Chapter One

River

After a beautiful day in the neighborhood, my Grammy called me in, using her signature cowbell, signaling dinner. We were having spaghetti and I wouldn't want to miss it. Grammy was an immigrant from Italy. Her parents and she moved in 1963, she was four. I always found it amazing, since the Cold war was going on. At first, people thought they were spies, but after a little while people dropped their accusations, because, after all, anyone who makes such good food can't possibly be bad! I made Grammy tell me this story a thousand times when I was younger.

"Holy cow! Grammy it smells glorious!"

"Why thank you my Fiore di fiume. You smell like the dirty socks I put in here."

"What!?"

"I'm kidding. Go take a shower."

I've been living with my Grammy for the past three months while my parents worked out their divorce. My mother thought it would be better for me since life at home is a little... rough. I like it here anyway, it's quieter, no yelling. Unless you count my Grammy's singing. I also like my new friends, they're a lot nicer than my friends back home. I hurry down the stairs after I finish my shower. Grammy's house is my dream house. It has all that I could ever ask for. I feel more welcome here than anywhere in the world.

"How much do you want?" my Grammy calls.

"You can have one scoop and I'll have the rest of the pot," I say as I sit down. This sends Grammy in sobs of laughter. She starts to scoop spaghetti and I tell her to stop once my bowl is half full. When she sits down I start to shove my food in my mouth.

"Good lord child! Small bites, small bites."

I calm myself and take smaller bites. After I finished my dinner I went to Grammy's landline, (yes she still has one) and called my dad. It rang once, twice, ten times, then he picked up.

"Hay my little bumblebee."

"Hi, dad. How are you? How's mom?"

"I'm fine."

"How about mom?" She was my favorite person in the world, Grammy was my second.

"Er, she's fine."

"What aren't you telling me?" My dad was a horrible liar.

"We are fine, it's just been a rough day," I didn't believe this, but I went with it.

"How much longer until it's done?"

"A month or two."

"Ok, well Grammy wants to talk to you."

I leave the phone and give it to Grammy. She smiles and I go to the living room. I turn on the TV and try to listen to Grammy. She knows what I'm trying to do, so she shoos me off and I go to my bedroom. The best part of living here is that my friends live next to each other. There's a zip line that connects to their treehouses from a platform up a tree in Grammy's backyard. I go downstairs to see if I could go over to my friends, Grammy gives me a thumbs up, and I head out the back door. I love the tree that the platform's in. You can easily get in it and you can climb all the way to the top, not just halfway, so when I'm up there it feels like I'm flying. I hooked up my harness and pushed off. When my friends and I would meet up it would normally be in the little town six miles away, but sometimes if we didn't want to go into town we just pick a house and meet up there. Since Grammy lives on two acres it takes a minute to get to the edge of Oakley's family's land. Her entire family lives on 350 acres. They each have their own house with how many bedrooms and bathrooms they need, they also have their own pound. They all designed their own houses and everything. Oakley has her own secret room that only Rowan and I know about. I stop at Oakley's Tree and wait for her.

"OAKLEY," her cousin Jacob yells from the bottom of the tree, "That weird person you like is here," I felt myself blush a little when he said that.

"I'm no more weird than you are monsieur booger eater!"

"Je ne mange pas mes crottes de nez espèce de sale animal," he yelled, (that's "I don't eat my boogers you dirty animal," in French, by the way). He's hilarious.

"Oh yes, you do," Oakley yelled back. Jacob mumbled in french as he walked away.

"Are we ready to go?"

"Yeah."

I hooked my harness to the cable and on I went. We have an air horn at each station so that we can single each other when we were done and unhooked. I blew the horn and heard the door open.

"I need to tell you something, but let's wait for Oakley," shortly after five minutes we could hear Oakley's hoots and howlers quickly getting closer.

"Okay, Rowan why'd you call a meeting right after dinner?" Oakley asked.

"Well, I have important news."

"Let's hear it then."

"Well, um… my dads and I are moving to the city."

Oakley and I look at each other shocked, "but you can't go now," Oakley whimpered. She'd known him since they were in kindergarten.

"I know, but my dads said that we would spend one last summer here and we might even rent a summer home so that we could visit. I'm super excited, but I'm gonna miss you guys," Rowan's dad called him to come in, "one last hug?" Oakley and I climbed down the tree and gave Rowan the biggest hug we could. "Bye guys, I'm really gonna miss you."

" We're gonna miss you too," Oakley said for the both of us. I know I've only been here for three months, but Rowan is the greatest person I know and I'm trying not to cry. Rowan gave us our last good-bye squeeze and went inside. Oakley and I climbed back up the tree hooked our harness to the cable and left.

When we got back to Oakley's house she asked if I could stay over. I said I'd have to ask my Grammy, but she'd probably say yes. After I called Grammy I gave Oakley a thumbs up, and we headed to her room. Her bedroom is in the best spot in the house, right next to the kitchen. She has a walk-in closet that has the hidden door to her secret room that connects to the pantry. That's where they keep all their food, and I mean all their food. Their fridge is in there! So that makes it easy to sneak food into her room. She has her secret room decked all the way out, with a mini-fridge, super soft and fluffy bean bags, bamboo wood flooring, T.V., Playstation 4, and LED lights. It's awesome. When I come into the room I see she's already at Fort fundom,(that's what we call her secret room), eating chocolate and trying to decide what Disney movie she wants to watch on Disney plus. She decides on Tinker Bell, then slumps down into a bean bag.

"How are we holding up sport?"

"I'm fine."

"Are you sure? You're not savoring our mini chocolate bars. That's not like you."

Oakley's trying to hold back her tears but her tears are winning, and she starts to cry, "I don't know why I'm crying," she says with a smile, " he'll still come to visit."

"You're just upset he's leaving is all. I mean you've known him for half your life."

"I'm glad you're still here. I mean it's not like I have anyone else to hang out with," she said with sarcasm.

"Totally," I say with sarcastic jazz hands. I loved Rowan, he always had the greatest advice, and we would always have dinner together at his house. His dads were the best cooks. They owned their own restaurant and everything. That's why they moved. They both got better jobs in the city, working at some Gordon Ramsay restaurant. I went there for my birthday a few weeks ago, it was a little pricey but totally worth it. Gosh, I'm going to miss that kid and his family.

"Great, now you got me crying too."

Oakley laughs and says, "Were you thinking about their food?" and I nod my head and she starts to cry again and says, "Me too," We laugh and I hug her and we cry in each other's arms.

"Gosh, food is so emotional."

Oakley responds with a laugh and says "I know right!"

We laugh and we cry as Tinker Bell plays.

I guess we fell asleep at some point in Fort Fundom because when I wake up Oakley still has me in her arms and I still have her in mine. My friends back home would never comfort me like this. They would never care. Her T.V.s off, so I turn it back on. The clock on it says it's 1:23 In the morning. I turn it back off and try to go back to sleep. I go back to sleep and I have this dream. I was back home. Except, I'm in black and everyone around me is crying, I look up and see my mom's name on a gravestone then everyone stops crying at the same time so it's creepy, and they all say in synced voices, "This is all your fault River." I turn to them and say it isn't but they keep saying it over and over again, "You weren't there to save her, RIVER." Oakley shakes me awake, but I'm still screaming my last "no" trying to tell them I didn't kill my mother. She wraps me in her arms telling me it was just a dream until I was calm.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I think so."

"You… wanna talk about it?"

"No. Not right now."

"Okay," I could sense she was worried, but she didn't pester me about it the rest of the day.

After the incident we tried to go back to sleep, but we couldn't so we went out and went to see if anybody was up. Oakley's mom was up and asked if we wanted breakfast, we said yes (of course) and sat down at the breakfast nook. Oakley's mom made waffles, sausages, eggs, coffee, bacon, toast, hash, and brought out the orange juice. Breakfast at their house is the best, they have Snooker creamer and everything.

"How do you want your eggs?" Oakley's mom asked.

"Scrambled please."

"Same here," responded Oakley.

"I probably can't stay for long," I told Oakley.

"I'll take you home after then."

After we finished we walked out the back door and climbed up the tree with the cable going towards my house. As I hooked my harness to the cable Oakley asked If I wanted to meet up in town tomorrow I said yes as I pushed off to leave. I always loved the ride from my house to Oakley's and back. It's always so peaceful and it feels like I'm flying all the way there. When I got back to the house my Grammy was up and greeted me with a warm smile.

"How was your sleepover my Fiore di fiume?"

"It was… good," I said awkwardly.

"Why did you want to stay over?"

"Rowan moved to the city yesterday."

"What?! I like that boy, and the chefs he called parents!"

"I laughed at that when Oakley said it, but I agree with you Grammy."

"Well, I've already done the chores and I won't need to buy groceries until tomorrow so you may do whatever you feel like."

"Oh. Well, thank you. I'll go grocery shopping tomorrow when I go to town with Oakley. That's okay right?"

"Yes, that's okay Fiore di fiume."