Since the Beginning

Preparations

"Excuse me?" I say with that you-gotta-be-kidding-me look. Gabe shrugs. "You two, stop. This is hard for all of us. Don't make it worse by arguing. You both rarely argue." My mom says looking tired. I poke at my food. Mashed potatoes and pork. I love it, it"/ just that I lost my appetite. Ugh. "May I be excused?" I ask getting my mom. My mom sighs and nod her head. I get out the back door and find my way to our tree house. It's about a 2 minute walk from our house and into the forest.

When I woke up earlier, Gabe came in and told me we had to have a family meeting. Jon came down as well, but went home. And then, we had an argument, and then lunch, and so on. Sometimes I enjoy life, and other times I do not get how life could be so hard.

I climb up the ladder and into the tree house. I smile. Our tree house is your typical treehouse. Made by my dad and Jon's and Julie's dad for us, kids. There are two windows on the sides, a small door, a little terrace surrounding the outside, and a rope ladder at the back. Inside, we put a small cushion, 2beanbags, a shelf full of stuff, and pillows. I get a box on the top shelf and open it. Inside, there's are feathers, shells, and beautiful rocks. Our collection box.

Flashback
"Come on Julie!" I encourage the little 3 year old. She wobbles when she runs, but she's quick. "Come on!" She catches up to me and grabs my hand. We walk to where the boys are. Julie sees a bunch of nice shells. "Pretty." She says picking up as many as she can carry. We laugh at her cute little antics. Jon hands her a pail and she dumps them all in. Julie and I continue to collect shells while the boys play. Soon, we have enough to fill the pail. And then Jon comes up to me and hand me a beautiful purple-ish shell. It's one of those shells that you can supposedly hear the ocean. Excelt it's a bit smaller and so much prettier. "For my lady" he says bowing. I laugh. "Thanks." I say. We continue finding shells, and rocks for Julie. We go back to tree house and put them all in a box.

We play around in the treehouse for a while. Then we see a lovely woodpecker on a neighboring tree. The boys climbed down and were looking at something on the ground. They held it up so we could see. A beautiful feather. Julie and I climbed down and helped look for more feathers. All different shapes and sizes.

"Aster?" Jon says. "Yeah?" "That shell and this feather are only for you." He whispers putting a feather in my hand. I look and see a bluebird's feather. I gasp. "It's beautiful. Thank you." I say hugging him. He hugs me back. "You're welcome." After gathering feathers, we add them to our collection box. I label the box Memories of Nature Today.
After that, we all climb down and eat dinner.

"Stell?" I look down. Gabe's looking up. "What." I reply. He climbs up. "I'm sorry." He says looking at me. "Well. I'm sorry too." He gives me a hug and I hug him back. "I don't wanna ever lose my little sis. Kay? I'm always here for you." He says. I nod. I put the lid back on the box and return it to its place on the shelf. He watches me. "You like reminiscing don't you?" He asks with a smile. I nod. "Well, they are memories you can't repeat." He says with a shrug. "Anyway, we were planning on having a little playdate week. We'll plan. Go bowling, swimming, "malling", and stuff. And packing, of course. But today, Jon and I decided to go bowling with you and Julie. How's that?" He asks me. I smile. "And Mark, Christine, Reagan, and James are coming too." "Let's go." I say pulling him along as we climb down the ladder. We race back home and change.
We get into his car and wait for Jon and Julie. Once we're all inside, we get going.

We reach the place, get out of the car, and start bowling. Mark,Christine and the others show up. When I see Christine, I run to her and tackle her with a hug. "I miss you so much." I say. She hugs me back. "Same here." "Thanks for coming. How's Florida?" I ask her as we link arms and walk towards the group. "Amazing. But I will never forget my home place." She says with a smile. I shake hands with Mark and the others. And we start a competition. Julie just eats and watches. "How's the food, Julie?" Jon asks with a tease. She sticks her tongue out at him and continues to eat. So cute. After Mark wins, we all sit down to eat snacks.