Thursday, June 15th, 2017:

I was awoken to the sound of knocking on the front door. Groggily, I slid out of my bed and crept down the staircase to the front door where, one of the local policemen stood with your note in his hand. He shook his head. "Miss Marano, I'm sorry but this handwriting does not belong to the missing person you claim it to be." 

"No," I protested. "I demand you recheck it. This has to be written by Ross Lynch. He's the only one who ever called me 'Marano.'" That was the first thing you ever called me since the day we met in third grade. Remember?

We were on the soccer field when I was trying to shoot a goal, and you popped up behind me and shot the goal yourself. I looked at you and said, "If you're gonna shoot the goal for me, I better know your name at least." 

"The name's Lynch," you said, popping your collar. "Ross Lynch. What's your name?" 

"Marano," I said and went to grab the soccer ball. From there, I tried to teach you how to properly shoot a soccer goal, but you failed. Epically. "Laura Scarlett Marano."  

"Well, I think I'll call you Marano," you said to me and stole the ball from me, dribbling the ball towards the other goal. I chased after you screaming like a little girl. No one ever called me Marano ever in my life again except you. That's why I knew the note was really written by you. 

"I'm sorry but Mister and Missus Lynch both confirmed that looked nothing like their son's penmanship," the officer told me. Tears rolled down my cheeks as he told me that hogwash once again. "Plus it's most certain that Mister Ross Shor Lynch is ... bereft of life." 

"Don't you talk that kind of baloney to me, officer," I screeched at him as I began to close the door on him. No one was gonna tell me you were deceased ... again. I wouldn't care if they even found your corpse. I would know it wasn't you. "I know Ross Lynch, and he is anything but dead." 

"Ma'am I'm sorry about fiance." I slammed the door in his face. That's the other thing that irritated me. They think you and I are engaged. How ludicrious. And how British of me to say 'ludicrous.'

"Not my fiance, officer," I breathed heavily behind the door as I wiped my tears away. "Not even close." 

But in other news, I have Vanessa on board for helping me save the treehouse. Knowing Riker, who has been trying to ask Vanessa out on day since the seventh grade, if Vanessa's helping me save the treehouse, he'll definitely be convinced that it's worth saving. So ... I already have two people helping me save the treehouse. I just need to get Rydel, Rocky and Ryland on deck, too. They're just the impossible ones. 

"So how do you plan on saving this treehouse?" Vanessa asked me when we went up there this morning. Since I now have her on deck, I can't leave her in dark about my plans. Can I? 

"We'll lay here all night if we have to on June 30th," I explained to her, pinning your note back up until the wall where it belongs. Next to the one I pinned up on the wall last night. "They can't cut down a tree if someone is in it, can they?"

"Nope, they cannot," Vanessa reassured me. "They'll have to haul us down or call it off." 

I gave her a high five. "Now we're thinking." 

"If Ross really is alive," Vanessa finished her elaborate speech, "we need to protect this place with our lives." 

Got get going. Mom and Dad get wary about how much time I spend up in this treehouse if I'm in here past nightfall. See you tomorrow, Lynch.

- Laura S. Marano