Protected

Climbing

That night, around nine, Josh, Zay, and Lucas all came home. 

"Ready for the party?" Josh said.

"Coming!" I called. I ran down the stairs and jumped on Lucas. He caught me and pecked me on the lips.

"Miss me?" he asked.

"Always," I replied.

I climbed around on his back, and he gave me a piggy back ride out to the forest trail with Zay, Josh, Farkle, and Riley in tow.

We walked for a good fifteen minutes into the forest as the trees got thicker and thicker. Luckily, there were no mosquitoes, but I had a feeling that had less to do with luck and more to do with the presence of four werewolves.

"We're here," Zay finally announced.

I looked up, but this looked like every other dark, wooded stretch of forest.

"Turn on the Christmas lights," I said.

Zay smirked, "They're already on," he said.

"Whoa! Seriously?" I cried. I couldn't see anything, not one pinprick of light.

"Come on," Lucas said.

We began to climb the tree. Luckily, it had a lot of low branches, so there were plenty of hand and footholds. It was a long, long climb, but how ridiculously easy of a climb it was meant that, when we finally got to the tree house, I wasn't even out of breath.

Finally, Lucas stopped. I could see the bottom of the tree house as a sheet of dark wood, and Lucas pressed on it, which opened a door in the bottom. I climbed in after him and clambered onto the tree house floor.

"Holy crap," I said, looking around. The first thing I noticed was the sheer number of desserts covering every surface. I had to make an effort to ignore them and focus on the tree house itself. The whole thing was smooth, paneled wood. There was a bar in the back, with a TV behind it. A sofa was against one wall, and there was a table in one corner surrounded by wicker chairs. A stone fireplace was against the wall to my left, and a ladder to my right leading up to a hole in the ceiling, which was probably the loft, if I had to guess.

"One question," I said, turning to the others, which had climbed in after me, "How do you have power for that?" I pointed to the TV.

Zay chuckled, "So, you see, when we want to watch TV, someone hops around on the roof with a big metal pole, and we wait for the lightning to hit it," he said, laughing.

Lucas rolled his eyes, "It's connected to the house. So is the fridge," he explained.

I nodded and sat down on the sofa. 

Josh went to the bar and started pulling out mixers and a silver shaker. He tossed some plates on the bar, along with spoons, forks, and a cake knife.

"Let's get this party started!" Zay cried.