Strong

Chapter Nine

"The school day felt different whenever Alex was there," Maria thinks as she's packing her book bag at her locker.

She hadn't seen Lexi at all that day, so she must've been out sick.

Maria was told to meet Alex by the same bench as that morning so they could go do something "exciting." In all honesty, she didn't care what it was, but she's happy as long as she had a reason to not go home.

She makes her way through the crowded hallway and out the door. Maria can see the great oak tree from where she is standing, so she begins walking.

Half way there, she sees a figure hanging upside down from one of the lower tree limbs.

It's Alex.

Maria doesn't see it but she can sense he sees her and has a small smile plastered on his face.

She quickens her pace slightly and within a few seconds, she's standing in front of the upside down boy.

"What are you even doing?" Maria asks,
mimicking Alex from that morning.

"Just hanging out," he laughs at his own joke.

Maria cant help but role her eyes.

"So, what's the exciting thing that I came to do?" She asks.

"I'll tell you in a second, but right now you should hang out with me," Alex says, beginning to scrape his hands against the grass as he swings back and forth.

Maria blinks at him, "How am I even supposed to get like that?"

Alex reaches up and grabs the branch and unwinds his feet.

"Whew, what a rush. Anyways I'll help you," he says, moving his hair to the side.

"Yea? And how are you going to do that?" Maria questions crossing her arms.

"Well, first I'll show you how, and then if you can't do it, I'll physically help you," he replies simply.

"Okay, so how do I do this?" Maria sighs.

"There are many ways to do it, for example you could get up on the branch and sit on it, then just fall back," Alex says, using hand gestures as he talks.

"Well how do you do it?" She asks curiously.

Alex smiles, and without saying anything, claims the tree up to the branch above the first one that he was originally hanging off of. He sits and grabs the branch and lets his body hang off limply.

Maria squints her eyes in confusion.

Suddenly, he lets go, leans back, and brings his knees slightly to his chest. His legs curl around the below branch on impact, and then he is back in the position she found him in.

"How is that even possible?" Maria says disbelievingly.

"I'm talented," Alex sighs dramatically.

"That's definitely not how I'm going to get on, but I know what I will do,"she says backing up slightly.

"What are you doing?"

"Just watch," she grunts.

In one swift movement, Maria goes into a handstand and swings her legs over the branch and lifts her hands of the grass.

Alex looks over at Maria, with her hair slightly dragging on the ground, and says, "Mm creative, I like it."

She just laughs.

***************************************

"Do you like it?" Alex asks.

After a while of hanging out at the tree, Alex took her to a cliff that is hanging over a wide, clear, pond.