Treehouses and Friends

“Thud. Thud. Thud.” The hammer bounces up and down while I hammer a nail into place. It goes all the way in, but it’s sort of bent.

I hammer it on the side, trying to straighten it out, and it works. 

Well, a little bit.

I sit up. I look around at all of my handiwork. Almost done. I thought to myself. I’ll take a break now.

I stand up, careful not to bang my head on the ceiling, and use the ladder to get down to the ground. It’s a standard metal ladder, the kind you would use to get to the roof of your house or something.

I’m on the ground. I walk forward a little bit then stop to look back at my treehouse. It’s nice, but a little crooked. I sigh, and then walk into my house.

My brother, Alex, is there, playing Fortnite like usual. He’s obsessed with that game. Personally, I think it’s weird. I mean, you shoot someone and then they “die” while a weird camera thing takes their body away. 

Anyway, he loves it. My mom, well, she’s a nurse. She works a ton and cares for her patients non stop. 

My dad writes books. Well, in his free time. He actually works at a school. He’s a teacher. Teachers never work in the summer. At least, never my dad. But this year he signed up to teach summer school. I mean, why dad? 

I never see my dad anymore. His mom, (my grandma) died last year. I didn’t know her that well, but my dad got really depressed after she died. So he works a lot.

I go to the kitchen to make myself a snack. I look and find tortilla chips and cheese. Perfect. I make myself nachos, and then take them back to my treehouse. 

I have alway wanted to have a treehouse, but my dad never consented. He said, “Not until we have a suitable tree, Hattie.” 

But, we moved. And this backyard had the perfect tree. It had large, strong branches with a sturdy trunk. My dad said yes.

We got the wood from the closest Home Depot, and my dad let me use his tool box. It has everything I need.

At the beginning, my brother Alex helped. But then he got bored. So I am finishing it without his help.

I go up the ladder without spilling the nachos. Yay. I have lights in the tree, those little ones you could get from Dollar Tree, and it’s really nice.

I eat the nachos while being nosy and spying on the neighbors. I’m that type. Ms. Hemsworth, the lady next door, is mowing her lawn. Not interesting. She is old, but she is very active. She goes to our nearest YMCA and works out there a lot. 

On the other side, Mr. Devent is just resting on his front porch. He is an author, so he says he sits on his porch for “inspiration”. Once in a while, he starts, and jumps up to run into his house. It’s actually kind of funny when that happens. I’m guessing that's when he gets an idea, but I really don’t know.

I finish the nachos, and then go back into my house to wash my bowl/plate. I always do that. Meanwhile, my brother, who is still playing fortnite, has messy bowls of chips and candy. Wow.

I go back to the treehouse. I hammer in some more nails, and then decide it is finished. I want to invite some of my friends, but I only have one. So I decide to invite her.

Her name is Charlotte. I met her when we were just moving in. She is super nice, and she lives just down the street from us. 

I texted her to see if she wanted to come. She texted back almost immediately. 

Of course! I’ll be there in 5

I texted back:

No problem!

5 minutes later, the doorbell rang.

“Hey Charlotte! How are you?” I said, beckoning her to come in.

“Good, actually! You?”

“Normal, as usual. You want to see my treehouse?” I say, walking with her to the backyard.

“Oh my gosh, yes! I’ve been pressuring my parents to let me build one, or at least my brother has, but they say no. Oof.”

“Oof is right.” I said.

We went to the treehouse. I let her climb the ladder first, because she looked so excited.

When Charlotte saw the lights, she immediately grinned.

“It’s beautiful! I love it!” She said, looking around.

Inside, I had put some board games and books on a shelf that I had built myself. I had an old rug that I didn’t want and laid it on the floor. I loved it. It was small, but cosy. There was a little porch on the outside where the ladder peeked out through the floor.

Charlotte and I played Monopoly, each trying to bankrupt each other. I lost, because I was a terrible player and too nice. I was constantly trading properties with her because she kept on using her puppy dog eyes at me. It was hilarious.

After that, we just sat and talked. She talked about how she has two sisters and how she annoys them and they annoy her. She is the youngest, so she gets the attention. We listened to music and chatted about how Hamilton is the best musical ever. She argued about how Les Miserables and Wicked are super good, but soon agreed with me.

Finally, we read books together. Good fiction. We read The Penderwicks, and talked about Arundel and what would happen next. She had really good ideas about the book, and I said she should start a book club. She grinned, and said she wanted to.

“I will eventually. Maybe when school starts.”

“Awesome! I’ll be the first member!” I said.

We laughed and smiled. I really liked Charlotte. She was nice, and really funny. 

We talked until my dad got home. He said my mom was working a double shift, and she wouldn’t be home for a while. He was cooking dinner.

My dad isn’t the greatest chef. His idea of a meal was to throw around stuff in a pan, cook it, and serve it. My mom had told him to make macaroni and cheese from a box. Easy, right? But he boiled the pasta for too long, so it was mushy. But it was still cheesy.

Alex took a break from Fortnite for dinner, and ate like he was a hungry bear. Even after all those chips and candy, he was still hungry. 

Charlotte stayed for dinner, and complemented the food. She is really nice. She left, and me and my dad (plus Alex) were home together. We were watching tv, while Alex went back to fortnite.

“Thanks for letting me do the treehouse, dad.” I said, during a commercial.

“No problem, Hattie.”

“I love you, dad.”

“I love you too, honey.”