It was a warm day, a soft breeze blowing through the trees and rustling a few leaves. There was a heard of deer walking peacefully by, grazing to their heart's content near the river's edge. A few butterflies filled the space between the slowly moving bodies, flying away when their perch was being disturbed by the deer.
I sat on a branch of a nearby tree, enjoying the peace and serenity. I watched lazily at the water flowing and the silver fishes gliding past, every now and then one would jump out of the water and fall back in with a small plop. The deer proceeded to cross the river to reach the better pastures on the other side.
"Nice little spot you have here." Rodney clambered up the tree very ungracefully, and found himself a comfy spot.
"So much for peace and quiet." I smirked at him, but not really feeling the humour in it.
"Don't forget about me, ya know." Mitchel a little more gracefully pulled himself up onto his own branch.
"Now three's just a party." I threw a twig at Mitchel, watching him swat violently at the invisible onslaught.
"Knock it off would ya." Mitchel frowned, annoyed at me.
"So where have you been these past two days?" Rodney asked, looking genuinely concerned about my welfare.
"You know, here and there." I shrugged, really not in the mood for conversation.
"We've been worried sick about you, ya know." Mitchel catching on to the same concern as Rodney.
"I know." I twiddled with a leaf in my hand, flipping it over and over in between my fingers. "I just needed to get away, clear my head and all."
"Something happened that we should know about?" Rodney becoming quite protective over me.
I looked over at him and smiled reassuringly. "Nothing you need to worry about."
"Is it because it's that time of the month?"Mitchel blurted out obliviously, not thinking before he spoke. "I heard girls get all moody and emotional then."
I looked at him in disgust. "Do you feel like dying today?"
He looked shocked, not quite sure what he had done wrong. "What did I do now?"
"Never." I clamped a hand over my face. "Will we ever talk about that. EVER." I emphasised the last word, making sure I made myself clear.
"Wow, I think someone might actually be." Rodney smirked, enjoying the new peeve they had discovered about me.
"Don't." I pointed a finger in his direction, putting full force into my death stare.
The two boys laughed, obviously not bothered by their concern anymore.
"You're so predictable." Rodney began, settling back into his seat and linking his hands together behind his head.
"I resent that." I followed his example, getting comfortable where I sat.
"You are most of the times." Mitchel pitched into the conversation.
"No I'm not." My stubbornness taking over.
"Oh yeah?" Rodney getting ready for a debate. "Then how did we know you'd be in this tree?"
"You didn't." I relaxed, knowing where this argument was leading. "You just knew I'd be in a tree."
"Okay, but give us the credit of knowing to look in the trees near the river." Mitchel also getting involved.
"Fair enough, I'll give you two that." I shrugged, accepting the draw.
"Why do you hang out so much here anyway?" Mitchel asked, thinking out loud again.
I watched the water again, finding it calming as I spoke. "Reminds me of a better time I guess."
Rodney scoffed, shaking his head at me. "I highly doubt that the orphan life was any better than this."
I smiled sadly. "I wasn't an orphan back then."
"You weren't an orphan?" Mitchel asked surprised. Even Rodney gave a confused look. "But everyone in the organisation is an orphan."
"Well technically I was." I tried finding the right words. "But I was taken in before I was orphaned."
"How did that happen?" Mitchel still wanting more information.
"On the night it all went wrong, my village was burnt down." I had to blink through all the memories fighting to overload my head. "My parents were still inside our house when it was torched. I on the other hand had been rescued by Odette before the fires broke out."
"No ways." Rodney shook his head in disbelief. "There's no way that Odette would've risked her life to save anyone, let alone you, if she couldn't benefit in some way."
"Well she got her own personal punching bag." I chuckled at my own dark humour.
"That's not anywhere close to funny Laila." Rodney squinted his eyes in anger.
"Relax." I said, throwing my head lazily to the side. "It's made me strong. She may be the worst person alive, but she did teach me a lot."
"Well no one could be worse than the king, ya know." Mitchel shrugged, trying to find the bright side to life.
"That is very true." Rodney finally relaxing a bit with the change of topic.
I really felt like we had enough to worry about than worry about our pasts, so I sat up and clung to the branch. "Come on idiots." I grinned as I hung off the branch and fell to the floor, landing lightly in a crouch.
"Where are we going?" Mitchel asked eagerly. Rodney was not too excited about moving from his comfy spot.
"We're going for a swim." And I ran, stripping off all necessary things before I landed in the ice cold water, enjoying the sensation of the coolness seeping into my clothes and cooling me down.
It wasn't long after that two splashes joined me, laughing as they went. We splashed a while in the water, acting like real kids again, trying to see if we could catch the fish swimming past to throw at each other. After what seemed like forever, we dragged ourselves out of the water, clothes heavy with water and dragging us down. We plonked ourselves down on the soft grass, still laughing at each other. We grew still after a while after that, getting our breathing under control and relaxing in the late afternoon sun. No one spoke for a while.
"Hey guys?" Mitchel broke the silence, sitting up while he spoke.
"Yeah?" Both Rodney and I replied at the same time, sitting up to face Mitchel.
"Promise we'll be friends forever." He looked so eager, so innocent in his questioning.
I smiled at the two of them, my heart filling with joy at the thought of being able to call someone a friend after so long. "Promise." I laid my arm out at an angle towards the center of our circle.
"Promise." Rodney smiled, following my lead and held my wrist, holding his own arm at an angle.
"Friends forever." Mitchel said again, smiling as he spoke. He held onto Rodney's wrist, the angle of his arm allowing me to hold his wrist. Our hands formed a triangle, our band of friendship formed in front of us. We smiled, enjoying the support we felt from each other.
For the first time in a long time I felt not only completely happy, but also content with my life.
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