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Caleb spoke to his mom with a grim face. His hands were knotting and unknotting themselves behind his back and his feet seemed to be squishing the grass underneath him.
After a few painstaking minutes Caleb's mom left, but the girl seemed to stay behind.
Caleb then called Rylan and John down. The two boys regretfully climbed down the rope, almost fully aware of what's to come.
"Guys..." he sighed "This is my cousin, Amy. The one I was telling you about" he introduced them to the girl.
"Hi!" Amy greeted them brightly, her eyes were shining in the sun "I am Amy" she jumped next to them, her copper curls bouncing behind her.
"Hi Amy...." John grumbled and rolled his eyes.
"Hi" Rylan said to her. He looked at her in a very amusing way. His face didn't seem upset that now their clubhouse is ruined, but more of fascinated. "Why aren't you wearing a skirt?" he blurted out, amidst his thinking.
Amy blinked a couple of times, registering the question posed. "Umm..." she shuffled on her feet, looking down at her navy blue cargo pants "I don't like skirts. They are very uncomfortable".
Odd query to some, but the girls the East Side Boys know, all wear skirts. Frilly, lacey, pink skirts. It emphasized the full on fact that they were females and totally different from icky, yucky boys.
This one, however, seemed to be an exception.
"Really?" John asked, his eyes widened at her response. "You don't like skirts?" he said in amusement.
"Nope" she replied easily. "You can't run, jump or play in the mud with them" she shook her head in disgust. Her hair swayed alongside her.
"You play in the mud?" this time it was Caleb's turn to be fascinated.
In their world, girls and mud just didn't mix. But apparently, another exception was made in Amy's case.
"Yeah, it's either that or watching Spiderman" Amy replied again. Wondering what's with all the weird questions.
The three boys looked at her with their eyes sized big.
"Club Meeting!" Caleb called immediately. "Now!" he ran to the other side of the tree beckoning the other two to hurry. Rylan was closely behind him.
"But don't we have to say-" John began.
"NO!" Rylan and Caleb yelled at John in a chorus. "You stay there!" Rylan said to the now, extremely confused Amy, who sat down on the grass with her hand on her chin, clearly wonderstruck.
The three boys huddled to form a close circle.
"Caleb, your cousin is a boy!" Rylan began to say.
"No she isn't stoopid. Look at her hair!" Caleb replied.
"But she likes the same things we do!" John said to the other two.
"That still doesn't make her a boy!" Caleb argued.
"But... but... Caleb just look at her!" Rylan forced Caleb's head to turn. And the three turned around to see Amy scrawling her hands in the mud and making a huge dirt mountain.
"Girls don't do such things!" Rylan said to the both of them "I think..." he began to say carefully.
"NO!" Caleb refused, loud enough for Amy to look at them inquisitively, so Caleb quickly hushed his 'shout'. "No way!" he whispered, still angry.
"Why not?" John complained, finally getting the gist of the argument.
"Because she is a girl!" Caleb was so annoyed at the thought of allowing a girl to join the East Side Boys.
"So? The reason we didn't let girls join our club was 'cuz they were so..." John frowned.
"Girly!" Rylan continued for him. "But Amy isn't girly" he looked at Caleb "And you're the one who said we hav'ta let her play with us"
"Oh all right!" Caleb grumbled. Two against one is never done. "But we are so not changing the name to East Side Boys and A Girl". He stomped towards Amy as if destroying every life force in the ground below his steps, and quickly explained what the club members have decided and he welcomed her to the club.
Regretfully.
She stood up and smiled. "I didn't know you guys had a club" she looked around "Where is the clubhouse?" she asked them, her eyes still tracing the perimeters of the park.
"Up there" Rylan pointed upwards and Amy's eyes followed his finger and looked up.
"Cool" she breathed. Rylan slowly looked at the clubhouse and down back at her. A smile creped on his face as her green eyes slowly met his.
"Let's go up!" she said quickly, running to the rope and trying to shimmy her way up.
"Ha-ha" John laughed tauntingly "You're a girl so you should take the wooden steps over there" he pointed to the logs stapled to the trunk that made a make-shift ladder.
Amy gave him a very sarcastic look and took the rope in her small hands. She grunted and quickly pulled herself up, much to the amazement of the three. "Hurry up, slow pokes" she laughed as the boys followed behind her.
Amy looked around the small room and made a face. "This is it?" she asked, expecting more, obviously. "Yeah" Caleb grinded his teeth "This is IT".
"Well what did you expect it to be?" Rylan asked her, genuinely curious. "Well... I dunno... It should have posters and games and stuff" she shrugged her shoulders.
"That's a pretty good idea" John said slowly. "I have a few Spiderman posters we could stick". "I have some old games I could bring" Rylan suggested. Caleb looked at the other two "What?" he said disgustedly "We are following orders from a girl now?"
"Lighten up Caleb" John said coolly. "You have to admit her idea is pretty good"
"But she just said it!" Caleb said exasperated "She didn't suggest it"
"Well it looks like a good idea to be suggested" Rylan said calmly as if that had settled the matter.
***
New part up in 2 days! Have a great week! :3
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