The drive home was basically filled with a melancholy silence, reminiscent of the drive to the funeral four weeks ago. The police officer drove behind them, and Olivia was concerned, she really didn’t want to go to jail or anything. She had stopped crying after getting in the car, because she felt like she had no tears left. She sat in the back of the car next to Zoey, with the shopping bags in between them. Now that she was not balling her eyes out, she was actually kind of mad at Zoey for running off. 

Zoey had always been the sisters she was closest to, and she even considered Zoey her best friend…at least up until a year or so ago, when Zoey started high school and had no time for Olivia anymore. She remembered playing fairies in the backyard with her sister, running around in tutus and making mudpies. She missed the time when playing with barbies, and singing along to Disney music at the top of their lungs was their favorite thing to do together. Olivia used the end of her sleeve to wipe the mustard off her cheek, as stared mindlessly out the window. Her sweater and hair were still damp and dirty from when she clung to Riley in the food court.  

 She was surprised when she saw the cop parked in the new neighbor’s driveway. Although she was in trouble at the moment, the thought of a policeman living next door made her feel safer.  She was the last to get out of the car and go inside the house, as she was trying to prepare herself for whatever punishment she was going to get. When she sat down in the living room, and Riley let Jerry inside, Ollie took a deep breath to brace herself. She fiddled with the ends of her hair as she listened to Jerrys brief reprimand. After he left Riley calmly smiled, and told everyone to clean themselves up and rest before the family meeting he had planned for later. 

Olivia washed her face in the bathroom, making sure only to glance in the mirror as needed. She quickly brushed hair out, and then braided it back to how she had it this morning.  Leaving the bathroom she headed to her room to change out of her wet sweater and terrible hoe outfit. She undressed and tossed everything into the overflowing laundry basket next to the closet door. She [url=http://i.imgur.com/f4r4lI2.png]put on[/url] the only pair of blue jeans she owned, and then pulled on a fuzzy pink jumper over her plain tee. She did not really want to be in the same room with Zoey at the moment, so Olivia grabbed her diary from its hiding place, and went down stairs to the kitchen. She grabbed and orange out of the fruit bowl on the counter, and filled her water bottle up with ice water. Slipping on her shoes she left quietly out the back door. 

She walked across the backyard and into the tree line. It was chilly outside, but she loved the cold, and she really missed the snow. Angry at Zoey, upset with Kylie, apologetic to Riley, and disappointed in herself she was a mix of emotions. She walked farther into the forest area behind her house, following the makeshift path to her little getaway.  Reaching the treehouse she put her diary, water and orange in the old plastic bucket and pulled the rope to make it go up into the trees. She pulled the ladder down, and climbed up and onto the deck of the tree house.  

Riley had built the place with James and Sophia back when Olivia was in kindergarten. Back then it had become the neighborhood clubhouse. A time of sleepovers, ghost stories, Pokémon card trading, secret handshakes, and spin the bottle.  By the time Olivia was nine the place had been left abandoned by the older teens. Zoey and Olivia took it over, making it there princess castle, and their dad helped them paint it all pink with a sunflower mural on one side. This past year and a half the treehouse had slowly become Olivia’s little hide away, full of her books and art. No one ever went up in it anymore except her, so she had made the place her own by bringing in her [url=http://i.imgur.com/FkI18Dl.jpg]stuff[/url].  

From the looks of the place, some might call it a death trap, or an accident waiting to happen. Built by tweens from scrape wood and old planks, the peeling paint, and ware and tare of time made it look like it would fall out of the tree at any moment. But it was solid and sturdy; her father had made sure of that.  She crawled into the tiny door, and then stood up inside. She tugged the rope pulley system to bring up her stuff in that she had left in the bucket. Sitting down in the beanbag she peeled her orange, and tried to forget about her day. As she ate a slice; she opened up her diary and began writing. 

[hider=Diary Entry][color=A9D0F5][i]
March 1st 2016              Today was terrible. 

I woke up feeling like a zombie, and it only got worse from there. 
I saw Him at school today. It’s like no matter what I do, or how hard I try to not see Him, He is still there at every turn. I still have no idea what to do. I am scared all the time and every time I see Him I just remember it all again. All I want to do is forget, but it’s burned into my memory. My nightmares are just getting worse, and Zoey hates that I keep waking her up with screams. 

Anyway Kylie picked me and Zoey up from school at like 10:00am. I was so happy that I didn’t have to be in hell all day, and Kylie was someone I have always looked up to. I mean she is confident and does not care what others think. She is better than me. But today was not some fun shopping trip with the sister’s thing…or whatever. As soon as we got to the mall Kylie pulled out some pot and started smoking it. Then Zoey smoked some, and I stupidly didn’t want to be left out. I didn’t want them to think I was a dumb little kid, so I smoked some to.  First of all it tastes disgusting, and kind of burns. I practically coughed to death, and then I just kept going.  Anyway being high as they call it, is a really nice feeling, and if it wasn’t for the whole smoking part I would probably do it every day. But I have decided that I will never smoke again. Not cigarettes, not marijuana, absolutely nothing. 

Kylie then basically forced me to wear the most terrible outfit in the world. I don’t even wear bikini bathing suits and for some reason Kylie thought I would like to wear tight pleather booty shorts and a matching sleeveless crop top. I about died when I had to walk through the mall in that outfit. I texted Riley, because I just couldn’t handle it anymore. Kylie is bossy, and kind of rude. I always knew she was but not as bad as today. And Zoey, oh my God. She is basically just as bad, but like in a different way. I don’t want to share a room with her anymore.  Maybe I should just live in the treehouse. Darn, I just remembered that my backpack is still in my locker, and my lunchbox. I hope whatever Riley packed does not rot overnight in my locker…

Anyway are new neighbor is a cop. His name is Jared or Jimmy I think. He is really nice. I mean he caught us skipping school at the mall, and we all smelled like weed, but he just took us home and gave us a warning.  I kind of freaked out at the mall, and started cry my face off. I can’t believe I did that in public. I don’t even like crying in front of my family let alone strangers. I’m so stupid….


Food Log -
5 Strawberries – 2 cal
1 Small chocolate chip pancake, No syrup. – 180 cal
1 Orange – 45 cal
8 French fries – 178 cal
5 glasses of ice water.  [/i][/color][/hider]

By the time she was finished writing an hour had already past. She chugged down her ice water, and checked her phone for the first time since texting Riley at the mall. She read the text from James. 

[color=ed1c24]
[i]'Remember about five, maybe six years back when I was going through that rough patch and I was doing poorly in school and stopped doing... Almost everything? It wasn't pretty and I know that, but I got through it, and I know you can too. I know things have been hard lately, but understand you have all of us here for you. We all love you very much, and I want you to understand that.'[/i][/color]

She thought she had been hiding her true emotions pretty well but apparently not. She tightened her hand around the phone, and felt a little shard of her broken self glue back into place. She text James back. [color=A9D0F5][i]‘I love you too. Thanks Jamie, I really needed you to say that. Thank God I have one normal sibling. I don’t want to be like Kylie, I just said that because I am stupid. I was being really dumb. Sorry. ’[/i][/color] She pressed send. She got up and went over to the corner where she kept the stack of books, and magazines. She cracked open her well used copy of Inkheart, as she plopped into the hammock, and then wrapped herself in a blanket. She began reading. 

A few hours later she woke from her phone beeping that it had a new text. It was Riley rallying the family for a meeting in the living room. She tossed off the blankets and yawned as she grabbed her diary of the floor. She climbed down the ladder and walked slowly to the house. Opening the back door she slipped her shoes off, and entered. She could hear people in the living room, and its sounded like Kylie talking cheerily. Olivia walked into the living room and sat on the floor in front of their dads arm chair. She always did this, it was her spot, it also kept anyone from sitting in her Daddies chair.