It was the very last week of March, my first day of freedom after three months of school, and it was hotter than my best friend Bella or I could remember. Our sand shoes slapped against the pavement on our street as we ran away from our houses and up towards the woods.
We weren't running away; we were looking for something.
On Friday, the day before, the boys we spent break on the playground with, Edward, Jasper, and Emmett, had all been going on and on about a tree up the hills. They bragged about how, even though it was so big, they'd managed to climb to the top. But when me and Bella had asked if we could see this tree, we'd been told that we couldn't go, 'cause we were girls.
Well, that just wasn't good enough for us, and we promised that the next day, the first day of our Easter Holidays, we were going to find this tree, and we were going to climb it.
We'd taken off in cut-off denim and tee shirts, Bella's hair was tied back from her face, but mine was so short it just flicked out around my ears. We each had backpacks, filled with water, sandwiches and fruit. It was like a proper adventure, and I couldn't have been more excited.
The hills came steep as we roared past the park, past our school, and finally into the Woodlands Centre.
"They said it was this way," Bella said when we finally slowed to a walk. She was pointing off down a pathway that led away from the fields and into the trees. We headed straight for it.
I don't know how long we walked for, it felt like forever, but I knew it couldn't have been more than an hour. When we stopped for our sandwiches, sitting in a sunny patch on a side bank, I checked my Winnie the Pooh watch and realised we'd been out there for almost two hours! After showing Bella the time we quickly wrapped up our mess and carried on down the track.
Finally, we saw a small cut through the bushes that lined the path, and we knew we'd come to the right place. The cut led into a small field, and right in the middle was the tree. The boys were right, it was enormous.
Suddenly, I wasn't so excited about climbing it, but Bella had always been the brave one, so she took my hand and dragged me to the trunk. She laughed as she ran to the opposite side.
"Stretch your arms out!" She shouted, and I did. Our fingers couldn't touch around the trunk of the tree.
"Right," Bella said, looking up into the branches above us. "Give me a leg up. Then I'll pull you up."
I frowned but did as she said, supporting her foot on my clasped hands and pushing her 'til her hands were clasped around a thick branch. I was so scared she would fall, I could barely watch.
"Come on then," she called, smiling down at me. My heart was beating so fast, but I knew I had to do this; I had to prove the boys wrong.
It didn't take long for Bella to pull me up onto the branch, I wasn't very heavy, and Bella was strong from swimming lessons. Together we knelt on the branch, looking down to the ground that seemed so far away.
"Let's keep going," I said, feeling brave now I was in the tree.
I had never climbed a tree before, but I knew Bella had. Her older brother, Peter, was constantly pulling her up into the trees in her back garden. Sometimes I wished I had a brother like him, but I supposed I had Bella, who was better than any brother.
We twisted in the branches, concentrating hard so we wouldn't slip. Some of the smaller branches snagged on our clothes, and I knew when we stopped we'd be covered in scratches. My mum would not be happy about all the grass stains I was getting, either. We climbed and climbed, and I dared not look down. I'd never been one for heights, I got scared just climbing to the top of the gym equipment at school.
But finally we'd gone as far as we could, and we sat together on the branch, smiling at what we'd done.
"Wait 'til the boys hear about this," I giggled.
Bella laughed loud, before turning to me, her hand clasped as though holding a microphone. "Tell me, Alice Brandon, how does it feel to have climbed all the way to the top of The Tree, at the age of ten?"
"Eleven next month, and fantastic!" I called.
I was so happy, and I couldn't stop imagining what else we might get up to these next two weeks; I couldn't wait.