"Lina wants to know where we're at," Clint said. He was sitting on a red beanbag chair in the corner of the treehouse, checking his phone.

"And?" Ben asked.

"Should I tell her about the shortcut through the forest?" Clint asked.

"I don't know. You can easily get lost if you're not from here." Ben said.

"She's from here," Clint said blankly.

"Well, she moved here. There's a difference," Ben said.

"What's the difference," Clint asked.

"She was raised in the city. She's still, for the most part, a girl from the city," Ben said.

Clint was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. I guess," he said. He put his phone down and picked the acoustic guitar up from the floor. He strummed a few chords before Ben interrupted him.

"So, is Lina coming?" he asked.

"Yeah. She's bringing Claudia with her," Clint said.

"Why?" Ben asked.

"I don't know, they're hanging out I guess," Clint said.

"I still don't know why she's friends with her," Ben said.

"She's not as bad as she used to be. Lina doesn't really care that she has such a high ego," Clint said, plainly.

"She hasn't had to deal with that ego for 13 years," Ben said with a slightly bitter tone.

"12 years," Clint corrected. "C'mon we haven't seen her since June. It'll be cool to catch up."

"Catch up with what. I can assure you she spent the whole summer studying," Ben said.

"Well, I can assure you you're being a dick," Clint said. He went back to strumming his guitar.

A few minutes later there was a call from the bottom of the treehouse.

Ben looked out through the empty doorframe.

"Is Clint in there?" Claudia asked.

"What? I don't even get a hello?" Ben asked.

"Hiiii Ben," Lina said.

Clint stuck his head through the door frame. "Hey, Claudia."

"Can we come up?" Lina asked.

"Sorry, no girls allowed," Ben said.

"Very funny," Claudia said. She started walking up the stairs.

Clint walked back to the beanbag chair and sat down. He picked up the guitar and started playing a rendition of Autumn Leaves.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"Wow, it's been a while," Claudia said as she walked through the doorway. "What happened to the decorations?" she asked.

"We figured having a whole bunch of Pokemon posters was a tiny bit 'middle school'" Ben said.

"I liked them," Claudia said.

Clint missed a D major chord and stopped playing.

"Of course you did. You're a nerd," Clint chimed in. He started playing again, at the start of the phrase.

"Shut up. I'm not," Claudia said.

"At the very least you're a band geek," Ben said.

"Don't call me a geek if you want to keep on using the practice room," Claudia said.

Clint played the same chord wrong and stopped playing again.

"You can't use your geek privileges to shut us down," Clint said.

"If you were a band geek, you wouldn't suck so much at playing," Lina commented.

Claudia laughed. Clint stayed quiet and slowly set the guitar down.

"So you guys aren't going to put in any new decorations?" Claudia asked.

"We have decorations," Clint said.

"Yeah," Ben agreed.

Lina and Claudia looked around the room.

"That?" Claudia asked, pointing at a sheathed sword hanging on the wall.

"Yeah," Clint and Ben said at the same time.

"What is it?" Lina asked.

"It's a saber from the revolutionary war. We bought it at a flea market during the summer," Clint said.

"I bought it," Ben said.

"You were too scared to hold it! I'm the one that carried it around all day. I almost got arrested!" Clint exclaimed.

"I'm the one that spent the summer working to pay fo-"

"Can I see it?" Claudia asked.

"What do you think? Is she worthy?" Ben asked Clint.

"I'm not sure. She did ignore the 'No girls allowed' rule," Clint said.

"That's a very good point," Ben said.

"Please?" Claudia asked, without much emotion in her voice.

Ben and Clint looked at each other. They didn't speak but they said a lot.

"Okay," Clint said.

He stood up and took it down from the shelf on the wall.

"Careful with it," he said as he handed the sheathed saber to Claudia.

"Hmm, it's lighter than I expected," she said.

"It's hardly 300 years old. Essentially, a modern saber, with modern technology, state of the art." Clint said with a salesman's voice.

Claudia pulled the sword out of it's sheathe.

"Yeah, modern," Claudia snickered.

The metal was dull. A faint patina started at the lower half of the sword, going all the way down to the hilt. Yet, the blade still glistened.

"Relatively," Clint said.

"This is cool," Claudia said. She swung it in an arch.

"Careful," Ben said.

"Scared?" She asked.

"Frightened," He replied.

"You want to hold it?" she asked Lina.

Lina shook her head. "I'll probably end up cutting myself," she said.

Claudia sheathed the sword and handed it back to Clint. He placed it back in its spot and sat down on the red beanbag chair. Ben sat down on a blue beanbag chair that was on the other side of the room.

"Any seats for us?" Claudia asked.

"Afraid not," Ben said.

Lina walked up to Clint and motioned for him to scoot over. She sat down in the small space Clint made for her. Ben looked at Claudia and patted the empty area next to him.

"Thanks. I'll sit on the floor," She said.

She took off her backpack, leaned against the wooden wall, and sunk to the floor.

"What'd we miss?" Clint asked.

"Not much. It was the deadline for a few of the syllabi. There's a test in Civics on Friday. But Clemens said we'll go over it tomorrow," Lina said.

Despite there being enough space on the chair for some distance, the two were practically on top of each other. Clint had his arm around Lina and she had her head on his shoulder.

"Did he say if it was multiple choice?" Ben asked.

"Short essay answers," Claudia said.

She'd opened her backpack and pulled out a black folder. Inside there were two stacks of sheets, each held together by a paperclip. She handed one to Clint and the other to Ben.

"That's what you guys missed today. Sapkowski's homework, my personal notes for Lenards, and there's a transcription of Autumn in New York I did in Strummers," Claudia said.

"So we skipped for nothing," Clint said.

He reluctantly stuffed the notes into his backpack. Ben took out a grey binder and put the papers in separate sections.

"Thanks," Ben said.

"Well, I have debate practice to get to," Claudia said.

"So you just came to assign us homework?" Clint asked.

"Pretty much," she said.

She waved without looking as she left the treehouse.

"Can I hear you play again?" Lina asked.

"Of course. I'll serenade you," Clint said.

Ben started sorting through Claudias notes while Clint started playing a very off-tune cover of Can't take my eyes off of you.