Can't Trust Summer

(4) Treehouse Talks

"No, I was just -" he paused, "Walking around. Wanted to check out Dinohenge for myself since everyone keeps talking about it."

"Well, you found it." she pointed to the statues behind him.

"What are you doing?" he asked her.

"Writing. Trying to enjoy peace and quiet for a little while." she shrugged.

"Can I come up?" Javi asked.

"Sure," she answered, "Long as you don't mind if I keep working."

"What are you working on?" he questioned when he reached the top where she was at.

"Just writing." she told him.

Javi sat down next to her - close enough to lean over her shoulder and see what she was doing on her laptop. She had never been shy about letting others read what she wrote, so she didn't entirely mind Javi looking over her shoulder.

She continued typing away before she could forget the words she wanted to jot down. Writing had always been a big part of her life. Sometimes she thought she adapted it from her mother, other days she felt like she was meant to put words to print like all the other authors of the world. It truly was her favorite thing to do and one day, she hoped that she would be able to publish her work for the world to see.

"That's really good." Javi told her.

"Thanks," she muttered as she closed the document and opened her email, "I've been working on that one for a while. It's almost finished."

She started scrolling through the emails, looking for anything interesting that might be sitting in her inbox. She hated checking her email - in fact, she avoided it at all costs most of the time. Was the point anyways? There was nothing she hardly ever needed in there.

"Izzy told me about the Black Power Ranger showing up to help you guys yesterday..." Javi brought up the attack in the park.

"Yeah," she swallowed, "I'm glad he showed up... but I'd prefer not to talk about yesterday."

She clicked on a familiar email address and began reading the message. A smile formed on her lips as she realized what the email contained. About a month prior to that moment, she had applied for an exclusive writing club. She never thought she would get in - but everything about the club seemed amazing to her, so she thought she would take her chances at getting accepted before she even talked about it with her dad or Linda. There was a monthly membership fee that she wasn't sure if they could afford, but she thought that if she got accepted... they would be more open to the idea of letting her join.

"No way!"Anna gasped, "I got in!"

"Got into what?" Javi asked.

"The Pine Ridge Writers club! Only two new people get accepted every year." she told him.

"That's awesome!" Javi gave her a high five, "You must be a really good writer then."

"I can't wait to tell my dad and Linda." She closed out the email and then shut down her laptop.

"Can I walk you home?" Javi asked.

She looked at him for a brief moment as she put her laptop away. She decided to leave the pillow there - knowing that she was going to come back to that spot again. She wondered why Javi had asked to walk her home, but she didn't think much of it. It threw her off for a second, but she quickly came back with a response.

"Sure." she said.

Javi climbed down first and waited at the bottom for her. As she was about to put her backpack over her shoulders, Javi took it right out of her hands and slung it over his shoulder and stuffed his other hand in his jean pockets.