Chapter Eight: Second Trimester Begins
What the happy group of friends didn�t know was that the start of second trimester would mean the start of interesting conversations, dreams, a birthday or two and an unforgettable walk up a hill. That first incident between Sam and Jared with the cyst truly was �Just the Beginning.� The first of these many incidents was actually the day before Christmas break began. For weeks, the foursome and two others, Emily Harpel and Jessica Edmondston, had been looking forward to and planning a Christmas at Allison�s house. Allison had moved to the top of a steep hill during first trimester. She had gotten Dunny to live and be completely taken care of except for being ridden just down the hill from her house. Anyway, the party had a small surprise hidden within the planning. Since Brian�s birthday was on Christmas Day and no one would see him, they all paid five dollars (Allison also paid tax) to get him a twenty-five dollar gift certificate to Blockbuster. They got to the party, excluding Brian who got a ride from his dad, by riding Allison�s bus. Allison, Sam and Emily squeezed into the front seat on the right, Jessica sat with a 7th grader in the seat to the left of them and Jared sat with a fellow 8th grade boy in the second seat on the right behind the three girls. Allison was constantly being asked, �Do we get off here? Do we get off at this next stop? When will we get off?� Here only reply was, �Will you hold on?! I�ll tell you when it�s my stop!� and then as the bus stopped on the 10th stop, she stood and said, �We get off now.� Allison lived on a dirt and gravel road and had warned everyone beforehand because of the rain and melting snow, the road was muddy and not to wear nice shoes. Emily had forgotten and gave a cry of alarm when she saw the state of the road: puddles and muck. Allison simply laughed and sprinted to her mailbox and got the mail. She watched as the others all picked their way around puddles and extremely muddy spots. When they got to her, they were happy to see that her neighbors had apparently put in some pavement years earlier. It lasted almost to her house and the road in front of her house wasn�t as muddy as they had expected. They got in the door and Allison�s mom met them. They all dropped off their backpacks and coats except for Allison who was going to give them the grand tour from her room up. She walked downstairs and dropped off her stuff. While they were down there, Jared, Jessica and Emily remembered to give Allison their five dollars to chip in for Brian�s present. �Thanks guys for remembering. I probably would have forgotten completely! Brian�s present is right here. Oh, here�s the exchange present too. Why don�t we go put them under the Christmas tree?� Right as they were putting the gifts under the 12-foot-tall tree, the phone rang. It was Brian who needed help finding her house. Everyone grabbed their shoes and ran ahead up the road to meet him. Allison was detained, however, to sign for a package mailed to her mother. They all went back inside and sat down in the dining room to snack on candy, pop, chips and stuff like that. Her mom volunteered to teach them how to play Pit. As Emily was demonstrating hitting the bell in mid-air, Jared had slid the bell around to her and when she hit it, it slid back to where it had been before, in the middle of the table. There was a great deal of laughing over this. After a couple games, they decided to have their gift exchange. They drew numbers to see who would choose their present first. In the end, Jared and Brian got each others� gifts, Allison got Sam�s, Sam got Emily�s, Emily got Jessica�s and Jessica got Allison�s. However, Allison had accidentally switched Brian�s present and the exchange one so she had to run to her room and switch them. She decided then was a good time to give Brian his birthday present. She walked back with the present, but stayed hidden in the TV room out of Brian�s sight and signaled Emily over. �I�m going to put up my fingers and count to three on them. On three, we�ll start singing and I�ll come out. Can you tell the others?� Emily said she would and promptly told them. When they started to sing, Brian turned very red and ran past Allison, down the hall, and into the bathroom, where he shut the door and locked it. Jared hurried to reason with him to come out. Brian wouldn�t until Jared said the magic words: �You�re getting a present.� They came back and restarted the song. Jared purposefully sang very off-key and horribly. Brian wasn�t disappointed in his present. After this, they made a unanimous decision to go next door to their humanities teacher�s, Mrs. Hartman, house. On the way back to Allison�s house, (Mrs. Hartman wasn�t home) Jessica slipped on some ice and got a sore rear end. Realizing that there was still time to spare and they were next to being bored, Allison made the suggestion of walking down the hill to see Dunny. They all agreed, except Jessica, who they ended up accidentally leaving behind. Allison led the way down the hill sprinting with Brian right on her heels. Emily ran at first, but then walked the rest of the way. Jared and Sam didn�t run at all, but walked the whole way down. They all eventually got to the barn where Dunny was eating his dinner of grain, oats, and hay. Allison got a boost from Brian and Jared and got up on Dunny. She sat there for a minute, then got down off of him. They all took turns mounting up, except Jared. Brian had troubles getting up and took several tries to finally get up. When he got up, he immediately looked down at Allison and asked, �How do I get down?� She explained how and he got down. They then turned off the lights in the barn, gave Dunny a final pat and left to walk back up the hill. The order going up the hill was Emily first, Brian and Allison a little way behind her first and Jared and Sam quite a way behind them. Allison, with her bad eyesight combined with the shadows, looked back at Sam and Jared and thought they were holding hands. Many other comments were said including lovebirds, notice the three parties, how cute, and oh, the perfect couple. In all actuality, Sam and Jared weren�t holding hands. The only reason could find to prove Jared was flirting with Sam was because he had grabbed some icy snow, made a snowball and threw it at her. When the all got back to the house, it was time to go. Allison�s dad took Sam and Emily home because it was on his way and Allison and her mom took Jared and Brian home. Jessica�s mom came to pick her up. Jared was dropped off first and was sitting in the front seat of the pickup. Allison and Brian were sitting in the back seat with her not-so-little puppy, Mocha. They were both squished because Mocha had stretched out to her full length and fallen asleep. When Allison got home and started cleaning, Sam called her. They talked about the trip from Dunny back to Allison�s house and all that was said behind Sam (and Jared�s) back. They dubbed the hike up the hill as �The Walking up the Hill Story.�
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