A Separate Peace (Narry Storan)

Chapter 1

The tree was a huge black steeple that was grown beside the river. I'd be damned if I climbed it. No one but Niall could think of such a crazy idea. He saw nothing the slightest bit intimidating about it.

"What i like best about this tree is that it's such an easy task." he said in his deep Irish accent. 

"Oh yeah, looks so easy" I said sarcastically. I said a lot of things sarcastically that summer; that was my sarcastic summer of, 1942.

"Alrighty then" he said attempting his best British accent. This always made me laugh as Niall knew, so I had to laugh, which made me feel less sarcastic and less scared. 

There were three others with us; Liam, Zayn and Louis. All they did was admire the tree. The tree had a soaring black trunk with a set of rough wooden pegs leading up to the strongly built limb which extended towards the river. Standing on the limb you could, if you jumped out far enough, land in the river safetly. So we heard. At least a seventeen-year-old bunch could do it, but they were a year older then us so they had an advantage. No Upper Middler, which is the name of our class in the Devon school, had ever tried. Niall decided he'd be the first to try but also persuade us into trying it with him. 

Technically we arn't Upper Middlers yet because this was the Summer Session which was established to keep up with the pace of the war. This summer we went from being Lower Middlers to Upper Middlers. The class above us, the seniors, draft-bait, soldiers, rushed ahead of us towards the war. The seniors spend their year preparing for the war in which they were to join when they graduate. 

We were playing a game farther down the river when Niall thought of the tree. "Do you want to go first?" he asked us. We didn't answer so he started to take off his clothes until he was just in his underpants. 

For such an extraordinary athlete, he was not that well built. He was the best in the entire school even as a Lower Middler. He, as well as I, were on the short side. He claims he's my height but i know he's an inch shorter than I am. He's 150 pounds of pure strength.

He began scrambling up the wooden pegs nailed to the side of the tree. The pegs didn't seem strong enough to hold his weight. Finally, he stepped onto the branch. "Is this the one they jump from?" None of us knew. "If I do it, you're all going to do it aren't you?" We all mumbled random excuses under our breath. "Well" he cried. "here's my contribution to the effort!" he sprang out, fell though some of the lower branches, and smashed into the water. 

He instantly bobbed to the surface, his died blonde hair stuck to his forehead. "That was the most fun i've had this whole week! So, who's next?"

I was. my mind not in control I took off my clothes and started climbing the pegs. Once I got to the branch I froze, realizing what I was about to do. "Come on!" Niall dawned from below, "stop standing there showing off!" 

What was I doing up here anyways? Why do i let Niall talk me into stupid things like this? Was he getting some kind of hold over me?

"Jump!" 

With the feeling I was throwing my life away, I jumped into space. Some tip of the branches snapped past me and then I crashed into the water. My legs hit the soft mud of the bottom and immediately I was on the surface bring congratulated. I felt fine. 

"I think that was better than Nialler's," said Liam 

"All right, pal," Niall spoke with his loud voice, "don't start awarding prizes until you've passed the course. The tree is waiting."

After that he closed his mouth. He didn't argue, refuse or back away. But the other two, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson, started complaining about the school regulation and excuses about why they couldn't jump. 

"It's you, pal" Niall said to me at last, "just you and me."

Our relationship was changed after that moment. 

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Yeah so this is my first story and decided to do it based off of a book i'm reading in English right now. I'm tweaking it though becuse in the book the two boys were just friends so i'm adding more affection to it. :) 

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