Emma groaned as she collapsed down onto her front steps, freezepop in hand. An afternoon of nonstop biking had left her legs feeling like deadweights and her hair drenched in sweat. She was happy, but also the hottest and most tired she had been in a long time.

Her bike was leaned against the railing of her front porch, one handlebar nudging at a piece of chipped paint. The other handle was gone from sight, enveloped by the deep green bushes that lined the house.

Across the street, a tall oak tree waved its leaves in the warm breeze. The motion sent the cicadas into frenzy of droning chirps even louder than they had been before. In the distance, someone let off a firecracker in anticipation of twilight. Emma smiled, savoring the the sounds most associated with her favorite season.

The freezepop was sweet and cool upon tasting, a welcome contrast to the heat that fogged Emma's head. It helped pull her mind away from the beads of sweat still running down her neck. She couldn't bear to leave the oncoming twilight and go inside yet, not even for the relief of air conditioning. There was something about the smell of barbecue in the wind and the feeling of warm pavement beneath her feet that just felt right.

Even when the heat was near unbearable, there was a certain feeling of easy freedom to early evenings in the summer that nothing else could replicate, and Emma didn't want to miss a moment of it.