CHAPTER THREE - TREEHOUSE
Headed towards the middle of town, our bikes rolled down the cracked and overgrown sidewalk. Nearing a local 711, we could smell the delicious smokiness of brats and burgers, grilled and served behind the store. I immediately began to salivate, although I knew that we couldn't under any circumstances keep Maddy waiting.
I heard an annoyance behind me from Danny. "Can we just stop and grab some food Man?" He begged. "As much as I want to, we can't keep Maddy waiting. Besides, we ain't even got any money." I replied.
After a moment of silence, a rough "Ahem!" came from Bentley. Oh yeah that's right - Our best friend robbed our work place and had hundreds of dollars in his back pocket.
"Forget it Bent. I ain't using stolen money to buy us food" I said. Coming around the corner, we could hear faint police sirens... But from where?
"Yo man... I think it's coming from the Sinclair... " Danny piped in. "No way, I took it yesterday, there's no way they're just starting to investigate." said Bentley.
Despite Bentley's hint of denial, it was clearly coming from the Sinclair. "Let's get away from here guys. We can go past the Kettleson's thrift shop, instead of going down Terrence Street passed the Sinclair." I said.
Nobody replied to me, but I knew that they understood me. I turned my bicycle around, and headed away. About a quarter mile, and then we just need to cross the train tracks. From there we park our bikes behind the trees, and walk into the woods. My thinking was stopped by a rumbling in my pocket. It was my cell phone. Pulling it out, and biking with one hand, I saw that it was Maddie.
"Yo guys it's Madds. Everyone hang on a sec." I said, hitting the breaks. The clouds looked gloomy like they were going to rain, and the air was hot and humid. It took a while to catch my breath, but I pulled it together. I answered the phone.
"Guys, what's taking so long? I have to be home in an hour! I ain't got all day!" Said Maddie.
"Yeah yeah, I know. I'm sorry, we just had to take a little detour. I'll explain it when we get there, but we're almost to the train tracks."
I heard a faint sigh of disapproval from the phone, and then the click of her phone hanging up. Well, I guess our conversation was over. Might as well get on our way. I shrugged at the guys, and headed off again.
By the time we arrived at the woods, it had started to rain, and when I say rain, I mean it felt like someone was in the clouds dumping water by the truck-load on us. Needless to say, we were going to get very muddy on the way to the tree house. At least it had a roof on it. Danny built one after he got bird crap in his face last summer, and as funny as it was, I'm glad he built the roof because I'd rather not be in his shoes and have that happen to me.
"Alright boys, drop your socks and put on your Crocks, it's about to get messy." said Bentley, quoting Iron Man.
I laughed because just the other day, we watched that movie at Maddy's house, so we all knew that he was being completely unoriginal.
Without another word, we all stepped into the Muddy, dripping, forest. My shoes dug at least two inches into the slop beneath us. Each step ached my legs, as I had to tug my feet out of the crater I had created the step before. Eventually we reached the tree house, and we could see Maddy stick her head out of the window. "Come on slow pokes!" She hollered.
"We're coming!" I replied. I walked up to the ladder made of 2x4's nailed to the tree's trunk. Quickly scraping my mud caked shoes on the steps, before making my way up, I felt two hands grab my shoulders and toss me into a pool of mud below.
