The Cherry Trees

Chapter Four: 2012

When school was finished, the summer haze took over. And in Georgia, it was really hot. Lexi had been coming over to my house almost everyday now, and we always had a good time. In her backyard, if you jump the old, rotting fence, which we do all the time now, there is a fairly good sized creek. We decided that we should build a clubhouse above the creek, so that we can swim in it all the time, and we can also have a hideaway where we could just be alone. Just like the attic at my old house. I was looking forward to it. We would usually sit on my bed and make bracelets and stuff to sell so we could help pay for our tree house. Mr. Blackwell said he would gladly build it for us, since he is good at building and painting things. Overall, I was very excited for our tree house to be built. So, we came up with a club that could use the tree house. It was called the BFFC, Best Friends Forever Club. Now, all we had to do was find a place to build it.

"Well, what about this tree?" Lexi said.

I glanced up at the tall pie tree that swayed at the slightest breeze. "No. No way, the tree is too tall and it isn't very sturdy."

Lexi put her hands up. "Okay, okay, don't shoot me down," she said.

We kept walking, our callused feet in the cold river, slipping on the rocks covered with green slime. We were very adventurous.

"Hey! What about this one?" Lexi practically yelled.

I looked at the tree. It was very pretty, and I immediately recognized it as the same type of tree whose flowers I put in Lexi's hair. The flowers had all fallen off by now, but you could tell because all of the petals that littered the ground. It was a strong tree with many branches, and it wasn't very high off the ground. I carefully walked out of the river, and stepped on the soft petals underneath the tree. They all stuck to my foot, and I noticed how wonderful they smelled.

"I think this might be the one," I said turning to Lexi.

She broke into a huge smile.

"Yay! We found our clubhouse tree! Daddy, Daddy! Come look!" she yelled down the river where her father was following, a good distance away. He got out of the water and ran barefoot all the way to us.

"Oh that's perfect!" he said.

I went into Lexi and my adventure bag and pulled out our "blue print" for the tree house.

" We want  a swing right there, and we would like a door that swings open from the bottom. Can we please oh please have a ladder that goes up the trunk of the tree? Oh! And a window so we can hear the water rushing!" Lexi said not bothering to breathe.

I smiled so happy that we were actually going to have this hideaway where I could just be with my best friend.

-

Lexi and I got to work straight away, so that our clubhouse would be built by the end of the summer. Every morning at 8:00 we would meet our our cherry tree and build more and more of our secret hideaway. We would get help from Mr. Blackwell, of course, or to be more correct, he got help from us. The three of us would work until noon, which is when we would go inside and eat our lunch made by my mother. I loved that time of day, because Lexi and I would just go out and lay in the grass under where our hideaway would be while we ate our PB&J's. After lunch, we would work for one more hour, though it seemed like a lot longer than that, and then we'd call in quits for the day. I felt like the tree house made me and Lexi grow closer to each other, and with each thing that was added on, I found myself liking Georgia even more, like building this was building me. And I think that when Lexi spent more time with her dad, she was happy.

"Anne?" she asked one day while she was sipping her lemonade, cold and sweet. I watched the condensation trickle down the outside of her glass and then slowly responded.

"Yeah?"

"Do you ever think about boys?" she asked.

I thought about her question. As a matter of fact, I didn't necessarily think about boys as much as I thought about a boy, Luke. I did think about him, but rarely. I mostly just liked to talk to him at school.

"I guess," I replied.

"Okay, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't weird. She sat up and locked her thumbs together. She waved the rest of her fingers around, and placed them in the sunlight, where I saw she had formed a butterfly. I laughed.

"Lexi, you are weird, but that is what makes you different," I said. And with that, I joined her in making shadow animals on the grass.