Chapter Five

"Come on, Rye! We gotta make the pile bigger!" I declared I shoved the colorful leaves into a bigger stack. The weather was starting to cool down now and most of the trees had lost their leaves, beginning to look bare. Rye and I decided to spend that afternoon making leaf piles.

"I'm comin'! I'm comin'!" He giggled, running as fast as he could with his armful of leaves. He tripped over a tree root, sending most of his leaves flying. He rolled onto his side, laughing up a storm.

"Are you okay?" I asked, laughter slipping into my question. He nodded his head as he held onto his sides. "Well, then hurry up and grab your leaves! We have to make this the biggest pile yet!" I grinned.

"Okay! Okay!" He tittered, quickly snatching all of his leaves again. He dumped them into the pile, making sure to smash it down a little. "We need more leaves!" I declared before running off to find some more.

I licked my lips, pushing the stack to make it nice and fluffy. I wanted this leaf pile to be awesome! I couldn't wait to jump into it and watch the colorful leaves float to the ground. "We need, like, two more armloads!" I stated.

"I got one!" Rye answered, waddling back as fast as he could. He plopped the leaves into the pile then shook out his shirt, sending a few more to float to the ground. "Those got stuck in my shirt when I scooped up the last batch." He explained, giggling.

"Well, go get another batch. Then it should be ready." I smiled, making him nod his head and run off to find some more leaves. We had already used all the leaves around our house and Uncle Haymitch's, so Rye really had to go searching for more.

"I found a bunch more by Lucas's house! I hope he doesn't mind." Rye stated as he dropped the last batch of leaves.

"He won't mind. Plus, I don't think he'll even notice. And he can't prove that we took it so." I replied, standing up from the ground. I wiped the dirt off of my jeans and stood beside Rye.

"This is so cool!" He cheered, slightly jumping and down. I propped my hands on my hips and proudly smiled at our work. I could feel the adrenaline rushing through my veins. I was just itching to jump into that pile.

Rye turned his head up to look at me. "When are we going to jump in?" He asked, his gray eyes sparking with excitement.

"On the count of three," I answered. We both faced forward, bringing our arms back and slightly bending our knees. "One." I started.

We wiggled our fingers and licked our smiling lips. "Two." I continued.

"Three!" We shouted together as we jumped high into the air. The leaves exploded into the air, the colors flashing everywhere. We couldn't stop laughing as we laid on our backs in the crunchy leaves.

I watched them gently float to the ground and land all around us. "Let's make leaf angels!" Rye laughed, rubbing his arms and legs in the pile. I giggled and joined in. I closed my eyes and waved my arms faster and faster.

"I bet I can go faster than you!" I declared, challenging him.

"Nuh-uh!" He argued, his giggles slipping into his argument.

"Look! I'm already going faster than you!" I grinned, quickly waving arms and legs .

"No fair! You had a head start!" He laughed, making his arms and legs go faster. Soon, I couldn't feel my limbs anymore. They had begun to feel like wobbly slime. I tried to stand up, but I felt like I was going to trip over.

I forced myself up, proudly looking down at my leaf angel. It was much better than Rye's, but that was only because I was much older and more experienced, so I gave him the benefit of the doubt. "Yours is way better than mine." I stated.

"Really?" He asked, grinning up at me.

"Of course! You can see your body shape, unlike mine." I explained as I pulled the stray leaves out of his blonde, curly hair.

"Well, I still like yours. It still looks pretty." He complimented as I continued to tug out the stubborn leaves out of his tangled hair. I was thankful that I wasn't cursed with curly hair.

Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. "Rye," I began. He hummed, looking back up at me. "Do you want to scare Uncle Haymitch?" I asked.

He gasped, then quickly nodded his head, a smile filling his face. "Yes! Yes! Let's scare Uncle Haymitch!" He cheered, jumping up and down. Quickly, we scooped up our leaves and began to move them to Haymitch's house.

"He's going to be so scared." Rye giggled as he carried his armload of leaves with me.

"I know. It'll be so funny." I agreed as I plopped down my leaves on the ground. I quickly began to make one big pile, knowing Rye and I were going to be in the pile together.

"Do you think he'll scream?" Rye asked, smiling up at me as we ran back to our house to grab another batch of leaves.

"I hope so! Otherwise this would be completely worthless." I replied, pushing the leaves into my arms and carefully picking up my pile. I arched my back, laying most of the leaves on my chest.

"Just wait till Mom and Dad hear. They'll laugh their butts off." Rye giggled, his shoulders shaking. He dropped a few leaves on his way back to Haymitch's, but as soon as he dropped his pile he quickly ran back to grab them. He wanted every single leaf in sight to join us in this prank.

"Wait. How are we supposed to scare him?" Rye questioned, tilting his head up at me. He blinked his eyes that were full of confusion. He was so excited to do this that he didn't even know how we were going to carry out this plan.

"Well, we're going to hid under these leaves and when we hear his footsteps coming up the sidewalk, we'll jump out and scare him." I explained as I propped my hands on my hips. He awed, nodding his head.

"But wait, isn't he inside his house?" He quickly fired back. "Should I knock on his door and wait until he comes outside?" He offered.

"No, I saw him leave earlier this morning. He should be back soon, considering Dad is baking tonight." I shrugged.

"Oh, well, that makes sense. Uncle Haymitch does like Dad's treats a lot." Rye nodded as he dropped to the ground. He began to push the leaves together, making the pile higher and fluffier.

"Okay, Rye. Jump inside and I'll cover you up." I declared. Happily, he stood up and jumped inside. He laid down on his stomach, laughing as I covered him with the leaves. I left a spot open so he could see. I even made sure that you couldn't see his eyes unless you knew they were there.

I laid down beside him and started to cover myself with leaves. "Don't worry, Willow. I can help cover you." He stated, rustling his leaves as he started to stand up.

"No! No!" I argued, making him stop. "Don't move, Rye. Yours looks perfect right now." I explained.

"But then who will make yours perfect?"

"I can do it myself. I'm twelve years old after all." I fired back, covering myself with more leaves. Soon, I felt like I was completely hidden from the world. It was like we were spies hiding in bushes.

It took a long time before I heard Uncle Haymitch coming back. I'm almost positive I fell asleep a couple of times. I stiffened up, hearing him mumbling something to himself as he slowly walked past.

His feet were almost to our leaf pile. I placed my hands on the ground, excited to jump out and scare him. It was like Rye was reading my mind. We jumped out at the same time.

"Boo!" Rye shouted as I loudly screamed. Haymitch slightly jumped as Rye fell to the ground laughing. I slapped my knees, sound not coming out of me. Uncle Haymitch's face was so hilarious.

"Goodness, you goofballs really scared me." Haymitch chuckled, watching us laugh at him.

"Uncle Haymitch, did you know we were in there?" Rye asked, his voice slightly higher than usual. His face was red from laughing and there were tears in his eyes.

"Nope. You scared me. I thought it was just a pile of leaves." Haymitch replied, smiling widely.

I covered my mouth, his comment making me laugh. I couldn't believe we actually scared Uncle Haymitch. I guess we really did do a good job at hiding. "We really got you good." I grinned.

"You sure did, sweetheart. I thought for sure you guys were playing at home." He smiled, his gray eyes looking into mine.

"Nope! We decided to scare you!" Rye declared, standing up from the ground. "Come on, Uncle Haymitch! Let's go tell Mom and Dad! They'll think it's so funny!" Rye laughed, snatching onto Haymitch's hand and dragging back to our house.

xxx

"Mom, his face was so funny. It was like, 'Ah!'" Rye explained at the dinner table, showing her what he thought Haymitch's face looked like. Everyone gently chuckled, watching Rye reenact the scene for at least the tenth time tonight.

"I'm sure Uncle Haymitch was very scared, Rye." Mom softly smiled at him, slightly nodding her head. I'm sure she wanted him to stop talking about it. I mean, I wanted him to stop talking about it since that was all he would talk about it.

"Oh, he was. He nearly jumped ten feet into the air!" He continued, talking with his hands.

"Come on, Rye. It's time to eat now." Dad chuckled, pointing at Rye's plate.

"Oh, right." Rye giggled, digging back into his food. I silently sighed, thankful that my brother was finally quiet. Now maybe I could hear more about Gale. He was still in 12 and I wanted to know what the adults thought about it.

"So, who's ready to go back to school tomorrow?" Mom asked, a gentle smirk on her face as she eyed the both of us. Rye and I shook our heads, scrunching our noses.

"I'd much rather stay here and play with Willow." Rye quickly argued after swallowing his food whole like a snake.

"School is so boring." I added, loosening my shoulders. Maybe if I showed them how much I hated school, they would let me stay home tomorrow.

"Boring? I thought you had Mr. Hawthorne there?" Dad asked, arching his eyebrow at me.

"He's boring. Plus, I don't like him. He's always trying to talk to me." I confessed, looking down at my food. The table became silent, the adults thinking about what to say. Oh how I wanted them to let me stay home.

"He must be ignoring the other children then if he wants to gain your attention." Haymitch grinned. It was known around 12 that I didn't exactly have the best personality. I was basically seen as a snotty, stuck up girl. In all honesty, I just didn't like the attention of others. I would much rather be hidden in the background.

"Yeah. It gets super annoying. He follows me like a lost puppy or somethin'." I mumbled, making them laugh.

"Don't worry, peanut. He'll leave you alone soon." Dad grinned, his blue eyes looking into mine. I softly vibrated my lips and rolled my eyes.

"Can he leave me alone now?" I asked, making them laugh a little bit harder. I didn't think it was that funny though. Maybe I just had a bad sense of humor, but he was honestly bugging me to the extreme. I would much rather be trapped in the school for the next two weeks then spend another day around him.

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