Dear Life,

Part 2

I could feel the strong, cold breeze as it went through my hair and into my face. You could hear the whistling of the birds flying south, the crunch of every step you took once you hit a mini pile of leaves. How could Fall get any better! I walked down to the shed hoping that my dog was still on his chain. "Hi Jarvis, who's a good boy who stayed on his chain last night," I said like a grown up talking to a 3 year old. I unhooked him and hopped into the shed to grab the rake. Ah there it was right were I had left it from last year.The thin green lines of wire wrapped around a thick wooden dowel that gave me about 10 slivers the year before. I clutched it in my hand and grabbed a roll of duct tape. Of course it was black, I only use it to repair stuff like my rake. I covered about 1/3 if the dowel with shiny, black tape. It felt just like new when I started to rake. Once I got all the leaves into the hugest pile I've ever made I leaned my rake against the old pine and was ready to jump in. As I was getting ready Elena runs and jumps in, " Hey, why aren't in this fabulous leaf pile. It's extra crunchy," she says in a royal voice.

"Very funny," I said rolling up my sleeves, "This is one fabulous leaf pile," I say sprinting towards the pile. When I jump in all you see are leaves of all different colors. Once the leaves settled me and Elena went silent. All of a sudden I her the crack of a twig that was under my butt. " It's a little to soon to let one rip," giggle Elena. "Yeah says the one who got yelled at for eating her food to fast," I said throwing leaves at her. Elena and I start to have a leaf fight and end up having crowns of twigs and tricolored leaves. "JACKIE!!" my mom yelled, "GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW!"

"that's my que to leave," whispered Elena.

"yeah I think so to," I said droopy. Elena ran for her bike at the end of my driveway and waved goodbye.

I slowly walked into the kitchen, my face all red from the weather outside. Shutting the door I could feel that she wasn't to happy. Her face cherry red, not from the breeze outside, but from the note she had tightly grasped in her hand. Please just not today, I thought as Dakota was slowly back peddling towards the stairs. "So... whatcha' have there?' I asked as though I had nothing to do with anything. "What do I have?" she yelled softly, " WHAT DO I HAVE?! I HAVE A NOTE FROM YOU'RE TECH ED TEACHER ABOUT HOW YOU HAVE A DETENTION NEXT THURSDAY!" she scremed at the top of her lungs.

I felt like I was going to die any second from her screming to much. " Uhh y-yeah about th-that," I said trembling. "IT'S TECH ED. HOW CAN YOU GET A DETENTION IN TECH ED?" she yelled, I could see that the cherry red face slowy spreading acrossed her body. "I was texting on my ph-phone," I replied softly,my face looking at my dirty tennis shoes. "YOU KNOW THAT THEY DONT LIKE PHONE OUT DURING CLASS, YOU HAD TO MANY WARNINGS," she started to tear up. The fight went on for what felt like an hour.

" THIS IS IT JACKIE! YOU'RE NOT HAVING YOUR PARTY TONIGHT, YOU'RE GROUNDED FOR THE NEXT MONTH, AND I'M TAKING YOUR PHONE."

"But mom!!" I screamed, my eyes started to water.

"YOUR ROOM NOW," she screamed ripping up the note. I ran up to my room slamming the door. I could feel my warm, wet tears running down my face as i wiped them off with my sweatshirt. With leaves still in my hair and my face stinging from the warm tears, I dive into my bed. I look around my room hopelessly, my throat as dry a desert. I finally find water, really warm water, and my journal. I felt the lock on it and groomed the green leather as it covered the paper that held all my dearest secrets. I stared at it for the longest period of time, wondering if I should write in it. How would I be able to tell Elena and Dylan that we can't hang out tonight? We never miss any hangouts. we've been doing this ever since the 2nd grade. Hopefully they understand. I mean what can go wrong?

By then I was done sniffling, but I just had to go jump in the leaf pile. I went downstairs and grabbed some ibuprofen though because my throat still hurts, and I guess my moms throat hurt too because they were already spilled all over the counter top. I quickly gulp two of them down and tip toed back outside.