The Second Summer of the Sisterhood

When Carmen and her friends discover that jeans from a thrift shop provide an uncanny fit for all four of them, they form a sisterhood, with the pants as the symbol of their friendship, and embark on a sweet-sixteen summer.

Chapter One
PROLOGUE

0nce there were four girls who shared a pair of pants. The girls were all different sizes and shapes, and yet the pants fit each of them.

You may think this is a suburban myth. But I know its true, because I am one of them-one of the sisters of the Traveling Pants.

We discovered their magic last summer, purely by accident. The four of us were splitting up for the first time in our lives. Carmen had gotten them from a second-hand place without even bothering to try them on. She was going to throw them away, but by chance, Tibby spotted them. First Tibby tried them; then me, Lena; then Bridget; then Carmen.

By the time Carmen pulled them on, we knew something extraordinary was happening. If the same pants fit-and I mean really fit-the four of us, they, arent ordinary. They dont belong completely to the world of things you can see and touch. My sister, Effie, claims I dont believe in magic, and maybe I didnt then. But after the first summer of the Traveling Pants, I do.

The Traveling Pants are not only the most beautiful pair of jeans that ever existed, they are kind, comforting, and wise. And also they make you look really good.

We, the members of the Sisterhood, were friends before the Traveling Pants. Weve known each other since before we were born. Our mothers were all in the same pregnancy aerobics class, all due in early September. I feel this explains something about us. We all have in common that we got bounced on our fetal heads too much.

We were all born within seventeen days of each other, first me, a little early, in the end of August, and last Carmen, a little late, in the middle of September. You know how people make a big deal about which twin was born three minutes before the other one? Like it matters? Well, were like that. We draw great significance from the fact that Im the oldest-the most mature, the most maternal -and Carmen is the baby.

Our mothers started out being close. We had a group play date running at least three days a week until we started kindergarten. They called themselves the Septembers and eventually passed that name down to us. Our mothers would gab in whoevers yard it was, drinking iced tea and eating cherry tomatoes. We would play and play and play and occasionally fight. Honestly, I remember my friends mothers almost as well as my own from that time.

We four, the daughters, reminisce about it sometimes- we look back on that period as a golden age., Gradually, as we grew, our mothers friendship disintegrated. Then Bees mother died. A giant hole was left, and none of them knew how to bridge it. Or maybe they just didnt have the courage.