Acorn

"It's ice cold", Jill murmured, rubbing her hands together.
"I'd offer you my jacket, but I'm already freezing now", Eustace answered.

Lucy next to them was silent.

"She said it wouldn't take long", Jill started again. "Maybe it doesn't take long and we're just freezing", Eustace answered.

They were outside on a bench, waiting for Aunt Polly, who'd walked away from the path to look for mushrooms.

"Let's get close together", Lucy suggested.

"Like penguins", Eustace said.

"Sorry?"

"Penguins do that when they're cold", Eustace answered. "They huddle together really closely to warm themselves."

"The ones outside weren't that lucky, then", Jill said, getting closer to Eustace, who sat in the middle.

Lucy also scurried over to her cousin.

"We could play a game", she said then.
"And what?", Eustace asked, not really wanting to disturb the girls at his sides.

They looked around.

"... Identifying trees?", Jill said.
Eustace scoffed.
"That's… a maple tree", Lucy said.
"That's kinda stupid", Eustace replied.

"That's a chestnut tree", Jill said. "But all the chestnuts are gone." Eustace sighed.

"That's a beech tree", he finally said.

"That's an oak tree", Jill said and pointed at it. Most of the trees still had their leaves. This was one that hadn't.

"How do you know?", Eustace asked.

"There are acorns on the ground", Jill replied.

"Oh."

Lucy got up from the bench, leaving the warm side of Eustace. "Now it's cold again", he murmured, and pulled his jacket even tighter.

Lucy giggled and started collecting some of the acorns.
"We could do something with these", she said.

"Why would we?", Eustace asked.

"Because it's pretty", Jill said and got up to help her friend.

"You do that, then", Eustace said, still sitting on the bench.

"Sure", Jill answered and threw one of the acorns at Eustace.

"Ow!", he exclaimed when it hit his arm.
"Sorry", Jill replied.

"You're not sorry", Eustace said, rubbing his arm.

"Not really. But I think you kinda deserved it."

Eustace shook his head.

Finally, finally Polly came back.
"Oh, you're collecting acorns, how beautiful! I have some ideas what we could do with them!"

Eustace sighed.

"You'll join us, right?", she asked him, her eyes glistening knowingly.

"Sure", he said.

A/N:
Unfortunately I'm entering one of four exam phases, so my time is being cut extremely short. I'll obviously still try, but they might be even shorter than usual. I am very, very sorry for that, but I hope you'll understand 😉😄

Sophie