Lovely

My town was having a First of July parade celebrating Canada day. I was going alone because none of my siblings would come an hour earlier than when the parade started.

Behind my street there is an old meadow. Long dry grass and Tall old oak and maple trees. Everything looked so beautiful in this midst of summer.

The air was dry and so were my fingers as I rubbed them against the trunk of the old oak. It looked sturdy so I grabbed onto the lowest branch and hoisted my body up. I grabbed the next, then the next until I was half way to the top. But this is where I usually stop. The higher you go the thinner the branches eventually get.

I was covered in a tent of green leaves. I leaned against the big trunk as I balanced my weight on the branch.

I sat down and shut my eyes and hummed to the soft rhythm my mother had once hummed to.

The sound made me cry but it reminded me ever so much of her. I liked being high. Every part about it. My mom and I would sit on our roof and watch fireworks when I was little but I can't do that at my new house. I guess when I'm up in these trees I feel a little closer to my mother.

My thoughts eventually drowned me and I feel asleep.

"THERE SHE IS!" I heard my sister Mona yell. I opened my eyes in a shock and caught my balance before I fell right off the tree branch. I slowly climbed down and saw 6 more of my siblings, at the bottom waiting.

"You said you were going to the parade not up a tree." My older sister Corey snarled.

"Sorry." I muttered.

Corey led my other siblings as I walked slowly at the back.

"Where is Julia?" I asked my 13 year old brother Jeff.

"Julia is at home with Cathy, Ella and Ken." he answered quickly walking a head of me.

Julia is our Den Mother, not our real mom but our care taker mom. Morris is our care taker dad. I guess by now you think my family is kind of odd. Well, we are all foster kids. None of us have real parents so we were all thrown in a home with a bunch of other kids without parents, I've been in this family since I was 8 when my mother passed away.

When I first got here there were 4 others then more came and more and now there is 10 of us. Julia treats us all the same but it's obvious that Morris has some of his favourites and I'm obviously not one of them. I can't play sports, I'm not in a band, I don't make friends with my other siblings very easily. Actually in the 7 years I've been here I've only made friends with one of my sibling and his name is Nathan. He's my age, he doesn't play any sports and he isn't very social but he is in a band with one of my other siblings Marcus.

"Lola hurry up!" Corey complained. I skipped ahead to catch up with my other siblings.

The streets were pretty full, packed with dozens of people waiting for the big float. Basically every year my small town has this little parade slash festival thing. Three floats go by and then a bunch of booths are set up like face painting and free Canadian flags. Then right before 9 they clean everything up an everybody gathers in the park a couple blocks over to watch fireworks for about 20 minutes then we all go home.

I used to love going with my mom when I was younger but now I just go to watch my younger siblings go out and have fun while the rest of us just anxiously wait for the fireworks.

"Lola? Can you put me up on your shoulders?" my little sister Penny asked.

"Yeah sure." I said crouching down.