each side of the fence
By:
Ella ( [email protected] )
Chapter Ten
Madison cautiously opened the door, peering out into the garden.
“Be careful out there!” Louisa called, rooting through a box in the kitchen.
Madison nodded, climbing carefully down the red steps and onto the patio. It was
quite a large garden really - just a of lot lawn and a few flowers around the
edges. Madison smiled as she saw her playhouse at the back of the garden – it
had a little front door and tiny windows that she could look through.
“House,” she mumbled, clutching her dolly at her side and walking towards it
happily. But, halfway there she stopped – having heard a noise from nearby.
She looked around, laying eyes on a little boy on the other side of the fence.
He was staring at her inquisitively, so Madison stared back just as hard until
he broke the silence.
“Lo,” he said, looking coy.
She put her hands on her hips, looking curiously at him. “Lo.”
“Play,” he said hopefully, holding up a toy car. She waddled over to him.
“Who you?” she asked civilly.
He looked blankly back, not knowing what to say.
“Tell the little lady your name!” said AJ loudly, from the other end of the
garden. Madison looked in the direction of the voice, narrowing her eyes in
suspicion.
Ben opened his mouth, blushing like mad. “Me Ben.”
Madison tore her eyes away from the five guys sitting in next door’s garden.
From a toddler’s point of view they looked very frightening. She backed away a
little further, stumbling over a football behind her, but quickly regaining her
posture like a true lady.
“Ben…” she whispered. He nodded.
“Who you?” he asked, looking nervously at Brian. After all, she WAS a
stranger and he’d been taught never to talk to strangers.
“Maddy,” she revealed, shuffling on the spot and staring at the grass. She
blushed as well, before moving closer to the fence and sticking her hand through
it. “Lo,” she said sweetly, wanting to shake his hand like she’d seen
grown-ups do.
Ben did a high-five (learnt from Nick, no doubt!), causing Madison to frown in
disgust and the guys to burst out laughing hysterically. Kids were so funny…