This is Jane Avery Simpson here. I need to clear loads of things up, so I had to write this up, here goes... It was long, long ago, I don't remember how old I was, but I did remember that I was really small and that I always wore my hair in pigtails, nothing else. I remember living near the beach, and the beach was connected to a wild jungle, sometimes I saw little monkeys coming out of the jungle for a while then disappearing back into it. Every Wednesday, I would always come home from school then race towards the jungle, not too deep though. My dad had me built a tree house so I could have my private time alone, but he made me promise I didn't go further than the tree house, and I didn't, mostly because I didn't have a reason to, and also cause it never crossed my mind. Except one very particular Wednesday, I was up in my tree house reading books and sketching the images that come to my mind whenever I read about the characters. As I drew another sketch of one of the characters, I heard a soft tiny knock on the door. I went outside and saw a little note with a flower stem wrapped around it securely, the flower swayed a little as a slight breeze blew by. I bent down to pick it up, but just as I did, I heard a sharp intake of breath; I looked around quickly, hopefully to catch who it was, or possibly what. I caught a little boy staring at me from behind a tree hiding hoping I wouldn't see him, I smiled hoping he would want to join me, he must've took it as a wrong sign because he ran off as fast as he could, and I didn't see him for quite a while. I opened the letter; it had only two words etched on it: "Help needed". I at first didn't understand, I thought where, when, why, and who? Was it that boy? How was I supposed to help? And most importantly how did they know me? Those thoughts slipped as the days slipped by faster, and the wind grew warmer, and the kids grew older. I was finally playing on the swings in the schools playground, I had to wait my turn, and that was hard as everyone kept shoving in front of me. I never dared to stand up to them... Guess who I saw whilst I was swinging up high? That blonde boy! The little boy who I saw, and very possibly gave me the note! I nearly fell off the swing, and that wasn't a good thing, my swing was still swinging pretty high above the ground. I abruptly stopped, jumped down and immediately ran towards where the boy was hiding, right behind the sand box. He scooted down so I could sit behind too. He quickly whispered but only after checking over his shoulders a couple of times.
"Did you get my message?" He said.
"Yes, I did!" I replied. "But I don't get why you need help. Help in doing what? Shouldn't you ask a parent for that?"
"I tried." He replied. "But they never understand, they call it 'pretend'."
"What do they call 'pretend'?" I asked curiously.
He looked over his shoulder another time then continued.
"Meet me at the slide when school's over. I'll show you." He said hurriedly, and before I could say anything else he dashed off. I slowly sat up and dusted the sand off my trousers, and crossed over the playground, running to my classroom as the bell had already ringed. During lessons, I kept glancing at the clock that was positioned high above the door, so you had to look real high up, that your neck would sometimes hurt if you stared too long in that position. I knew that because I had to learn it the hard way. Finally, school was over and I ran to the slide and waited for the blonde boy. I waited for minutes, and as minutes turned to hours, I realised the blonde boy was never going to come; he was just playing a trick on me. I stood up and turned around waiting to get to school to call a teacher to help call my parents when I saw a little note fluttering at the side of the slide. I quickly snatched it and stuffed it down my jackets pocket and went towards the principal's office, for some reason I had a feeling I was being watched, I hurried on, and as I entered the principal's office, I was then met with 3 worried written faces. They all turned to me as I opened the door really loudly. I slowly and quietly closed the door, as my parents worried faces started to change into furious ones. My principal then told my parents that thankfully that I was back all in one piece and at that my mom faked laugh. I can tell when she fake laughs, she crinkles the side of her eyes too much, as if she was forcing herself to close her eyes shut in order to laugh, and she always threw her head back too exaggeratedly. After that, they both grabbed my shoulders and each were fast walking towards the car I had to run to keep up with them, and that was hard as my parents had a firm grip on both my shoulders. When finally we were in the car, my mom twisted in her seat and turned to look at me face to face and told me how angry and scared she was. She said that I was late, and the bus didn't pass by our house, that they were so worried I was gone, and then they demanded to know where I had been. I knew that no matter what, I couldn't tell them about the note, so I lied, and said I was reading whilst waiting for the bus and must've missed the bus, and only noticed when I took my head off from my book. My mom released a sigh of relief, and shook her head slightly, saying "She is definitely like her dad." She was smiling playfully as she said that, so I took it as a clear signal that they weren't so worried about it, but then she turned around again and said "I want you not to do that again, okay? You do not know how much it scared both of us. Understand?"
