texasranger posted in blueridgeschool:

Characters: Hunter & Mack.
Setting: Plano, Texas; September 2002.
Content: SFW! Just little sailor mouths.
Summary: Nine years ago in their tree house, two much shorter blondes promised to be friends forever and sealed it in blood. Which was surprisingly less gross than using spit.


Just as they had been doing more and more of in the months since Mack's parents had split and Benjamin had died, Hunter was more than content to waste another whole day away in their tree house. It had to be after dinner by now, but they were far enough away from their houses that they hadn't heard either Kate or Michelle calling for them. Not that they usually answered even if they heard. Generally speaking, when their mothers took a minute out of their day to remember they had daughters, it was too little too late. They just didn't care.

In the last year, that had become especially true. Adjusting to life without Ben was still a struggle, but she was getting there, and Adam would still come and visit them occasionally. Sometimes he would even still take them to fly. It was the same, but with a vague difference hanging in the air that they just couldn't shake. They were growing up and things were changing, no matter how hard they tried to fight it. Even just over the summer, they had both sprouted up a few inches. They were changing, and so was everything around them.

Except, of course, for the tree house.

But that had seen better days as well. It seemed like every time that they turned around, there was something to fix up or fiddle with. Though maybe they were just noticing it more because they were spending so many hours on end cooped up in there. Stepping over a couple of empty juice boxes, Hunter tried to concentrate on keeping her hand steady as she slowly drew back on the hammer in her grip. They had recently stolen, not unnoticed but totally uncaught, the curtains out of Elizabeth's bedroom. Dragging them through the woods and laughing the whole way, they had hung them proudly in the house.

Hunter reasoned that it was really just a victimless crime because her sister was only six, and a brat, and her parents would surely replace them anyway. And they had the very next day. Though they had tried to blame her for the mystery of where the curtains had gone, it had been three weeks now and they hadn't been able to pin a thing on her. She laughed every time she thought about it.

But things weren't perfect, just another thing starting to fall apart, and their makeshift curtain rod wasn't really holding up that well. It had begun to slant, slowly at first before falling half way off. Hunter had taken the hammer from her father's toolbox months ago and never been questioned on the subject. She had never actually seem him open the thing. With the hammer, they also squirreled away a couple of pieces of sandpaper and some screwdrivers. Filching a couple of nails where they could get them, they were now ready to repair the makeshift rod. Squinting and sticking her tongue out of the corner of her mouth, just like she had seen on tv, Hunter hauled back the hammer further this time, getting ready to strike.

"Fire in the hole!" she hollered, slamming the hammer forward onto the protruding nail, as well as her thumb. She dropped the hammer to the floor with a clatter, just missing her sneaker-clad toe, and for a ten year old girl, she loudly expelled an expert string of swear words. Pulling back her injured hand, she looked at it pathetically. "D-Do somethin'!" she shouted, holding the bloody digit out to Mack with wide eyes. Usually Kia was around to take care of things like this, but she had gone back to school already and they had been out of that luck in that department for a few weeks. It wouldn't be the first time they had to fix each other up.

"Really smarts," the slightly taller blonde muttered sullenly, cupping it gently with her undamaged hand. It was already turning sort of purple. Her eyes watered a little, but she didn't cry.