Sophie, no longer a small bud mostly concealed in green, had begun to unfurl, however prematurely. Lorraine was jealous but not in a hateful way. She just wondered when her own petals would begin to show color, to redden at the tips like Sophie's.
She didn't understand why Sophie's had come so much faster than hers, but she knew it was why Gerard and Eric and the boys they ran with always sought her out.
To Lorraine, Sophie was more like other girls now, girls who shared lipstick in the bathroom before homeroom and carried letters in their purses.
Lorraine had gotten a letter too, but it wasn't nearly as exciting. It was only from Rodney, the quiet boy who lived at the end of the block and went to school across town.
Rodney had chestnut brown skin and he was tall, but with his long legs and arms, he was more like a tree than exotic sand dunes and mountains. Lorraine had seen plenty of trees.
Still, summer was heating up and it would be easier to climb a tree than to climb a mountain...


**I hope that didn't suck.