Chapter 2
Two
Hayden
I walk out of the house as Mason and Miles continue to argue over the last cookie, with Mom telling them she’ll make more for them. The smile spreads on my lips when I see Olivia leaning against the tree, reading her book.
“Hayden,” she quickly puts a bookmark in the book, looks through her bag, and as I reach her, she stands up. “My mom was finally able to make the white chocolate cookies. She made extra for you. They’re the best cookies in the world.” She hands me a clear bag with five cookies in it.
“Thank you.” I take the bag from her, and she starts jumping a little.
“Come on then, try one.” She takes the bag from me, takes one of them out, and hands it to me. I can’t stop laughing as I take it from her and take a bite. “Well?” She takes one out for herself and eats it.
I take my time answering her, as I take another bite of the cookie, because I love my mom and her cookies, but this one is so good. I try to steal hers, so I can have more for myself, forgetting I have a bag of them.
“Ask your mom if she'd make some more, please.” I take another one out of the bag, and Olivia smiles at me.
“I’ll tell her you liked them.” She turns around as her dad walks back into the garden with some tools. “Dad, Hayden loves them.”
He stands there and smiles at her, then turns to me and gives me a nod. Olivia is here every time he is, so for over a year, we’ve been talking, and not once has he spoken to me. Maybe he doesn’t like me.
“How’s your book?” I ask her as we both sit down.
She told me everything about the first two Harry Potter books, but I wasn’t listening. It makes her happy to tell me about her books, so I smile and listen just a little. She’s been wanting the third book for a long time, and her dad finally got it this week, and she’s not stopped reading it.
“I wish you would read it.” She picks her book back up and opens the page to show me something, but I push it back to her. “I love it, I’m so happy Dad got it for me,” she says, looking back at her book.
I look up at the treehouse, smiling. Dad finally said I can start working on the inside of it. I have so many ideas and can’t wait to start.
“Which one is annoying you today?” Olivia asks, pointing to my brothers as the three of them ride their bikes.
“The twins.” I stop talking when Olivia bursts out laughing. “What?”
“They're all twins, which set?” Olivia asks through laughter and wipes the tears away.
“All of them.” I watch them going up the ramp which dad made for us and wait to see which one will fall first. Yesterday I scraped off the skin of my hand from going too fast. “Have you made any friends yet?” She doesn’t go to our school; that was the day dad told me about the difference money has on families, because she said I was her only friend.
A year later, and I’m still her only friend.
Dad told me that we can go to the fancy school, but Mom and Dad pay for us to go, and they pay a lot of money, while there are families who can’t afford the money.
Dad told me that Olivia’s dad, even though he is the pool man and gardener for most of the houses in the area, couldn’t afford to send Olivia to our school.
“No, they’re all stupid and make fun of me.” I turn to face her. I know she doesn’t like them, but she’s never said why. “I don’t want to talk about it. Do you want to listen to me read, or not?”
“When you tell me why they are stupid.” This has been going on for a year. She might be annoying and talk a lot, but she is my friend. “What do they say?”
“Nothing, just that my dad is a deadbeat, that I come from a poor family, and that’s why I’m ugly.” She stops and looks down at her book. “Shall we read?” Olivia looks at me with a smile, and I look over at her dad working in the garden.
I give her a small nod of my head, and she starts reading about Harry, but all I want to do is tell her that they’re stupid, she’s not ugly, not one bit.
12 years old
“You think if the sky were green and the grass was blue; it would look funny?” Olivia asks, while I try to help my dad make a ladder for the tree house.
I have a rope that I like to climb, but Olivia refuses to use it, so I promised her I would make a ladder because she keeps telling me she wants to have a look inside.
“It would be funnier if your feet were your hands, and your hands were your feet .” I look over at her laughing, as I hand my dad another nail.
“And you have to think about it. Can you feel your ears? I mean, you know your nose is there, but in a silent room, can you feel without your hands, do you remember your ears being there?”
This is what it’s become for us: we ask each other random questions, which is then followed by a random answer.
“Of course, I know my ears are there.” Olivia looks over at me, narrowing her brows together.
“Really, without touching them, can you feel them? Because I can’t feel mine, the only way I know they are there is because I can hear from them.” I start laughing when she squints her eyes to move her ears or really think about them.
“If you could be any animal, which one would it be?” Olivia asks, turning to my dad when he calls me to give him another nail.
“That’s easy, the most feared and deadly animal. A mosquito.” I hear my dad laughing behind me, because he thinks it’s a good one to pick. “What about you?”
“Easy, a unicorn.”
“That’s not a real animal.” I cut her off, making both her and my dad laugh.
“They look cute and remind me of a cupcake, and I would name her Daisy, because I love daisies.” I turn to face my dad, who’s watching me, then he looks over at Olivia and smiles.
“Ready to put this up?” I nod, smiling.
Olivia finally stands up and helps me put the ladder against the tree so my dad can secure it, so it won’t fall.
“So, daisies and cupcakes?” I ask her.
“Cupcakes taste sweet, and daisies make me smile.” Dad puts the final nail in the ladder. I look at Olivia, smiling, as she realizes she’s finally getting to see my space. I smile because she makes me smile a lot.