Silhouettes of the Past

The forest

I didn't even bother going to my house, I knew my mother would beat me. I felt bad for my sister, Hope. We called her daisy. Part of an old joke with my dad. I told Hope I didn't want her nickname to stay Daisy because if was just between us and dad. He was gone now. Although she said she rather Daisy than Hope because our mom named her hope. My aunt named me Rosetta so I was cool with it.
Arrrring, the bell rung. I sighed. Envian was in the classroom across from me. I walked up to my teacher with my backpack slung on my shoulder. She was cleaning the whiteboard.
"Mrs. Stevensen?" She swung around and looked at me with her bulging brown eyes and her White bushy hair, "could I- erm- possibly go across the hall to check something with a student over there?" She looked at me with shock.
"Why of course! Just stay in her classroom if your going home with that particular student! I'm sure she wouldn't mind!" She said over enthusiastically. Personally I thought she was happy that I had a 'friend'
I walked across the hall. Envian seemed to be waiting for me. He smiled kindly and I returned the smile.
"Hey, quick question, how do you get home?"
"I walk, why?" I jumped up and down.
"Can I please, please ,please walk home with you? I'd do anything to keep from going home!" As soon as I said it I flushed a bright pink. It sounded so wrong of me, "I'm sorry I didn't mean to sound like a freak," Envian looked at me and chuckled.
"It's fine, and I'll be delighted to walk you to my house, just saves confusion! My house is in a weird place." I was intrigued.
"I'll just stay here until we're dismissed?"
He nodded his head. We stayed and chatted for a while. Just simple questions like: what's your favorite color? I learned a lot just from simple questions. I learned to like him more and more as I talked to him more. I still wish I had chosen my path of life a little bit more wisely. Now I was hiding.
We finally were dismissed. Envian took me down dirt roads, and then roads with huge twists and wild turns. It would be nuts to drive a car down these roads. Especially in the winter. I got dizzy just from walking on these long wild turns. The addresses let alone were confusing. They would go up and then there would be a different road and then the addresses would climb.
Envian stood in front of an old barn. Its outside looked a bit sketchy. All the other houses looked like millionaires lived in them. Then there was this house. With paint peeling and dusty Windows. The wood was splintering in parts.
"I know it appears to be nothing, but I don't really live in this barn, it's really just a cover up. Follow me."
I smiled and followed him. The autumn leaves were very thick around this area. I loved the sound of the crunching. I looked up to see Envian looking back at me. I just smiled and blushed a little. I had never felt this way around anyone before. Yet I never knew how to explain it.
There was an opening of trees, the trees almost formed the perfect arch way. I looked up in awe. As soon as we passed the archway the forest became thick and marvelous. The trees seemed to glitter with excitement. The birds sung songs of cheer. The squirrels chatters brought warmth to your ears. The smell of autumn was so strong you'd think someone would have dropped bottles of perfume all around the forest. We had to walk just a little bit further before I got to see where he'd actually been living.
"We're here,"
I looked up to see the most magnificent tree house ever built, it looked like a regular house just built in a tree. The only down side was, you either had to climb 13 flights of stairs or had to rock climb the whole way up. The tree house had a zip line though. So you didn't have to climb down. I was glad. I would probably die if I had to walk 26 flights of stairs each day.
"How did you build this?"
"With help, but I made sure they weren't here today. They're not real fond with 'outsiders'" he put air quotes when he said outsiders.
"Whose exactly 'they'?" I said emphasizing 'they'.
"The people I live with, just friends really, I haven't had real parents all my life! I was raised in an orphanage since I was born," he drew a long breath, "I met my group there, we escaped at the age of 9 we're 16 so that's about 7 years we've been on our own." I looked at him with a pained expression. I knew he saw this, "don't worry we asked for it really, I was the one that said I wanted an education so I've been switching schools trying to find one I could cope with."
  "Well I hope you can learn to cope at my school." I mentally slapped myself.
Envian smiled, "I think I'll learn to cope just fine, how about we go in the tree house?"
   I nodded my head. He grabbed my hand and started pulling me towards the tree house. My face grew hot and my palms were sweaty. We started to climb the stairs. I was in for a long talk....