Chapter One – The House

      Ben stared down at the huge book in his lap, oblivious to the world around him. Pushing his glasses up his nose, he bent even farther over the textbook. The minivan slowed to a stop, braking in front of two story house. “Ben,” His mom said. He didn’t look up. “Ben,” She said a little louder this time. A young boy sitting next to him cupped his hands around Ben’s ear and yelled, “BEN!” “Argh!” Ben yelped, dropping the book. “Thomas!” His younger brother stuck out his tongue, scrambling away. He giggled. “Did I scare you, nerd?” He laughed. Ben’s ears turned red. “Mom!” He whined.
    Thomas grabbed the book away from his sibling, then stared at it with a funny look on his face. He put his fingers in circles over his eyes, like he was wearing glasses. “Ooo, look at me, I’m reading all my facts! Four plus three and blah blah blah.”
   “Give it back!” Ben yelled. “Thomas, hand your brother back his math book.” Their mom called from the front. Thomas scowled, but shoved it over. Ben huffed. “It’s not a math book! It’s on Texas history!” His mom looked at him, eyebrows raised. “Really?” She asked. Ben .
looked at her, flustered. “Yes, really!” He said. “I need to know about my new state!”
    Ben and his family were moving from Arkansas to Texas. They had spent the eight and a half hours with each other, squeezed in with their luggage. They were all really sick of each other, and as soon as Ben and Thomas realized they had finally made it they scrambled to get out of their seats. “Me first!” Thomas howled, leaping out the door like he was going skydiving. He crawled around on the ground, making a big show of kissing the ground. Ben almost gagged. “Do you know how many germs there are on that ground?” He shrieked. Thomas laughed and threw a handful of dirt on him. Their mom sighed and turned to her husband in the drivers seat, but was already bolting out of the car.
     She laughed and got out as well. Ben finished wiping of the dirt and stared up at the house. His eyes widened in shock. “Mom, this place is HUGE!” He gasped. “I know!” His mom said, grinning. “The whole reason we moved was we didn’t have enough room for this little rascal,” She said, kissing Ben’s baby sister Marge on the head. Marge was trying to work out of her mom’s arms, apparently desperate to get inside. “Come on!” Thomas yelled. “Let’s go inside!” He sprinted up the porch steps, ignoring the SOLD sign hammered into the yard. He grabbed the doorknob and jiggled it so hard Ben thought it might break off. Their dad laughed and unlocked it with the key. Thomas yanked, but nothing happened. Ben rolled is eyes and pushed the door open. Thomas sprinted inside, shouting and waving his arms. Ben entered a large foyer, a staircase leading upstairs. To the side he saw a kitchen, and a living room down a short hallway. “I call dibs on the best bedroom!” Thomas yelled, heading for the staircase. Ben sprinted after him, for once excited for the move.
      Ben looked at his new room. Thomas had, thankfully, missed the fact that this one had it’s own bathroom and had chosen another one a ways down the hall. Ben was shocked. The room was huge, twice a large as the one he and Thomas had shared back in their old apartment. It was large enough for three kids to share comfortably. He went and set his bag of stuff on some bookshelves that had been nailed to the wall. Large windows let daylight streaming through, making the room as bright as if the lights were on. He went straight to work, taking out his books and lining them up neatly on the shelves. When he was done, he stared at the bag still in his hand. There wasn’t any trash can, and he didn’t want to go all the way downstairs. His gaze drifting out the window. There was a huge oak tree, it’s limbs stretching out. It’s leaves rustled in the breeze. Eyesore, he thought. He didn’t like being outside much, he would much rather be inside studying for nothing in particular. PE was his least favorite subject. He grinned, opening the window. He tossed the crumbled grocery bag into the closest branch. To his surprise, the wind gave a sudden small shift in direction and it flew right into one of the higher middle limbs. Pleased with himself, he shut the window. That was the best throw he had ever done.
    A couple hours later, he was sitting at the kitchen counter eating a graham cracker. His mom was on the phone, ordering a pizza for their dinner. “Ok. Thank you!” She said, hanging up. She looked at Ben. He was staring at the movers, who was carrying in their couch. They had already brought in his bed, and Marge’s crib. He could here Thomas shouting at the movers setting down his, acting like one of those people who direct planes down the runway. “Alright, just a little to the left… no, that’s too far, back to the right… you know what, I liked where it was before. Move it to the left again.”
    “I need to tell you something.” His mom said to him. Annoyed, he turned to look at her. “So, some people down the street have a kid your age.” She said. “I invited them over.” Ben’s jaw dropped. “Mom!” He whined. “You know I don’t like spending time with other kids. They’ll make fun of me!” His mom gave him a look. “They seemed very nice,” She said firmly. “And their already coming.” Ben jumped up. “Well, call it off!” He yelled. “Their name is Nick, and they seemed very nice.” “But-“ He started.
     The doorbell rang. His mom smiled at him. “Too late,” she teased. He groaned. “Go answer it!” His mom ordered. Sighing, he trudged off. It will probably be a real ugly big kid, He thought glumly. The kind that plays all pretty for the adults, but then goes and beats some poor first grader up. He opened the door. “Okay, let’s get this wedgie over with.” He sighed. “What?” Asked a surprised voice. Looking at the guest, he was shocked. It was a girl with brown hair that reached just past her shoulders, hazel eyes, and a freckled face. “Oh!” He said. “Your- your a girl!” She looked at him quizzically. “Yes, I am.” She said slowly. His face burned. He suddenly realized he was covered in crumbs and hadn’t changed out of his wrinkled clothes. Ben’s mom swept into the foyer, cradling Marge. “You must be Nick,” She said. The girl- Nick- smiled. “Yep,” She said cheerfully. “Nice to meet you.” “Nick?” Ben blurted out. He felt an even stronger wave of embarrassment as the girl turned to look at him. But she seemed pleased. “It’s short for Nicole,” She said. “But I think that sounds too girly.”
    Ben was very confused. Wasn’t she a girl? His mom smiled warmly. “Nick, Ben hasn’t explored the entire house yet. Maybe you two can do some exploring!” Nick grinned. “Cool! You know, I’ve been here forever and nobody’s really ever lived here. There was this cranky old man here for three years, though…” She continued on about a Mr. Smith that threw a rock and her bird.
     Ben grabbed his mother’s arm. “You didn’t say she was a girl!” He hissed in her ear. She smiled. “I knew you would try and stop it, so I didn’t tell.” She walked swiftly back into the kitchen before her son could say anything more. He groaned inwardly and walked after the excited girl.
   They started at the basement, where Ben was hesitant to go into but Nick talked into him. It was actually really cool, with bright lights and a concrete floor. It was a huge space, and Ben saw two other staircases leading down into it. It was all completely empty, and Ben guessed this was where his mom would do her painting.
   Then they checked out everything on the ground floor. This included the dining room, the parlor, the living room, the kitchen (Where Ben’s mom got a lot of glares), the laundry room, the huge pantry, the two bathrooms, the guest room, and a workout room already equipped with weights, a treadmill, and a stationary bike.
     Next came upstairs, where they explored the bedrooms, bathrooms, hall closet, and the surprisingly large windows with pretty red drapes. “And finally, my room.” Ben said, throwing open the door with a dramatic flourish. It looked a little better now that his bed had been put over in the corner. “Cool!” Nick said, heading over to the window. “I love that tree. Isn’t it so pretty?”  
  This stopped Ben in his tracks. “Uh, sure.” He said. She frowned. “Oh, come on! Some jerks trash is up there!” She looked at him, her eyes wild with excitement. “Let’s go get it!” Ben’s blood went cold. “Um, that doesn’t sound like a good idea…” But she dragged the protesting boy all the way downstairs and outside onto the large, beautiful patio. The sky was a bright blue, with puffy clouds drifting along lazily. A light, cool breeze ruffled their hair. When they got to the tree, Ben noticed that that there was a silver wind chime. There was also a swing nailed into the tree, it’s chains rusted but the plastic green seat looking very sturdy. Nick jumped right up and started climbing.
    She moved with ease, the branches almost like a staircase. “Wow,” Ben said nervously. “Your really good at that.” Nick grinned down at him. “I do this a lot. We have a pretty cool oak at our house. But it is not nearly as cool as this!” “Maybe I should stay down here, then!” Ben shouted up. She just laughed and he heard her yell, “This is awesome!”
      Right then Ben noticed something.
The breeze was barely enough to ruffle their clothing, and the wind chime had barely made a clink. But now it was swinging around and a beautiful melody seemed to be coming from it. It was unsettling to Ben. He was pretty sure wind chimes didn’t work like that. Then a creaking sound joined in. Looking over his should, he saw the swing was now moving back and forth. Then the leaves started to rustle, even though Ben hadn’t felt any difference in the wind. “Nick?” He called out.
  There was no answer.
He ran around the trunk, yelling her name. All the time the music continued, as if laughing at him. All the sudden it stopped. Ben took a deep breath. He knew what he had to do.
  He put a hand on the branch Nick had used to pull herself up. Instantly the strange music started again. Climbing was easier than Ben had expected. But he wasn’t sure if was always like this. The branches were all easy to reach, and for some reason it felt like someone was helping him along. He continued to yell for Nick, but she wouldn’t answer. He couldn’t see her either. But he kept going up, higher and higher until he too was swallowed up by the foliage.