It was quite nice, but it couldn’t compare with the farmhouse.

Yellow and I went straight in to explore. The living room was spacious, with three comfortable sofas and a television taller than me. The blinds were fine, but I missed the curtains from our old home, the way they danced with the breeze.

Next stop was the kitchen. The cooker looked good enough for Mum’s cakes, but nothing like the wood-burning stove that made everything taste better. She really is a wonderful baker.

“Come back, Yellow!”

He bounded upstairs and raced into what was clearly meant to be my room.

“Look at that—a proper big bed! Now let’s see you push me out of this one, you greedy dog.”

Yellow barked and jumped up. I flopped down on my back and sighed with relief—it was wonderfully soft. I went over to the window, which looked out onto the main street. Dad’s new veterinary clinic and my new school were close by, inside the same gated community. There was a bakery, a chemist’s, a restaurant, even a cycle lane. That part, at least, I liked. It reminded me a little of home—but not quite.

“WOW! Isn’t it lovely, Yellow? Look at that view.”

He barked in agreement.

I took out my camera. The trees outside were in blossom, full of birds singing.

Thump-thump. Thump-thump. Thump… thump. Thump… thump. Thump… thump…

“Her heartbeat is weak.”

“She’s struggling to breathe. Oxygen saturation is very low.”

The atmosphere was heavy with worry.

“The blow was severe. It may have caused a brain injury. Have her parents been contacted?”

“Only hers.”

If only I could go back in time… just one minute, and none of this would have happened to Benny. It wasn’t his fault. He doesn’t deserve this.

3

The dreaded first day of school

The next morning, Mum woke me up and left my school uniform hanging on the back of the door.

“Up you get, Susan. You can’t be late on your very first day.”

“Just five more minutes, Mum…”

“No. You know five minutes won’t make you feel any more rested. Up you get. No excuses, young lady.”

I took a deep breath, secretly hoping I’d be late on purpose. Truth was, I was terrified of this so-called first day. You know how it is—you don’t know anyone, you don’t know the school, everything’s different, and what if nobody likes you? #totalpanic

“I feel really dizzy, Mum. It’s best if I stay home today.”

“No chance, Susan! You tried the same trick on your first day back at the farm school, remember? And you got used to it. You’ll get used to this one, too.”

As if my nerves weren’t enough, I got an unpleasant surprise—the dreaded uniform. The exact same awful outfit those show-offy girls in the street had been wearing.

“This is going to be a disaster,” I muttered, glaring at it on the hanger.

“You look lovely. The colour really suits your red hair,” Mum said, admiring me in the mirror while she helped braid my hair.

“This outfit is ridiculous, Mum. Who’s ever heard of girls wearing ties? And this skirt’s so short—if the wind blows, everyone will see everything!”

“It’s the uniform, Susan. And if you’ve put on the shorts underneath, like I told you, nothing will show.”

“And these knee socks? They’re itchy. I’d rather wear my flats.”

“One photo for the first-day frame,” Dad announced, holding up my camera.