Cherry Blossoms

*Author’s Note*

This is my LEGIT TENTH STORY, not my message to Reedsy one. That's all! Hope you enjoy!

“Willow! Look!” I looked over to where my little brother and sister were. “A cherry blossom tree! And there’s blossoms!” Emma and Ben were looking at the pretty pink blossoms. I snorted. “That’s the whole reason we’re here, right?” Ben lowered his head. “The cherry blossom festival is great and all, and it’s a sign of spring, but I wanna go home! I wanna go back to Montana!” I sighed. My little sister and brother, (Or bother, as I call him,) had mixed feelings about spring and the cherry tree festival thing. I had to admit, I missed my friends, Madeline and Skyler, and my and boyfriend, Cal. I walked toward Emma and Ben, who were admiring all the blossoms around us. “They’re really pretty!” Emma marveled. “Em, keep your brother safe, maybe see if you can find Mia. I’m going back to our tent.”

That evening I texted Madeline and I told her I really wanted to come back to Montana where I could see her and Cal and Skyler and I also asked her if she wanted to come someday to see all the cherry blossoms and the tree and how they bloomed. And I also asked her if we were still best friends. Her reply was not as good as I expected.

She said:

 Hi Willow! I am doing fine, and Skyler and Cal are also doing fine. I hope you are having fun at the festival. I hope that Emma and Ben are not bothering you too much. I also hope that you are good and… that's basically it! We are still best friends, I just... Well, I feel that I haven't been in contact with you lately. And I want more time with you. I might come some day so that we can maintain our friendship. I could bring Skyler if you want. I'm not quite sure yet so I will let you know when I am sure. Love ya girl! 

Xoxo xoxo xoxo 

From,

 Madeline

I had an empty pit in my stomach. Were Madeline and me not friends anymore? I had a bad feeling that we were not. At least she would come and not bore me to death. My brother and sister were fun and all but you know they could always… Be super annoying at times. Plus they were always really loud and super wild and I really couldn't handle them at times. Maybe the Cherry Tree Festival would change my mind. I decided that I'd go take a walk and see if Mia or Ben or Emma were around. Possibly make new friends? I hoped that I could find anyone my age in Washington DC. It was pretty much impossible because of all the cherry blossoms and all the little kids running around and screaming. I honestly don't know why little kids scream. It's just annoying sometimes. And it pierces older kids and parents eardrums. But my life was pretty barren other than friend troubles and my brother and sister and my parents and grades in school. Okay, it might have not been that barren, but it was still very boring and I hoped for more adventure and more stuff to do later in the year after spring break which was happening right now. More about my parents. My parents are divorced so it is hard for me and Emma and Ben to really cope with that. We sometimes had a nanny or Mia, but other than that, we had no one. That's pretty much it, though.

Later that evening when Ben and Emma came home, I went to my room and sat in front of my computer screen for a while. We were supposed to come up with poems for school. I have no idea what I was going to write for mine. I had no real life experiences and I had nothing to inspire me. It was due tomorrow so I figured I had better get thinking even though I was at a Cherry Blossom Festival and I was supposed to be having fun. But it was no fun at all with my brother and sister so I suppose I should just do my school work for now. I really super duper bad wanted to text Skyler and Madeline, but Madeline was probably not my friend anymore and Skyler probably didn't want to talk either. I left Ben and Emma my phone and they each got 30 minutes. Ben played Angry Birds the entire time, while Emma called her friends. Surprisingly Emma was more mature than anyone in my family, other than me. She was the youngest and Ben was a bit older than her, I was the oldest at 12. Ben was 8 and Emma was six. After thinking hard hard hard hard hard on my poem I decided to take a walk. The cherry trees were beautiful at sunset. I sat on a bench and I looked up at the stars once they came out. I checked my watch. It was about 9:45 and I knew that Emma and Ben should be going to bed soon, so I headed back home, only to see Mia running behind me. “Hey, wait up, Willow!” She called after me as I ran toward the door. I just wanted to go and put Ben and Emma to bed so that we could have a conversation. It was good because she was 14 and I was only twelve so she had more experience. Maybe she could help me with the poem? I didn't know but I certainly want didn't want to ask her. I hoped that Ben and Emma were not getting the ice cream and cleaning the whole container out. We had pizza for dinner and they certainly didn't want to get the wrong idea by just... Eating ice cream the entire time. I wanted to just have a bit of time to myself without Ben and Emma because I never had any alone time at all. Just then a cherry blossom fell in my head and on my hair. I stopped. Mia caught up to me and we looked at it. I stared at her in astonishment. “I didn't know you were such a good runner!” I said. “Yeah, I was on the track team for awhile.” Mia said. I took a deep breath. “So how are you?” I asked her. “Good, good.” Mia said. “I know you were going to ask me something.” she said knowingly. “Yeah.” I said. “I need to know what I should do for my poem. I know you did it when you were in seventh, too.” Mia took a deep breath too. “What I did is I just looked around for inspiration and when that didn't work just thought that I would do something that I like. I got a D minus so maybe you should just do inspiration.” 

“That makes sense!” I said. “And since there are cherry tree blossoms all around me, I know what I'm going to do.”

Blossoms by Willow Stockton

All around me

They fall with rhythm

those pink cherry blossoms

They make the world sparkle

And dance

And color it, too.

All around me

those pink cherry blossoms

They go in hair.

Brown, black, white, gold, blond,

They inspire me. 

And you too.