"Excuse me?" I say with that you-gotta-be-kidding-me look. Gabe shrugs. "You two, stop. This is hard for all of us. Don't make it worse by arguing. You both rarely argue." My mom says looking tired. I poke at my food. Mashed potatoes and pork. I love it, it"/ just that I lost my appetite. Ugh. "May I be excused?" I ask getting my mom. My mom sighs and nod her head. I get out the back door and find my way to our tree house. It's about a 2 minute walk from our house and into the forest.

When I woke up earlier, Gabe came in and told me we had to have a family meeting. Jon came down as well, but went home. And then, we had an argument, and then lunch, and so on. Sometimes I enjoy life, and other times I do not get how life could be so hard.

I climb up the ladder and into the tree house. I smile. Our tree house is your typical treehouse. Made by my dad and Jon's and Julie's dad for us, kids. There are two windows on the sides, a small door, a little terrace surrounding the outside, and a rope ladder at the back. Inside, we put a small cushion, 2beanbags, a shelf full of stuff, and pillows. I get a box on the top shelf and open it. Inside, there's are feathers, shells, and beautiful rocks. Our collection box.

Flashback
"Come on Julie!" I encourage the little 3 year old. She wobbles when she runs, but she's quick. "Come on!" She catches up to me and grabs my hand. We walk to where the boys are. Julie sees a bunch of nice shells. "Pretty." She says picking up as many as she can carry. We laugh at her cute little antics. Jon hands her a pail and she dumps them all in. Julie and I continue to collect shells while the boys play. Soon, we have enough to fill the pail. And then Jon comes up to me and hand me a beautiful purple-ish shell. It's one of those shells that you can supposedly hear the ocean. Excelt it's a bit smaller and so much prettier. "For my lady" he says bowing. I laugh. "Thanks." I say. We continue finding shells, and rocks for Julie. We go back to tree house and put them all in a box.

We play around in the treehouse for a while. Then we see a lovely woodpecker on a neighboring tree. The boys climbed down and were looking at something on the ground. They held it up so we could see. A beautiful feather. Julie and I climbed down and helped look for more feathers. All different shapes and sizes.

"Aster?" Jon says. "Yeah?" "That shell and this feather are only for you." He whispers putting a feather in my hand. I look and see a bluebird's feather. I gasp. "It's beautiful. Thank you." I say hugging him. He hugs me back. "You're welcome." After gathering feathers, we add them to our collection box. I label the box Memories of Nature Today.
After that, we all climb down and eat dinner.

"Stell?" I look down. Gabe's looking up. "What." I reply. He climbs up. "I'm sorry." He says looking at me. "Well. I'm sorry too." He gives me a hug and I hug him back. "I don't wanna ever lose my little sis. Kay? I'm always here for you." He says. I nod. I put the lid back on the box and return it to its place on the shelf. He watches me. "You like reminiscing don't you?" He asks with a smile. I nod. "Well, they are memories you can't repeat." He says with a shrug. "Anyway, we were planning on having a little playdate week. We'll plan. Go bowling, swimming, "malling", and stuff. And packing, of course. But today, Jon and I decided to go bowling with you and Julie. How's that?" He asks me. I smile. "And Mark, Christine, Reagan, and James are coming too." "Let's go." I say pulling him along as we climb down the ladder. We race back home and change.
We get into his car and wait for Jon and Julie. Once we're all inside, we get going.

We reach the place, get out of the car, and start bowling. Mark,Christine and the others show up. When I see Christine, I run to her and tackle her with a hug. "I miss you so much." I say. She hugs me back. "Same here." "Thanks for coming. How's Florida?" I ask her as we link arms and walk towards the group. "Amazing. But I will never forget my home place." She says with a smile. I shake hands with Mark and the others. And we start a competition. Julie just eats and watches. "How's the food, Julie?" Jon asks with a tease. She sticks her tongue out at him and continues to eat. So cute. After Mark wins, we all sit down to eat snacks.

Mark and Gabe are close. Since they're the same age, at the same school and same church. They talk while Reagan, Christine, and I talk and Jon and James have their re-match. "I can't believe you came just to spend a week with me and the family." I say to Christine. "Hey. It's summer. And I am not gonna miss seeing one of my childhood best friends before she moves to another country, continent, city, town, community, neighborhood-" "oh, stop it Christine." Reagan says giving her a playful shove. We laugh. We continue eating. Soon, we have to go back. "Are you staying at our place?" I ask Christine. She shakes her head. "We're staying at my aunt's. But I'll ask if I can sleepover." She says. We say goodbye and head home. Saturday, almost over. 6 days left before the big move.

We tell our parents about our playdate. They agreed that Christine could come over for a sleepover. I go up to my room after dinner and start packing stuff, we have 3 boxes, 2 suitcases and a hand carry bag each. I look around my room. I'm gonna miss looking out the window on my window seat and seeing the ocean, the forest, and my favorite little cave. The dogs bound into my room and lie down on my bed. "Hey, guys." I say rubbing their heads. "We're moving next week. Can't believe it's all so real." I say. Ash whimpers. "Yeah. Gonna be a new adventure." I lie down and we stay there. Staring at the ceiling. Dinnertime comes and we bound down the stairs. After dinner, I walk the dogs on the beach and then we head to bed. Saturday done, Sunday to go, and another week ahead.

SUNDAY
Sunday morning, we get dressed for church. I wear my navy blue skater dress with a red belt. I put on my red doll shoes, and pin my hair. I wear my blue earrings, necklace and bracelet. I grab my bag and head downstairs.

We eat breakfast then head to church. It takes about 2 hours. Today's topic is about wisdom. You gotta be wise in the positive way, and not the cunning deceitful way. Wisdom is one of the most important things you need. An example was, you could have a lot of money and no wisdom. What would happen? Eventually, you'd run out. But if you don't have money, but you are wise, you will be able to earn money because you are wise enough to know what to do and how to do it.

After church, we eat lunch in Longhorn. Mmm. We order our favorites and when the food comes, we dig in.

All Sunday afternoon, we pack. Christine comes in and helps. She's sleeping over until Friday. "So, like, how much stuff are you gonna bring?" She asks me before we actually start. "Well, I'm definitely bringing all my clothes, my jewelry boxes, most frames, some books, and some stuffed toys." I reply scanning my shelves. "Well then, let's get started." She says. We start off with the stuffed toys and books since I probably won't be using them this week. We arrange them all into one box. Seeing that it can fit a bit more, we add in some of the clothes for winter and fall. Soon, one box is full. Actually, it was more like hours before it became full. And now my room looks a little bit free. "So what about the bedsheets and stuff?" She asks. "We'll pack them up on Thursday. With everything else." I say. We collapse onto my bed and fall asleep.

I wake up with doggy slobber on my face, eww. "Ugh. Comet." I say opening my eyes to see her looking at me. Ash got Christine. We laugh. "Come on, girls. Time for dinner." Gabe says walking past my room. We follow him downstairs and into the living room. "You almost done packing?" Mom asks me. "Sorta." I reply. We sit down, pray, then eat. For dinner we're having chicken,mashed potato, and mac n cheese. We didn't really go grocery this week, so yeah.

After dinner, Christine and I head upstairs and into my room. After brushing my teeth and changing into pajamas, I walk towards my calendar and check of Sunday. "Sunday done, and 4 days to go." I say as we climb into bed. She smiles at me. "Hey. Don't worry about it." And we fall asleep. Again.

MONDAY
The next morning Christine and I walk the dogs. But this time, instead of along the beach, we go around the neighborhood. It takes us nearly 30 minutes. Once we get back home, we rest for a while then eat a hearty breakfast. "I wonder what the boys plan on doing, today." Christine says as we finish eating. "We plan on letting time fly. So we're gonna watch movies!" Jon says as he and Gabe enter through the front door.

We all settle in the living room. "Where's Reagan?" I ask. "She has some errands to do and can't make it." Jon replies. "Oh, ok." I say. Gabe puts the dvd in the player. "What are we gonna watch?" I ask. The boys share a smile. "The Hobbit series and the Lord of the Rings series." They say in unison with dramatic hand movements. "Oh, boy." I say as the movie starts. "Mom doesn't want us to spend a lot of time with our eyes glued to the screen you know." I say. "Stop being so serious, Stell. Mom understands." Gabe replies. "Be quiet!" Jon says. We shut our mouths and watch the movie. Later on, Christine makes some popcorn and we all eat and watch. 6 movies nearly 3 hours each. 18 hours of watching. I think my bottom's gonna hurt.

TUESDAY {Gabe's POV}
Yesterday was actually quite fun. I annoyed Stella. One of my lifetime goals that makes life so much happier. Hey, I'm not mean, okay? She's fine with it cuz sometimes she has nice comebacks that I can't think of.

Anyway, today, we do what the girls want. We have to go to the mall. Jon, Mark, and I decide to go to the indoor skateboard rink and do some skating. Mark joined us earlier and now we're having our own fun at the mall. The girls are doing some shopping for new outfits. Psh. I never do see how shopping could be fun. Isn't it tiring?

Anyway, the boys and I learn some new tricks from other people and try them out. We stay for hours. Until lunchtime comes. You can never stop me from eating. Never. So when we see the Stell, Reagan, and Christine, we get out in a hurry. "Where are we having lunch?" Mark asks. Aw. He beat me to it. He gives me a smug smile. "Where do you guys wanna eat? Panda Express?" Reagan asks. We grin like crazy. "Let's gl get us some yummy Asian food!" Jon says marching ahead of us. We laugh and join in, marching to the food court. Well at least, we boys were. The girls were walking some distance behind us. People look at our direction and either smile or give us that what-are-those-weirdos-doing look. I see why the girls wanna stay back. We reach Panda Express, get our trays and start getting food. Then we sit down and eat this delicious Asian food. Mmm.

For the rest of the day, we spend it walking through the mall with the girls. And then we go home for dinner. And I am absolutely exhausted. Do you know one of the downsides of being a big brother? Sure I get to be protective of her, boss her, tease her, watch out for her, but I also have to carry her stuff when she can't. And when you're in the mall with 3 crazy shopping girls, your arms and legs are gonna hurt. Trust me. So after dinner, I go straight to my bed and sleep.

WEDNESDAY {Christine's POV}
Today, we're all gonna enjoy a day at the beach. At least, that was the plan. I fix my long brown hair into a bun. Reagan slept over and now we, girls, have changed into our identical designs of outfits. A tank-top with different colors, but same design, and shorts with designs. We wear our matching flip-flops, put sunscreen, wear our sunglasses, and get out there. The boys are already swimming. James decided to join us today. He and Reagan are already playing around. Reagan is enjoying her piggyback ride. Stella and I swim way out and snorkel. The sea is a beautiful place to enjoy the day. That's why no matter how many times we swim in the beach, we never get tired of it.

All morning, from six am to eleven am, we swim, play, and snorkel. Stella even decided to let her little turtle back into the water. She's gotten bigger and healthier. Being fed on greens and all, and so we let her free. It was a beautiful sight. The sun rising, and a turtle swimming out to sea.

And that's what we do all day. We eat lunch on their patio. Gabe grilled and we all sat on deck chairs. And we did enjoy this day. And when we lay down to sleep, Stella checks off Wednesday. 1 and 1/2 days left.

THURSDAY {Reagan's POV}
So today, is all packing day. Christine and I help Stella pack up all her clothes, bedsheets and spreads, cute pillows and stuff, into her other boxes. It takes nearly all day. We separate the clothes by season, then squeeze in everything else. The boys, Gabe, Jon, and Mark, are done by lunchtime. We continue after lunch until 3:00. After packing, we start cleaning and rearranging Stella's other things that she doesn't plan to bring.

"So, how is Gabe gonna finish college? He's supposed to be graduating this year." I ask Stella. "Well, the reason why he only lacked half of his things is because, he is finishing college here. He's just bringing half his things with him because he will be coming with us tomorrow and he'll be staying all, summer. But when school starts, he'll be coming back. Then after he graduates, he'll spend the 2 years with us in Paris, then we'll all come back home." She explains briefly. "Oh." Is all I can say. "So you're gonna be alone during the school time, huh? With your brother gone, and your parents busy at work." I say. Christine suddenly gets cheerful. "Wait. Remember Frank? He moved to France after elementary. He's still there." She says. "Well, at least you have one friend." I say trying to make it all better. "Sorry to put your encouragement back down, but Christine said France. We're moving to Paris. Meaning, he could be anywhere. And not near Paris." Stella says. "Oh, right." I say suddenly feeling bad for her.

"Well, that's everything. And my room looks good. Thanks girls. Let's go eat dinner." Stella says. We follow her down and Christine and I share a look. After dinner, we talk for a while, play wit Ash and Comet, then watch as Astella checks the Thursday box on her calendar. "Tomorrow's the big day." She says and she turns off the lights.