Forest

Chapter 6- Forest

It was my first day of first grade. I was getting ready, finishing buckling up my shoes, before heading down stairs to eat a bowl of cereal with my backpack in hand. Just as I jumped from the second to last step, my dad came around the corner and caught me, causing me to scream and laugh as he swung me around in a gigantic hug. He finally set me down, still giggling, and we walked to the kitchen so he could fix me my bowl of cereal. Just as I was halfway finished with the bowl, my mom came running down the stairs in a rush to get to work, and see me before she left. She gave me a hurried kiss on the cheek and a quick "I love you, I'll see you later" to both me and my father before rushing out the door. My father gave me a sad look before telling me to go brush my teeth or else we'd be late.

I hopped off the barstool and headed to the bathroom. After I had finished brushing my teeth, I went back to the living room and grabbed my backpack, then headed towards the door where dad was waiting. I grabbed his hand and we were out the door; he always walked me to school on my first day and just went to work later that day. As we walked to the classroom, I saw this boy crying his eyes out to his mother, screaming how he didn't wanna go; I felt bad so I gave my dad a quick hug goodbye and he told me mom would be there later to pick me up. After, I walked up and introduced myself hoping to make a friend, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances.

"Hi! I'm Ruby, what's your name?" I asked to try and help get his mind off his mom leaving.

"Hey sweetie look you can make a new friend, I have to go but i'll be back to pick you up later, okay? I love you!" His mom gave him a quick squeeze and before he could throw more of a fit she was out the door. He looked at me with glossy eyes and a small frown on his face.

"I'm Chris, I like your backpack." he told me, wiping his nose. I had almost forgotten I changed my backpack yesterday from the princess to the camoflauge (which suited me better anyways). I held my arm out to him with a smile on my face. "Come on, i'm gonna be your best friend and make this the best first day you've ever had." He gave me a small appreciative smile and took my arm.

"Thank you" he told me, full of gratitude, and with that we walked into class, sat next to each other, and became best friends.

I woke up to the urge of really needing to use the bathroom since I drank so much water. Looking at the clock I realized I had only been asleep for a few hours, so I got up, used the restroom, and headed back to the couch to go back to sleep (since I was still super tired). As I laid back down I remembered parts of my previous dream, which put a smile on my face, and I drifted off back to sleep.

I was running through the forest giggling and screaming as I heard his footsteps catching up. I did have one advantage though, I knew this forest like the back of my hand, so I cut a sharp right and was running farther and deeper to the center, where I knew there was a meadow full of grass and flowers, but before I could make it I was tackled by Chris, causing us to topple over so now we were both on the floor out of breath and laughing. We were in 3rd grade now and the past two years had been amazing and full of laughs for the most part. We also made a new best friend named Summer last year in second grade. Our little friend group was really nice to have because we were always there for each other even though we were so young. On the way back to my house Chris and I came across an amazing tree that was perfect to build a treehouse in, so upon our small discovery we bolted back to my place running into Summer and my dad, who we drug to the tree and begged to help us make the tree house. After hours of following him around, my dad agreed and got all the supplies and said we'd start tomorrow. Satisfied with his answer, Summer, Chris, and I walked back to the back yard and headed towards the forest to go to the meadow.