Our Treehouse

 As I was climbing up the wooden ladder that my father made, I thought to myself, “How many times have I climbed up this ladder?” It was 3:00 in the afternoon, and I was a bit early for my daily treehouse hangout with my best friends, Leo, Danielle, and Max. They have been my best friends since kindergarten. I’m Lily, By the way. I'm just a regular 12 year old, 6th grade girl. I live in Portland, OR, a pretty boring town made up of a bunch of mountains, trees, and wood. Literally. Anywa-

“Hello! How's my favorite person in the entire universe on this Saturday afternoon?!” says Danielle. She’s always been a pretty bubbly soul. The kind of person who you can’t keep a straight face around. I instantly smile at her, 

“Pretty good, you?”

“ I’ve been good, except for the fact that my brother Kian broke my Bike.”

“Awww, that's too bad, but you borrow mine whenever you need” I say as I smile at her.

“Looks like the guys are late…”

“Again” we both say in unison while we laugh.

A few minutes Max and Leo climbed up the ladder, and I noticed that Leo was carrying something. 

“ Leo, what’s that?”

“Oh! These are the time capsules we made in second grade!”

“OMG!! I totally forgot about those!!” Danielle says.

“I thought those died FOUR years ago.” Exclaims Max.

“Ya, that's what i thought. But then my mom said that the school is getting new grass, and they found these underground.” Leo said.

His mom is the vice principle of Rose City School, where we all go to school.

“Well, what are we waiting for?! Let’s open then!!”

As we ripped open the tape on dirt-covered boxes, I said to myself, “I wonder what is in here…?!”

“Dude!! My baseball cards! I’ve been looking for these for AGES!!” Yell’s Max.

“Awww, Lil! ( that's what my friends call me ) These are the friendship bracelets we made!!” Danielle says while beaming.

“Look how terrible I was!”

A while after we opened the box’s, I pulled some chip bags out of my backpack, and we all went for our favorites, Max went for the sour cream and onion, Danielle went for the Barbecue, Leo went for the Potato Chips, and I went for the Doritos. 

As we ate them we talked about what 7th grade was gonna be like.

“I heard, that Mrs. Mendoza gives FOUR tests a month!” Says a pouty Danielle.

“I heard that lunch is ten minutes shorter.” Leo says sadly, “Thats how long it takes to even GET lunch!”

“I heard that we have to run seven laps around the track, or else…” Max says while wiggling his fingers in the air.

So far, 7th grade was sounding pretty awful. 

“ C’mon guys! 7th grade can’t be THAT bad!” I say.

(cricket .cricket. cricket.)

“OK, so it might be terrible, cruel, we might not be in ANY of the same classes, and it may be the worst year ever, but let's stay positive!” I say, hoping someone would agree with me. 

(more crickets. Even more crickets.)

“I hate to break it to you Lil, but 7th grade is gonna be TERRIBLE.” Leo says.

“Ok, well, it's still summer, so let's enjoy ourselves! The pool, The ice cream store, The park?!” I say happily.

“Ok, I guess I am pretty hungry…” Danielle says quietly.

“Ok! I say as I pull 13 one-dollar bills.

As we file out of the tree house, I hope that they are not right about 7th grade. But I also think about if we're still gonna be friends…

“C’mon guys! Last one to the Ice cream shop is a melty ice cream!” Leo yells.

“Hey! You guys got a head start!!” I say jumping off the ladder, and sprint over to them, beaming the whole way there.

The next day, we all meet at the treehouse, and on time. Leo brought his annoying little sister, Mary, he said that his mom was at the store. I told her that she could play with my horse figurines.

Max said that we should all just stay in the treehouse because of how sunny it was, and the treehouse had shade. We all agreed and I laid down on the small couch we found on the side of the road. It was Magenta, and had lots of rips in the fabric. We loved it anyway.

We decided to play rock, paper, scissor. After Danielle won, we all got bored. Like, REALLY bored. So bored that Leo had to get out his Legos from the cabinet we made. He made a pool. We were all dying of heat, and boredom. I decided this was an emergency.

"Ok, you are all dying of boredom so... SCRABBLE TIME!!!" I say

Scrabble is our favorite game. I remember when we would sit in the treehouse for hours playing scrabble. Those days were my favorite days.

"Ok, you guys can try, but you'll NEVER beat me!" Leo says, sticking his tongue out.

"Oh yeah? Good luck, your gonna need it!" Max says, as he snaps his finger in the air.

"C'mon, you guys all know that I'M the scrabble master here" Danielle says, with a smirk on her face.

I know I made the right decision.

After we all played, we were to tired to finish, so we put on the small iPad, crowded around it, and Leo and I ended up falling asleep while we were watching. After Danielle woke us up, we all decided to call it a day.

As I said good-bye to my friends, I thought to myself, Please have this be what are friendship will always be, Falling asleep during a movie, Playing scrabble together, and Opening time capsules. I really, REALLY hope that we stay best Friends for a long, long time.

I see Danielle out of my window. She is walking her dog. I get my shoes on and go outside, running toward her. I don't say anything. She doesn't say anything. We just hug. We hug like we've known each other forever. We stand there, hugging for almost ten minutes. We just stand there, in the middle of the sidewalk, hoping and praying that we stay like this forever.