The Forgotten Forest

Chapter Eleven- Birthday Part I

"Kira, we're moving,"

I stared at mom, shocked. Did I hear her right?

"We've been here for four months now, and your dad got a new job in Maine," She continued to talk, but I wasn't listening anymore.

"What? We can't move!" I was freaking out. I usually wouldn't care if we were moving, but not from here. This place was the first place I actually deeply cared about, "This is the first place I made friends, and you're taking them away! No, please don't do this!"

Mom looked at me apologetically, about to say something, but I've had enough of that.

"No, mom! You can't just say sorry and move, then carry on with our lives. Your apologies mean nothing anymore, so stop, stop please! You go through the same thing every time we move, but it's getting old. This is the first time I've had close friends, the first time I've actually had someplace to look forward to going to," By the time I finished, I was basically yelling. I was about to start up again before my mom cut me off.

"Listen, Kira, your dad and I thought it through, and we came to our decision-"

"You must not've thought through it enough! Please, don't do this," I was desperate now. I would do anything to keep my parents from making this decision. Mom sighed deeply, and rubbed her forehead.

"Kira we'll continue this later with dad once Lucy leaves," Oh yeah, Lucy was here. I hope I didn't wake her.

"Fine," I said, and walked angrily over to the stairs. I hope Lucy didn't hear our conversation. I walked into the room to find Lucy stirring.

"Hey," She said groggily. She yawned and sat up. "I heard loud voices downstairs, is everything alright?"

I stiffened, not sure what to say. "Umm, yeah. Just a small disagreement," I decided not to tell her until I came to a final decision with my parents.

"Alright" Lucy said, and rubbed her eyes, "Anyways, are we having chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast?"

"Yep," I said, smiling. She got up, grabbing me and pulling me down the stairs. When we reached the bottom, she turned to me, her eyes lighting up.

"I forgot! Your birthday is coming up! October third, right?" I nodded, remembering as well. I was too caught up in everything that I forgot too. October third was in a week.

"Well, I'm going to have to buy you a present!" She said mischievously. Who knew what this girl would do? We sat down, and mom handed us plates with pancakes stacked high. Mom's expression held no hint of our previous conversation.

Chocolate chips were hiding throughout all the pancakes, and syrup was drizzled everywhere. Lucy was in love, and started eating right away. I wasn't that hungry, but if I didn't eat, Lucy was going to question me, so I forced myself to eat most of the pancakes. They had no flavor to me, and each bite was painful to swallow. Once Lucy was done, I pushed away my plate, which was almost empty. We packed up her things so she could leave when she needed to.

We ran outside and into the woods one last time before she had to leave. As always, Lucy talked about random nonsense, as happy as could be, and I usually listened. Not today though, I tuned her out, trying to listen to the birds. I could hear none, though. We kept walking, each step seeming longer than the last, until I realized we should've reached the clearing by now. It never took this long before. I decided to climb a tree to see if I could find the clearing. I stopped Lucy in the middle of her sentence and explained to her our situation.

"I'm going to climb a tree, do you want to climb with me?"

I loved to climb trees. It made me feel that I could do anything. I loved to sit in them with my legs dangling, not touching the ground. Every time we moved, I tried to find a good climbing tree to spend time in. It had to be tall, but have enough hand and feet holds so it won't take too much effort. There wasn't many good climbing trees in the previous places I've lived. Only three places I've lived had decent climbing trees, and even then, they weren't that good. As I looked around in the forest, perfect climbing trees were everywhere. One stood out to me in particular. It was taller than all the other trees, and the branches started down low so I could climb it easier. I started walking towards it, deciding that was the tree I was going to climb.