Chapter 3
And so it Begins
Picking up my pace, I began to break into a heavy sprint to my old Victorian house. When I finally entered the house through the back door, I saw my mother cutting up carrots.
"Mum! Mum! You'll never believe what just happened!" I shouted with a burst of energy, jumping up and down.
She laughed, "What happened, Amber?"
"I met this girl, her name is Tami Thompson, and she invited me over for dinner with her dad! He's making pepperoni and sausage pizza!"
My mom's happy and care-free expression went blank.
We stood there in silence.
And with the knife in my mother's hand, I thought she might cut me to bits if I left home.
After a long period of silence, she spoke with a smile.
"Be home by seven-thirty, Amber, please," she said.
"I will! Oh, thank you, mother!" I wrapped my bony arms around her curvy waist in an embrace and rushed out the back door once more. Forgetting what I was going to ask, I poked my head into the door.
"Hey, mother, what time is it?"
"Five forty-seven. Why?"
"I need to be at Tami's house at six!"
Closing the door behind me I ran to where me and Tami had met.
* * *
As I came closer to the tree, I saw her standing there, in the same outfit and same braids as she was wearing when I found her.
"Tami!" I shouted to get her attention.
She turned and smiled at me as I caught up with her.
Breathing hard, I knelt down beside the tree to lean against the hard bark.
"There you are! I thought you'd never come!" Tami said.
"Well, I'm here," I said, smiling up at her as I stood back on my feet.
"Great!" Tami said as she grabbed my arm and led my to her house.
It was beautiful. Bright, white paint, pale blue frames around the windows and a matching door, a wreath on the door, and a huge front yard with wildflowers here and there.
"Well, this is my house," she said.
"Wow...compared to yours, mine is crummy," I said, feeling like I've met a new component. But no. I was her friend, and that's the way it should be.
"Haha, thanks! But yours is Victorian, and I love those kinds of houses!" she stood there, her braids lifting slightly off her shoulders as the breezy winds blew behind us, her eyes closed as she took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly.
She opened her eyes and looked at me. They were the deepest green I'd ever looked into. Mine were a light shade of olive.
"Want to see my dog?" she asked, her dark green eyes twinkling with adventure.
"Sure, why not?" I said, smiling at her.
She took my arm again and led me to the fairly large backyard with wildflowers everywhere.
"This is my backyard," she explained, "so there's a garden to your right," she pointed it out, "a pond to your left, and a dog house near the back right hand corner of the yard."
"It's so...big!"
"Yeah, Murphy needs a lot of space," she said.
"Murphy?" I asked.
"Murphy! Here boy!" she called out to the empty space.
Suddenly out of nowhere a huge golden retriever came out of the little dog house and came running towards us, it's legs pumping with bursts of energy.
It barked at me as it encircled me, sniffing me, licking me all over, epsecially on my hands.
I laughed, "Hey, Murphy,"
"Yep, that's Murphy for you!" said Tami.
The back screen door opened and a tall, slender man with black shaggy hair, a white oxford shirt with stains on it, black slacks, and black tennis shoes.
"Girls, dinner!" he called out to us from the porch.
"Coming, Dad!" Tami called back with her hands cupped around her mouth. Then she turned to me and smiled, "Come on, it's dinner time!"
"Okay!" I said, hungry for a good meal.
We rushed in through the screen door and took a seat at the nice round table. I obviously sat close to Tami, since we were now friends.
"Thank you for letting me have dinner with you," I said politely.
"No problem," Tami's dad said, smiling. "We always allow visitors, especially if they're Tami's friends," he then took a huge bite out of his pizza slice.
"Yum!" Tami munched happily on her pizza.
"I know, it's really good!" I told her, taking another bite.
"That's why I call it 'The Famous P&S Pizzaroni!'"
We both laughed.
"Hey, Dad, after we finish our pizza slices, can Amber and I go outside to the forest?" Tami asked her dad, making the biggest, cutest, most irrisistible begging eyes she could muster.
"I guess," he said, "but don't be out after seven forty,"
"I have to be home by seven thirty," I told Tami sadly.
"That's okay, we have an hour!" she said happily.
"I guess we do!"
We both ate our pizzas in a hurry to go explore.
Finishing up both pizzas, I followed Tami our the back door and into the forest. We headed to the tree on which had the string from earlier. When we finally found it, I offered up a challenge.
"Want to see who can go the highest?" I asked with a smug look on my face.
"You're on," she said with a smirk.
And so it began.