Ch. 1

I stare across the room at Rachel, then at the clock. 10 minutes until recess! She always played with Rachel at recess. Rachel was looking back at her. She winked, and made a funny face. I was barely able to hold back a laugh. I didn’t want to get in trouble with Ms. Frealer! She would make her stay inside for recess. But I already had big plans for recess.  I raised my hand. “Yes, Terri?” Ms. Frealer said. “May I go to the bathroom?” I called. “Go ahead.” She replied. I didn’t actually need to use the bathroom, I wanted to peek out the window to see if John was downstairs. John was Rachel’s older brother, and he always would play with them. I rushed over to the window. My eyes narrowed as I tried to see the sharp brown hair and distinctive light blue eyes. And there he was on the Monkeybars! He was hanging upside down, and reading a thick book. I stared down at him. At the same exact moment, he looked up at me! He smiled. I waved. He jumped off the swings. I was confused. He ran to a teacher, and said something I couldn’t hear. The teacher, Ms. Hardey nodded, and he came running toward the door. Then I got it. He said He had to use the bathroom, but he was coming to talk to me.

 I ran towards the door. It came swinging open. We were both running so fast, we crashed into each other. I fell over. He jumped up. “You okay?” “Yeah.” I stood up. We laughed. “I should be getting back to my room, now.” I said. “Okay, see you in a few minutes!” “See you!” BRING! “HOORAY!” I think. I got up from my chair, and followed everyone out into the courtyard. I stared at the playground, with so many fun playing places. “Rachel, what do you want to play today? I asked. “Let’s do a monkeybars obstacle course!  She replied. “Oh, you mean the thing that we did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, and the day before, and the day before, and for so long? “You got it!” I winked. “JOHN!!” I called. “Yup?” He came zipping over. “Ready?” “Sure!” He smiled. 

“Let’s just get started, now.” “I CALL COACHING YOU TWO!!” John yelled. Rachel and I groaned. John was a lot faster than either of us, so we liked having him helping us. When he was coaching, all he did was announce how much time we had taken. “I have an idea.” John said. “Shocker.” Rachel muttered. I laughed, and John rolled his eyes. “I thought that you could race on the course. “That sounds like fun!” Rachel and I agreed. “Ok, I have a stopwatch. Let’s get started!

 You two go around the slide, jump on to the Zipline, swing and jump off in the middle, that’ll bring you to the trampoline, jump twice on it, and then jump and swing yourself, grab onto the monkeybars in midair, and fling yourself up to the top, walk across the monkeybars, flip, but then backwards flip to get back on the bars without having touched the ground, then hang upside down for 5 seconds, get back up, and jump off.” We both stared at each other, and then at John. “That’s… dangerous.” “Just do it.” He said. “Okay, okay.”

 “I’M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!!” Rachel screamed. “Oh, be quiet, Ms. Drama.” John said. “And come on,” he continued. “9 isn’t too young.” I laughed, and Rachel glared at me. “Sorry, sorry.” “And you,” Rachel looked at John, “Should NOT be teasing me about my age. You are only 3 years older. Let’s go!” 

“That’s my LITTLE  sis.” John winked at me. I barely held in a snort. “This is very... nice, but let’s start our game, now.” “Okay, 3, 2, 1, GO!!” I ran as fast as I could, but Rachel was a few steps in front of me. I ran around the slide, and to the Zipline. Rachel jumped and clung onto a loop, and I was right behind her. I went sliding down, and landed. I jumped onto the trampoline. 

Rachel was already on her second jump. I was on my first. I jumped again, and then onto the monkeybars. I got to the top, and walked across the bars. “Flip, backwards flip.” I thought. And then I flipped, then backwards flipped. I got upside-down, 1-2-3-4-5! I got back up, then jumped. Or, it was more like a dive. I got to John right before Rachel! I was going so fast that he had to grab me. “Nice flying, Terri,” He smirked at his joke.

I hit  the ground hard, but it was fun. I had won the race! Rachel landed beside me. “OOOOOOOF!” She yelled. “THAT was fun.” She smiled. “Yeah!” I agreed. “Can I play tag with you?” I turned around to see the new girl, Sarah Derkburger. Everyone thought of her as the shy girl, because she almost never said anything. Even when she raised her hand to answer a question, if she got called on, her cheeks would go rosy pink, and she wouldn’t say anything. She just sat there shaking her head. “Sure!” Rachel replied. “I LOVE tag!” I groaned. Rachel knew that I hated tag more than anything. “How ‘bout we play hide and seek?” John asked, obviously feeling bad for me. “TAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAG!” She screeched. “Woah, woah. I was just asking a question,” he stuck out his hand.

“I want to play tag…” Rachel said. “Just today?”

                   “Okay, okay.” I replied, rolling my light amber eyes. 

           “GAME ON!” Rachel yelled. “You’re it!” She slapped Sarah, who started running after me. I noticed that she was fast, and didn’t trip over the pebbles on the grassy field like John and Rachel did. But I was still faster. I ran, and ran until I was panting like a Saint bernard. I laughed as I thought of my dog, Brownie, and then the bell rang. I was so annoyed that I had spent almost all of recess playing a game that I hated. 

            “So now, everyone should get what it means to have numbers squared, and cubed. Tomorrow, we’ll work on square roots.” I groaned. I liked math, but Ms. Frealer was teaching us things we already knew! We learned this two years ago in fifth grade. “Alright, school’s over, now.” Ms. Frealer smiled. I ran out of the classroom, with the other kids taking themselves home. Great. It was raining. 

                   “WHY DO THESE THINGS ALWAYS HAPPEN TO MEEEEEEEEE?” I yelled.

 It was a really long walk home, and I had on a t-shirt, shorts, and the $65 shoes I got for my birthday.             “TERRI!” I turned around. Rachel was running towards me. 

        “My mom called your mom, and says you can wait out the rain at my house.” “Great!” Rachel lived only a quarter mile away from the school. 

                               “I love your house so much.” I told Rachel, staring up at the blue and white ceiling, and tiny chandelier.                

                     “Here’s a bag of chips.” John through a Dorito bag at me. I caught it.  

                                         “HEY!!” I yelled. “THIS IS EMPTY!!” But John had already ran up to his room. “BOYS!” I shook my head to Rachel. 

                    “Let’s invade his room. She giggled. “Haha!” 

I tiptoed up the beautiful leather-coated stairs, with designs of birds on them. “Here’s his room.” Rachel whispered to me. I opened the door, careful to be quiet. There was John, lying on his bed, and playing with a window marker. On the window, in big letters, he had written, “Hi!” I jumped,