A Twist of Fate (Complete)

Chapter 55 - Flashback - When Everly Met Brad

***** Flashback to 12 years ago ******

Everly was so nervous about moving into a new house and starting at a new school tomorrow. She wondered if she would make any friends. What if the kids at her new school didn't like her?

Their moving truck pulled up in front of the house and she grabbed her backpack and fluffy elephant off of the backseat and squeezed it to her chest as she got out of the car. Her little brother got out behind her and pushed her out of the way so he could hurry and see the new house first. He ran past her and looked back, sticking his tongue out and she just glared at him. 

She looked up and her new house looked really big. It was two stories tall and their old house had only been one. She could tell it had a really big yard too. It looked nice but she missed her old house. That was the only house she had ever lived in.

She looked over and noticed a skinny boy with brown hair standing in the driveway next door looking at her. He had on shorts and a t-shirt and she could tell he had been playing outside because he had dirt on his hands and knees. He waved at her with a big smile so she walked over to him.

"Hi! Are you the new neighbors?" he asked, sounding excited.

"Yeah. I'm Everly. Nice to meet 'cha," she said sticking out her hand.

"I'm Brad," he said shaking her hand and when he smiled she noticed he was missing a tooth.

"Look! I'm missing my front tooth too!" she laughed. "How old are you?"

"I'm seven," he said with a lisp because of his missing tooth.

"Really? I'm seven too!" she said excitedly with the same lisp. "My little brother's five but you don't wanna play with him. He's annoying. Plus he still sucks his thumb like a baby."

They both laughed. 

"Hey do you wanna come over to my house and play? I live right next door!" Brad said pointing over to the house next to hers. "There's a HUGE treehouse in my backyard that my grandpa built for me. You wanna see it?"

She turned and looked at his house and it looked a lot like her new house.

"Yeah," she nodded.

Brad reached out and grabbed her hand and ran, leading her to the tree house in his backyard.

"Come on! I wanna show you somethin," he said climbing the ladder and waving for her to follow.

"Ok!" she said following up the ladder behind him.

He pushed open a trap door and climbed inside the tree house and Everly did the same, shutting the door behind them so her little brother wouldn't come up and bother them. He was always tagging along. She looked around and thought Brad's treehouse was really cool! He even had some old furniture in there and a chalkboard.

"This is the perfect place to play school!" she said excitedly.

"No way!" he said, sticking out his tongue. "I get enough of school at school! I don't want to do it when I get home," he laughed. "Man girls are funny," he said, shaking his head.

"This is what I wanted to show you," he told her, walking over and opening up a big wooden treasure chest and inside there were all kinds of different rocks, some sparkly and some with unique colors or shapes.

"Wow! These are so cool!" she said in awe. She had never seen anything so beautiful.

"I found 'em all myself in the river out back! Do you want to help me find some more?"

"Sure!" she said following after him. When they got back to the ground he grabbed her hand and led her to the trail. She looked down at his hand.

"I've never held a boy's hand before," she whispered.