The Cherry Trees

Chapter Nine: 2013

The rest of the week was spent with my old friends, playing on the beach, an never giving a thought to my life in Georgia. Lucy hadn't changed one bit, and it made me realize how much I had. She was still fun as ever, and had that perfect amount of hyperness in her. Then there were my other friends. Sam was shy, just as I remembered her, so she wans't very fun to hang out with at the beach. However, when you were sad, she was always the one to go to. Emma was a spaz, as she had always been, and Mary was the prissy girl. The type of girl who in third grade only wore skirts, and already wore makeup. I guess you could say she was very worried about her appearance. I think that is what made out group of friends so special, was that we were all so different from one another.

Lucy kept buying me everything, since her parents had no financial worries. I think that I now had quite a few vacation t-shirts, a friendship bracelet, lipgloss, and plenty of candy and soda. For those five days, I felt like I still lived here again.

Naturally, when we left I was sad. All my friends gave me hugs, and I waved goodbye to them as we drove away. promising that I would see them again the same time next year. though I wasn't sure if I would.

As the landscape changed back to Georgia, I felt as if I were moving again, but this time, it was a little better because I had Lexi and Luke to come home to.

Later that night, I heard my backdoor shut, and the familiar sound of Lexi's high-tops bounding up my wooden stairs echoed up to my room. When my door swung open, I saw Lexi's face stretch into a wide grin, obviously happy to see me. She jumped onto my bed and started bouncing on it.

"You're home!" she said.

I nodded, "Yup, how was your break?"

"BORING! I realized that I have no friends when you go away."

At her comment, I felt guilty, and I tried to hide the bracelet that was tied around my wrist. "Yeah, the beach was pretty boring, too," I said.

Lexi looked confused. :I thought that you were meeting a bunch of friends there," she said.

Shoot, how did she know?

"Yeah, I did, but I mean..."

"Anne, you do know that it is okay for you to have other friends...right?"

I nodded guiltily.

"Good," she said, "And you don't have to hide any friendship bracelets either," she said winking.

"What? How did you see that?" I asked.

Lexi just smiled mischeviously, and walked out of the room. I rolled my eyes. Then on my bed was a long red box, that clearly had printed on it "Anne's Anklet". I picked it up, and inside was a purple, pink, and green braided anklet that Lexi had obviously made while she was bored in her house. I smiled, and put it on, happy that now, she and Lucy were even.