the difference between real purpose & urgent adolescence

“Hard to forget” he whined playfully, knowing he wasn’t going to live it down for a while. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, okay! His mother loved fish. And being clean and pampered. How was he to know the two ideas wouldn’t mix?

“Why, you afraid you're going to fall?” he teased her back. They still had a lot of work to do on the tree house. They could definitely add rails or something. But maybe they should actually make the house part, first? At least for now it worked well as an elevated platform for them to sneak away to.

He glanced up at Hazel. So far his birthday hadn’t been a big affair, but he didn’t let it worry him. They had the big move distracting everyone, after all. At Hazel’s question, he snorted, and then laughed outright. “Halo was like a mother hen. I thought she’d never get back on the wagon” He agreed. Poor Halo, but it had been kind of funny. He sat up as she explained about the surviving jar. “Oh yeah?” he asked. They hadn’t tried alcohol yet, but he knew some of the adults drank it.


"Speech"