Chances of That

"No Petey! I don't wanna climb the tree! It's really, really high. It's like taller than my dad!"

"Oh don't be such a girl Sophie! You've climbed trees before."

I look around the grass I stand on. The nice, sturdy, safe grass that's not 1,000 metres off the ground.

"Petey, I'm scared. I can't ruin my dress. It's white and mummy will shout at me, like last time." I become upset as I recall the events that happened last time I ruined a white dress ... It wasn't pretty.

"Sophie?" I look up at the little boy in the tree that grows between my house and his, "I really need to tell you something, so I'd like you to be up the tree with me."

Peter Harrison has been my best friend my whole life. His mum was best friends with my mum their whole life, and my grandad and his grandad met whilst in the RAF together, and were best friends for the rest of their lives. So technically, we go back a really really really long time!

He's always been quieter than me, shorter than me and very skinny. His glasses barely ever stay in place due to the fact that his weedy little nose can't hold the weight. He has brown curly hair, which he absolutely hates. And all in all, he is a bit on the geeky side, but he's stuck up for me when ever i've needed it - which has been more than I'd like to admit.

Infact, on this day, on the green between our houses, 8 years old, I feel like I owe everything to this kid. So I hitch up my dress, kick me white dolly shoes off and scale that tree like an absolute pro.

"See? I told you you could do it!" Petey exclaimed whilst grinning excessively.

I return his smile and ask, "So, what you wanna to tell me?"

His smile suddenly vanishes as if he'd just remembered that he has to tell me that he drowned my pet fish!

"Erm, so, you know that we're 8 now, right?" He says without looking at me.

I laugh and he seems to brighten up a bit, "Of course I know this Petey, I had a swimming party and your brother threw you in the pool so hard that you hit your tooth on the bottom of the pool and it fell out." I leave out the bit about how his blood in the pool is the reason that everyone else at the party ran to their parents to beg them to take them home, thinking it would only depress him.

"Yeah well, mum says that I'm old enough now to understand that in order for me to be accepted into the really good middle school out of town, I have to go and live with my dad and transfer to a different school." He finishes his speech and looks at me for confirmation that even a bit of it got through.

At first i just stare at him with one eyebrow raised, searching his face for any signs to indicate the funny part of this joke. Any signs that he's lying. Any signs that his brother Josh put him up to this. But, unfortunately, not even one single sign shows through his worried expression as he pushes his glasses further up his nose.

"So you're going to leave me?" It takes everything I've got to steady my voice as I ask this question, but it still breaks at the end of the sentence.

"Not for always! I'll ring you at least once a week. And we'll both be going to Hamblin Upper School when we're older." He looks distressed, like he hasn't really thought that we'll be seperated until we're teenagers. And although he says we'll both be at the school together, I know his dad won't let him leave the grammer school before his real serious exams, so we'll only be at the same school together if he chooses to go to Hamblin when he's 17 for sixth form.

I sigh and reply with fake enthusiasm, "Of course we will. We'll talk all the time, and go see each other like every Saturday and Sunday!" He seems to buy my fake emotions and this cheers him up.

He reaches into his pocket, "I've got something for you to remember me by."

I stick my hand out and close my eyes like we've done since we were really little and feel a large, circular object fall into my hand. I open my eyes to see a multicoloured bouncy ball bigger than my palm.

"It's the one I won on that claw machine thing at the pier when we went for my birthday last year."

I stare at the present in amazement!

"I can't believe you're giving this to me! It's your favourite toy ever!"

"And you're my favourite girl ever. You should be together." And with that he gives me a light peck on the cheek and shimmies back down the tree.