Chapter 2

The next day brought the start of lessons. Physics was a particular favourite subject of Joc and he found the A level to be much more interesting than the GCSE work he had done. Maths was overshadowed by the introduction of further maths, which brought much more interesting concepts and methods than the ordinary maths subject. Chemistry was interesting in its own way.

When it came to thursday, Joc had a free lesson after lunch. He decided to go for a walk around town on his own, to look for little cosy hideouts he could make his own whenever he needed some space. Beside the local museum (which was being renovated) there was a little alleyway which Joc knew led to a big, but relatively unknown park which held lots of trees and bushes – perfect for a hideout. One tree stood out in particular. It was a strong and sturdy tree, and branches split off the main trunk early on so it was easy to climb. Joc put his foot on the fork of the lowest branch and gingerly put some weight on the branch to see if it would hold him. It did. He held firmly onto branches on either side of him and pulled himself onto the tree.

"Woah, long way down," he exclaimed. The tree was placed at the top of a small but steep grassy hill and although Joc was only a metre up in the tree, if he fell off he would fall three metres. A little further up the tree was a neat looking seat-like branch, which didn't look too difficult to get to. Shrugging his bag off his shoulder and chucking it off the tree, Joc made his way carefully up to the seat-like branch, which he found was very comfortable.

Shit, he thought, I've left my sandwiches in my bag. Thoroughly annoyed with himself, he made the short trip back down the tree and this time climbed back up with his bag on his back.

From his tree, Joc observed his surroundings. There were a few people sitting on benches eating their lunch, mainly students with their friends. Seagulls liked this area very much as people would often (on purpose or not) drop some food that they were eating, and the seagulls would fly over when they had gone and have a free lunch. Not that they normally bought food. That would be silly. Imagine a seagull going into a shop and buying a sandwich. Oooh that would be funny. "Hello Mr Shop Person, I would like to buy this sandwich please in return for a few insects I have just caught." Joc shook his head and sighed to himself. His imagination kept running way and coming up with the strangest stuff.

After another hour of admiring the view and making up more incidences of seagulls buying stuff from shops, Joc decided it was time to get down from the tree as he had another lesson in a few minutes.

The next week, on the way to his tree, Joc suddenly spotted an old friend whom he hadn't seen since year 6. Oskar! Oskar had been one of the few people in Jocs year to go to a different secondary school.

"Hey, Oskar, Hey!"

"Joconan, is that you?"

"Yeah it is, good to see you again, mate." They were both really pleased to see each other again.

"Doing anything at the moment?" Joc asked

"Nah," Oskar replied, "don't really do much at lunch."

"Come and see my tree then."

Tree? Oskar thought, why does he want me to see a tree? Oskar was a bit curious about why Joc wanted to show him a tree, so he followed Joc through the little alleyway and through the park.

"Here it is," announced Joc, "my hideout, where I sit and eat my lunch while thinking about weird things."

"Haha still into thinking about weird things, are you? Well so am I. Hang on, are you saying that you sit in the tree to eat your lunch?"

"Oh yeah, come on, I'll show you." To demonstrate, Joc almost skipped up the tree and sat on his seat-like branch. "Come on up."

"Err…" Oskar wasn't sure about climbing the tree so he just stepped onto the fork of the first branch and leant against the trunk. They sat there for a few minutes in silence until Oskar came up with a kind of song:

This is the tree

It is green

And so is the bread

That grows on the tree

Joc found that really funny, "Hahahaha, what the… Green bread, bread growing on trees, what the…" he repeated, "Ok, my go now." He thought for a while and spouted:

This is the tree

We sit and drink tea

With bread and jam

Up in the tree

"Very British," remarked Oskar, "And it makes a lot more sense. Which bread are you using, green bread from the tree?" Joc smiled at this.

"Come one, let's make more verses"

Another four verses were made to accompany the first two. Here is the full tree song:

This is the tree

It is green

And so is the bread

That grows on the tree

This is the tree

We sit and drink tea

With bread and jam

Up in the tree

This is the tree

We eat green bread with brie

And no-one can see

Us up in the tree

This is the tree

Sitting here is free

Away from the people

Who are too noisy

This is the tree

Hear them scream

When they look up

And see us in the tree

This is the tree

It is supreme

Above every other

Big or small tree

A/N This is actually a song that I made up one lunch time while sitting in a tree so all lyrics are mine!