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    Olivia's Teenage Challenge
    Olivia's Teenage Challenge
    Olivia's Teenage Challenge
    Ebook128 pages1 hour

    Olivia's Teenage Challenge

    By Geoffrey Horne

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    About this ebook

    Olivia is just turning thirteen, the oldest child in a family of four children living in Canberra, Australia.. At her birthday party her father issues her with a challenge. The story follows Olivia through her first year as a teenager and how she responds to that challenge. We read about her adventures, disasters, struggles and successes at school, with her family and with her friends. Coping with her eleven-year-old brother is one of her struggles, and the reader will be amused by the pranks he plagues her with and how she responds. The book is aimed at girls aged 9 to 13 and deals with many of the issues faced by girls growing up in Christian families.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGeoffrey Horne
    Release dateJan 18, 2015
    ISBN9781310676987
    Olivia's Teenage Challenge
    Author

    Geoffrey Horne

    Geoffrey Horne is retired and lives with his wife in Canberra, Australia. He began his working life as an aeronautical engineer, but later responded to God's call to work for Scripture Union, at first in Tanzania, East Africa and later in Canberra. He is an active member of his local church.

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      Book preview

      Olivia's Teenage Challenge - Geoffrey Horne

      Olivia’s Teenage Challenge

      By Geoffrey Horne

      Illustrations by Judy Heath

      Cover design by Claudia Horne

      Copyright 2015 Geoffrey Horne

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, Licence Notes

      Thank you for downloading this ebook. You are welcome to share it with your friends. This book may be reproduced, copied and distributed for non-commercial purposes, provided the book remains in its complete original form.

      This is a work of fiction. All the people in this book are purely imaginary and have no relation whatsoever to any living persons.

      Chapter 1: Exciting Days

      Chapter 2: Birthday Girl

      Chapter 3: Joshua’ s Second Surprise

      Chapter 4: Go-Karting Adventure

      Chapter 5: Evening Celebration

      Chapter 6: Disaster

      Chapter 7: Finding Forgiveness

      Chapter 8: Payback Time

      Chapter 9: A Holiday to Remember

      Chapter 10: Mystery Visitors

      Chapter 11: Secret Plan

      Chapter 12: Police Investigation

      Chapter 13: The Good Samaritan

      Chapter 14: Punishment

      Chapter 15: Search for the Truth

      Chapter 16: A Surprise Result

      Chapter 17: Kindness Rejected

      Chapter 18: Fun in Sydney

      Chapter 19: More Holiday Plans

      Chapter 20: Fasting for the Hungry

      Chapter 21: Ag Camp Fun

      Chapter 22: Neil’s Business Trip

      Chapter 23: Another of Joshua’s Pranks

      Chapter 24: Shocking News

      Chapter 25: Fearing the Worst

      Chapter 26: Living in Hope

      Chapter 27: Can Neil Survive?

      Chapter 28: Homecoming

      Chapter 29: Happy Ending

      Chapter 1 – Exciting Days

      Olivia woke up with a start! She was very relieved when she realised she was awake. Only moments before she had been dreaming a rather unpleasant dream. In her dream she had an assignment to finish for school. It was completed on the family desktop computer, but neither she nor her father could get the printer to work. It was so frustrating! She needed to hand in the finished assignment at school the next day.

      Now fully awake, she remembered that she had, in fact, finished her assignment on ‘Endangered Animals in Africa’ very late the previous night. She had printed it and put the finished paper in her schoolbag. It had been 11.00pm before her head hit the pillow.

      She glanced at the alarm clock beside her bed. Mm, only twenty past seven, so I don’t need to get up for another 10 minutes.

      She rolled over onto her back. Only two days to go till my birthday, and then on Saturday the celebration!

      She was so excited. Her parents had promised her that for her thirteenth birthday they would take the family plus three of her best friends go-karting. Then Saturday evening there would be a barbeque party back home.

      Olivia thought about what she would wear. I don’t want to look daggy just because it might be a bit dirty there. I’ll have to wear jeans. Perhaps I’ll wear my blue top with the pockets or the yellow flowery one. I wonder what Jess, Cathy and Megan will wear? I’ll ask them at school today.

      Olivia was quite happy to continue thinking about the visit to the Go-Karting Centre when her peace was suddenly shattered by the beep-beep of the alarm. Her day had begun.

      She tumbled out of bed and with her eyes barely open made her way to the bathroom, almost as if she were sleep-walking. She could hear someone singing and water running.

      Oh no, Josh has beaten me to it! she exclaimed. Joshua, her brother, was only eighteen months younger than her and quite often they both seemed to want to use the bathroom at the same time. They’d even had fights over it. It could have been much worse if this had been the only bathroom in the house. Their parents had their own en-suite bathroom. Olivia was occasionally allowed to use the en-suite if the main bathroom was particularly busy. However, it was not usually free at this time in the morning, as both her mother and father would be there, getting themselves ready for work.

      She banged on the door and rattled the handle.

      Josh, hurry up, you’ll make me late! she shouted. There was no response. She banged the door and shouted again.

      Joshua, are you deaf or something? Hurry up!

      Oh, did you want to tell me something, Siss?

      You know very well I did. I want to get in or I’ll be late.

      No problem, he replied, I shouldn’t be more than another 15 minutes, half-an-hour at the most. Why don’t you go and make my bed for me while you’re waiting?

      Joshua did have a way of riling his sister, but she was not going to let him do it this morning.

      Joshua, just please be quick,’ she replied quietly and you know that Mum says we each have to make our own bed."

      To save time she went back into her room to make her bed and when she got back to the bathroom it was free.

      Olivia was learning – learning, that is, not to always rise to the bait when Joshua teased her. As Lisa, her mother, had said to her on a number of occasions,

      He’s just doing it to get a reaction from you. You know he’s really very fond of you and admires you a lot. Don’t forget, Jesus wants us to live peacefully with one another and to ‘turn the other cheek’ if someone is nasty to us.

      As Olivia brushed her long, brown hair and looped it up into a ponytail, she noticed a small pimple on her chin. I must fix that quickly, she said to her reflection in the mirror. I don’t want any pimples on my birthday. She went back to the bathroom and dabbed some antiseptic on the offending spot. Then she hurried into the family room for breakfast.

      Breakfast was always a rather rushed meal in the Robertson household. The two younger children, eight-year-old Eli and six-year-old Anna, always seemed completely oblivious of the time. They often needed cajoling along by the other members of the family.

      Their father, Neil, was always first to leave, shortly after 8am. He worked as an information technology specialist. They would not see him again till about six in the evening. But each morning before leaving he would say,

      Hold it gang! Let’s pray and ask the Lord to guide and bless us today.

      After a short prayer there would be quick hugs and kisses and he would be gone. Then the rest of the family continued to get ready to leave the house at 8.30am in time for school at nine.

      It was convenient that their mother, Lisa, was a teacher at the same school as her children. The one school covered all ages from kindergarten to year 10. It also meant that her children were never late for school, as she had to be there well before school started. School was only five minutes away in the car. The Robertson’s single storey house was in a pleasant, tree-lined street in a suburban part of Canberra, Australia’s capital city.

      Chapter 2 - Birthday Girl

      Friday morning all the family, even Joshua, were up extra early so that they could give Olivia her birthday presents before going to school or work. Anna brought her present into Olivia while she was still asleep in bed. She soon shook her big sister awake and handed over the parcel, which she had wrapped herself the night before.

      Happy birthday, Olly! she said with a smile that showed up the gap in her front teeth. Olivia opened the parcel.

      Oh, she exclaimed, a manicure set, that’s lovely, Anna, just what I needed. Thank you so much.

      She gave Anna a kiss and a hug.

      Mummy helped me choose it, said Anna.

      Anna was quite different in looks from Olivia. Like her mother, she had dark, almost black hair. At that moment it was rather tangled and in need of brushing, since she had just got out of bed.

      No battle for the bathroom today! Joshua was especially careful to let his sister go first, as he had something to do that he didn’t want her to see. When Olivia returned

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