“Isaac? Jaye?”

The two of us leaned back from each other just as the bathroom door pushed open. Isaac cleared his throat uncomfortably and stood up as his mother walked into the room.

“I just came in to see how bad that scrape was,” Diana said, taking a step toward me.

I smiled. It was strange; Diana seemed almost like a second mother to me. It was weird for me even to think, considering I’d known the woman for all of about two days. However, that was how I felt; I couldn’t change that.

“It’s better now,” I said simply, standing up. Seeing that Diana was still concerned, I added, “I’ve done worse, don’t worry.” Then, with a smile, I told her, “I just have to learn that when you fight with the pavement, the pavement always wins.”

She smiled. “All right,” she sighed.

Ike smiled too. “So, are you ready to go back outside?” he asked me.

“Yeah,” I said, standing up. “But,” I added quickly, “no swings, and no basketball.”

He let out a small laugh. “Agreed.”

The two of us made our way back outside. The basketball hoop had been abandoned and everyone was now running madly around the yard.

Zac hit Taylor on his arm and Tay froze, standing with his feet apart and his hands clasped together above his head. Ah, a nice quiet game of stick-in-the-mud, I thought, smiling.

“Hey!” Tay called, seeing Isaac and me. “Are you two gonna play?”

I cast a doubtful glance at the scrape on my leg. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” I called back. “I’ve already messed up both of my legs.”

“Oh,” he said simply as Mackie crawled through his legs to unfreeze him. Mack and Tay dispersed just as Zac ran in to attempt to tag them.

“Do you want to sit in the tree house?” Ike asked from beside me.

“Yeah, sure,” I said with a shrug.

Dodging his younger siblings along the way, we walked over to the tree house. It was nothing absolutely spectacular, but it wasn’t something to sneeze at either. A wooden staircase let up to a floor built on a large tree branch. Around the perimeter of the floor was a railing.

I sat down. “It’s nice,” I said openly.

“Thanks,” he replied simply, sitting down beside me.

The two of us just sat there in silence, watching the game play out before us. The scrape on my leg was still throbbing but I tried not to let it show. Instead, I laid back and stared at the tree branches above me. The tree was actually quite large and looked like it would be easy to climb. I didn’t exactly have a lot of experience climbing trees or anything, but I decided it couldn’t be too hard.

I was aware of a body laying down beside me. “Bored?” Isaac asked.

I glanced over at him. “Me? Never,” I replied, a hint of sarcasm tingeing my voice.

Isaac smiled. “Do you want to go do something?” he offered.

“What’ve you got in mind?”

He shrugged. “Do you rollerblade?”

I smiled. “A little. But I don’t have my blades with me or anything,” I told him.

Isaac sat up and took my foot in his hand. “I think Zac’s would fit you,” he offered.

“You don’t think he’d mind?” I asked, attempting to sit up as well. However, this proved to be difficult considering Isaac still had a hold on my foot.

“I’m sure he won’t mind,” Isaac insisted. “The only question is whether of not you want to go.”

I thought about it for a moment and weighed my options. Stay here in a tree house, watching Tay, Zac, Evie, Lynnie, Jessie, Avie, and Mackie play stick-in-the-mud, or go out rollerblading with Isaac, I silently debated sarcastically. Oh, that’s hard. Watch the game of stick-in-the-mud! “Of course I want to go with you, Ike,” I replied.

He smiled and the two of us started out of the tree house.

“Ouch!” I cried. “I fell on my butt!”

Chuckling, Isaac rolled up next to me and offered his hands. “How did you manage to do that?” he asked.

I grabbed his hands and climbed to my feet before replying, “I think the skates went through some kind of puddle or something.” Standing up straight, I added, “Now my butt’s sore.”

He looked at me. “Do you injure yourself all the time, or is it just a one-day thing?” he asked, grinning. I stuck my tongue out at him in response.

We had been out rollerblading around the streets of Tulsa for a good half an hour. My leg continued to throb painfully, but I tried my hardest to ignore it. Isaac was having fun and I wanted to be with him, so pain be damned. Having a good time was more important to me than a little bit of discomfort.

“So,” Ike began as we skated down the street. “Where do you want to go now?”

“I don’t know,” I told him truthfully. “You live here; you choose.”

After a moment of staring into the clear blue sky, Isaac pointed to a street coming up on the right. “How about we turn down there?” he suggested.

“Fine,” I agreed.

In one fluent movement, he spun around so that he was skating backward in front of me. “I’ll race ya,” he said, eyes glinting mischievously.

I returned the look. “You’re on,” I said.

He grinned and yelled, “Go!”, and then cut over toward the sidewalk.

I didn’t wait to see what he was doing. Instead, I bent down and began pumping my legs, flying over the road to the side street. A part of me smiled, knowing for a fact that Isaac was going to beat me, but another part couldn’t help but try to win the race.

I watched Isaac as I cut toward the side street. He was careening quickly toward the intersection and for a moment, I actually thought I might beat him. However, that thought was shaken straight from my mind when Ike sped up and crashed into me, sending me flying.

I landed with a hard thump and then everything went black.