“That’s easy, the most feared and deadly animal. A mosquito.” I hear my dad laughing behind me, because he thinks it’s a good one to pick. “What about you?”
“Easy, a unicorn.”
“That’s not a real animal.” I cut her off, making both her and my dad laugh.
“They look cute and remind me of a cupcake, and I would name her Daisy, because I love daisies.” I turn to face my dad, who’s watching me, then he looks over at Olivia and smiles.
“Ready to put this up?” I nod, smiling.
Olivia finally stands up and helps me put the ladder against the tree so my dad can secure it, so it won’t fall.
“So, daisies and cupcakes?” I ask her.
“Cupcakes taste sweet, and daisies make me smile.” Dad puts the final nail in the ladder. I look at Olivia, smiling, as sherealizes she’s finally getting to see my space. I smile because she makes me smile a lot.
Three
Olivia
13 yearsold
I stare at the box in front of the tree and look around for Hayden, but I don’t see him anywhere. I can’t stop the smile spreading as I sit on the grass next to it.
I flip the tag over to see if there’s a note or name, but all it says is.. H.
Lifting the lid, my smile turns into a full grin. I take another look to see if I can see Hayden, before turning back to the box, and taking out the daisy and smelling it. Putting it on top of my bag, I pull out the unicorn iced cupcake and turn to my dad, who is smiling at me.
“You like your gift?”
I’m startled when Hayden jumps out from behind the tree.
“I love it.” I look up at him, and he helps me to stand up. After I put the cupcake back in the box, I hug him. “Thank you, no one's ever given me anything before.” I pull out of the hug and look at my dad. “Well, except for my parents, of course.”
When I first met Hayden, I thought he was going to be a mean boy like all the boys at school, or he was going to makefun of my dad being his gardener, but he didn’t. Hayden is different and is now my best friend. I could never ask for a better one than him.
“Do you want to share it with me?” I sit on the grass, take the cupcake back out, and look up at Hayden staring at my dad. “Hayden, you okay?”
“Does your dad like me? He never talks to me, and never says hello.” He finally looks down at me, and now I look over at my dad and remember the words he said when I first started talking to Hayden.
He told me, “People with money are never friends with people like us, and when he finds out, he’ll make fun of you, and stop talking to you. I was so happy when I did tell Hayden about our money situation, and all he said was, “I’m friends with you, not your money.”
It was then I knew no matter what happens, he’ll always be my friend, but Dad isn’t convinced about it.
“He doesn’t talk to a lot of people.” I break the cupcake, put the bottom half on top of the icing, and look up at Hayden when I hear him talking.
“What are you doing?” He looks at me with a puzzled look, and I laugh.
“This way, the icing is even all the way through.” I break it in half and hand it to him, but he doesn’t take it from me. “I promise you’ll be eating cupcakes this way after.”
“I’ll be right back,” Hayden tells me, then walks toward my dad.
Why is he talking to my dad?
I watch them, and Dad looks over at me, then back to Hayden, listening to everything he’s saying. I wish I were closer to him so I could hear what they’re talking about. Hayden didn’t tell me he needed to talk to Dad.
Did I say something wrong to him?
Is he telling my dad not to bring me anymore?
